| "Spider Wars" | |||
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| Spider-Man (1994 TV series) episode | |||
The Spider-Men that team up to stop Spider-Carnage. Left to right, powerless Spider-Man, regular Spider-Man, Octo-Spidey, Scarlet-Spider, Armored Spider-Man, and Six-Armed Spider-Man |
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| Episode no. | Season 5 Episode 64 & 65 |
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| Written by | John Semper | ||
| Production code | 415 & 416 | ||
| Original air date | January 31, 1998 | ||
| Episode chronology | |||
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| List of Spider-Man episodes | |||
Spider Wars is the two part series finale of Spider-Man, consisting of the episodes "I Really, Really Hate Clones" and "Farewell, Spider-Man". This episode deals with Spider-Men from parallel universes, trying to stop Spider-Carnage from destroying all reality. This episode was written by John Semper, and aired on January 31, 1998.[1][2]
Contents |
After "Secret Wars", Spider-Man finds himself in yet another dimension, thanks to Beyonder. There he finds that Hobgoblin and the Green Goblin have been working together and have destroyed the city. The Goblins, are confused by Spider-Man's attack upon them, and tell him, they were doing what he told them to do. The Hobgoblin concludes that this must be the other Spider-Man they were warned about and attack Spider-Man with full force. They kidnap Jameson to get his hand print so that they can steal and use the microwave transmitter on top of the Bugle. Hobgoblin detonates a bomb that destroys the Bugle building. Spider-Man goes after them, but gets ambushed by Spider-Carnage. Spider-Carnage is angered by Spider-Man wearing his old costume and assumes this is in fact his other. Before Spider-Carnage could finish him off, Spider-Man is teleported by Beyonder to Madame Web's base. There he meets... himself, namely other dimensional duplicates of Peter Parker, Spider-Men.
Madame Web reveals to Spider-Man, she and the Beyonder have been training 5 different Spider-Men from parallel realities in order to save all reality from being blown up. The other five Spider-Men are, a billionaire Peter Parker who wears the Spider-Armor (from Web of Spider-Man #100), a powerless Spider-Man (an actor who portrays Spider-Man on TV in our reality), Six-Armed Spider-Man with the mutation disease that eventually will cause Spider-Man to become Man-Spider, Octo-Spidey,(a Spider-Man who battled Doctor Octopus and finally defeated him and took his octo-arms and wore them), and Scarlet Spider, to the surprise of the other Spider-Men, has blonde hair & is called Ben Reilly.
It seems that in Scarlet Spider's reality, a Spider-Clone was created by Warren, but he fled the lab and became Ben Reilly, the Scarlet Spider. In this reality, the current Spider-Man found out about the clone, the stress of the loss of May Parker, the possibility of being a clone and seeing Ben Reilly as Scarlet Spider drove Spider-Man to hate Ben Reilly. Spider-Man appeared on scene when the Scarlet Spider invaded the Kingpin's lair. Scarlet Spider thought Spider-Man arrived to help, but instead attacked Scarlet Spider, he wanted Scarlet Spider dead; Alistair Smythe opened the dimensional portal and the Carnage symbiote emerged from the portal and bonded with Spider-Man, being drawn to his hatred of Scarlet Spider. Later, Spider-Carnage plunders New York and destroys the Daily Bugle. Beyonder shows the Spider-Men the future: Spider-Carnage will destroy all reality, unless they stop him. The event actually happened and the Beyonder used all of his power to roll back time (before his home dimension was destroyed) to the point before Spider-Carnage destroyed everything.
All of the Spidey's, except for the powerless one, attack Crime Central, only to be surprised by Green Goblin and Hobgoblin. A battle begins, in which Armored Spidey and Octo-Spidey are injured (both due to Armored Spidey's reckless actions), so the Beyonder teleports them back to Madame Web's base. Later, Six-Armed Spidey is transformed into Man-Spider, and he attacks Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider. The episode ends with the Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man caught in the grip of the Man-Spider.
The Beyonder uses his powers to teleport the powerless Spider-man to stop Kingpin and Spider-Carnage from destroying all of reality. Then, the Beyonder uses his power to transports the Man-Spider back to the base. Man-Spider immediately attacks the weakened Beyonder, who uses the last bit of his power to teleport Man-Spider with him to his home dimension. The powerless Spider-Man attacks Spider-Carnage with sonic grenades, delaying Spider-Carnage long enough for Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider to arrive. Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider reveal to the Kingpin that he was duped by Spider-Carnage into creating, not a mind-control device, but a bomb to destroy all realities. Kingpin attacks Spider-Carnage and assists in foiling Spider-Carnage's plans to destroy all reality, but Spider-Carnage escapes via the Accelerator. The Spider-Men still have to disarm the bomb before it detonates and destroys Kingpin's lair. Madame Web brings Spider-Man and the Scarlet Spider back to her base and she searches the infinite dimensions and informs the Spider-Men that Spider-Carnage is now in Armored-Spider-Man's dimension. She says she can only send one of them there, and sends the leader Spider-Man.
