Episode Review - Worlds Apart, Part One
Review and Media by Stu

Episode #1 - Worlds Apart, Part One
Original Airdate - October 2nd, 1999
When Spider-Man fails to stop Venom and Carnage tagging along on John Jameson's shuttle launch to Counter Earth, he attempts to fly to the planet himself.

Credits
Written By: Will Meugniot, Michael Reaves
Directed By: Patrick Archibald
Starring: Rino Romano as Spider-Man/Peter Parker, Michael Donovan as Carnage, Tasha Simms as Lady Ursula, Jennifer Hale as Lady Vermin/Mary Jane Watson, Ron Halder as Sir Ram, Richard Newman as The High Evolutionary, Brian Drummond as Venom/Eddie Brock, Kim Hawthorne as Karen O'Malley, Christopher Gaze as Bromley, David Sobolov as Lord Tyger, Rhys Huber as Shane Yamada-Jones, Akiko Morison as Naoko, John Payne as John Jameson and Mark Gibbon as Nick Fury.

Review:
With Spider-Man: The Animated Series now finished and basically every other show that Marvel had on TV gone, Marvel went back to the drawing board when thinking of what to do next with their animated properties. From the looks of things, they didn't think very long, as the decision to green light this series remains as perplexing now as it did back then.

It seems that everyone involved missed having new episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series on the air, and just wanted Spider-Man back on FOX. Instead of ordering new episodes, they decided to go with an all-new Spider-Man series, based on his early days as Spider-Man. Unfortunately, the Spider-Man movie was green lighted at Sony, and for some really odd reason, most of Spider-Man's cast and such were off limits, leaving them in a tricky situation. After considering a Spider-Man 2099 animated series, and another where Peter would face off against an evil, symbiote-wearing Peter from another Earth. Both dieas were nixed, but it started the ball rolling on the final product we see here.

The series starts off at Earth, giving us a bit of the Spidey we all know and love before he's shipped off to another planet. Featuring a rather cool red and black Spidey design, it was actually a pretty decent looking version, a notch about the original series, weird yellow eyes aside. As a cool nod to Spider-Man: The Animated Series, as Peter changes into Spider-Man, they use the Spider-Man: The Animated Series theme! Sadly, this was probably the highlight of the entire episode, as it quickly sinks from this point on. Once Spider-Man hits Counter Earth, it gets ... difficult to watch.

Now, if you're reading this, you're probably more than aware that I love Spider-Man cartoons. Whether it's the cheesy 60's show, the excellent 90's cartoons or the recent CG-animated series, I enjoy them all in one form or another. But, after watching one episode of this, I didn't really want to see it again. It started off promising, and fell, and it fell so fast. Spider-Man: Unlimited is truly a dark period for Spider-Man fans.

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