Spider-Man Unlimited

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For the comic book, see Spider-Man Unlimited (comic book).
Title Sequence.
Title Sequence.

Spider-Man Unlimited was an animated series featuring the Marvel comic book superhero Spider-Man, the series was released in 1999 and although it had fair ratings, it was overshadowed by the main ratings grabber at the time, Pokémon, and cancelled after only a few episodes were aired. Fox later resumed airing the show, but aired only the first 13 episodes, cutting the show off on a cliffhanger. Several scripts written for Season 2, including the conclusion of the cliffhanger, were never produced.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Whilst covering the launch of John Jameson's one man mission to an alternate reality, Spider-Man's attempts to stop symbiote adversaries Venom and Carnage from boarding the shuttlecraft are met with failure. Blamed for Jameson losing contact with our Earth, Spider-Man becomes a target of persecution by the media and the public. Believed to be dead after saving a life in a fire, Peter Parker uses this shroud to embark on a mission to retrieve John Jameson on Counter-Earth. Making his way to the planet, Spider-Man learns that Jameson has fallen in with a band of freedom fighters opposed to the High Evolutionary, whose Beastials, hybrids of animal and humanoid attributes, are the dominant species whilst humans are the second-class minority.

With Jameson reluctant to return until the Evolutionary is defeated, Spider-Man elects to remain on Counter-Earth, blending in as best he can also as Peter Parker, and fighting Beastial versions of some of his greatest adversaries. It soon becomes clear also that Venom and Carnage are on Counter-Earth...

[edit] Episode list

Episode Number Title Airdate Synopsis
01 Worlds Apart, Part One October 2, 1999 When Spider-Man spots his two main enemies, Venom and Carnage, hijacking on John Jameson's spaceship on a trip to the mysterious planet, Counter-Earth, he fails and the two symbiote villains go with Jameson to Counter-Earth, where the ship crashes and Jameson presumably dies. The public then blame Spider-Man for Jameson's seeming death and once Spider-Man fakes his own, he lays low for half a year until he gets a new costume and gets another ride to Counter-Earth.
02 Worlds Apart, Part Two October 9, 1999 Spider-Man reaches his destination on Counter-Earth and finds out that John Jameson survived the crash and became a member of a rebellion who is fighting against the forces of the High Evolutionary, a figurehead who hates humans and creates animal-mutant hybrids called the Beastials. Spider-Man then joins the group and moves in with a single mother, Dr. Naoko Yamada-Jones, and her son, Shayne Jones.
03 Where Evil Nests October 16, 1999 Spider-Man meets the Counter-Earth version of The Green Goblin, who is a hero who mistakes Spider-Man for a villain. And when Spider-Man realizes the kidnapper of Dr. Naoko Yamada-Jones isn't The Goblin. So the two team up to save her and stop a plan by her kidnappers: Venom and Carnage.
04 Deadly Choices December 23, 1999 A member of the rebellion against the High Evolutionary, Git Hoskins, steals a bomb and threatens to blow up the Counter-Earth New York, the rebellion and the Beastials are forced to team up to get it back before both humans and Beastials will die.
05 Steel Cold Heart January 13, 2000 A machine man, X-51, one of the High Evolutionary's operatives, refuses to hurt innocent people, he betrays of the Evolutionary and decides to join the rebellion.
06 Enter the Hunter! February 3, 2000 When the High Evolutionary sees that Spider-Man is a bug in his plans, he has his minion, Sir Ram, hire an assassin named The Hunter to kill Spider-Man.
07 Cry Vulture February 10, 2000 Spider-Man teams up with the Counter-Earth hero version of The Vulture to take down one of Sir Ram's evil plots.
08 Ill Met by Moonlight February 17, 2000 John Jameson turns into a Man-Wolf, half-man, half-wolf. Spider-Man has to break into the High Evolutionary's tower to find a cure for John where he confronts a gecko that is Counter-Earth's version of Electro who is guarding the Evolutionary's tower.
09 Sunstenance February 24, 2000 The Goblin returns and figures out that Spider-Man is Peter Parker. They are both then kidnapped by Rejects, failed Beastials created by the High Evolutionary. They attempt to sneak into one of the Evoltuionary's hideouts so Spider-Man can escape, pretending to help the Rejects.
10 Matters of the Heart March 10, 2000 Spider-Man agrees to help Bramley, a member of the rebellion against the High Evolutionary, to find his long-lost brother.
11 One Is the Loneliest Number March 17, 2000 Eddie Brock, alter ego of Venom, is separated from the Venom symbiote and Spider-Man agrees to retrieve it by donning it and give it to Brock or he'll die in a matter of time.
12 The Sins of Our Fathers March 24, 2000 Karen O'Meilly, a member of the rebellion against the High Evolutionary, is kidnapped by machine men of the Evolutionary, so Spider-Man and X-51 teams up to save her. Meanwhile, the High Evolutionary realizes Karen is his granddaughter!
13 Destiny Unleashed, Part One March 31, 2000 Venom and Carnage reveal why they are on Counter-Earth due to a plan concocted by the Synoptic they have been serving: the plan is to team up with the High Evolutionary and when the time is right, they would unleash millions of symbiotes on the planet to finally rid it of humans once and for all. Spider-Man, John Jameson, the rebellion, X-51 and The Goblin all team up to put an end to the Evolutionary's plans but appear too late when Venom and Carnage's plan unfolds.

