Being the title of the event, this issue must have far reaching consequences for the event. Well yes and no. Find out what I mean when we dissect the first issue of Spider-Verse #1.

“Enter The Spider-Verse”
WRITER: Dan Slott
PENCILS: Humberto Ramos
INKS: Victor Olazaba
COLORS: Edgar Delgado

“Spider Clan: The Many”
WRITER: Skottie Young
ARTIST: Jane Parker
COLORS: Andrew Crossley

“Steampunk Lady Spider”
WRITER: Robbie Thompson
ARTIST: Denis Medri
COLORS: Paolo Francescutto

“Penelope Parker”
WRITER: Katie Cook
ARTIST: Katie Cook
COLORS: Heather Breckel

LETTERER: VC’s Travis Lanham

EDITOR’s: Nick Lowe and Ellie Pyle

PLOT: We begin the story seeing an alternate timeline with an eerie narration, in the alternate timeline we see Uncle Ben joining Peter at the famed science experiment. We don’t see how this event turns out, but we do find out that its the Master Weaver who was responsible for the narration. In a quick view of the weavers web we see various Spider-Men dying throughout the multi verse. Most notably it looks like that godawful Spider-Man Reign has been dispatched by Morlun beating him down with Mary Jane’s tombstone. From here we cut to our first story featuring Spider-Man from the Mangaverse having a vision regarding Venom his, ninja brother (in this universe). Once he goes to the mountain from his vision to meet up with his brother, they have a hasty fight in which Venom gets the upper hand. Right before he kills this Spider-Man he is suddenly saved by the 616’s Spider-Man crew. Our next story introduces us to Lady Spider a steampunk female who ends up battling The Six Men of Sinestry. This timeline’s Sinister Six flee after getting some subway plans (no not the sandwich) from the mayor. She vows to find them, thus ending her story.

Now its time to break up the stories with an advertisement for hostess twinkies. Ah Spider-Man you seem to be running late for a date….OH God Morlun shows up and kills the Spider-Man advertisement ending it with a snack food pun.

Okay now back to our regularly scheduled issue. This story introduces us to Penelope Parker who is an eleven year old girl who gains spider powers from a similar experiment to 616 Spider-Man however her powers activate almost instantly allowing her origin to been sped up. After a young Flash Thompson climbs up a generic corporate sculpture Penelope does a makeshift costume out of a hoodie and a lunch bag in order to save Flash. When she gets home she tells her Aunt May about the days events and Aunt May tells Penelope to use her powers for good. So Penelope dawns a makeshift costume and swings off to fight crime. Our final story involves Morlun invading the last vestige of Spider-Man marriage, the Spider-Man comic strip. Fortunately for us marriage fans Morlun discovers that the universe cycles back in time so frequently that it would take forever to achieve anything in this universe. As he leaves the universe the master weaver hides the universe away so that no one can ever get to it again.

STORY: This issue is not at all important to Spider-Verse the event. That being said it is one of the most enjoyable Spider-Man issues I’ve read in a while. Asides from Lady Spider each new beginning, and ending for each of the Spider’s were really well done. My favourite being the cameo of the Hostess Twinkie Advertisement Spider-Man his brief appearance, and jokey death work on every level. Sure it would have been entertaining to see him interact with the other Spider-Men and solely feed them with snack cakes but the one page story felt like it fit the style he was written in very well. It was also nice to see the Spider-Man news strip universe make an appearance. The old news strip look, and the way the universe is formed are hilarious. He is the one Spider-Man to take out Morlun due to sheer nonsense, which is a trend I hope continues into the 60s Spider-Man TV show universe as well. Its glad to see one place where a married Spider-Man still lives. I really thought that Penelope Parker was a very charming story, and I honestly think that she should venture off into Spider-Man kids books. My only worry about her inclusion into Spider-Verse is that I don’t want her to come into contact with Morlun, and have some gruesome death.

Page number one, is without a doubt the origin of Uncle Ben as old man Spider-Man. I am hedging all of my bets on this being revealed in a later issue of Amazing Spider-Man. This will most likely be the only real “important” moment from this issue, asides from that its all fun and goofy. .

The only real minor gripe I have with this issue is Lady Spider. Sure she is a cool design, but her world, villains, and costume all seem very derivative of prior Spider-Men. She is a mix between Spider-Man Noir, and Spider-Man 1602. We have seen Steampunk Spider-Man, we have seen steampunk Doctor Octopus, in comparison to the other fantastic additions to the Spider-Canon she adds very little. That being said I hope she gets expanded upon in the man series, as she could be a lot of fun in the future. The only other gripe I have with this series, is not a fault currently committed so I can’t knock points off of the book. I am worried that in the future of the main storyline that none of these characters will get used, or have a lot of page time. Some of these awesome new characters could get completely lost in the larger scheme of the event as a whole.

ART: Each story has its own individual art scheme that fits superbly with the story being told. Truly top notch work. Each story feels different, and unique while still managing to keep that core Spider-Man feel. Not a piece of bad artwork in the bunch.

B+