This is an anthology of sorts, with the following segments:
- "Enter the Spider-Verse": We start out with the Master Weaver observing a timeline where Uncle Ben attended the radioactivity demo with Peter, although we don't see what that leads to. Perhaps this is foreshadowing for something yet to come? MW then gives us a general overview of what the series is going to be about.
- "Spider-Clan: The Many": The Mangaverse Spider-Man goes to a temple. His brother Venom (?) denies him entrance. However, the various multiversal Spider-Men we saw last week web up Venom and ask Mangaverse Spider-Man to join them. Never was too big on the Marvel Mangaverse.
- "Steampunk Lady Spider": In 1895, Lady May Reilly battles the Six Men of Sinestry* as Lady Spider. Good stuff.
- "Late for a Date!": A one page story in which another Spider-Man tries to distract Morlun by tempting him with "Mostess Cakies" only to discover that they are not his assailant's preferred snack. HAW! HAW! HAW!
- "Penelope Parker": A cute littel story drawn in a cartoonish style. Quite amusing, actually, looks like it might be a fun character for Marvel to develop were they interested in building a readership among little girls. I enjoyed this. I only hope this doesn't mena that she's being set up to be eviscerated at some point to show how bad the heels are.
- We end with a two-page riff on the "Spider-Man" newspaper strip, which plays on the conventions of newspaper comics - characters repeating themselves, events that should take minutes playing out over weeks and so on - showing Morlun's confusion in a world run by those rules. Mildly amsuing. I guess they really are trying to get as many Spider-Men as they can in there!
Overall: Not bad. I liked the Lady Spider and Penelope Parker stories the best.
*I'm pretty sure that's not a word.
Replies
I enjoyed all of the stories, except for the Mangaverse tale. I think the Master Weaver is going to be key in the resolution of the overall storyline.
Bob, are you reading this in ASM as well?
To expand on the above:
I initially purchased Edge of Spider-Verse #2 out of curiosity regarding the Gwen Stacy Spider-Woman. Since then I've purchased The Amazing Spider-Man #9, Spider-Verse Team-Up #2 and Spider-Verse #1. I still havwn't finally decided how much of the remaining crossover issues I will purchase.
FWIW, it was said in the letter column of ASM 9 that you can read the main storyline without having to buy the spin-offs. Which is nice, as one can pick and choose what you want to buy.
I'm planning to read the whole thing. Very excited about this arc. I'm a little behind in the Edge of the Spider-verse mini but I've read enough to know what's going on. ASM #9 kicked the arc off well. I haven't read all of Spider-verse #1 yet but did read the "Mostess" cupcake story and newspaper strip story, both very clever.
Sounds like a trip! I'm on the fence but y'all are talking me into it.
Hate seeing obscure characters brought back. They're usually revived just so somebody can kill them off, like what happened with Kal-L. The Betty Brant Spider-Girl, for instance, hasn't been seen in over 30 years since her one What If appearance. Why bring her back just to bump her off?
I haven't seen that yet with Spider-Verse. I still haven't read the latest issue of Amazing Spider-Man yet, but I've enjoyed seeing the return of so many old (and new!) Spider-People. Personally, I've found it pretty fun to see Ben Reilly, Spider-Gwen, Peter Porker, and Spider-Man 2099, to name but a few. They haven't been killing them off the way you'd think.
In addition, they have brought Spider-Ock back in a way that he could continue on in the 616... I'm just saying... Come on, Marvel...you know you want this.
There are a lot of Spiders in this and not all of them have survived or will survive. I'm thinking though that some of this may be corrected by the finale, not sure how though.
Spider-ock's involvement in this takes place around issue 19 of Superior Spider-man when he's displaced in time for a short period. At the time we don't know what happened to him and he doesn't remember. It was explained in issues 32-33 of Superior Spider-man which was the set up for Spider-verse.
There's talk that May "Mayday" Parker, the Amazing Spider-Girl of MC2, may appear -- and get her own book! If so, that would be four Spider-gals with books at the same time. The fact that there's already three is pretty ... amazing.
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