[edit] Comic Book

Main article: Spider-Man Unlimited (comic book)

Alongside the animated series, Marvel Comics commissioned a comic to tie in with the series, it would be the second volume of Spider-Man Unlimited as a whole from the company, but the only one of the Unlimited volumes to be based on it. The first two issues adapted the first three episodes of the series, with the last three providing its own storylines.

Issue 3 Peter is assigned by the Daily Byte to follow the Counter-Earth Version of Reed Richards. It is suspected that Reed has knowledge of a mysterious creature called the The Brute. The only thing Peter finds is that Richards is a really uptight indivdual. Together they go to a party which requires everyone to have ID Chips. Before Peter is discovered not to have one The Brute shows up to crash the party. After a fight between Spider-Man and The Brute, it's revealed to him that the creature is none other than Reed Richards. Turns out that The Brute is helping the rebel against the Beastials, as Reed he is a spy. He's also aided in his mission by his friend Ben Grimm. After as tested flight similar to the Fantastic Four's Reed was transformed by cosmic rays into The Brute, Ben was uneffected, Johnny Storm was killed and Susan Richards was left in a coma.

Issue 4 introduced a sub-plot of humans and Beastials living in harmony in a hidden paradise called "Haven" which Spider-Man discovers, and stumbles on a human Gwen Stacy double, before he is driven from the place of solitude.

In the final issue he meets an escapee from Haven, a Beastial version of Wolverine. After fighting, the two team up and take down a Beastial Chameleon. It is hinted that Wolverine is really Naoko Jones's missing husband (Although the cartoon hints that The Goblin is really Naoko's husband), but nothing came out of the storylines, as poor sales ended the comic's run.

[edit] Credits

Director

  • Patrick Archibald

Writers

Produced by

  • Avi Arad - executive producer
  • Matthew Edelman - co-executive producer
  • Will Meugniot - producer
  • Eric S. Rollman - executive producer

Original Music

Film Editing

  • Shawn Logue

Production Design

Art Department

  • Patrick Archibald - storyboard artist
  • Stefano Gaudiano - storyboard artist
  • Keith Giffen - storyboard artist
  • Rick Hobers - storyboard artist
  • Lothell Jones - storyboard artist

Voices

[edit] Trivia

  • The series ended on a cliffhanger because other seasons were expected to be produced. Six episodes of season two were already produced but not animated.
  • The character of Mr. Meugniot is named after this series writer, Will Meugniot.
  • The new costume from this series was an unlockable costume in the Spider-Man video game from 2000, complete with the stealth feature.
  • The comic Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man issues 13-14 utilized elements of the cartoon setting, including the costume, although the story was set in the main Marvel Universe.
  • The series was the first to premiere a newly-designed "nano-tech" costume created for Spider-Man by Reed Richards before the former's trip to Counter-Earth. Ditching his red and blue fighting togs which he always wore under his street clothes in time-honored fashion, Peter Parker's new supersuit is activated by a device that he wears around his wrist. The costume is "released" from the device and rapidly expands around Peter's entire body until he's covered by the suit (along with whatever regular clothes Peter happens to be wearing). The suit includes a new spider-insigna on the chest, a variety of futuristic technology, and a translucent cape which looks like a spider-web.

[edit] Continuity with Spider-Man the Animated Series

Spider-Man Unlimited has altered some of the backstory from the Animated Series. The most prominent example was in the episode "One is the Loneliest Number", when Spider-Man remembered first encountering a symbiote.