Spider-Man is teleported to the billionaire Peter Parker's world. In this dimension, the Spider-Man is engaged to Gwen Stacy, J. Jonah Jameson is his godfather, and Wilson Fisk is his lawyer. He also owns the Peter Parker Science Foundation and his secret identity is public, so he rarely wears his mask. The Peter Parker from this dimension shares something with Iron Man, and is probably both the Spider-Man and the Iron Man of that dimension. Spider-Man: House of M bore similarities to this dimension.
When having a talk with Fisk, an unmasked Peter is captured by Fisk and tied up with a steel material and transported to Fisk's lair. Fisk reveals that Spider-Carnege has explained everything to Fisk. With Peter tied up and helpless, Fisk plans to rule the dimensions with Spider-Carnage. However, Spider-Carnege has lied to Fisk of his true destructive intentions. Peter, still tied up, attepts to reveal Spider-Carnege's true intentions to Fisk. However, Spider-Carnege gags his mouth with webbing, and leave they him in the dark. He is saved by Gwen, and he and Spider-Carnage battle. Spider-Carnage kidnaps Gwen and takes her to a rooftop location in the city where he uses the time-dilation accelerator to construct a disintegration dimensional portal which can erase anything that is pulled into it from existence, with the intention of destroying all planes of reality, one at a time. Spider-Man, realizing that Spider-Carnage is too insane to be reasoned with, comes up with an alternate plan. He realizes that in Armor-Spidey's world, Uncle Ben is still alive, and Spider-Man brings him to confront Spider-Carnage.
Uncle Ben explains to Spider-Carnage the rule of power and responsibility, and tells him that he loves him. The Peter Parker within him is reached by this and realizes how wrong he has been. He breaks down and attempts to separate himself from the Carnage symbiote. Even with Uncle Ben and Spider-Man trying to give him strength to fight it, the symbiote's grip on him is too strong and he is unable to break the bond. Realizing that he is left with no other choice, he uses the TDA to make the anti-existence portal close. Peter shouts "Forgive me!" as he jumps into the portal, destroying himself and the Carnage symbiote. Spider-Man bids farewell to the Uncle Ben of that dimension, as though he were having the chance to say good-bye to his own Uncle Ben one last time. Madame Web retrieves Spider-Man to her base of operations to return him to his home dimension.
The powerless Spidey, wants Spider-Man to see a very special man, Stan Lee. Stan Lee cancels all his appointments for the day and goes web-swinging with Spider-Man. Peter thanks Stan Lee for making him into the hero he always wanted to be in his own dimension. Stan Lee and Spider-Man are sitting atop a building in conversation when Madame Web appears. Stan sees Madame Web (voiced by Stan Lee's wife, Joan Lee), and says "Who is that exotic lady?". Spider-Man replies, "she's just my ride." Spider-Man is taken from the real world, leaving Stan behind on the building, without a way down. The series ends with Madame Web promising Spider-Man they will find the real Mary Jane Watson, which she does intend to keep.
The story of Spider Wars is loosely based on elements of the Clone Saga in the comics. At one point Spider-Man compares the Scarlet Spider's story to "a bad comic book plot" (a potshot taken at the much reviled Clone Saga). This episode marks the first time Gwen Stacy, Spider-Carnage, and The Scarlet Spider were shown outside of the comics. John Semper mentioned in an interview if he had continued on with the show, Spider Man would have gone through past time periods and found Mary Jane in Victorian England. Spider-Man would battle with the real Carnage portrayed as Jack the Ripper.[3] Semper also revealed that he felt if he continued on after Spider-Man saved all reality, he would have been doing it for the money, because he felt the saga had ended nicely with Peter meeting his creator and saving all of existence.[3]
Stan Lee appears in this episode as himself.[2] He had earlier appeared in the Fantastic Four animated series. Lee would later make another animated appearance in the first season finale of Spider-Man: The New Animated Series in 2003 as a minion of the villains, The Gaines Twins, trying to manipulate Spider-Man into killing Kraven the Hunter after the twins convinced the hero that Kraven killed Mary Jane Watson.[4] There is an inside-joke that when Stan Lee looks at Madame Web and asks, "Who is that exotic woman?" And when Spider-Man and Madame Web are looking for Mary Jane in limbo, Web says that she thinks Lee is truly special. This is all because these two are actually married in real life, because Web is played by Joan Lee, Stan Lee's wife.
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