Seven Little Superheroes

The Defenders never had a television series of their own. But an episode of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends certainly had a Defenders-esque charm.

Spider-Man teamed up with Firestar and Iceman each week on the NBC Saturday-morning cartoon from the early 1980s. The episode titled 7 Little Superheroes upped the ante by bringing Sub-Mariner, Dr. Strange, Captain America, and Shanna the Jungle Queen into the mix.

Following the formula that Agatha Christie popularized in Ten Little Indians (a.k.a. And Then There Were None), each of the seven heroes received an invitation to an island estate. Not until they arrived did the heroes learn that their host was the mysterious Chameleon.

Revamped for the TV series, Chameleon made a suitably resourceful opponent. Using disguises and traps, he captured each hero one by one—from the dehydration devices that immobilized Sub-Mariner to the demon-robot that snatched Dr. Strange.

One of the episode's many highlights came near the end when Spider-Man triggered a chain of events that—like a reverse game of Mousetrap—allowed each of the other heroes to escape.

Equally praiseworthy were the apt portrayals of the guest stars—notably the standoffish short fuse of Sub-Mariner, the serene intellection of Dr. Strange, and the cooperative spirit of Captain America.

The episode 7 Little Superheroes first aired on NBC in the fall of 1981, before Iceman joined the Defenders and Firestar made her comic book debut.