TAS:

  • Spider-Man found the Symbiote on John Jameson's crashed shuttle after fighting the Rhino who wanted the Promethium X. Spider-Man dismisses the black ooze as river pollution. Later that night, the Symbiote bonds with Spider-Man. After rescuing John Jameson from the hands of the Kingpin, Spidey battles Shocker and Eddie Brock follows him up the tower. Spidey webs Eddie Brock to the tower. Spider-Man realises the Symbiote was vulnerable to sound and so used the bell's chime to get the Symbiote off him. Unfortunately, the Symbiote bonded to Brock and became Venom. Spidey defeated Venom by tricking him into a confrontation at the launch site of the John Jameson Probe, forcing the Symbiote off Brock. The authorities apprehend Brock. Carnage was created when the Venom Symbiote returned to the Earth after Baron Mordo grounded the Probe. Mordo returned the Symbiote to Brock, who became Venom and escaped Ravencroft. Cletus Kasady had recently been put in jail, assumedly he was the same kind of serial killer madman he was in the comics, but when Dormammu told Mordo of a second Symbiote, Mordo gave the Carnage symbiote to Cletus Kasady as a 'gift', as long as Kasady swore to serve Dormammu forever.

Spider-Man Unlimited:

  • As in the TAS, Spidey found his way to the shuttle crash, but this time, the Symbiote bonded with him on the shuttle. Later, he forced the symbiote off himself and it, again, bonded to Brock. Spider-Man and Venom fight, and Spider-Man defeats Venom, allowing the authorities (assumedly S.H.I.E.L.D.) to take him. The symbiote remained bonded to Eddie Brock and he escaped, giving a Symbiote to 'Carnage'. No mention of Mordo or Dormammu is ever made. Also they assume their 'monster' forms in the flashback this story is told in, instead of their 'humanoid' forms.

Also, the powers of the symbiotes appear to have altered since the Spider-Man TAS. In the TAS, Venom has distinctly different powers from Carnage, because, as Baron Mordo explains to Cletus (Carnage's host) during the "Venom Returns" episode, the Carnage symbiote will grant powers "similar, but different; as different as you [Cletus] are [is] from Brock." In the TAS Carnage was easily capable of producing axes, projectile darts, and other similar shapes with his symbiote. Venom was incapable of such feats. However, in Unlimited, Venom possesses powers that appear to share the same nature as Carnage's, allowing him to radically alter his body composition for shape creation and altering his body's format. Whilst both Carnage and Venom share this style of ability in Unlimited, it has also grown to be more extensive than what was displayed in the TAS. The pair could mold themselves into a "pool of symbiote" whilst moving freely, and even combine eachother via this technique to form one symbiote creature. Spider-Man notes this change in the first episode of Unlimited, when he is shocked to be flanked by this new power Peter exclaims "Hey! You two could never morph like that before!" Despite this recognisation of the change in the symbiote's powers, there is no explanation for this change.

Also of note, during the course of the TAS, Mary-Jane, Venom and Carnage are all lost in dimentional portals. In Unlimited, their return to Earth is never explained, nor is it hinted that they ever went missing to begin with. This can be explained the by rumoured storylines that would have crossed a never created, sixth season of the TAS, during which Spider-Man would have supposidly tracked Mary-Jane down to 19th Century England, and Carnage would have taken the mantle of Jack the Ripper.

[edit] External links


 v • d • e Spider-Man
Publications Main continuity: Amazing Fantasy • The Amazing Spider-Man
The Sensational Spider-Man (vol. 2) • Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man • Astonishing Spider-Man • Spider-Man Family

Other continuities: Ultimate Spider-Man • Marvel Adventures Spider-Man • Spider-Girl • Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
Spider-Man: Reign
Television Spider-Man (1967) • Spidey Super Stories (1974, live action) • Amazing Spider-Man (1978, live action) • Supaidāman (1978 - Japanese) • Spider-Man (1981) •Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (1981) • Spider-Man (1994) •Spider-Man Unlimited (1999) • Spider-Man: The New Animated Series (2003) • The Amazing Spider-Man (2008)
Films Spider-Man (2002) • Spider-Man 2 (2004) • Spider-Man 3 (2007)
Other topics
Fictional history of Spider-Man • Spider-Man supporting characters • Spider-Man villains • Spider-Man's powers and equipment •
Video games • Alternate versions of Spider-Man • Spider-Man in other media
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