“Good thing catastrophe is old hat around here.”

 Marvel NOW! is on the horizon and that means the Warriors are soon going to be swept under the rug. With only a few issues left, will our webbed heroes go down swinging? Let’s find out…

Writer: Mike Costa

Art: David Baldeon

Inkers: Walden Wong & Robert Poggi

Colorist: Matt Yackey & Rachelle Rosenberg

Letterer: VC’s Joe Caramagna

Editor: Axel Alonso

Plot:On Earth-001 Karn and Octavia are frantically trying to regain contact with the team whilst also finding a way of saving the Great Web. Meanwhile, on Earth-138, the Warriors have come face to face with the Pacific-Rim versions of Spidey and Doc Ock, who are in the process of tearing up Spider-Punk’s dimension (and not in the good, punk rock kind of way). Hopping again to Earth-803, Mayday has decided to make the most of her time by spending time in the kitchen, whilst Spider-UK does the proper work of getting back to the team (1 point to sexism!). Octavia finds a way of fixing the web – by pulling at the strand of Lady Spider’s dimension. This repair the connection to Earth-803, but also scatters the Warriors throughout various dimensions. Not only that, it also opens the Faraday Cage, leaving Mayday and UK to deal with an onslaught of angry (and probably quite hungry)  Electros…

Spider-Thoughts: I’m not too sure what to make of this issue. I enjoyed it, yes, but I’m not sure how much. You see, whilst this issue had the trademark wit of its predecessors, a certain spark was gone that made the first few issues so magical.

Let’s start off with what worked with this issue. Baldeon. David Baldeon. That sunnuva gun kills it again, making every character expressive, every visual joke hilarious and every dimension uniquely brilliant to explore.  I especially love the stark difference between how he illustrates Ham’s cartoonish world and Noir’s gritty New York. His work is elaborate, showing the craziness and depth of each new dimension, yet also crisp and easy to navigate. This allows the reader to not miss a single detail in the worlds he concocts. For me, the highlight of this issue has to be the smartly laid out panels when the Spiders are scattered between dimensions – it is simply great to look at and a lot of thought clearly went into it. The fact that Baldeon has consistently given such a stellar performance on every issue to date shows that he is an artist that needs to watched out for in the future.

I also have to commend Costa on the individuality that continues to shine through in each issue. Even if it just a throwaway joke or a little reaction to the plot’s advancements, he manages to convey to the reader that all of these Spiders are their own characters. Whilst Gwen is shown as a bit more upbeat than herself in Latour’s ongoing, I’ve grown appreciative of this as it allows the smaller characters, unable to headline their own books, the time to shine (but seriously, in today’s market, why don’t some of these characters get their own series? We have room for four ‘Mercs for Money’ ongoings but not one ‘Spider-Ham’? #GetSpiderHamOngoing).

 However, despite being so heavy on action, this issue pretty much exists to set up the next one. I came out of this pumped for ‘Tangled States Part 3’ then I was for the events that had transpired in ‘Part 2’. Stuff happens and the plot advances but it was more sending the cogs in motion for our final few issues. Rather than being fresh and exciting like last issue, this installment kinda just goes through the motions, taking the characters in directions I kind of knew they were going in. At least this promises to wrap up all the loose ends to plots that Costa has set up in previous issues. So all in all, this isn’t really a complaint – after all, every series has to have issues like this or the pacing would be awful. I just like the previous issues a lot more. 

So if you’re already aboard the Web Warriors train, make sure you check this out. If not, I’m not going to demand you pick this issue up. It’s just a little bit of advancement leading up to hopefully bigger and better things in the final three issues. Because of this, it deserves a:

C+ (Maybe push it to a B-)

Best line: “And I’m the leader of this team so I’m making a call…we hit the one that doesn’t look like Spider-Man.”

Spider-Points of Spider-Interest

• Loomworld is one of the more interesting dimensions seen in all of the Spider-Verse. Seeing as this series is based from there, do you think we might be able to see a bit more of it outside the one room?
• Kudos to Caramagna on flattening Ham’s word bubble along with him.  
• Seeing as the Electros are only now just getting food, it must be a blood bath in the Faraday Cage. A group of villains who have been established as temperamental are not going to live for days/weeks without food and not kill each other. I’m surprised there is any of them left to escape. 
• When the Great Web is fixed, Ham 2099 falls into Ham’s world along with Gwen and Mega-Morph Doc Ock, yet he is nowhere to be found in the later scenes. He might still crop up in the next issue though.