The Amazing Spider-Man #14 (Spider-Verse Tie-In) Review
This is the climax of Spider-Verse! Read my review on Amazing Spider-Man #14 as we draw this crossover to a close.
It picks up on the streets of Loomworld, where Spider-Woman and Spider-Gwen have to deal with a plethora of goblins from across dimensions. Peter’s group arrives as they wrap things up, but it turns out that the Inheritors made off with Silk, meaning they have all three and can begin the ritual.
With the life-eaters, they are having a moment of bitter sadness as they mourn the death of their father, especially that asshole Daemos. Never thought him to be such a daddy’s boy, but he does take comfort in the fact that Jennix has a crystal that has what amounts to his soul so they can resurrect him once everything is done. Morlun then starts the ritual, ordering the others to stop the spiders from getting in.
His cut into Kaine that stains the Great Web with blood ensures that the Other can no longer find a host, though I can’t tell if Kaine is dead, and Morlun drops hints to Silk being special beyond merely being The Bride. Her blood, however, makes it so that no more Spider Totems are born by accident, like Peter getting bitten by chance. Morlun then moves to kill The Scion, which would stop any more from being born completely, but the Spiders intervene.
Peter takes Morlun, Otto gets Daemos and then Mayday gets her turn looking for vengeance. Uncle Ben appears to run away, and then Karn shows up to fight alongside the Spiders and free every world from their grasp. Morlun realizes it’s a distraction too late, as Uncle Ben had taken The Scion with him and left Spider-Ham in his place.
As beatdown continues, Leopardon arrives with Miguel and Lady Spider, Morlun states they have only delayed the inevitable. Otto agrees and decides to take out the one thing that will ensure their survival. By that, I mean he just murders the goddamn Master Weaver to solve that problem… which means he’s just screwed up the entire fabric of space and time to an extent. That won’t end well, at all.
The battle ends at that point with Peter dumping the Inheritors in the toxic world and telling them to get to the shelter, stating that they should make it. The comic ends there abruptly, with the fallout yet to come.
Okay, review time.
Most of it is done now, and it was decent, but there are questions I still have that will have to be answered in the epilogue in two weeks. But seriously, why the hell did they let the Inheritors live? Daemos would have cleared out the Unlimited Spider-Man’s world if Jennix hadn’t shown up, and even he points out that it doesn’t make sense. Leaving them to die a slow and painful death by starvation may be just desserts, but being quicker about it and simply tearing their heads off make more sense so they don’t return by chance after one of them cannibalizes the other.
Anyway, I still have to say that to this point it was a much better crossover than AXIS or Battle of the Atom. My main regret is that once they pull that Secret Wars bullcrap reboot, most of it will be for nothing. Didn’t Marvel learn from DC and the New 52?
5 out of 5.
Amazing Man #12 (Spider-verse) review
The new year is here and so are the comics, here’s my Amazing Spider-Man #12 (Spider-verse) review!
The comic open with Morlun having Benjy, the youngest totem ever in any reality, which makes him The Scion. Otto tells them to jump Solarus as this might be their only chance to get him, but this dude is cranked up on cosmic power so that goes poorly. Mayday tries to get her brother back, but Morlun gets away.
Spider-Man UK calls Peter to tell him to get there, and they bring with them a giant robot! As in Power Rangers Megazord robot. While this dude buys them some time, they retreat while Silk ends up in the radioactive world that is the bane of all Inheritors. The nuclear air is toxic to her, but more so to them and she manages to make a hazmat suit out of webbing before moving on.
Peter’s group lands in a random world, and plans to regroup. Otto calls him out, stating his ineptness cost him his base, his absence got their safe zone taken, and his return cost them a giant robot. Mayday, in grief, calls them all fakes and Peter tries to calm her down when the calls come in.
Jessica Drew states she helped Silk escape but can’t jump herself and is Morlun’s serving girl, thinking this is a little convenient while in the presence of the Master Weaver. Miles is on a recruitment kick and thinks that this is insane (and I’m inclined to agree with him given he’s in a sentient spider-buggy), and 2099 is beginning the dissection. Jennix reveals he can hear everything they’re saying then, because while hearing them chatter is amusing they aren’t going to start letting them plan tactics, and sends his sister to get Peter’s group.
With Jessica, the Master Weaver gets her the brief version that he’s the one spinning the web and can only perform small acts of rebellion to help them. He gives her prophecy scrolls that she passes through her warp device to Peter as Morlun returns with Benjy. Back with Peter, Cindy gives them the location of the world she’s on before Jennix cuts her off and then they jump there.
The air is toxic, as mentioned before, but Cindy drew web arrows to guide them to a new Safe Zone. It turns out to be that universe’s bunker that she had been locked in, which is shielded from the Inheritors. That means not only is their location livable, but they can’t be attacked in that world. And there’s one more surprise waiting for them at the shelter as the comic ends: Uncle Ben, that world’s totem.
Okay, review time…
Right out of the gate, this gets a solid 5 out of 5. The plot continues, leading from the fall of one haven to the rise of another, and we see what everyone else is doing. This was the comic of the week, filed with emotion and sacrifice, and just a bit of comedy.
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 #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.
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.
Twilit Dreams Circle 