Guys this one is going to be an intense sad review, because this issue has one of the most life shattering moments in Spider-History. I’d rather live through the death of Gwen a thousand times than this scene. SO YOU ARE WARNED HERE AND NOW SPOILERS BE A COMING….Don’t read until you’ve read the issue.
“Ms. Marvel Team-Up”
PLOT: Dan Slott
SCRIPT: Christos Gage
PENCILS: Giuseppe Camuncoli
INKS: Cam Smith
COLORS: Edgar Delgado
LETTERS: Chris Eliopoulos
“Edge of Spider-verse: Web of Fear”
WRITER: Dan Slott
PENCILS: Giuseppe Camuncoli
INKS: Cam Smith
COLORS: Edgar Delgado
LETTERS: Chris Eliopoulos
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ellie Pyle
EDITOR: Nick Lowe
PLOT: Spider-Man and Anna Maria discuss the pro’s and cons of Doc Ock’s Superior Spider-Man techniques which leads them to overhear a kidnapping in progress by a Kree Woman dressed as original Captain Marvel. Spider-Man races to the scene where he meets up Kamila Khan the new Ms. Marvel. Khan fangirls over meeting Spider-Man, and the two stop the heist of a new inhuman currently going through their transformation. One of the henchmen makes an offhanded remark about having history with Spider-Man before they hop in their van escaping with the hostage. The evil Ms. Kree Marvel goes to fight Spider-Man and the good Ms. Marvel revealing that she has been harvesting Inhumans in order to become crazy powerful scary lady. The issue ends with a cliffhanger of the duo about to battle the frightening gargoyle like evil Ms. Kree Marvel.
In the backup story Captain Britain Spider-Man hooks into a device that allows him to see other universes. In it he views
Morlun holding up a Spider-Man he describes to be innocent, unable to describe the horror Morlun inflicted upon his friends…or should I say his AMAZING Friends. YEAH MORLUN LEGIT KILLS THE ENTIRE CAST OF SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS….there will be much more on this in a moment. Then Captain Britain views another one of Morlun’s boring siblings eating a bunch of animal totems, and having a smarter Morlun relative tell him that they are being watched cutting Captain Spider-Britain’s feed. Oh and we also see the Castlevania twins kill a Spider-Cat because Dan Slott hates us all in this issue. Spider-Britain attempts to get help from the council of British captains, but they are worried about things happening in New Avengers. So Spider-Britain must go off into Spider-verse on his own.
Story: Okay lets just start out by saying the main story of this book is fantastic, not a single complaint by me. I love the character of Kamila Khan, as she really feels like a fantastic fleshed out character relatable to a modern audience. She is funny, interesting, and has a great look. Slott, and Gage incorporate her into the story extremely well, and she feels like the same character as you’ve seen her in her own book. The other spectacular thing about this book is Anna Maria being just so darn amazing. Every line she says is charming, I’m so glad she is still in this book, and hasn’t been written out. Spider-Man is a little too dismissive about the benefits of The Superior Spider-Man but overall he is written very on point in character this issue. The plot to me felt akin to a 70’s team-up or Spectacular issue, just plain good ole Spider-fun exactly what I want out of this series. It also adds to a bigger mystery in an interesting way, like who was the henchman who had a history with Spider-Man? The issue doesn’t give you any real hints, so its a driving force to see what happens next.
Now lets talk about the backup story, but first I need to give you some background on why Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends are important to me. I work with kids, and one day out of the blue a kid comes up to me with crude lego characters, I of course ask who they were. “Well it’s ice man, and Firestar”, then he hands me a red and blue block “This one is Spider-Man you can be him” then we just sat there and played lego Amazing Friends. It was so fun, and a special moment as a Spider-Man fan. This kid is now growing up with these classic cartoons thanks to the entirety of the show being on Netflix. Kids still watch this show, and care about the characters. One day this child will grow up, and find a wikipedia page of his old favourite cartoon, and on the bottom in a little subheading he will see “Spider-Man and his Amazing friends were brutally murdered by Morlun in a backup story of Amazing Spider-Man #7”. That just makes me downright sad. On top of this think about how much work, and love Brad the all mighty crawlspacer himself put into making episode 300 of the Crawlspace podcast a reunion to the magnificent voice actors who lent their talents to the show. I am now sad that Brad has to see this happen to his beloved characters. Heck the trio was all brought together not to long ago in an issue of Amazing X-Men. People love these characters, and the question I give to Dan Slott is why? What purpose does killing off a good wholesome Spider-Man do? Is it to make Morlun more evil? I think we’ve already established everything we need to know about Morlun, he can’t get more evil. Think of it this way. We now live in a world where Chibi Spider-Man is able to walk the cartoon streets, with the MTV Spider-Man but Ice Man and Firestar have been brought down before our very eyes. But hey at least the Spider-Man Unlimited universe not only lost it’s Spider-Man but literally every creature to inhabit it.
ART: Camuncoli is a welcome return to Spider-Man I love his artwork, and it brought me back to the Superior days. I loved every piece of artwork in this issue except for the aforementioned splash page of unfathomable sadness.
A *MS Marvel Team-Up
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Two other problems:
1. The whole pheromone-attraction thing feels really rapey, in terms of the degree to which it removes both characters’ ability to consciously consent, and it’s super-misogynistic besides, in terms of how completely Slott is reducing Silk to a woman who literally spends all her time lounging around in her underwear, apparently just waiting to fall into Peter’s arms.
