Episode Title: The Fantastic Mr. Frump
Greetings once again true believers. Well, we’re all used to seeing the Fantastic Four battling the evil Dr. Doom. But in this week’s Spider Friends adventure, old tin can head teams up with The Fantastic Mr. Frump.
The trouble starts when Doom gets his hands on all four pieces of an ancient amulet. When he recites a mystic incantation, the trinket will produce a cosmic ray that will shoot into the heavens and bounce back. Whoever is in possession of the amulet when the ray returns will become the most powerful being in the universe. When the Spider Friends end up interrupting Doom’s little ceremony, he loses the amulet. It is picked up by a hapless old man, and old friend of Aunt May’s, Mr. Frump. Suddenly, Frump becomes an all powerful super-being.
At first, Frump enjoys his powers by having all of New York painted with bright cheery colors and filling the sky with rainbows. Soon, he wonders where his powers came from, which causes Dr. Doom to appear in front of him. Doom then convinces Frump that he needs to help destroy Spidey, Iceman, and Firestar. Before long, mythological creatures, space aliens, and even Genghis Khan are conjured up to try and defeat our heroic trio.
This is the most outlandish episode of the show we’ve had yet. The strangest thing is that rather than having the team simply battle the formidable villain Dr. Doom, the focus is on this strange character of Mr. Frump. Not to be disrespectful to our elders or anything like that, but Mr. Frump is a bit of flake. He gets unlimited power and can’t ever seem to make up his mind about what he wants. One minute he’s wishing for kittens and rainbows and the next he’s conjuring up creatures that would give H.P. Lovecraft nightmares. It all comes across as a bit silly, and that’s even before he transforms himself into a superhero called Wonder Frump. Strangely, this character has not yet made it into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
I guess this is an episode where it’s important to keep reminding yourself that this was made for kids. For adult viewers, unfortunately, this episode is unintentionally funny. In the end it takes our three heroes teaming up with the bad guy, Dr. Doom, to stop the frumpy Mr. Frump. That’s a little too much to handle. Perhaps things will go a bit better in our next episode when Firestar gets the hots for another flame throwing character in…Sunfire.
Channel: Superhero 