Spider-Man Unlimited Episode Ten: Matters of the Heart

Matters of the Heart

First Aired: March 10th, 2001

Synopsis: Lord Tyger is attending a game of baseball, and the human rebellion takes the opportunity to go to his box, hoping that he'll be more reasonable in helping humans compared to his fellow knights. A guard manages to activate the alarm and they're forced to flee, but Bromley's caught in the process. Sir Ram, also in the box, convinces Lord Tyger that the rebels probably wanted to kidnap him. Back home, Peter tests the sonics of his suit before going to a street carnival with Naoko and Shane, thinking about how if he didn't have Mary Jane waiting for him at home that he'd like to get with Naoko. Some guards transporting Bromley start harassing humans, and Peter changes to Spider-Man and saves Bromley. The two of them head to the new rebels' hideout but it turns out to be a trap, and Bromley betrays Spider-Man. Sir Ram and Lady Ursula are there and plan on taking him to the High Evolutionary, but not before Sir Ram will do some experiments and make Spider-Man a braindead shell which he can control.

Bromley is disgusted by Sir Ram and saves Spider-Man. The two of them escape and Bromley explains why he betrayed him - he was told that his brother Derwood, who he hasn't seen since he was a child, before the High Evolutionary took over, is working in Wundagore and that he would have been freed in exchange. Spider-Man and Bromley infiltrate Wundagore and Spider-Man is caught by Lady Vermin, but he seduces her and tricks her into letting him go. Bromley and Spider-Man find Derwood working in the water filtration plant but Derwood reveals that he anticipated them coming, and that he'll happily hand his brother and Spider-Man over in return for a promotion. The High Evolutionary shows up and fight Spider-Man, hitting him with a ray which starts turning Spider-Man into a giant spider. Spider-Man destroys the machine doing so with the sonics of his suit. Meanwhile, Bromley and Derwood fight, and Bromley knocks Derwood into a tank of water, which he drowns in. The two heroes escape and Bromley tosses away the last keepsake he has of his brother, a ring.

Subplots:

• Venom and Carnage briefly pass by the street carnival, carrying large containers on their backs, and debate interfering, but Venom tells Carnage that once they've finished transporting the young to the new nest, it'll make the carnival look like nothing.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• The High Evolutionary demonstrates telekinesis while fighting Spider-Man. I know that he's kind of a "whatever powers I need to make the fight interesting"-type villain, but from a quick search I don't believe he's ever shown the ability in the comics.
• In the comics, Wundagore Mountain is traditionally the High Evolutionary's base, and is in Europe. Here, it's apparently the name of his castle in New York. Sure, I guess that works.
• If anyone cares, it's revealed here that Bromley's first name is Daniel. He also mentions that his family moved to Brooklyn when he was thirteen, explaining why he's got a British accent in New York.
• Spider-Man manages to get away from Lady Vermin by giving her time to freshen up and get ready, implying that he told her they were going to have sex. Damn.
  

Review: Much like Ill-Met By Moonlight, this episode is more about one of the rebels and expanding on who they are than a Spider-Man story, and much like the aforementioned story, it ends up being pretty decent. Things aren't going to go smoothly with Derwood, but there's a short enough time period between the reveal of why Bromley's betrayed Spider-Man and the reveal that Derwood's willingly working for the High Evolutionary that it doesn't feel too obvious; we don't have much time to speculate about what's going to go on or have Bromley be overly optimistic that things will be fine. The reveal itself is done well too; Derwood's a real slimy bastard and it really does feel like he deserves his fate.

There's not a lot to complain about here - I was going to make a comment on the pacing, but the more I thought about it the pacing is actually pretty good; it's just that there's this weird subplot I didn't put in the synopsis about Peter needing to get photos to his boss at the Daily Byte which the show seems to think we'll be invested in. The final scene of the episode is even resolution of the subplot with the reveal that Peter, gasp, did manage to submit his photos. Outside of that, I also wasn't too pleased with Spider-Man's fight with the High Evolutionary - in spite of it being the first physical confrontation with the villain, there's not a lot of emotion or even stakes there, and Spider-Man starting to be mutated into a bestial is brushed off way too quickly.

In spite of these flaws, this ended up being a really decent episode overall. You could probably recreate the basic beats of it in most settings and still end up with a good story, but that's a strength of how solid it is, not a flaw of it not drawing more on the setting. If we're going to get a Spider-Man in an unconventional setting, we might as well make the most of the characters here while they're available.