The chameleon is definitely the villain most forgotten and yet one of the most lethal enemy of Spider-Man, this episode can be seen as using the weaknesses of 7 super heroes (Spiderman, Captain America, Shana,Firestar, ice man , doctor strange, submariner) is very little left to destroy them. The weak part of the episode is that instead of being Spider-Man spider sense that discovers chameleon is just a small dog called "small"belonging to Angela Watson (Firestar), Angela takes the dog to the chameleon's party , because she did not have anyone to look after she Anyway good story interesting episode somewhat fair gives rise to a great supervillain, that I hope some day to see in a movie, the chameleon
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (TV Series)
7 Little Superheroes (1981)
User Reviews
Review this title3 Reviews
Great Showcase for the Spider-Friends and Guest Stars
hypestyle2 April 2021
Warning: Spoilers
"Seven Little Superheroes" begins the plot with international espionage villain the Chameleon (who is technically Spider-Man's first comic book foe) alone in his bad-guy hideout castle, musing maniacally about an elaborate revenge plot. The objects of his ire are of course, the Spider-Friends, but also several other Marvel stalwarts, both well-known and obscure: Captain America, Dr. Strange, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and Shanna the Jungle Queen.
The Chameleon rants about how all of these heroes have foiled him in the past. In retrospect, it is curious to know exactly what plots of his were foiled by these heroes before. This writer is going to speculate here:
In the comics, Shanna the Jungle Queen is essentially a female Tarzan, and her sub-moniker is 'the She-Devil' but one supposes that such a reference would probably above the average younger kid's head; plus, Shanna historically has never been more than a C-list analog to the indie comics' world Sheena. In the original comics, she alternated between indeterminate countries in Africa and Marvel's Savage hidden Land in Antarctica. Perhaps there were some Chameleon plots where he was trying to steal some valuable native resource to those lands, or to sabotage helpful research being done in those countries on behalf of foreign powers.
Sub-Mariner was by now entrenched in Marvel lore as the king of Atlantis and wavered between heroic status and anti-hero with occasional antagonism toward the surface world. If there was a plot by Chameleon to steal resources from Atlantis, something involving polluting Atlantic waters or wantonly attacking its wildlife, that would get the Sub-Mariner's attention for sure. It's unclear how Namor might have gotten involved in one of Chameleon's "typical" surface-dweller espionage plots, unless Namor's friend Captain America convinced him to come along.
Dr. Strange: Given that Dr. Stephen Strange typically conducts his adventures in defense of the Earth against supernatural threats (users of magic as well as occult creatures), Chameleon's normal espionage-for-hire antics wouldn't provide a natural fit. However, if Chameleon were seeking out occult powers or artifacts, whether for purpose of using them for himself or being hired to acquire them, then Dr. Strange would likely have gotten involved then.
Out of the four guest heroes, Captain America would be the most natural fit for the espionage plots of the Chameleon. Whether acting as an agent of Hydra or someone else with the money, there are various scenarios where he and Cap might cross paths.
Back to the story: Spider-Man, Iceman and Firestar each get separately delivered written invitations to a super-hero get-together at "Wolf Castle". Spider-Man finds his invite stuck to the underside of a seemingly random manhattan rooftop. It is unclear how Iceman and Firestar receive their invites. In Spider-Man's case, was the Chameleon or an underling following them at some point (drones would have been a more common super-villain gimmick, even then), then placing the invites at strategic locations? The writers have to move the plot forward, so it doesn't matter, of course. But it's interesting to think about.
Peter, Bobby and Angelica make an excuse to Aunt May to head out of town for the weekend, but they have to take Ms. Lion with them, since Aunt May is spending the weekend with a friend who owns cats. The exact location of Wolf Castle is never revealed: again, the moving-the-plot thing. Given that the trio are based in New York City and don't seem too flustered about travel costs, this writer speculates that the venue may be somewhere in upstate New York, greater New England (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire) or even somewhere a little further away in Canada, like Nova Scotia.
In any case, once the Spider-Friends arrive, they discover that the other four heroes are there as well. Then the real plot begins: The Chameleon (with a great voice by Hans Conried) starts taunting them with poetry and the promise to end all of their lives before the weekend is over.
None of the heroes are amused but when they initially make the move to leave, they realize that a force field has been erected around the castle grounds, leaving them stranded to stick this out.
From this point forward, it is probably a fair point to mention that the traditional powers of the respective heroes here are either ignored or severely downplayed. But again, they have to move the plot forward, so it shouldn't be too offensive unless the viewer is prone to "hey, why doesn't Strange just teleport everyone away?" type of responses.
