Spider-Man Unlimited

Spider-Man Unlimited is an animated television series produced by Saban Entertainment which features the Marvel comic book superhero Spider-Man and serves as a follow-up to Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Unlimited premiered in 1999, and though it had fair ratings, it was overshadowed by Pokémon and the newly debuted Digimon, and canceled after airing only a few episodes. Fox Kids later resumed airing the show from 1999 to 2001, airing 13 episodes, the last ending on a cliffhanger.

The specific incarnation of Spider-Man who serves as the focus of Spider-Man Unlimited made a return in the 2023 feature film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, depicted as a member of Miguel O'Hara's Spider-Society.

Initially, the goal was to do a low-budget adaptation of the first 26 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man comic book, but Sony and Marvel Studios had already engaged in a deal to produce the Spider-Man film, and so Saban Entertainment was cut from any source and could not use the traditional Spider-Man suit or adapt the early comics. Also, in the original idea, Spider-Man was stranded in a Counter-Earth in which Ben Parker did not die and thus Peter Parker lacked the moral fortitude to resist becoming Venom. However, Marvel Comics did not like the idea and stated that they would not do a story with two Peter Parkers. Additionally, the show was made after Marvel decided not to move ahead with a show focusing on Spider-Man 2099 following consideration due to the DC Comics series Batman Beyond premiering earlier that year and having a similar futuristic setting.

Unlike the previous series which used digital ink and paint, the animation on the series was made using traditional cel animation. The characters' designers, including Spider-Man's new outfit, were done by Shannon Denton and Roy Burdine. The show's music was handled by Saban Entertainment, and credited to Shuki Levy and Haim Saban (under his composing alias Kussa Mahchi). The music for Spider-Man: The Animated Series was also handled by Saban Entertainment and credited to Shuki Levy and Kussa Mahchi, although Saban were less involved with that show than they were with Spider-Man Unlimited.

"One Is the Loneliest Number" was produced as, and supposed to be, episode 10, but it was packaged as the 11th by Fox Kids' decision, thus creating continuity errors with Spider-Man referring to his battle with Venom at the middle of "Family Matters" while this battle was delayed by an episode and with the High Evolutionary referring to Spider-Man's interference with his attempts to control the Symbiotes near the end of "Family Matters", which also happens in "One Is the Loneliest Number" and is yet to be shown to the audience.

Several scripts were written for Season 2, including the conclusion of the cliffhanger, but were never produced.

While covering the launch of John Jameson's one-man mission to Counter-Earth (another Earth located on the far side of the Sun), Spider-Man attempts to stop his two symbiote adversaries Venom and Carnage from boarding the shuttlecraft. Blamed for losing contact with Jameson by J. Jonah Jameson of the Daily Bugle, Spider-Man becomes a target of persecution by the media and the public at large, with a bounty placed on his head. After John Jameson sends out a distress signal, Spider-Man borrows nanotechnology from Reed Richards to design a new suit that incorporates built in upgraded webshooters and spider-tracers, stealth technology and anti-symbiote sonic weaponry. Making his way to Counter-Earth after persuading an attacking Nick Fury to let him rescue Jameson, Spider-Man learns that Jameson has fallen in with a band of freedom fighters opposed to the High Evolutionary whose Bestials, hybrids of animal and humanoid attributes, are the dominant species whilst humans are the second-class minority.

With Jameson reluctant to return until all of the Bestials are defeated, Spider-Man elects to remain on Counter-Earth, blending in as best as he can as Peter Parker, taking up residence in the apartment of a doctor, Naoko Yamada-Jones and her son Shane and fighting the High Evolutionary, his Knights of Wundagore, and his Machine Men alongside the rebels as Spider-Man. It is soon discovered that Venom and Carnage are also on Counter-Earth, and are following orders from the Synoptic, a hive-minded legion of Counter-Earth symbiotes.