Spider-Man Unlimited Episode Four: Deadly Choices

Deadly Choices

First Aired: December 23rd, 2000

Synopsis: Ten years ago, a child was kidnapped by Sir Ram and experimented on. In the present day, Lady Vermin reports to Sir Ram that a virus in his labs were stolen by one of the human revolutionaries, named Git Hoskins, who unbeknownst to them was the child kidnapped. Meanwhile, at the Daily Byte, Peter's boss is telling him to find pictures of Spider-Man's love interest, since he's got to have one. Git, pursued by Machine Men, runs past the building, prompting Peter to change into Spider-Man to help him. Git gets away but shortly afterwards the Knights of Wundagore show up, wanting to get Git. They explain what's going on with the virus to Spider-Man and then leave, making it clear that they're only not fighting him since they have more important things to do. Peter returns home to Naoko but John Jameson unexpectedly shows up at the door, injured. Peter hides from him, since he might work out he's Spider-Man if he knows that the two of them are on Counter-Earth, and changes to Spider-Man. Meeting up with the revolutionaries, Spider-Man discovers that Git hasn't brought the virus to them, and that in two hours it's going to detonate and infect everyone if the right codes aren't entered.

Spider-Man realises that the revolutionaries need the Knights of Wundagore's help to disarm the bomb and catch Git, and he finds them. Although the Knights and revolutionaries initially try fighting each other, Spider-Man convinces them to work together. They go to a rendezvous point and nearly start fighting each other again before Spider-Man stops them once more, then they travel to another rendezvous point where they find Git. Git thinks that the revolutionaries have turned traitor and runs off, but Spider-Man goes after him and manages to capture him. Sir Ram enters the deactivation code for the virus but as it turns out, it's too late, and it's going to detonate - until Spider-Man appeals to Git, unknowningly reminding him of the innocent child he was before Sir Ram kidnapped him, and Git stops the detonation using his abilities. Everyone's about to leave when Git suddenly attacks Sir Ram, and a fight nearly breaks out again before Spider-Man tells everyone that they worked well together and need to trust each other. Git listens to his words and gives the virus to Sir Ram, trusting him in spite of their past. The next day, Peter sells pictures of Spider-Man and Lady Vermin together to the Daily Byte. Unbeknownst to everyone, Carnage steals the virus from Sir Ram's lab.

Subplots:

• Naoko Yamada-Jones gets a phone call from a mysterious man, angry that Peter's staying at her place, and Shane recognises it as being from his father. Later, the mysterious man spies on Peter, Shane, and Naoko at a restaurant. It'd be a lot more intriguing if he didn't have the same voice as the Green Goblin and the Goblin hadn't referred to Naoko as his love last episode.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• The experiments done on Git by Sir Ram are implied to have turned him into a giant sentient bandage who forms a vague human shape and can control his shape. I really liked him two episodes ago when he was just the mysterious Bandage Man, but man, way to kill the mystery and appeal, show. 
• Spider-Man tells the Knights of Wundagore that Git has "saved my bacon more than once!", implying that he's been getting into offscreen adventures with the revolutionaries.

Review: Forcing two opposing groups to work together for a common cause is a great concept, and I absolutely buy the threat of the virus and why they'd do so, but unfortunately this episode doesn't really manage to make the most of the concept. For one thing, it takes well over half the episode before the Knights and the revolutionaries team up, and once they do, they just do not stop trying to fight. There's no grudging respect, no complimenting each other's abilities in a fight - hell, aside from Sir Ram having to disarm the container with the virus, I'm not really sure why the revolutionaries really needed the Knights; Spider-Man does all of their work for them.

I also really want to like Git Hoskins - like I mentioned, he was cool and mysterious when he was just a random man made of bandages a few episodes again. Revealing that he's got this "tragic" backstory and having him drive the conflict suddenly takes away from that, and it doesn't help that he apparently can't talk. Worst of all, the way the show frames it, he doesn't realise that the virus is going to detonate and is just late to a rendezvous, so all of the conflict, the teaming up, the danger - it could all be avoided if he was just a bit more punctual. (All that being said, I did like that he trusted Sir Ram with the virus in the end, because that's one hell of a thing to trust the child kidnapper with).

Overall then, this episode is mediocre in its best bits, and repetitive and boring when it's not. Again, on paper, the plot is a good setup, but it just never really gets anywhere. Characters don't work together because they learn from each other or sympathise, they do it because Spider-Man tells them to shut up and do it.