Amazing Spider-Man #8 (Edge of Spider-Verse Tie-In) Review
Amazing Spider-Man #8 and the next tie-in to Edge of Spider-Verse are bundled together once again. What are my thoughts on the matter? Read my review and find out!
The comic picks up with Ms. Marvel having a fangasm as she gets to perform the slingshot maneuver and knock down the monster woman. It won’t keep her there for long, so they grab the cocoon and split, but it starts hatching. Meanwhile Cindy Moon is learning the hard way that rent in New York is a bitch, but she can’t stay with Peter since they keep acting like horny teenagers and then gets the Spider-Man treatment in the same way the Daily Bugle does him by the Fact News channel.
Anyway, the cocoon hatches into a baby and Ms. Marvel has to take it and run while Peter holds the Kree off. It goes poorly for both, with Ms. Marvel calling them monsters for shooting at her while she was carrying a baby. In all fairness, I think like half of the Marvel Universe would agree there and so does one of the henchmen, which is why he turns on the other two. They put together that Minerva is doing this without the Kree Empire’s permission and she runs off by him claiming to call them. Oh, and Silk does up her new outfit.
This part of the comic ends with Ms. Marvel getting complimented and then rushing back to school, while Peter gives the henchman a job at his company since he feels for him.
The next part has Spider-Girl from her own series running afoul of an inheritor known as Daemos, who intends to eat Peter, Mayday, and her baby brother. Peter, despite the bum leg, and MJ buy the kids some time to get away as more of the dimension traveling Spider-Men come to save them. Mayday wants them to help her parents, but they can only pick up the kids’ signals meaning that they’re dead. As the comic ends Mayday vows to kill the bastard and he states she’s more than welcome to try.
Okay, review time.
Not much to write about on the Amazing Spider-Man part. It was filler, at best. Padding and not relevant to the current story, so 3 out of 5 on that. The other part though, that was messed up. Mayday was a fan-favorite and Marvel just killed off her father and mother. The fan outrage is going to be a firestorm, but 5 out of 5 for such a short tale.
Spider-Man 2099 (2014) #5 Review
Okay, here’s the latest entry in the Edge of Spider-Verse series. Read my review and recap of Spider-Man 2099 # 5.
The comic opens with an alternate version of Miguel O’Hara , who sold out to the Avengers, being attacked by Morlun. It goes about as well as you would expect, namely he gets eaten so hard that all the other version of him felt it, including ours in the 616-universe and he nearly blacks out while chasing a helicopter. He pulls himself together and catches the robbers in the helicopter, but is confused about it.
Back with Morlun, it turns out that another alternate version of Miguel was watching and he may have led Morlun to him. This Miguel, who works with the Exiles, learned about Morlun and tried to reach the other versions of him through a mental link. Now he’s grabbing whatever he thinks will help and then running to the 616-Universe since Morlun might be afraid of it because he died there.
Back with our Miguel, he’s managing to convince Ty Stone and Liz Allen to work on building a super-prison for the villains when he gets another migraine. A younger version of him bit the bullet and once again the Exile Miguel felt it and decided it’s time to go to his 616 counterpart. Just as soon as he gets the portal open, he gets eaten in front of our Miguel and the only reason Morlun doesn’t go after him is because he’s afraid of their universe.
The comic ends as Miguel decides to go find Peter Parker.
Okay, review time…
So, we see another Spider-Man taking preemptive measures to stop the Inheritors, albeit one that failed. With only a final entry left in the Edge series before the main event I am excited.
4 out of 5.
Edge of Spider-Verse #5 Review
Okay, here’s my review of Edge of Spider-Verse #5. Read on as I try to make sense of the plot of the story.
The comic begins with the death of the previous user of SP//dr, which is a spider that uses a power-armor that can only be used by his daughter Peni. So after her Aunt May and Uncle Ben show up and tell her to get bitten by the spider so she can get into the robot we skip to five years later when she’s going again a giant orb that’s killing people while spouting lines about the meaning of terror and being powered by a lamer version of Mysterio. Who are we kidding, this is like a watered down version of Evangelion, only more optimistic and less mind-rapey.
