Legendary Universes, Part 3: Unlimited Speed

Legendary Universes, Part 3: Unlimited Speed
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Legendary Universes, Part 3: Unlimited Speed is the 23rd episode of Marvel's Spider-Man: Webbed Champion. This episode is a crossover between the series and Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog video game franchise.

Characters

Featured Characters

• Champions
  • Spider-Man / Peter Parker
  • Tigra / Mary Jane Watson
  • American Knight / Kevin Walker
  • Wave / Michelle Jones
  • Lion King / Marcus Thompson
  • J.A.R.V.I.S. / Jarvis
• Freedom Fighters
  • Sonic the Hedgehog (first appearance)
  • Sally Acorn (first appearance)
    • Nicole the Holo-Lynx (first appearance)
  • Miles "Tails" Prower (first appearance)
  • Sticks the Badger (first appearance)
  • Knuckles the Echidna (first appearance)

Supporting Characters

• Alpha Owl / Carlie Cooper
• Tom Wackowski (first appearance)
• Maddie Wackowski (first appearance)
• Hope Kintobor (first appearance)
• Longclaw the Owl (first appearance) (flashback and main story)

Antagonists

• EggRobo (single appearance; destroyed)
• Dr. Robotnik (first appearance) (flashback and main story)
  • E-Series robots (first appearance; flashback and main story; origins revealed)
  • Badniks (first appearance)
• Regent / Augustus Roman (mentioned only)
• Doctor Octopus / Otto Octavius (mentioned only)

Other Characters

• Max Modell
• Ant-Girl / Cassie Lang
• Mockingbird / Barbara "Barbie" Morse
• Firestar / Liz Allan (cameo)
• Richard Parker (flashback only)
• Mary Parker (flashback only)
• Christopher "Chris" Thorndyke (single appearance) (picture only)
• Princess Elise III (first appearance) (appears on TV, computer screen, or hologram only)
• Sabrina Spellman (single appearance) (picture only)
• Amy Rose (first appearance) (picture only)
• Cream the Rabbit (first appearance) (picture only)
• New Jedi Masters (mentioned only)
  • Rey Skywalker (picture only)
• Avengers (mentioned only)
• J. Jonah Jameson (mentioned only)

Plot

Resuming his journey across dimensions to destroy the Oscorp resources, and prevent Regent's rise to power, Peter Parker / Spider-Man moves on to the next target: a prototype of Doctor Octopus's tentacle harness which was discarded in the home dimension of Jarvis's robot body. Following him and Jarvis are Mary Jane Watson / Tigra, Kevin Hunt / American Knight, Michelle Jones / Wave and Marcus Thompson / Lion King, with Carlie Cooper again monitoring them from the headquarters's main computers. Entering the portal, Spider-Man and the team stop by a alternate version of Earth, in a new town called Green Hills, located near San Francisco. Again, Peter keeps the teleporter camouflaged to prevent any possible hostile forces from using it to invade his and his friends' home dimension as they move on ahead to search for the tentacle harness and destroy it. Unknown to the Champions, Mobian speedster Sonic the Hedgehog was spying on them while recording a video of them in his phone. Certain of the trouble Spider-Man and his team will be in, Sonic speeds up and follows them.

