Amazing Spider-Man #15 (Spider-Verse) Review
The epilogue of Spider-Verse can be found in Amazing Spider-Man #15! How does it end? Read my review and recap!
The story starts with the various spiders going to their home dimensions, the most notable being Mayday. She returns to find out that both her mother and boyfriend didn’t die because her father held out long enough, meaning that she hasn’t lost everything. Even better, he left his outfit behind for her so that she’s now the new Spider-Woman rather that Spider-Girl.
Back at the Master Weaver’s domain, Otto starts cutting away at the Web of Destiny and threatens to unravel all of creation like a madman, though he claims he’s freeing them from destiny. Spider-Gwen and Miguel leave for their own time and dimensions, while the remaining 616-spiders take him down, but not before Otto has a failsafe in place so that even after his memories get scrambled once he goes back to the past and he returns the body to Peter, he’ll be back.
With that out of the way, someone has to replace the Master Weaver. Karn removes the Master Weaver’s helmet to reveal it is an older version of him, meaning that this was destiny. He sets out to repair the web, but can’t send Spider-UK back to his dimension because the incursions ended up destroying it. So he and Anya stay behind to do some good, while Peter goes back feeling like he can be a successful company owner and Kaine ends up hatching from the corpse of his Other form as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
There isn’t much to say other than it’s a great send off for Spider-Verse. We see everyone home to where they belong, except a few living spiders and the rest who were dead, and the Inheritors are dealt with. Otto and Kaine have set the grounds for their return, and Mayday got her happy ending. It was easily the best crossover I’ve read and I can safely say it was a great story and great read.
5 out of 5 for both the issue, and the crossover. X-Men could learn a thing or two from this.
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 Spider-Man #13 (Spider-Verse Part 5) Review
Amazing Spider-Man #13 (Spider-Verse Part 5) review!
Things are reaching the climax in Spider-Verse and they start with the Inheritors announcing their failure to their father. If you read Scarlet Spiders #3 you know they cannot clone themselves into spare bodies, and Silk has discovered the one world they can’t travel in. What this means is that for the first time they have the advantage, but Solus has no fear since he has the Scion and by tonight there won’t be any left once they complete a ritual.
Back with the group of Spiders, Peter is shocked at seeing that his Uncle Ben was a Spider-Man. But he corrects them by explaining he gave up being Spider-Man, which even Otto finds to make no sense with him being the man who teaches nearly every Peter that with great power comes great responsibility. Ben explains that his version of the Green Goblin killed Peter and Aunt May and it broke him.
Otto calls him out on being a coward, which led to his world being ruined. Ben explains that his version of Otto held the world hostage with nuclear weapons and thus he ruined the entire dimension when it went off early. Our Otto takes that more than a bit hard, but Peter decides to give the clue that Spider-Woman sent back only for none of them to be able to read it, meaning they lost an important players for nothing according to Otto.
Silk takes this hard since she was the one who lost her device and left Spider-Woman stranded and excuses herself to go rescue her. Spider-Gwen follows her, thinking they can go in and out without anyone noticing. Of course, the Spider-Woman tie-in says otherwise.
Meanwhile, the India Spider-Man is still coming to terms with how he feels like one in a million considering all the similar Spider-Men. Spider-UK assures him that each one of them is unique in their own way, much like the members of his Captain Britain Corps. This brings him some comfort right as Otto loses his patience with the scroll and has his computer scan it for any matching languages.
This act leads to Peter pointing out the resemblance to Anna Maria Marconi, which tells Otto that Peter is from the future. This means that he loses in the end, which doesn’t bode well. Before he can make out anything, Anya explains she can read it because of her power and that it’s a prophecy that says that the spiders will end the Inheritors existence in a thousand years, so the only way to stop it is to perform a ritual with the blood of the Other, the Scion, and the Bride.
Much to their horror, both Silk and Kaine are on Loom World. Silk’s rescue attempt ended up getting their device busted again, which makes for like the third time she’s screwed up in this event. Kaine went there for revenge since the attempt to stop the Inheritor clones succeeded at the cost of Ben Reilly’s life. With both of them on Loom world, the Inheritors can smell them and go off to hunt them.