Sub-Mariner succumbs first, and the remainder of the seven heroes each are subdued with customized traps for the remainder of the episode. In the midst of all this, the Chameleon impersonates all of the heroes at various points (even imitating some of their physical powers where applicable).
The climax involves Spider-Man being the last surviving hero, and it is a countdown-based fun showcase.
Most of the character personalities ring true here, even if their full powers are not on display. This writer says "most" because Shanna was the one character who was never really read by the reviewer during childhood, but she does seem to be treated respectfully.
The Chameleon rants about how all of these heroes have foiled him in the past. In retrospect, it is curious to know exactly what plots of his were foiled by these heroes before. This writer is going to speculate here:
In the comics, Shanna the Jungle Queen is essentially a female Tarzan, and her sub-moniker is 'the She-Devil' but one supposes that such a reference would probably above the average younger kid's head; plus, Shanna historically has never been more than a C-list analog to the indie comics' world Sheena. In the original comics, she alternated between indeterminate countries in Africa and Marvel's Savage hidden Land in Antarctica. Perhaps there were some Chameleon plots where he was trying to steal some valuable native resource to those lands, or to sabotage helpful research being done in those countries on behalf of foreign powers.
Sub-Mariner was by now entrenched in Marvel lore as the king of Atlantis and wavered between heroic status and anti-hero with occasional antagonism toward the surface world. If there was a plot by Chameleon to steal resources from Atlantis, something involving polluting Atlantic waters or wantonly attacking its wildlife, that would get the Sub-Mariner's attention for sure. It's unclear how Namor might have gotten involved in one of Chameleon's "typical" surface-dweller espionage plots, unless Namor's friend Captain America convinced him to come along.
Dr. Strange: Given that Dr. Stephen Strange typically conducts his adventures in defense of the Earth against supernatural threats (users of magic as well as occult creatures), Chameleon's normal espionage-for-hire antics wouldn't provide a natural fit. However, if Chameleon were seeking out occult powers or artifacts, whether for purpose of using them for himself or being hired to acquire them, then Dr. Strange would likely have gotten involved then.
Out of the four guest heroes, Captain America would be the most natural fit for the espionage plots of the Chameleon. Whether acting as an agent of Hydra or someone else with the money, there are various scenarios where he and Cap might cross paths.
Back to the story: Spider-Man, Iceman and Firestar each get separately delivered written invitations to a super-hero get-together at "Wolf Castle". Spider-Man finds his invite stuck to the underside of a seemingly random manhattan rooftop. It is unclear how Iceman and Firestar receive their invites. In Spider-Man's case, was the Chameleon or an underling following them at some point (drones would have been a more common super-villain gimmick, even then), then placing the invites at strategic locations? The writers have to move the plot forward, so it doesn't matter, of course. But it's interesting to think about.
Peter, Bobby and Angelica make an excuse to Aunt May to head out of town for the weekend, but they have to take Ms. Lion with them, since Aunt May is spending the weekend with a friend who owns cats. The exact location of Wolf Castle is never revealed: again, the moving-the-plot thing. Given that the trio are based in New York City and don't seem too flustered about travel costs, this writer speculates that the venue may be somewhere in upstate New York, greater New England (Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire) or even somewhere a little further away in Canada, like Nova Scotia.
In any case, once the Spider-Friends arrive, they discover that the other four heroes are there as well. Then the real plot begins: The Chameleon (with a great voice by Hans Conried) starts taunting them with poetry and the promise to end all of their lives before the weekend is over.
None of the heroes are amused but when they initially make the move to leave, they realize that a force field has been erected around the castle grounds, leaving them stranded to stick this out.
From this point forward, it is probably a fair point to mention that the traditional powers of the respective heroes here are either ignored or severely downplayed. But again, they have to move the plot forward, so it shouldn't be too offensive unless the viewer is prone to "hey, why doesn't Strange just teleport everyone away?" type of responses.
Sub-Mariner succumbs first, and the remainder of the seven heroes each are subdued with customized traps for the remainder of the episode. In the midst of all this, the Chameleon impersonates all of the heroes at various points (even imitating some of their physical powers where applicable).
The climax involves Spider-Man being the last surviving hero, and it is a countdown-based fun showcase.
Most of the character personalities ring true here, even if their full powers are not on display. This writer says "most" because Shanna was the one character who was never really read by the reviewer during childhood, but she does seem to be treated respectfully.