The Champions arrive in San Francisco while trying to remain unseen by citizens who are not familiar with them, or any of their Earth's superheroes like the Avengers. They are however detected and ambushed by EggRobo, who had taken possession of the prototype tentacle harness, and his pack of robots. Right before they can act, Spider-Man and his teammates are met with Sonic, who arrives there to destroy the robots and incapacitate EggRobo, who retreats. Welcoming the team, Sonic takes them to his home planet of Mobius. There, he introduces Peter and his friends to his fellow Freedom Fighters, consisting of Sally Acorn, Miles "Tails" Prower, Sticks the Badger, Nicole the Holo-Lynx and Knuckles the Echidna. Recognizing Jarvis's robot body, the Freedom Figters consult their mentor Longclaw the Owl, who tells Peter and his team that Jarvis's robot body was once part of a E-Series robot unit created by the Freedom Fighters' nemesis Dr. Robotnik to collect and roboticize organic life forms (from both Earth and Mobius). Jarvis's robot form was subdued by Mobius's tribal echidnas, and soon found and collected by Richard and Mary Parker for their experimentation and projects, along with other products they collected from other worlds. Sonic and Longclaw also reveal to the Champions that EggRobo was once one of Robotnik's lieutenants until Robotnik forcibly shut him down after he went rogue and tried to take control of the E-Series robot units and Robotnik Industries, which was not too long until Oscorp's engineers discarded the Tentacle Harness prototype in their dimension, which reactivated and upgraded EggRobo, leading him to his campaign to try and take over Robotnik's technology and company and roboticize humans and animals. Making it back to Earth, the Champions and Freedom Fighters are ambushed by Robotnik, who (having learned of the young heroes' presence from the recent live news) arrives in his hovercraft seeking to "end the Champions' invasion" and retrieve his "stolen technology".

The Champions and the Freedom Fighters battle Robotnik and his drones, and evade him while Robotnik is forced to back away when the police arrives. The Champions and the Freedom Fighters regroup in the residence of town sheriff Tom Wackowski and his veterinarian wife Maddie (at the time they are preparing Hope Kintobor's birthday party), where they discuss a plan to infiltrate Robotnik's laboratory and find the means to defeat EggRobo. Again, Spider-Man and the team vote on picking a partner and move on; Spider-Man partners with Sonic while Tigra, Wave, American Knight and Lion King side with Sally, Sticks, Tails, and Knuckles respectively. The Champions (monitored by both Carlie and Nicole) infiltrate Robotnik Industries disguised as interns for the company and enable the Freedom Fighters to sneak in there after discreetly causing the guard robots to fight each other to provide a distraction. Wave and Sticks sabotage the facility's security system while Lion King and Knuckles neutralize the bodyguards, allowing the others to reach the main computer's database, which reveals that the tentacle harness has an artificial intelligence of its own, which is also powering EggRobo up. However, Robotnik eventually discovers the team through a small tracer he implanted on Jarvis's body, and attempts to terminate them with his robots, but the Champions and Freedom Fighters overcome the robots while Tigra and Sally confront Robotnik himself in his office and pin him down. Just then, Spider-Man and Sonic are confronted by EggRobo, who pins them both down and prepares to roboticize them.

Despite the struggle, Spider-Man and Sonic manage to share their energies with each other (enabling Spider-Man to match Sonic's speed, and Sonic to absorb kinetic energy from Spider-Man's armor) and overcome the roboticizing progress. While the rest of their friends hold their own against the out-of-control robots, and roboticized security guards, Spider-Man and Sonic lure EggRobo away from the facility and from San Francisco, and resume to fight him in the nearby forest. Freed from Tigra's and Sally's grasp, Robotnik attempts to take advantage of the situation to activate his Death Egg Robot. But before he can, Tom arrives to tranquilize him, while Carlie and Nicole hack and deactivate the Death Egg Robot permanently. American Knight, Tails, and Jarvis create a computer virus, and send it for Spider-Man and Sonic through a flash-drive. After a fierce fight, Spider-Man and Sonic overpower EggRobo, and implant the virus in his brain, causing him to take off into Earth's atmosphere, and explode along with the tentacle harness, deactivating the robots and returning the roboticized humans to normal. As Robotnik is taken to jail for the incident, the Champions and Freedom Fighters free the animals and aliens (including the captive Chao and Wisps) captured by Robotnik for experimentation while American Knight and Tails delete all possible files about Oscorp's technology from Robotnik's central computer. Later, as they attend to Hope's birthday party, the Champions and Freedom Fighters voice their good compliments over their successful team up, and expect to do it again more often before Spider-Man and his friends leave back to their dimension. Back in the team's headquarters, Peter impresses Carlie and Max Modell by showing them the amazing details about Sonic's universe, and overhears Mary Jane, Michelle, Kevin and Marcus discussing about their adventure and voicing pleasure to meet Sonic's friends again. Peter also comments he feels the same, and they will meet Sonic and the Freedom Fighters again... in due time.

