I am a bona fide Spider-Fan, and I’ll give anything with the ol’ webhead a chance. While I still have a few lingering doubts about this summer’s upcoming The Amazing Spider-Man, as long as it stays true to the roots of the character it’ll be fine in my book. On that note, current spider-scribe Dan Slott turned me on to what appears to be Spidey’s first ever live-action appearance, albeit in an unofficial form. From 1969, we get the famed Don Glut’s last Marvel fan-film, and thanks to the magic of YouTube, we can all share in the fun! From uploader Fudgebudger:
The first ever documented Spider-Man fan film, and the first (unofficial) live action appearance of Spider-Man from 1969! This was produced by Donald F. Glut and was his last amateur film (he had produced many other Marvel fan films before this) before moving on to write for classic cartoons like Transformers and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends.
I love the costume (Don Glut is wearing the red and blues himself), it looks heavily inspired by Steve Ditko’s work. And notice the use of the Captain Action Spider-Man figure for web swinging and wall crawling; that goes for huge bucks now. The villain in this fan film, Dr. Lightning, is not a real Marvel character and was just created by the guy’s making the film.
So without further ado, Don Glut’s seminal Spider-Man!
“>httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4HQn6rsJ38
Sure, the effects are of definite fan quality, and the acting is just “OK”, but underneath that is evidence that Glut “gets” Spider-Man, especially the late 60’s version of the guy. He’s quippy, acrobatic (webslinging in a mountainous area must have been murder!), and is surrounded by tragedy. The music is also truly epic as only proto-70’s funk can get. He gets the essence of the webhead down, and it definitely gave me a geeky smile. What do you guys think?