7 LITTLE SUPERHEROES: One of the best episodes of this series.
David_del_Real_Reviews_in_IMDb15 December 2017
Warning: Spoilers
----7 LITTLE SUPERHEROES---
ONE OF THE BEST EPISODES OF THIS SERIES!!!!!!!
------- ------- -------
Spider-man finds an invitation specially for him hanging upside down from a building during his daily patrol. Both Iceman and Firestar get invitations too. They go to a distant castle for an special reunion.
They quickly find out that is a trap set by the arch-villain known as the Chameleon to destroy 7 Superheroes that have spoiled his plans once and again:
1)Doctor Strange. 2)Captain America. 3)Shanna, the Jungle Queen. 4)Namor, aka the Sub-Mariner. And of course the SPIDER-FRIENDS: 5)Firestar... 6)Iceman and the Friendly Neighborhood... 7)SPIDER-MAN
The Chameleon has the ability to take the appearance of pretty much everyone he decides and to imitate his voice and powers to a degree. By impersonating our heroes one by one, he misleads them into traps or into fighting each other in order to destroy them all. He contemptuously calls them "7 little Superheroes".
At the end, Spider-man keeps his status of leading hero by being the only one of the seven that never got caught by the traps of the Chameleon and the one that managed to find where all the others were imprisoned and free them.
During the episode we saw the Chameleon tricking Iceman and Firestar to use their powers against each other, freezing Firestar and surrounding Iceman with bars of fire before he could help her. Then, when Spider-man finds them imprisoned among the other superheroes he reverses the strategy: He deviates the lamp that was pointing towards Namor to keep him dry to point Firestar who was frozen, with the water resulting from the melted ice restoring Namor´s stamina and extinguishing the fire bars that were imprisoning Iceman, then Namor broke the machine that neutralized Dr. Strange powers allowing him to free Captain America, Shanna and himself by disappearing part of the cage they were in and then teleporting the seven heroes to the top of the castle.
A great story featuring 4 extra heroes from Marvel besides our 3 regular ones... and yet one more that Spider-man called "the Eighth Little Superhero" that was highly responsible for all of them getting out of the castle alive and being able to defeat the Chameleon: little Ms Lion, also known as "Small" or "Pequeña" ; Angelica´s doggy that helped along all the adventure by using her sense of smell to discover the Chameleon´s impersonations.
One of the best episodes of both the season and the series!!!
Thanks for reading.
IMDb Review by David del Real.
December 2017.
ONE OF THE BEST EPISODES OF THIS SERIES!!!!!!!
------- ------- -------
Spider-man finds an invitation specially for him hanging upside down from a building during his daily patrol. Both Iceman and Firestar get invitations too. They go to a distant castle for an special reunion.
They quickly find out that is a trap set by the arch-villain known as the Chameleon to destroy 7 Superheroes that have spoiled his plans once and again:
1)Doctor Strange. 2)Captain America. 3)Shanna, the Jungle Queen. 4)Namor, aka the Sub-Mariner. And of course the SPIDER-FRIENDS: 5)Firestar... 6)Iceman and the Friendly Neighborhood... 7)SPIDER-MAN
The Chameleon has the ability to take the appearance of pretty much everyone he decides and to imitate his voice and powers to a degree. By impersonating our heroes one by one, he misleads them into traps or into fighting each other in order to destroy them all. He contemptuously calls them "7 little Superheroes".
At the end, Spider-man keeps his status of leading hero by being the only one of the seven that never got caught by the traps of the Chameleon and the one that managed to find where all the others were imprisoned and free them.
During the episode we saw the Chameleon tricking Iceman and Firestar to use their powers against each other, freezing Firestar and surrounding Iceman with bars of fire before he could help her. Then, when Spider-man finds them imprisoned among the other superheroes he reverses the strategy: He deviates the lamp that was pointing towards Namor to keep him dry to point Firestar who was frozen, with the water resulting from the melted ice restoring Namor´s stamina and extinguishing the fire bars that were imprisoning Iceman, then Namor broke the machine that neutralized Dr. Strange powers allowing him to free Captain America, Shanna and himself by disappearing part of the cage they were in and then teleporting the seven heroes to the top of the castle.
A great story featuring 4 extra heroes from Marvel besides our 3 regular ones... and yet one more that Spider-man called "the Eighth Little Superhero" that was highly responsible for all of them getting out of the castle alive and being able to defeat the Chameleon: little Ms Lion, also known as "Small" or "Pequeña" ; Angelica´s doggy that helped along all the adventure by using her sense of smell to discover the Chameleon´s impersonations.
One of the best episodes of both the season and the series!!!
Thanks for reading.
IMDb Review by David del Real.
December 2017.
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