"NEXT: THE LEGENDARY JOURNEY... WILL BE TRANSFORMED..."

Voice Cast

• Robbie Daymond as Spider-Man / Peter Parker
• Ashley Johnson as Tigra / Mary Jane Watson
• Ben Schwartz as Sonic the Hedgehog
• Lacey Chabert as Sally Acorn, Princess Elise III (uncredited)
• Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Miles "Tails" Prower
• Tara Strong as Alpha Owl / Carlie Cooper
• Jason Marsden as Lion King / Marcus Thompson
• Cameron Bowen as American Knight / Kevin Walker
• Alanna Ubach as Wave / Michelle Jones
• Misty Lee as Sticks the Badger
• Khary Payton as Knuckles the Echidna
• Scott Porter as Sheriff Tom Wackowski
• Kimberly Brooks as Dr. Maddie Wackowski
• Jessica DiCicco as Hope Kintobor, Ant-Girl / Cassie Lang
• Kari Wahlgren as Nicole the Holo-Lynx, Longclaw the Owl, Mockingbird / Barbara "Barbie" Morse
• Fred Tatasciore as Max Modell, E-Series robots
• J. K. Simmons as Dr. Robotnik
• Corey Burton as EggRobo
• Dee Bradley Baker as San Francisco Reporter, Badniks

Trivia

• At the end of the episode, Sonic is shown viewing a gallery of pictures in his phone. The pictures have images of himself with several acquaintances and friends, most of them being (or resembling) crossover characters Sonic encountered before Spider-Man. Those are in order:
  • Sabrina Spellman from Archie Comics' Sabrina, the Teenage Witch franchise. She previously crossed over with Sonic in Sabrina the Teenage Witch Issue 28. She is shown in a picture holding her pet cat Salem in her arms for the pose.
  • A video game player wearing a blue bodysuit and using a gun-based joystick in a video game convention resembles Mega Man from Capcom's same name video game franchise. Mega Man previously crossed over with Sonic in the Archie Comics story arcs "Worlds Collide" and "Worlds Unite" (with several Capcom and Sega characters).
  • A demolition worker resembles the titular protagonist of Disney's Wreck-it Ralph and its sequel Ralph Breaks the Internet. Sonic had previously made cameos in both films: in the first film, he hosted a PSA message advising characters not to die in games they are not from, or they will not regenerate. And in the second film, he explained Ralph what Wi-Fi is.
  • A SWAT officer is shown posing in front of a bus with a terrorist handcuffed and on his knees. The officer and the terrorist respectively resemble Jack Traven (played by Keanu Reeves) and Howard Payne (played by Dennis Hopper) from the 1994 film Speed. Though Sonic did not directly cross-over with the film, the film itself made a cameo at the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog film, on which Sonic watches the film from outside the Wachowskis' home.
• At the moment when Mary Jane speaks to Sally about Sonic not looking too surprised to see how she and Michelle dress as Tigra and Wave, Sally replies that he had already met "another Amazon who did not dress any differently". This is a indirect mention of Tyris Flare from Sega's Golden Axe franchise.
  • The character was also among the Sega characters featured in the "World Unite" arc of the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series, as shown in Sonic Boom #10, "Worlds Unite Part Ten: Justice Across Worlds".
• Noticing Robotnik's behavior (and how he references to the Freedom Fighters and Champions as menaces), Spider-Man typically compares him to J. Jonah Jameson about their tones, by concluding: "And strangely enough, he even sounds like Jameson.". This is a reference to Robotnik's voice actor J. K. Simmons having previously portrayed Jameson in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy films and in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and voiced him in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes! and the 2010's Marvel Animated Universe shows (Ultimate Spider-Man, Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., and Avengers Assemble).

References

Marvel's Spider-Man: Webbed Champion