Anya puts together a team to go and get an advantage they can use from the second scroll, while Kaine hulked out on the Other to go kill some of the bastards. Jessica is stuck on Jennix’s world, but Miles ‘ team will go pick her up, and Miguel is working on something in the old Safe Zone and will be there in five or so minutes, so that leaves the rest to deal with the final battle… except for Ben, who doesn’t have it in him.
Kaine, in the meanwhile kills Solus in a single panel like some mook, despite him supposedly being hopped up on Uni-Force. This drives Morlun to the point of rage and he tears one of Kaine’s limbs off and stabs him through the head with it. Whether or not this kills him is unknown, but either way he’s down for the count. Silk and the other two Spider-Women come under fire by the twins and the beast tamer, who brought a bunch of Green Goblins with her.
With rest of them, Peter tries to get Ben to come. But it’s ultimately Otto who gets him back onto his feet, stating he never gave up no matter how great his mistakes, and an easy victory is never rewarding. Peter and I can’t believe it, especially when you consider this is a villain talking, but it does the job and gets him into action.
Now they’re all heading to the final battle as the comic ends.
Okay, review time….
I loved this issue with a burning passion. Nothing was wrong with it. Even Otto got some decent lines and character development. I honestly wish they’d bring him back once this is over.
Anyway, 5 out of 5.
Scarlet Spiders #3 (Tie-In Final Issue) Review
A hero dies in Scarlet Spiders #3 (Tie-In Final Issue)! Read my recap and review below!
The comic begins with an overview of Ben Reilly’s life, which pretty much tells you all you need to know about who’s going to bite the bullet. Kaine is the Other and Jessica is part of the only Ultimate Universe series still active, so she’s not going to die in an event that doesn’t tie in there. Anyway, he’s a Spider-Man, so he’s suffered every pain imaginable, but he earnestly believes what is right and just will prevail. That being said, things look grim as, despite him and Kaine wailing on the bastard, Jennix doesn’t go down easy.
Eventually Kaine decides to break out the stingers and start tearing into the Inheritor since, unlike Ben, he realizes this is a fight of extinction and he refuses to be slaughtered like some animal. Jennix instantly awakes from a clone and then gets shot by a turret that Jessica hacked. Ben wants her to shut it down for two reasons: If they regain control of it then they’re all screwed, and they don’t kill.
Jessica and even Jennix point out the futility of upholding that rule in this circumstance of this, but he instead states that it’s also pointless to keep killing him over and over since they need to trap him. Jessica happens to be at the receiver that sends the signal to wake the clones, but she runs into the Human Torch as an obstacle to doing that… and then she knocks him out in like three seconds flat to go and help the boys.
Ben thinks back, while nursing a concussion, about how he had always done right in the past and it was Peter who lost everything in his world while even getting the acceptance Peter didn’t. But things aren’t looking so hot here, and Jennix makes it clear he has thousands of these facilities, so it was all pointless. But, being a science expert himself, Ben realizes that the signal comes from this facility and tells Jennix he’s going to destroy it to stop them from coming back.
He succeeds, buying the other spiders time to run, but the act apparently kills him in the process with only his torn mask left behind. While Jessica tells Kaine not to let the ugliness of his death poison him, Kaine promptly gives into the Other, using it as fuel and hijacking a portal to Loom world to kill them while they can’t revive themselves.
In the end, they won but it wasn’t without sacrifices.
Okay, review time…
I loved the tie-in, but Ben Reilly dying was still hard. I mean, you could see it coming, but it still hurts because between the cynical Kaine and realistic Jessica, we see that the optimistic one was the one that bit the bullet. Other than that it was a pretty solid tie-in.
The issue and series gets a 5 out of 5.
Spider-Man 2099 #7 (Spider-Verse) Review
Spider-Verse is still in effect and Miguel O’hara is doing his part to aid his fellow spiders! Read my review of Spider-man 2099 #7!