2. Dan Slott uses pretty much the only original character of his that anyone has ever liked to hammer home his authorial viewpoint, yet again, that Otto Octavius was both mentally and morally superior to Peter Parker.
if there is an element of time travel involved which superior spidermans suggests there is maybe all the dead spidermen can be saved, just go back prior to when they where killed, could be a way of starving and depowering their opponets bit of a con but would marvel really want to inflict emotional damage on their customers, slott his critics maybe but marvel.
taught all the union jack mania in popular culture the last few years would ebb off after the Scottish vote, presumption being it was down to a serious marketing strategy, will go on for another while by the looks of it.
Exactly right, Andrew! I suppose, to play devil’s advocate, that if someone hadn’t been reading the Edge of Spider-Verse tie-ins where we’ve seen Morlun and his siblings murder other alternate Spider-Men, then the scene of him killing the Spider Friends taken on its own does establish just how evil he is. But even with that, the fact even this issue, we had three scenes in a row of the Inheritors killing a Spider-Man, you can’t help but think “Okay, we get it. These guys are evil. Now it’s starting to get a bit tiresome.” And we haven’t even gotten to the event proper yet. In any case, great review as always.
#6: According to Slott on Twitter, the dead Spider-Man from Unlimited is the exact same Spider-Man from the 1990s Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
#9: I agree, I don’t think Mayday will survive the Spider-verse, although she might make it out of ASM #8 alive (Benjy, maybe not). But I think MC2 Peter and MJ are definitely toast. Can’t have a happy Peter and MJ in any universe, now, can we?
I was really sad too when I saw that page. The MAIN reason I’m a spiderfan is because of that show. The Unlimited death was shocking too, even though I wasn’t a fan of that cartoon also. I have a bad feeling many people will get pissed off when AMS #8 comes, judging from the previews of what is gonna happen to poor Mayday.
I was able to see this issue at the shop this week even with not buying any books now. I have to say, Slott really got Kamala perfectly and the relationship with Peter. I love she was the fan girl and Peter even going: “Well, yeah, I’ve been around a while.” Then using a classic Ms. Marvel villain using current stories going on from Inhumans to the Incursions. I really did like UK Spidey and also hit everything with Roma and Satuyrn perfectly. Roma has always been: “The Multiverse is dying, forget crazy people hunting alternate versions of one person.” While Saturyn has always been: “All life from big to small is important.” How Chris Claremont created them, so this was pretty spot on. This was a much stronger issue than the previous 6 which is really sad. I think Slott has turn into the writer who is great with newer characters or big event stories. of course, he still can’t get Reckoning War to happen at any Marvel summits.
@Wwww789: I doubt that was unintentional, that’s the year the show ended, it’s probably his reason for choosing that number for that universe.
If Morlun kills Spider-Friends real quick, I don’t want to see him fight the 90s cartoon Spidey, that’s the weakest version of Spider-Man when it comes to physical strength.
The Spider Man And His Amazing Friends Wikipedia page seems to indicate that the Spider Friends who were killed were in fact the Spider Friends of a universe separate from the one the show took place in! The Friends in this issue were from Earth-1983, The cartoon apparently took place on Earth-8107. It’s a tiny detail, and undoubtedly unintentional on Slott’s part, but I hope those of you who grew up with the show can take some comfort.
I myself never grew up with it, so while I do find their deaths cheap and pointless, it doesn’t anger me nearly as much. I did however grow up with the TAS Spider-Man (he was the first Spider-Man I ever saw!) and if they kill him off, I will likely have an emotional break down.
dam taught spiderman in a butchers apron would be a bit character at best.
Nice job Andrew! I was never a huge fan of Amazing Friends, having grown up in the 90s, but recognize that it was a good show that holds a lot of nostalgic value for many Spider-Fans, including the Webmaster of the Crawlspace, himself. I’m with DCMarvelFanGuy – I eagerly anticipate hearing Brad’s thoughts on this childhood-shattering travesty. This is not the way these iterations of these characters deserved to go out.
Like I said, while I never got hooked on Amazing Friends, I respect it as a nice show that is just a little too before-my-time. If I grew up in the 80s, though, I’m sure I would have been hooked. But I had the same thought you did Andrew: why do we live in a world where Chibi-Ultimate Spider-Man not only pushes out Spectacular Spider-Man from TV, but where said Chibi-USM will undoubtedly get to walk away from Morlun and co. while Amazing Friends (and possibly the 90s Spider-Man: the Animated Series character! Looks like he didn’t make it home to MJ after all) will not?
I’ve made it a rule never to creator-bash. These men are professionals who are doing what they do because they have a great love for comics and its characters, so much so that they have devoted, more or less, their lives to furthering the industry. This just strikes me as kind of sick, though. Its so offensive to long-time fans who grew up with the Amazing Friends and I wonder if Slott gets a kind of perverse pleasure in brutally killing off his favorite character in such a myriad of ways. (Starting with ASM#700!)
Man, I grew up on the Spider-Friends. Every morning on ABC Family, I would watch an episode every day before school. I can’t believe that this their farewell. I really want to know how BD feels about this!
What the hell is up with that (hopefully) variant cover?