To prove my point the next day when she gets called out of class, Shinji Ikari, Asuna, Rei, and that white-haired guy who died for him in the last move sit next to her. Mysterio tipped them off to a bunch of gangs because he’s a fan of hers so she and another version of Daredevil start kicking ass and taking names.
It’s on her way home that it starts getting confusing as Spider-Ham and another Spider-Man come to tell her that the Inheritors are coming and they would wreck the place to get her. Since SP//dr, the spider, trusts them she decides to listen to them and get her power-armor. The comic ends as the three of them jump through the dimensional gate.
Okay, review time!
Uh… I feel it’s skippable. I only hope that the author doesn’t get sued. 3 out of 5.
Amazing Spider-Man #7 (Edge of Spider-Man) Review
Okay, the next Edge of Spider-Verse and Amazing Spider-Man are both in one comic, so I can knock out two reviews in one here!
The comic begins with Peter, Cindy, and Anna Marie sitting in a tree—well, apartment room—with the first two K-I-S-S-I-N-G…. I’ll stop now. But anyway, Anna Marie has to play their babysitter until Cindy splits to find some place to live that doesn’t involve humping Peter, while Anna then tells him to ease up on being Spider-Man.
Meanwhile some people are stealing an Inhuman in its cocoon while wearing an original Ms. Marvel suit. Naturally the new Ms. Marvel can’t have that while Anna compares Peter’s method to Otto’s and suggests he leaves small things to the cops. That backfires the moment he gets wind of the incident with the Inhuman and goes after them.
He arrives just after the new Ms. Marvel gets there and stomps on the fake Ms. Marvel before getting a backhand into Peter, who she fangirls over since he dated the current Captain Marvel. Was that information public?
Either way, the mooks get their crap together while dropping hints how one knows Spider-Man and the imposter Ms. Marvel has basically kidnapped the Inhuman because her powers suck compared to the real Ms. Marvel and they’ve reached a creative dead-end, kind of like Marvel. Anyway, since it ends there after she transforms and I have no intention of reading another series for the conclusion, let’s call it a 3 out of 5, avoidable in the grand scheme of things.
As for the Edge of Spider-Verse part, we come across the British Spider-Man in Otherworld, a sort of hub for all space and time. There he’s watching as Morlun and his family kill off the spiders until one manages to spot him with some tech and he cuts the feed, deciding he needs to tell the other members of the Captain Britain Corps.
Naturally of the two women who are in charge, one of them chews him out about the limited scope of his totem being killed off since all of space and time is collapsing with incursions. Yeah, after Wolverine screwed the time-stream over on top of Beast bringing the O5 that reboot is looking more and more realistic in the aftermath of the Heroic Age. Shame DC did it first, but whatever. It would explain some of the bull that they’ve put out lately…
Uh, back to the story, the other lady believes this may be the source of all their problems and gives him the go ahead to play hero along the multi-verse as the comic ends. In all honesty, this should have been separate from the Amazing Spider-Man since both needed more pages that could be used to flesh out their story, like Spider-UK going out to save a few Spiders like Otto and set up the good team or finishing off the team-up.
But as it is relevant to Spider-verse I give it a 4 out of 5.
Edge of Spider-Verse #4 Review
Edge of Spider-Verse continues in the fourth issue! What will type of horrors will we find inside? Read my review and find out!
Our comic begins with a day in the life of Patton Parnel, who starts his mornings by burning ants and follows up with spying on the girl next door getting dressed in the morning, who he refers to as a test subject. So we clearly see he’s not right in the head, but the girl next door doesn’t mind as she makes conversation with him for the first time on a field trip before corralling him into trying to free animals that were being used in experiments in Alcorps. He naturally finds a spider and becomes so enthralled by it that he reaches for it and gets that magical bite befalling most potential spider-men.
The next day he’s sick and his uncle gives him a beating, to which even the neighbor girl can hear, and it does seem a little unfair… but he does mention he’s done experimenting on neighborhood pets and he’s a little…. okay really messed up in the head. Either way he discovers the more he eats and feeds the inhuman hunger inside of him, starting with a recently dead rat, the stronger he gets and he soon discovers his spider powers before chowing down on his Uncle Ted.