The comic opens with Daemos trapped in the field, unable to escape. Miguel tells Lady Spider that the more he struggles, the higher the energy level multiplies, so he’s not going anywhere. He then pays a visit to Tyler Stone and basically tells him that he’s still pissed about being dumped in 2014, but Daemos is the bigger threat and he needs a lab to work on the dissection.
When it begins, Daemos continues boasting about how he cannot be stopped. Miguel doesn’t think they can hold him for long so he has Lady Spider analyzing a device that he got from the other him that was killed by Morlun, with Tyler Stone taking a peek as well. I mean, interdimensional tech just screams profit.
Daemos, having grown bored, gives them an ultimatum, let him go and they will be spared to die of old age. They aren’t going to take it, of course, but tell him they’ll think it over. Miguel was hoping to find something else they could survive off so they didn’t eat his kind, but there’s nothing so far, while Lady Spider has a little more luck with the device.
When time is up they reject his offer, so he tells them they’re his new targets and starts meditating. Miguel runs off to a Bio-lab for some kind of cure that was done back in the 2040s. Whatever it is seems important and useful, but Lady Spider calls him back when Daemos begins to fight against the field hard enough to absorb enough energy to power the city. While this does kill him, he has a clone on the ground in mere minutes afterwards.
To buy them a few more minutes, Miguel called in Punisher 2099. Armed with a decent gun, it punches him away until he misses and then he does what might be the coolest thing ever. He beats Daemos over the head with a titanium bat three times before lighting him up with a plasma cannon and melting the floor beneath him. This man is made of win!
That buys the two spiders enough time to jump back to the Safe Zone, only this is after Morlun’s family ran through the place, so they end up amidst corpses as the comic ends.
Okay, review time!
I love it. Not only do we see more of 2099’s world and characters, we get to see someone ordinary putting a halt to the Inheritors momentarily and they even managed to snag what amounts to a win. 5 out of 5!
Scarlet Spiders (Spider-Verse Tie-In) #2 Review
The Scarlet Spiders Spider-Verse Mini-Event continues in issue #2! Here’s my recap and review!
The comic picks up with the evil Johnny Storm realizing something is wrong with this scenario only to get knocked out while he’s Flamed-On. Ben has to abandon the Iron Man suit because Kaine points out that the suit probably has fail-safes on it and Jennix would be able to pull him in and peel him out of it like a sardine. Their cover is blown, which Jessica doesn’t like since her plan ultimately hinged on her being the decoy rather than them, so they have to wing it.
Ben and Kaine get into where they keep the clones. It turns out Jennix has about a thousand clones divided into levels for him and his siblings. When one dies their consciousness is transferred into the body and then released. Kaine votes on destroying the entire building, but Ben doesn’t want to since it means everyone else would go with it, so that means they’ll have to try a little harder than that.
Meanwhile, Jennix isn’t paying much attention to the fight since he has other things to handle. He tells Dr. Warren to simply keep monitoring the situation and if they make it to the special projects then he’ll run interference. It shows he’s both cocky and delegates his workload like a proper mad scientist should.
The spiders split up with Jessica playing the spymaster until she can get somewhere to interfere with the counter-measures, Kaine goes to deal with the main power cells, and Ben stays behind to try to do something in the clone room. Kaine… he wrecks the hell out of the security detail, with the caption mentioning that while he doesn’t have much of a life outside of violence, he’s making the most out of it. Then he finds something so shocking he has to go get Ben and the technician.
It turns out that special project is that Jennix has been cloning Spiders and these are the failures. Given what Kaine has gone through, it triggers a rage moment and that alerts Jennix that they are there. So Jennix makes good on his promise and goes to deal with them personally after showing them some footage of his experiments and how the clones don’t contain any of the essence that they have. As the comic ends Jennix makes it clear he’s going to turn them into an experiment once he’s done kicking them around.
Okay, review time….
I loved it for a tie-in. It got straight to the point and we have everyone in the roles they’re meant to play. 5 out of 5.
