While Batman's old TV show still lives on in the national consciousness, recently resurfacing on TV Land Network, Spider-Man's live-action show has been almost completely forgotten. While BATMAN was filled with psychedelic humor, SPIDER-MAN aired from 1977 to 1979, meaning it was filled with disco hairdos, wide lapels and funky wakka-cha-wakka music. People look back fondly on the 60s; they look back with regret at the 70s. That, along with the rather shabby quality of the series, has relegated it to television obscurity.

In CHALLENGE, Peter Parker (Nicholas Hammond) gets involved in a convoluted spy plot when Min (Benson Fong), an old college friend of J. Jonah Jameson's (Robert F. Simon), returns from China, desperate to clear his name for stealing military secrets. Back in China, a "mysterious" white gentleman eats lots of food while planning his enemy's demise from a far. He is a Spider-Man villain, I suppose, but he doesn't get an interesting code name. I just referred to him as Mysterious White Guy.

Mysterious White Guy's constant attempts on Min's life require Peter Parker and Min's bitter niece to head to China with an ex-Marine-turned-college-professor-of-Peter-Parker's (how convenient) to clear Min's name, while Min kicks his feet up and takes it easy. Of course, Spider-Man is along for the ride, fighting assassins and spies and more assassins. And then more spies, and some more assassins. Ninety minutes is a lot of screen time to fill.

Astonishingly, no one seems to make the Peter Parker / Spider-Man connection even when Peter Parker travels to Hong Kong and Spider-Man just happens to show up at the same time. Even the people traveling with Peter, who see Peter run away and Spider-Man appear moments later are completely clueless. Finally, someone does unmask Spider-Man. It's shocking the person recognized Parker at all. One expects them to go "Who the hell is that guy?" The character does seem to take the news a little too calmly, probably just trying to play off the fact that they have been so oblivious to the signs that have been there all along.

The film's interpretation of Spider-Man is a little weird. He has these Oakley sunglasses for eyes, a clunky metal utility belt, and one webshooter around his right wrist. The webshooter has a hilariously slow delivery; crook after crook gets trapped by a thin beam of silly string that my grandmother could have evaded. Then again, hardcore Spider-Man fans who hated Sam Raimi's terrific film will appreciate the metallic webshooter and applaud the movie for sticking to the comic books and having no originality whatsoever.