At this point he only sees his classmates as meat, so when the class bully gets in-between him and a pigeon he was about to munch on he disappears after lunch before Patton decides to pick up a kid off the street to have dinner. Later on the girl next door, Sara Jane, shows up asking if he’s seen her boyfriend, aka Lunch, before he seeming puts the moves on her and then bites into her neck. She tries to run, but he webs the exit and she ends up in his room with some guy webbed to his bed and another strung up on his ceiling, while baby spiders literally crawl from inside the poor bastard.
This is some horror movie stuff right here and I can’t feel too much sympathy for Venom-Junior, so when Morlun shows up to claim him I was honestly cheering for him. He mentions he could smell Parnel from the furthest dimension being such a fresh and new totem. So between two inhuman monsters who like to eat, Morlun comes out on top as Sara Jane runs away. The next morning, spiders come out of her body from where he bit her, giving us a rather bleak ending.
Okay, review time…
I’m not going to lie, this was kinda creepy…. No, scratch that, really creepy. It’s basically the worst case scenario of Spider-Man, where his love of science has screwed with his brain to the point he only sees test subjects and then food. When the Inheritors come off as the lesser evils, you know you’ve botched it.
4 out of 5.
Edge of Spide-Verse #3 Review
The Edge of Spider-Verse continues with the third issue! What fate will befall the Spider-Man of this story! Read my review and find out!
This time our Spider-Man isn’t a variation of Peter Parker, but a guy named Aaron Aikiman who worked in researching insect venom for medical purposes. They don’t go into details why he decided to inject himself with his treatment, but he basically becomes Iron Man and Spider-Man all rolled into one. After going through a summary of his life and relationship, which honestly is confusing because they’re trying so hard, we then skip to him patrolling the city to deal with a rash of kidnappings.
He catches the creature responsible, only it turns out to be one of the victims and as soon as it gives a cryptic message he has to rush the guy to the hospital. There he finds out its some of his tech responsible of it, or rather that belonging to his girlfriend, and he goes to confront her about it. Turns out she made the tech for her daughter when she woke from a coma, only it was some otherworldly creature that possessed her and had her make more machines to kidnap more people and continue the cycle.
He rushes out to deal with that, but before he could do anything, Morlun pops out of a dimensional doorway to confront him as the baddies run off saying mankind is doomed as the comic ends….
Okay review time….
Yeah, that world is screwed and that spider-man is dead. Morlun is far more of a threat than Karn is, so you know he’s dead. Overall I really couldn’t get into this story though. I get what they were doing, trying to show that Karn isn’t the only one actively hunting, but using an unfamiliar character and trying to cram that much backstory into a one-shot isn’t going to cut it. Unless Aaron somehow survives, this is the last we’ll see of him and it makes the issue kind of a waste…
2 out of 5, you can skip it and you won’t miss much.
Superior Spider-Man #33 (Edge of Spider-Verse) Review
Okay, Superior Spider-Man continues into Spider-Verse with Issue #33 of his series. Read my recap and review for my thoughts on Otto’s crusade through time and space.
The comic begins with another Spider-Man being hunted down by the douche in the mask with the energy halberd. He shanks him only to learn this one was a cyborg and he brought with him a little help in the form of the Superior Spider-Man and his colleagues of anti-heroes. They pin him down and Spider-Girl and Assassin Spider want to finish him while the rest are hesitant, until Otto tells them that comes after the interrogation.
The dude tells them that his kind kills their kind, and they should pray they don’t meet his family before busting out of the containment field from overloading it. They hammer him, but he doesn’t go down. Even after Spider-Girl jams a metal pipe through him and Assassin Spider blows him up, things only get worse as two more show up and wound Six-Armed Spider-Man and Cyborg Spider. The hunters are Karn, Brix, and Bora and they force the others to retreat, but not before Karn is injured by Spider-Monkey because the Bora threw her knives and they basically start beating on one another.
