The final issue of Spider-Verse or at least that’s what they billed it as even though there’s one more issue afterwards. So yeah it kinda, sorta, but not really all ends here. Was it worth the wait?
“Spider-Verse Part Six: Web Warriors”
WRITER: Dan Slott
PENCILERS: Guiseppe Camuncoli and Olivier Coipel
INKERS: Wade Von Grawbadger, Cam Smith and Livesay
COLORS: Justin Ponsor
LETTERS: Chris Eliopoulos
ASSISTANT EDITOR: Devin Lewis
EDITOR: Nick Lowe
STORY: The Spider-crew begin right where last issue left off, by arriving to save Spider-Woman, and Spider-Gwen. Spider-Gwen insists she doesn’t need saving, and kicks on of the Green Goblin’s in the face. From here we see Morlun preparing a ceremony to end all spiders. Daemos is given a gem by Jennix that has apparently the entire essence of his father Solus locked within it. While Morlun is commencing the ceremony the Spiders unleash an all out attack that has the rest of the inheritors go out to do battle with them. Before he can finish the ceremony all of the major Spider-Man players disrupt the ceremony. Daemos and Spider-Girl get locked into combat, and Spider-Man fights Morlun. Morlun manages to swipe Spider-Man away and then goes in for the kill on the scion, except SURPRISE it’s actually Spider-Ham in disguise. Old Ben Spider-Man had escaped with the baby and brought it to another dimension. Meanwhile in the front lines a group of Spider-Men are struggling against the rest of the inheritors. Backup arrives in the form of Karn, and Spider-Man 2099 who have repaired Leopardon. Spider-Girl gets a hold of the crystal holding Solus’s entity, and uses it as leverage against Daemos. Meanwhile Superior Spider-Man snaps the neck of The Master Weaver. This drives Spider-Girl not to kill Solus, and makes Morlun go insane. As Morlun locks onto our Peter Parker and slowly drains his essence, Peter teleports him to the world with the insane amount of radiation. This leaves Morlun with a chance to barely survive, as Peter gets rescued by Silk. Karn, and the other Spider’s have wrapped up the remainder of the inheritors leaving Peter to hang out in Silk’s arms.
PLOT: Okay so that was like the let down of all let downs. We spent all this time and effort for this whole thing to end with such a fizzle. Peter has some decent moments against Morlun, but the rest of the inheritors are defeated off panel. We have grown to fear, and see the rampant amount of destruction these being’s can cause now suddenly they are defeated with ease. We see no Spider’s lost in the battle, and the only death being that of the Master Weaver. Also Spider-Man gives Otto the equivalent of a smack on the wrist. All he says is heroes don’t kill. He doesn’t say why, but it works wonders of Spider-Girl…for some random reason? It just seems like the final big fight scene was so immensely boring, and uneventful. All of the disparate elements are here but all they get is a line each. Miles Morales says a total of maybe 4 lines this entire issue. This is supposed to be the issue where the excitement happens, the issue that gets your blood pumping, and changes everything. Well it doesn’t, and it appears their solution to the inheritor problem is throw them on an abandoned world that is irradiated. NEWSFLASH Jennix can probably get them out of there in a matter of days. This hasn’t solved their threat, they have no prisons that can really do any concrete damage to them, and Peter lets Morlun go. Morlun will be back, and it will all be Peter’s fault when he does. Also does anyone else think that Otto’s move to kill Master Weaver was entirely illogical on his end. The Master Weaver must have wanted to die, and perhaps gave Otto the instructions on how to do so. If that is not the case, and Otto simply murdered the master weaver it seemed like a big gap in his overall intelligence. Otto would have attempted to utilize and control Master Weaver, he wouldn’t have simply dispatched him without a thought. That being said we will see more of him next issue I am sure. As when he reappeared in Superior Spider-Man he was in the middle of a rant which we have yet to see. Hopefully he will explain his actions more thoroughly at that point. Oh and Kaine better flipping return next issue or I am going to have a Spider-aneurysm in anger.
Okay before I get to aggressively negative there were some cool parts to the book. The lines by Spider-Ham were all top notch, it was cool seeing Spider-Gwen beat down a goblin, it was nice to see Leopardon again, and overall the event is over. Overall I think the legacy of Spider-Verse will be some of the cooler characters it introduced to the Marvel universe. Characters like Spider-Gwen will leave on past this book becoming a phenomenon of their own. The story will not be why people will remember this story because as whole it does little to affect the life of Spider-Man 616. In the end of this arc, and the end of the issue he ends exactly where he started in the arms of Silk. I hope the epilogue gives a satisfying ending, and as such I will leave my final review of the event as a whole until then. As a single issue however this was underwhelming and very disappointing. How long will we have until Spider-Man gets drawn up immediately into Secret Wars?
ART: The art in this issue varies in quality, and the switch of artists is very noticeable. Both styles of art are as usual fantastic, but the two clash with each other and don’t work as a whole. I would have preferred a singular art style.
#3 was wondering about wedding ring parker an issue or two back and black suit who both referring to spidermen they saw that look like actors. Got the impression they where is a much bigger battle than this with wave after wave, so many people that some could afford a bit of a break. didn’t get that impression in this battle.
silk ruined it, when she spun him the line that was enough. No need for the accompanying dialogue, took away from the moment. Was wondering if when they where at the concept stage for this story did they consider gwen for the role of the bride. If they did and then fliped it, went for a gwen that was not a victim could be brave and interesting character development that worked out but the silk issue still remains, they knew the audience are not involved enough to show her getting captured and didn’t bother with that, why push her in other areas.
Awesome review, Andrew. I posted my own take on Spider-Verse in his review’s comments (not sure if it’s gone through yet), but I think we can all agree on one thing: Slott’s burn-out is series-wide. No more does he entertain us with large events after crappy one-shots. Now, they’re all down the drain of quality. Either way, good job, and good luck reviewing the final issue of Spider-Verse… Master Weaver knows you’ll need it…
@4 – Yeah, that would have been pretty cool. He would have been a beast since he has no life force to feed off of. What if he bit one of the Inheritors and turned them into a zombie? Ah well, a missed opportunity….
One spiderman we did not see was the one from marvel zombies. I thought it would have been a good twist to bring him since the inheritors eat life force.
So is anyone working up a list as to what Spiders (that existed before Silk and Edge of Spider-Verse) were included, and which ones theoretically did not survive ? More to the point, which ones were NOT included ?
Wow, what a beautiful cover. I cannot not look at it.
Above is the variant cover I got and the more I look at it, the more puzzled her expression becomes. I haven’t reread Amazing 47 yet, but I’m puzzled as to why it’s release date is in the cover!