| This article is written from the Real World perspective |  |
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| Series | Spider-Man | |||
| Release Date | November 7, 1997 | |||
| Episode Number | 61 | |||
| Writer | John Semper, Jr. Karen Milovich | |||
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Spider-Man is transported to an alien world by the Beyonder. He must lead a force of Earth's greatest heroes against their greatest foes. (Secret Wars Saga, Part One)
Story[]
Spider-Man meets Madame Webb's cohort the Beyonder, who explains they are entities beyond comprehension that have taken interest in Earth. The concept of good and evil is foreign to them, so it boils down to an experiment now; to see which would win if removed from their deadlock on Earth. Beyonder chooses Doctor Octopus, Doctor Doom, Red Skull, Alistair Smythe and the Lizard (whom Spider-Man tries protesting against) as agents of evil; dumping them on a world without the concept and making it experience a year of their precedence ruining it.
Beyonder takes Spider-Man to the last base of resistance against the villains; telling him to call in heroes from earth to help via a transportation device. Though there's only enough power for seven to come. To counter Doom and Skull, Spider-Man chooses the Fantastic Four and Captain America; also picking his old allies Iron Man and Storm, to help understand alien tech and for Storm's command of the elements to connect Beyonder.
The heroes arrival turns sour due to Thing being a literal blockhead along with Human Torch being an arrogant judgemental hothead and both stubbornly threatening Spider-Man during his explanation, they even got into a fight with Iron Man who’s trying to defend Spider-Man. The Lizard breaks in and soon afterwards flees into the desert. Turns out monster worms live there and the base shield is out of power. With Sue and Storm's help, they get the power back on and rescue the lizard. Reed uses a device to wake up the persona of Dr Conners in the lizard, turning the tide of what Spider-Man dubs "the Secret Wars" in favor of the heroes.
Madame Webb watches with Beyonder, proudly; noting how Spider-Man shows leadership needed to complete the trial. Beyonder is neutral; hoping Webb is right.
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Quotes[]
"It's clobbering time!"
- -Thing
"Sue can't keep that up forever! What are we gonna do?"
- -Human Torch
"I can't keep this up much longer!"
- -Invisible Woman
"You did it, darling! You saved us!"
- -Mister Fantastic
"Where am I? Spider-Man. What's going on?"
- -Lizard
Trivia[]
- When Spider-Man is immobilized by Madame Web, his costume has inverted colors.
Goofs[]
Continuity[]
- Curt Connors was seemingly cured of Lizard in "The Lizard King", only transforming again due to Beyonder's cosmic powers.
Cast[]
Background[]
All characters from Fantastic Four were redesigned since John Semper wasn't fan of the series. Their voice actors were recast, except for Quinton Flynn who was the only actor who reprised his role.
Reception[]
Comic Book Resources ranked the entire Secret Wars Saga as the fourth greatest episode of the series. They noted that what made the episodes so memorable was the range of heroes brought together who initially bickered amongst themselves. They enjoyed seeing their favorite heroes fighting their favorite villains. They also liked how it was an exciting break from the tragedy of the previous episode and a colorful penultimate story that lead directly into the finale.[1]