PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*
I remember watching the short-lived broadcast of the first few UNLIMITED episodes, and I didn't mourn when the show got the axe early, only getting the remainder of its installments aired a year or two later. I thought it was silly to take an earthbound crusader like Spider-Man and stick him in an otherworldly situation. Now that I've re-watched the show on streaming, I still don't think it's very good. Yet I've seen so many routine Spider-programs with him swinging around New York that the SF-route has a little more appeal now.
The otherworld here is a Marvel Comics creation, Counter-Earth, a near-duplicate of regular Earth that exists on the far side of Sol. In the comics, the High Evolutionary, a genius scientist first introduced in the pages of THOR, decides to play God by bringing Counter-Earth into being with his resources. However, prior to doing so this cosmic creator also played Doctor Moreau, changing ordinary animals into intelligent beast-men. Some of the "beast-men" seek to destroy the scientist's creation. Fortuitously, a leftover Kirby character known only as "Him" happens to be around, and he decides to re-christen himself "Warlock" and to become the champion of Counter-Earth. The series, humorously tagged "Jesus Christ Superhero," did not succeed, though Warlock, the High Evolutionary and Counter-Earth continued to sustain other Marvel narratives.
In UNLIMITED, Counter-Earth has apparently always been on the other side of the sun, and the High Evolutionary and his beast-men are refugees from regular-Earth who take over Counter-Earth with their super-technology. (Naturally, the effects of the conquest are never seen outside of New York.) On regular-Earth, Spider-Man gets involved when astronaut John Jameson (son of irascible publisher J. Jonah) takes it upon himself to journey to the far side of the sun (note in-joke). Spidey sees two members of his rogues' gallery, the alien symbiotes Venom and Carnage, hitch a ride on Jameson's rocket, but the hero fails to stop them. Later, Spider-Man gets a ride to Counter-Earth on another rocket, and when he arrives, the hero learns that John Jameson has joined a motley crew of human freedom fighters, seeking to overthrow the tyranny of the beast-men. Spidey wants to get back to his Earth but can't do so until he rescues Jameson, which means lots of conflicts with not only the beast-men, but also various weird doppelgangers of Spider-Man villains. One is Jameson himself, who as in the comics transforms into the monstrous Man-Wolf once or twice. All of the others are natives to Counter-Earth, either costumed humans with technological gimmicks (goodguy versions of the Vulture and the Green Goblin) or beast-men with special powers (memorably, Electro played by a humanoid electric eel).
The thirteen episodes of the series don't provide enough space to develop the core concept, that of beast-people dominating the human world (though New York City pretty much goes on in the same way as before, even with a newspaper that employs photographer Peter Parker). The department of tossed-off ideas includes (1) the last-minute revelation that tuffgirl freedom-fighter Karen is the granddaughter of the High Evolutionary and one of his experiments, and (2) the attempt by a particular beast-woman, a rat-humanoid named Lady Vermin, to get jiggy with Spider-Man. (Technical bestiality in a Saban cartoon may be the show's greatest distinction!) Venom and Carnage don't really do all that much on Counter-Earth, except that they serve some leader called "the Synoptic," never revealed because the series ends on an unresolved cliffhanger.
Given my interest in crossovers, UNLIMITED plays host to a nice assortment. Despite all the reworked versions of Spider-villains, only one episode crosses over two of them: Electro and the Man-Wolf. The High Evolutionary and his beastie-buddies are all crossovers of a type since they don't normally belong in a Spider-Man narrative, and there's a sympathetic robotic hero who bears the designation "X-51," which is plainly a reference to Marvel's "Machine Man." Oh yeah, and Nick Fury briefly appears in a regular-Earth sequence.
It's a weird misfire of a series, but I must admit, even a botched concept can be more interesting than a routine one.
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