Spider-Man Unlimited Episode Six: Enter the Hunter!

Enter the Hunter!

First Aired: February 3rd, 2001

Synopsis: Sir Ram is complaining to the High Evolutionary about how popular Spider-Man is, and the High Evolutionary agrees that Spider-Man should be dealt with. Sir Ram shows footage of Spider-Man breaking up a smuggling operation to a man named The Hunter, who agrees to go after Spider-Man. He sprays potions around Central Park which incites a riot, coincidentally as Peter Parker and Naoko Yamada-Jones are nearby. The former switches to Spider-Man to intervene and stop the beastials and humans from ripping each other apart, and gets some unexpected help from Karen, one of the human underground's agents. The Hunter, watching from the shadows, takes note of this. Karen takes Spider-Man back to one of the underground's bases to let him know that he's got a price on his head and that The Hunter is after him. She warns Spider-Man about The Hunter's ferocity and strength, and tells Spider-Man that The Hunter is one of the few humans allowed to live above ground, in a penthouse. Spider-Man heads out and intends to search for The Hunter and is attacked by him before long. Spider-Man is caught in a sticky net by The Hunter, putting him at his mercy.

 

Spider-Man breaks free, of course, and fights The Hunter some more, but is surprised to discover that The Hunter has prepared for his webbing and can dissolve it. He swings away and changes to Peter Parker since he can't fight The Hunter, but The Hunter has a pheremone tracer on him which lets him identify Spider-Man in his civilian identity. While Spider-Man's gone, The Hunter captures Karen as leverage against Spider-Man. Spidey heads to The Hunter's penthouse and is told by The Hunter about Karen, and also that he knows Spider-Man's identity. Spider-Man goes through the penthouse, which is full of traps, and finds Karen. While the two of them are escaping they find a lab full of chemicals, and realise that although The Hunter uses them to make himself so strong and fast, they're also cutting his lifespan down, something The Hunter happily admits to. He and Spider-Man have one last fight, with Spider-Man using his nanobot suit to make it look like he and Peter Parker are in two different places at once to guard his identity Spider-Man then beats up The Hunter, threatens him, and tells him not to come after him again.

Subplots:

• Naoko tells Peter about her husband, Hector, who was a brilliant inventor but drew more and more into his workshop when the company he worked for went under. He ended up getting involved in the rebel underground and eventually left one day. Hmm, wonder whether he'll turn out to be a character we've seen before?

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Karen tells Spider-Man that The Hunter has amazing abilities, and Spider-Man comments that there's "nothing wrong with being amazing!" For those who have been living under a rock, Spider-Man's longest-running comic series is The Amazing Spider-Man.
• Oh, and in case it wasn't obvious, The Hunter is very clearly Counter-Earth's equivalent of Kraven the Hunter.

Review: Credit where it's due, after Spider-Man: The Animated Series' version of Kraven, this is probably the next best version we've had. (Which, okay, he's not up against stunning competition, but I can't say the same about the Green Goblin, so take your victories where you can, Spider-Man Unlimited). A human who has to an extent turned against his race isn't the most original idea, but it's pretty original for a Kraven, and a good place to put him in for this series. More interestingly, the idea that he's going to die young because of the chemicals and herbs he uses is fascinating, as is the idea that he's already accepted it and would rather burn brightly than slowly. (I wonder - if more episodes had been made of this series, would we have gotten an attempt at adapting Kraven's Last Hunt?)

Unfortunately, that's where most of the praise for this episode goes. The Hunter's plan to incite riots - I guess in the hopes that Spider-Man will show up and observe him? - feels a bit flimsy and more like padding than anything. The way Spider-Man just ducks out of the fight so that the story can give The Hunter an opportunity to capture Karen is even worse, and after an episode of struggling against this guy, what's with the way Spider-Man wins? He literally just punches The Hunter a few times and it's over.

Overall this isn't a bad episode, and is definitely recommended over some of the other stuff we've gotten in past stories, but it definitely needs to be tightened up a bit. Have Karen captured before Spider-Man fights The Hunter, and don't bother with the stuff with Spider-Man's identity being discovered - the nanobot solution is clever, but we never really get a sense of Spider-Man being in jeopardy, or even any worry about what might happen. The Hunter himself says that he doesn't care about Spider-Man's identity! Acceptable overall but nothing to write home about.