Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Sixty-Five: Farewell Spider-Man

 Farewell Spider-Man

First Aired: January 31st, 1998

Synopsis: Spider-Carnage starts activating the device that will blow up every reality but the Beyonder sends the powerless Spider-Man to stop him, using sonic grenades to delay him. Beyonder teleports Man-Spider away from Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man, but it's taxed his powers and the rest is up to the heroes. Spider-Man and Scarlet Spider save the powerless Spider-Man from Kingpin and Spider-Carnage, and the latter activates his bomb. The heroes are able to disable it but Spider-Carnage uses the transporter to jump to another dimension. Madam Web teleports the heroes away and reveals that Spider-Carnage is going to try blowing up the multiverse in another dimension, and only has the power to send one Spider-Man there; ours. In the new dimension Spider-Man finds that people love him and his alter ego, who is engaged to Gwen Stacy and has a public identity. Nobody is aware of the threat of Spider-Carnage, and Spider-Man's supporting cast are insistent that he come to a charity event his company is throwing. Wilson Fisk, who is his lawyer in this universe, takes Peter away, but it's revealed to be a trap and Fisk is working with Spider-Carnage.

Spider-Carnage traps Spider-Man and heads to the charity event, impersonating Peter, but our version of Spider-Man is found by Gwen, who noticed that something was off about the Peter at the charity event. Spider-Man fights Spider-Carnage at the charity event, but the latter escapes with Gwen. Spider-Man realises that he needs to understand Spider-Carnage, and use his head. Spider-Carnage modifies the dimensional transporter so that anything that goes into it disappears into oblivion, and starts opening a large portal which he plans to use to pull the whole reality into. Spider-Man shows up with the one person who can talk down Spider-Carnage - this reality's version of Uncle Ben, who talks down Spider-Carnage. Spider-Carnage fights off the symbiote and then jumps into oblivion. With the multiverse saved, Spider-Man is taken back to Madam Web, who sends all the Spider-Men to their homes, with the exception of our Spider-Man. He goes to the powerless Spider-Man's universe, who it turns out is an actor in a world where Spider-Man is fictional, and meets his creator, Stan Lee. As Spider-Man swings around with Stan Lee, he says that he's going to look for his version of Mary Jane, and is happy with himself and his life. Madam Web appears, and takes Spider-Man off to look for the real Mary Jane.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• After the Beyonder transports Man-Spider away, he needs to return to his dimension to replenish his powers, and tells Madam Web that if Spider-Man survives and is successful, to "Tell him the Beyonder said...(dramatic pause)...thank you."
• When Spider-Carnage activates the bomb that will blow up all the realities, it has a countdown of twenty minutes. Thirty-nine seconds later (by my count), it's down to three seconds!
• When Madam Web appears before Spider-Man and Stan Lee at the end of the episode, he says, "Who is that exotic lady?!" and is clearly interested in her. For those unaware, Madam Web is voiced by Joan Lee, Stan's wife.

Review: Okay, let's get the bad out of the way first so we can focus on the good - the episode's pacing isn't terrible, but I feel like it could do with some tightening. There's a weird bit when Spider-Man first arrives in the other dimension to stop Spider-Carnage and he just kind of wanders around, and chats with his supporting cast, fights his giant robot that Spider-Carnage sics on him...it's cool to see this other world and all of its contrasts to ours, but it's both too little to really give us a good insight, and too much in its place in the episode. I'd love to see a revisit here, somehow, though. I'm also not super hot on Spider-Carnage's doomsday device changing what it does - first of all it's going to blow up every dimension, then it's a bomb that'll destroy Kingpin's HQ (so how was it going to affect every reality if it's that weak?), then he modifies it so that it's portal to nowhere. Please, just stick with one thing it does.

The good then - man, Spider-Carnage is written so damn well. He keeps insisting that our Peter is a clone (even though he should be able to recognise that he's not the Scarlet Spider), and when we briefly see him at the charity event as Peter, he calmly tells everyone that "I'm going to see that you all get what you deserve." He really does feel like a guy who's snapped, but the fact that Uncle Ben gets through to him is a good way to show that he's not a complete monster. Peter thinking to get through to him with Uncle Ben is also a cool idea - I was fully expecting it to be Aunt May that talks him down, but nah, I'm glad they exploited the alternate reality they were in; it was a good bit of writing.

Let's face it though, the real star of the show is the last few minutes, where Spider-Man meets Stan Lee. It's insanely cheesy, doesn't justify or explain why the actor playing Spider-Man was brought along for the mission, is a bit of a meta way to end the show, and I fucking love it. Seriously, I had a big grin on my face the entire time Spider-Man was talking to Stan (not to mention Madam Web telling Spidey to "Face front, true believer!") and him realising that he was actually happy for once. It's not the perfect way to end the series on paper, but it somehow manages to pull it off. I'm sure there's a better way to incorporate Stan into the series and to give Spider-Man some resolution but screw it, this is more than good enough for me.

Next time: with this pretty popular series finished, I'll be posting a retrospect of the entire series, giving my overall thoughts on it, discussing what I liked and what I didn't, and listing the best and worst episodes. I hope to see you there.