Spider-Man 2099 #6 (Spider-Verse) Review
Spider-Verse continues within Spider-Man 2099 #6! Read my review on the story as Miguel, Lady Spider, and the Six-Armed Spider-Man try to carve up Daemos’ corpse for science!
The story begins with that asshole Stone after he had finally gotten rid of Spider-Man 2099 by trapping him in the past. He’s then greeted to the sight of footage Public Eye caught of that spider-man and his two friends. His assistant points out that they’re lucky he didn’t come back in time before they sent him off or another paradox would have occurred, but either way Stone wants him killed once and for all.
Meanwhile Miguel’s brother is talking with their mother when he shows up with his friends, who are lacking Daemos’ corpse I noticed. Lady Spider, or May, instantly gets on his radar as Miguel tries to get in touch with the other heroes of 2099. That’s when Daemos pops in and we lose the Six-Armed Spider-Man before Gabriel pops his ass with a giant gun when he got somewhere. The kiss he gets is well-earned.
Daemos then proceeds to tear Public Eye a new one when Miguel tells Tyler Stone that while he would normally kick his ass, instead he’ll owe him a favor if they ready the 82 floor of Alchemax Lab C. He jumps on that like there’s no tomorrow and together they trap Daemos in a stasis cell as the comic ends. Suck it!
Okay review time…
Much like in Spider-Woman, we’ve lost another Spider from Otto’s team to the Inheritors (although Noir was simply wounded) and Daemos continues to be a creepy bastard with all the sexual undertones. Seriously, kill him permanently already. But otherwise it’s good stuff.
I give it a 5 out of 5.
Scarlet Spiders #1 of 3 Review
Scarlet Spiders is out now and contains two of my favorite Spider people, so naturally I’m going to review it! How does the first issue go? Read my review and find out!
The comic opens up and follows the thoughts of Jessica Drew, the Spider-Woman (Black Widow now) from the Ultimates Universe, as she, Ben Reilly, and Kaine venture to the world where the clones came from. The city is beautiful, in contrast to a villain like you would expect from Doom. But they can’t exactly go out looking like they do, even if they are cloaked from the Inheritors.
Kaine fetches some smocks for them and they discuss the invisibility suit before they run out and meet a bunch of clones. The disguises don’t last three pages before they suit up again and get into a tussle with the security forces after the fighting spills out. Ben fights with grace and banter, Kaine goes with rage but restraint, and Jessica is the trained fighter of the group.
The fighting ends when Iron Man shows up, and Ben forgets they are on a villain controlled world. So he gets blasted into unconsciousness for two hours while they stripped Tony Stark of his armor. It turns out this Tony is a insufferably smug kiss-up which makes even the Superior Iron Man looks good, and that’s saying something, so they take his armor and use it to infiltrate the Baxter Building.
There Jessica breaks free and acts as a distraction while the other two go on ahead, but they get stopped as the comic ends by alternate universe Johnny Storm.
Okay, review.
In this issue we get more introspective into the different cloned spiders. Kaine beats the hell out of anyone in his way and lacks Peter’s smarts, but he’s been trying to be a hero to live up to his rep and has to temper his strength, which is greater than the others by a fair margin. Black Widow as the most training and strategic mind, while Ben still has Peter’s intelligence and witty nature.
All and all it’s not a bad start and I like the artwork. We’ll call it a 5 out of 5.
Spider-Verse Team Up #1 Review
Keeping this short for the time, this is my review of Spider-Verse Team-Up #1.
The comic opens on Earth-94 where an optimistic Ben Reilly runs into Vultures from alternate dimensions and has to be bailed out by Old Man Spider and Spider-Ham. It’s clear he’s one of the naïve spiders because the time spent with him talking ends up with them getting hit with paralysis darts despite the fact they should have Spider-Sense and he alone managed to overpower it via sheer optimistic willpower. I call asspull but whatever. As they drag him to the safe haven for spiders both Spider-Ham and Old Man Spider can see that he has no clue what he’s in for, but considering how the other Bens have fared and how they’re being hunted he may as well die among friends.
