Web of Evil

Webstor raids the Andreenid city of Andreenos and eats its ambrosia, which makes him stronger and leaves him with a cave full of eggs. Buzz-Off and Stratos are captured investigating, while He-Man and the Masters clear hungry Snake Men out of a mine and run into Fisto, whom Man-At-Arms calls a deserter from the Great Unrest. The Masters reach Webstor's lair and free the captives but are trapped by a cave-in until Fisto punches through, and Duncan calls him brother. Returning to the lair, they find the Snake Men have eaten Webstor's ambrosia-filled eggs and spiderlings, and grown stronger for it.

"Spiders are an important part of nature and do many good things for the environment. But there are a few spiders that bite. So, unless a parent or teacher says it's all right, it's best not to get too near to them."

Webstor: "Me? Nothing. But they're going to be awful hungry."

Fisto: "Keep cracking jokes, Duncan. They'll be calling you Man-Of-Broken-Arms by the time I get through with ya."

Stratos: "Well, this would certainly fall under the category of unexpected effects."

Man-At-Arms: "Easy, my brother."

Fisto: "Yeah, strongest right hand in the land."

Nature has a pecking order, and cartoons usually put the hero at the top of it. "Web of Evil" opens with a spider breaking into a honeycomb city and sighing "Ah, ambrosia!" over something he was never meant to eat. From there, Kevin Campbell's script never lets anyone stop eating.

The setup moves on two tracks. Teela sends Buzz-Off and Stratos to the Mystic Mountains, where Andreenos and Avion stand empty and draped in webbing. Meanwhile Adam, Man-At-Arms, Ram-Man and Mekaneck clear a mine because, as one Snake Man puts it, "King Hiss grows hungry," and a few miners would fill his belly. The miners escape, the Snake Men find nothing to eat, and Man-At-Arms heads for the tavern to keep everyone out of the tunnels.

This is an episode about a food chain, and our heroes are never at the top of it. Webstor eats the ambrosia, which should have poisoned him; Buzz-Off explains that Webstor's people are close enough to the Andreenids for it to make him stronger instead. The unexpected side effect is a cave full of eggs, the eggs hatch into an army, and his plan for his prisoners is to let the hatchlings feed: "Me? Nothing. But they're going to be awful hungry." Then the Snake Men, who went hungry at the start, arrive and eat the lot. The last word of the story is a growl of "Such power!" Every meal makes the next monster stronger.

Campbell's best idea is to set a family story inside all that appetite. The tavern scene introduces Fisto with an enormous right hand, a bar brawl and a boast to match. Then Man-At-Arms walks in. The patrons call Fisto a veteran of the Great Unrest; Duncan corrects them, saying he fought in it himself and Fisto deserted. Fisto threatens to rename him "Man-Of-Broken-Arms." Asked who that was, the answer is "Just somebody I used to know." It is a lot of history packed into a few lines, and the episode trusts the audience to hold onto it.

That trust pays off in the cave-in, the best sequence we get. The Masters are trapped under a collapsing ceiling with He-Man holding up the rock, and Ram-Man's offer to head-butt a way out earns a rumble overhead and a glum "That answers that." Then something thuds against the stone from outside, and Fisto's fist comes through it. He gets everyone out and goes down groaning, and the episode saves its reveal for the end of the scene: "Easy, my brother." Mark Acheson gives Fisto a gravelly bluster that finally cracks here. Garry Chalk plays Duncan stiff and cold right up to that line, and the warmth lands all the harder for it.

The weakness is the ending's shape. Webstor gets a grand transformation and a cave full of children, and then his defeat is a cry of "No!" and some aftermath. The heroes find smashed spiderlings, purple goo and a beaten Webstor groaning that the Snake Men "came too fast." The twist is the point, since it hands the ambrosia to the Snake Men for the next story. But reporting the climax instead of showing it leaves the spider army without a final fight, and the last act feels like a handover.

The animation does its best work in the settings: the gold honeycomb canyon of Andreenos, a red mine strung with ore carts and catwalks, a tavern under a ceiling of hanging bats, and a cave of cocooned captives hanging in white webbing. Stratos gets the driest line in the script on finding the eggs, which "would certainly fall under the category of unexpected effects."

This is a bridging episode and it shows its seams, but it brings us Fisto, hurt and furious, and leaves the Snake Men stronger than ever.

1. Goofs: The He-Man wiki notes that Webstor's name is misspelled as Webster in the end credits.
2. Toys: From this episode on, the heroes wear anti-Snake Men insignia on their armour, which the He-Man wiki ties to the redesigned figures of the Masters of the Universe vs the Snake Men toy line.
3. Continuity: This is Fisto's debut in the 2002 series, and making him Man-At-Arms' brother is new to this continuity; the He-Man wiki notes the relationship was later carried into the Masters of the Universe Classics line.
4. Toys: The 2002 Fisto figure was sold as Battle Fist. The He-Man wiki attributes the name change to trademark reasons, while the cartoon kept the name Fisto.
5. Toys: Webstor never got a 2002 action figure, because the line was cancelled before his release; the He-Man wiki records a 2007 NECA staction (non-articulated statue) by the Four Horsemen instead.
6. Voice cast: Brian Dobson voices Webstor, Buzz-Off, King Hiss and Sssqueeze, so the Andreenid explaining why ambrosia made Webstor stronger shares a voice with the spider himself.
7. Voice cast: Garry Chalk doubles Man-At-Arms with Stingrad and two of the miners, and Scott McNeil covers Stratos, Kobra Khan and Ram-Man, according to the He-Man wiki's cast list.
8. Continuity: This ending carries straight into "Rattle of the Snake", which opens with Fisto's shattered hand replaced by a metal one and has the Snake Men bursting through walls "since devouring Webstor's ambrosia-filled eggs."
9. Production: The closing safety message about spiders is split between Mekaneck and Ram-Man, as both the He-Man wiki and Frank's He-Man page record.