The Spider Returns was directed by old Buster Keaton and Laurel & Hardy director James Horne, who used it to send up the serial genre. It's the villains who come in for the most ridicule.
The henchmen are inept, sometimes spectacularly so. At one point they are wear paper party hats and blow noisemakers, girls on their laps, and the Gargoyle enters and has a tantrum: "These wild parties must cease!" he says -- well, emotes would be a better word.
Horne made another humorous serial, Terry and the Pirates, in which it's the hero who gets the razz. The Green Archer also has comedy elements, with the head villain having fit after fit as his henchmen botch every assignment. Hey, somebody had to point out these genre flaws, and Horne was just the guy to do it. These serials are a good change of pace for fans of the form, and, since Horne started his career doing serials, he was up to doing the action sequences effectively as well.