In the second part we get Spider-Man Noir and Six-Armed Spider. Noir is…. Well, negative through and through, as he refers to the fact that the Aunt May and Uncle Ben being alive only because they are sticking with him by his bedside being the only good that Peter Parker has been done, but is willing to leave him behind since he’s helpless despite being a totem. Six-Armed Spider decides to go check on his blood work since he has an idea.
Eventually Peter morphs into a Man-Spider so Noir drags him onto the roof while Six-Arms gives him a cure he made before Noir goes for the mercy kill approach. He explains that he originally made it for himself but it didn’t work and gave him six arms, but since that Peter was younger his cells could revert back and cure him. That Peter loses his spider abilities but he has a family and a normal life that they could never have, which Noir calls a win in his books.
Okay review time.
I found the stories kind of bland, but the characterizations stuck out. We see Old Man Spider and Noir are both jaded from their experiences and are willing to make tougher calls than their partners, but both Spider-Ham and Six-Armed Spider are more…. optimistic before resorting to more permanent solutions.
I give it a 3 out of 5.
Amazing Spider-Man #9 (Spider-Verse)
Okay, a lot is going on in Amazing Spider-Man #9 and these are my thoughts on probably the biggest issue yet in the Spider-Verse event.
The comic opens with Peter Parker being called in for work by JJJ, which is the first clue it’s not our Peter. The second is that Morlun gets his hands on him and starts feasting on him while the third is that they live on the moon. We then cut to Morlun’s siblings and the gluttonous one deciding to see what he’s hoarding on the 616-universe.
After that Peter gets woken up by Silk who tells him the solution to their problem when it comes to wanting to make spider-babies is for him to leave since the great web is closing in on him or something cryptic like that. This is further compounded when Mayday, Spider-UK, Anya, Miguel, Jessica Drew (616), and Spider-Ham, show up and tell him the short version that Morlun’s brother it coming. Peter immediately says to get in the damn portal before he shows up.
Kaine is not so lucky as the glutton found him and attacked the New Warriors (they’ll probably make it). He tries to skewer him with his Other powers, but that just makes the glutton want him more until Gwen Stacy, Ben Rilley, and Bruce Banner show up with the Old Man Spider. They get Kaine out but Bruce gets his spine snapped and they have to leave him behind.
All the spiders meet up on Earth-13, a safe zone because the Spider-Man there still has the power of a god and the only reason he hasn’t gone after the Inheritors is because his power is tied to his dimension. Anyway, long story short they need Peter there because he’s supposedly the chosen one. The comic ends in the Ultimate Universe as Jessica Drew (1610) and Miles Morales come under fire by the glutton’s sister.
We then get an epilogue where the head of the Inheritors holds a feast on a number of Spiders, quells his children’s squabbling, and then reveals he knows all connected to the great web after enslaving the Master Weaver before they munch on the collected Spider-Men.
Okay, okay review time.
A lot going on, most of it I like. There are some glaring issues, like the text being wrong and you have to wonder why they would just call out their secret identities in public. But I do like the characterizations of a good number of the spiders and the story is moving.
I give it full marks, 5 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 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.
Edge of Spider-Verse #1: Spider-Man Noir Review
Spider-Verse is coming and the first in the Edge of Spider-Verse series is out with Spider-Man Noir. Read my recap and review below.
Our story begins in New York 1939 in a movie theater where some people are reviewing footage caught of Spider-Man beating up some robbers and questioning whether or not there’s a place for a vigilante now that most of the mobsters have been taken out. One of the people, a woman, hopes to meet him soon for the blood of the spider-god runs through him, while Mysterio gets a diss by someone choosing to pay for a monkey over his show. Even in the past he couldn’t win…
Anyway, at the World’s Fair we have Peter, Aunt May, and Mary Jane browsing around. Apparently MJ went overseas for three years to record a war in Spain and changed, but not really relevant unless you’ve read the past series I’m assuming. They go to Mysterio’s show when Peter’s Spider-Sense starts acting up but nothing immediately comes of it, and the show ends with Peter realizing Mysterio’s a fake but saying nothing since it made MJ smile.