The Spider-Men are more than a little distraught at the new arrivals, but Otto leaves out to give himself time to think lamenting that they are mostly variations of Peter Parker and he’s a one of a kind special and that may not be enough in the long run. But he won’t simply run away because his Anna Marie might get caught in the crossfire if he tries, so he goes and assigns the Spiders in his army to different tasks. As for Assassin Spider and Spider-Girl, he takes them aside and mentions they may have to commit genocide to win and the others might disapprove, but those two will do whatever it takes to survive and acknowledge it as their side of the comic ends.
We then skip to Earth-1771 where Karn of the Inheritors goes against not some mortal totem of the Spider Essence, but a god of it who poisons him down to the soul. Karn recalls that centuries ago, in Universe 000 he and his family, including Morlun, are attacking the Master Weaver who weaves the web of life and destiny. The weaver hampers them, but does not fear Karn who he calls the Chosen One as he was the only one who took no pleasure in death, but wished to build and not destroy.
He hesitates at the words, as he was only there to prove his worth to his mother. But his mother jumped the gun and got killed for it, taking away the one person who showed him love. His father and siblings captured the Master Weaver and harnessed its power to travel through the multi-verse, while putting a mask on him to mark his shame and send him to a new dimension to hunt forever until he would earn his place back amongst his family.
He then jumps back to the present and draws strength from the god, stating it only makes him a more filling meal. He sees his pain as unending, hoping that with each portal he takes one will lead him home.
Okay, review time….
Well, nice to see Otto’s ego hasn’t deflated. Assassin Spider and Spider-Girl are clearly his supporters and we can see they’re the ones who will back him with anything he does as long as they survive. Karn’s past was surprisingly somber, leaving me conflicted. On one hand, he’s murdering Spider-Men left and right. On the other, he was unfortunate to have been raised by those bastards….
Issue gets a 5 out of 5.
Edge of Spider-Verse #2 Review
The Edge of Spider-Verse continues in Issue #2 as we look into the origins of Gwen Stacy, the Spider-Woman. Whether it’s a thinly-veiled pilot for a series or just an origin story for a major player in the crossover, read my review on how good it is.
The story begins with a college-aged Gwen Stacy as part of a band known as the Mary Janes, lead by her version of MJ. They waste no time in showing her origin story, where she was bitten by a spider, Peter Parker was bullied until he took the Lizard formula and died in her arms, and JJJ has put an arrest warrant out for her led by her father…. I honestly think Gwen in this universe has it worse than Peter in terms of origin.
The memories manage to disturb her playing and MJ isn’t nearly as nice as her 616-counterpart, perhaps due to her age although Ultimate MJ is younger maybe and still tolerable, and Gwen goes out to clear her head while wearing her kick-ass outfit and talking to her father over the phone, who wants her to settle down and pick a major. The call ends as a random police officer who is clearly afraid of her decides to try and shoot at her, which is something all Spider-Men and Women seem to be going through lately, only she doesn’t get hit like Miles does. When back-up comes they begin to chase her.
In other news, we have a villainous Matt Murdock hiring an assassin on behest of the Kingpin to kill Gwen’s father in an effort to recruit Spider-Woman, who arrives late to her own performance as said assassin finds her father in the crowd and tries to kill him. Naturally she can’t let that happen and suits up to kick the brute’s dumb rear. She puts him through a brick wall and webs him up when her father tries to arrest her.
She tells him that Peter’s death wasn’t her fault, but it’s not his job to decide that, only to bring her in. She points out that JJJ’s angry mob or the incompetent police who tried to shoot her in a crowded subway aren’t exactly good incentives to give herself up. She then pulls off her mask and tells him that she needs to be Spider-Woman to put guys like the one who tried to kill him away and she’s not giving it up.
Her father let’s her go, but in the shadows we see a Spider-Man wearing British colors saying she’ll do nicely for some reason as the comic ends.
Okay, review time…
Okay, I have to say I like this story and this Gwen Stacy. While I’m no stranger to badass Gwens, like the one in Ultimate Universe, this one intrigues me with her stylish costume that provides next to no cover in the darkness yet contrasts it well. Then again, the police are more afraid of her than the 616-police are of Spider-Man, so there’s that. I certainly wouldn’t mind if they turned this into a series.
Anyway, 5 out of 5.
Twilit Dreams Circle 