Spider-Man Unlimited Episode Nine: Sustenance

Sustenance

First Aired: March 3rd, 2001

Synopsis: In Atlantic City, two bestials are trying to run away from what they call a "freak factory", but one of them is captured by machine men and Lady Ursula while another is mysteriously dragged underground. Back in New York, Peter decide to leave Naoko's place since she's still getting harassed by her husband and he now knows where his spaceship is - Atlantic City - but when he leaves he's attacked by the Green Goblin. Peter gets away and changes to Spider-Man, but a camera the Green Goblin set up catches this and he now knows who Spider-Man is. Spider-Man goes to Atlantic City, secretly followed by the Green Goblin, and finds a giant dome where the spaceship supposedly is. Spider-Man's attacked by the Goblin until he mentions that he's trying to leave, at which point the Goblin is happy to help him. Guards from the dome arrive and the two team up to defeat them. During the fight Spider-Man and the Green Goblin have the ground below them collapse, and they find themselves surrounded by bestial rejects.

Their leader explains that they're genetic failures who are forced to work in the labs which are within the dome above, and are going to trade the Green Goblin and Spider-Man to the High Evolutionary in return for the workers being set free. Spider-Man manages to break free, but convinces the rejects that the High Evolutionary won't fill his end of the bargain and that he and the Goblin can destroy the labs. They reach the rocket and Spider-Man gets the Goblin to fix the broken components, the Goblin congratulating Spider-Man for tricking the rejects into thinking that they cared, but Lady Ursula and machine men show up to stop them. The rocket accidentally gets activated and flies off, and Spider-Man goes after it to try and reach the cockpit. He can't get in, so he redirects it to fly down and destroy the dome, thus fulfilling his and the Goblin's end of the bargain for the rejects. They're happy and say they'll live underground. Spider-Man thinks to himself that in spite of what the Green Goblin said, he did care, but doesn't know what he would have done if he could have reached the cockpit.

 

Subplots:

• The Green Goblin disappears in the rocket fumes while the fight's going on, and Spider-Man assumes that he's dead.
  

Review: Don't get me wrong, this isn't Bokurano-level dark, but it does get into some darker territory than the other cartoons I've seen on this show. Spider-Man just leaving Naoko without saying goodbye to her and Shane feels a bit out of character which is one thing, but then we also have the plucky rebels trying to trade away Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, and their description of the labs is basically a concentration camp. It's also revealed that the High Evolutionary recycles useless rejects into health drinks for the normal ones, and he even threatens to do this with Lady Ursula.

On top of all of that, Spider-Man really does act pretty selfish in this episode. He thinks to himself that he wants to help the rejects, but he pretty clearly was ready to take off in the rocket once he was in there, and only stayed back since he needed the Goblin to help fix it. None of this is egregiously bad or anything, but it doesn't feel like what Spider-Man would do to me. In another show, with a character I'm not incredibly invested in, I'd probably even like it, but it does feel a little off and not really what I'm here for.

So overall, I'd say that this is competent and the plot works fine, but the tone doesn't really match what I'd like. I can handle dark stories - I can handle dark Spider-Man stories - but there needs to be some light in there to balance it out, and this episode loses it when Spider-Man tries to ditch everyone and go home. Some interesting ideas for the world and nothing's technically executed badly, but not really my thing.