After the show Mysterio and his assistant go on about his plan to become a new Kingpin once they get Spider-Man’s blood when Fisk shows up telling him they got the last living member of Goblin’s gang. They do a recap about how Spider-Man got his powers before he asks about Felicia Hardy.
They go to see her, where Felicia is wearing a mask, and when she refuses to move it they kill her friend. It’s a gore-discretion shot so you can’t see, but her face has been disfigured by the last person who thought she could lead them to Spider-Man. Fisk notes that he can do nothing to her that hasn’t been done so she won’t talk, but Mysterio goes with the holding the former love interest hostage gambit.
He leaves a message in a newspaper for him to come and make a blood-sacrifice or she dies, and Peter goes along to save her while his Spider-Sense, which is new for him I guess, is blaring. At the show, where the audience thinks it’s just a show, he shows up and gets gassed, then put into a water closet death trap after having his blood taken.
Peter traps air in a web on his face to last ten minutes before breaking out of the chains and kicking Mysterio’s butt with one hit. The guy hunting Spider-Men pops up and then Otto does too and rescues him. As the comic ends Felicia steals the blood taken from Peter as he arrives to meet a few other Spider-Men in the year 2099.
Okay review time.
Spider-verse is shaping up to look decent. This is only the second time I’ve seen Spider-Man Noir, the first being the Shattered Dimensions game, so I don’t know much about him, but I’m eager to see his role in things. I can’t wait for this crossover to continue with Gwen Stacy next in line.
5 out of 5 folks.
Superior Spider-Man #32 (Edge of Spider-Verse)
The Edge of Spider-verse is beginning and it’s starting with SpOck in the lead as we review issue #32 of The Superior Spider-Man, set between the period where he got wiped from the time-stream and Horizon was destroyed.
The comic begins after he was “inferior” to Peter Parker because he couldn’t stop the explosion due to wiping his memories. It turns out that it didn’t kill him, but put him in the year 2099. Public Eye, the generic bad guys, tries to arrest him, but he’s not Miguel and won’t take that lying down or running away. He makes them run, but Miguel’s brother, Gabriel, remembers from his voice he’s Peter from the 90s series of Spider 2099 when they crossed over, but Otto doesn’t and it doesn’t matter.
Once in a safe place, Otto wastes no time in procuring parts to travel through time and dimensions with the aid of his holo-agent in his new base of operations. By that, I mean he steals from everyone with the parts, including Alchemax. It’s kinda awesome.
He then adjusts the holo-agent to resemble Anna Marie and then begins to time-jump. Instead of landing in his own time, he lands in a parallel timeline where someone (Morlun, I’m sure) has killed the fantastic five, the last of which was another Spider-Man. He tries again and again, finding more and more dead spider-men, and figures out he’s not the only one jumping through dimensions.
We then skip to another Spider-man, one named Peter Phabhakar, who is getting hunted down. He’s about to be another dead spider when Otto jumps in and saves him, explaining that he’s been tracking the hunter through twelve dimensions and taken it upon himself to raise an army of Spider-Men to fight the creature. As they reach the group we see he’s gotten a couple more to join his ranks.
In the second part of the comic we met a spider-man who became more like Otto and started taking this seriously, killing his enemies and training with Logan, who dies when the masked creature runs him through and vaporizes him. When Alex, a woman he loves, tries to cover for him, he knocks her out and then lures the creature into a trap.
It doesn’t work and he’s saved by Otto again, who reveals that he wants him to join so they can help kill the bastard. Most of the other Spider-Men aren’t as pragmatic as they are, so he needs someone like him backing him. He joins on the condition that they kill the creature, which Otto states it’s him or them as the comic ends.
Okay, review time.
This was better than I expected honestly, a great way to get into a crossover of this size. I can’t wait for Jessica Drew, Kaine, Miles, and the others to join in soon. The art was lovely as well.
It gets a perfect score!
Twilit Dreams Circle 