Another beloved Spider-character in danger. Will May Day Parker make it out of Spiderverse alive?
“Adventures In Babysitting”
PLOT: Dan Slott
SCRIPT: Christos Gage
PENCILS: Giuseppe Camuncoli
INKS: Cam Smith
COLORS: Antonio Fabela
LETTERS: Chris Eliopoulos
“Edge of Spider-Verse: My Brothers Keeper”
WRITER: Dan Slott
PENCILS: Humberto Ramos
INKS: Victor Olazaba
COLORS: Edgar Delgado
LETTERS: Chris Eliopoulos
COVER: Camuncoli/Smith/Fabela
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ellie Pyle
EDITOR: Nick Lowe
PLOT: This issue picks up precisely where the previous issue left off with Ms. Marvel, and Spider-Man fighting a super powered rage monster who is the fake evil Ms. Marvel. The team-up goes well with the two of them outmanoeuvring the beast, and stealing the cocoon. The cocoon hatches and it is revealed to be a baby! Ms. Marvel takes the baby to shelter as Spider-Man distracts the evil Kree. Unfortunately for Spidey the monster has laser vision, and launches him through a variety of cars. As her henchman slowly approach Ms. Marvel the one Henchman who previously mentioned having a past with Spider-Man last issue saves the day and the baby. Spider-Man uses his smarts to trick the evil Ms. Marvel monster to leave faking a call to the Kree Empire. Once the baby is back safe and sound with its parents, Spider-Man gets Ms. Marvel to go back to school, and its revealed the good Henchman was actually Clash. After a brief discussion Spider-Man gets Clash a job at Parker Industries to help his life turn around. The subplot of the story involves Silk who is attempting to look for apartments while working at the Fact Channel. The head of the Fact Channel discusses with Cindy Moon the desire to make Silk her channels speciality. Similar to how the daily bugle treats Spider-Man, her only issue? Silks costume. So naturally Silk gets a new costume from some weird place and has a big fight with The Ringer. Silk wins the fight, and wins over the Fact Channel.
The second section of this issue involves another Spiderverse villain, killing more Spider-totems. This time its in the MC2 universe with 
Peter and Mary Jane happily married, and their daughter May Day Parker has taken the mantel of Spider-Girl. We get introduced to Daemos who looks exactly like Morlun but he is bigger, and has his eyebrow pierced. As he holds May Day down and prepares to end her in the burning household, Peter slams into Daemos in order to lock him into an epic fight. Mary Jane gives May Day her little brother, and the two escape the burning building with the screams of Mary Jane and Peter languishing in the background. She is rescued by Superior Spider-Man’s spider squad. As she slowly fades away into the future she declares that she fully intends to kill Daemos as soon as she gets the chance.
STORY: Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this issue, and it has some controversial moments but they feel more natural to the story than last issue. For starters the Ms. Marvel team-up issue has a great follow through, and the fight scene feels like classic comic fare. The reveal of the henchman being Clash was a little let down. I would have preferred if Clash was brought back at a later date instead of so soon after Learning To Crawl, it makes his appearance seem like more of an advertisement than a natural storytelling development. Still it will be interesting to see where they take Clash in the future, hopefully he can play more of a Spider-support role in Parker Industries. Like a modern day pre-shed Curt Connors, as opposed to a “villain” who takes Parker Industries down from the inside.
Silks inclusion in this issue seems to be more set-up for her solo title that is coming soon. That being said her line about Spider-Woman’s costume not getting insulted is either a clever reference to the recent Spider-Woman issue #1 controversy, or an incredibly dumb line. WAIT a minute how does she even know about Spider-Woman? I guess the easy reference point would be either she appeared on one of her VHS tapes, or used Google but it still feels like an awkward reference. I do enjoy the costume change, as Silk’s original costume was terrible. It is also 
worth questioning who this version of the villain The Ringer is, as the last person to take up the mantle got brutally crippled during Superior Spider-Man.
Now for the big part of this story that will no doubt split the fandom in half. The death of Peter Parker, and Mary Jane from the MC2 universe. This is the last universe that has an identifiable Mary Jane, and Peter Parker in a happy marriage. For many fans of old continuity it was a sign of what they hoped would eventually become of our favourite web-slinging hero. While I do have a great sadness for the demise of a happy Peter, and MJ relationship I am okay with it occurring because it seems to have an actual storytelling purpose. Unlike the death of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends this death directly affects May Day parker who is a major player in this epic spider crossover. It puts her in a place of anger that will no doubt be manipulated by the Superior Spider-Man for his own means. I feel like the big “nemesis” fights of Spiderverse will be as follows: Superior Spider-Man vs. Karn, The Amazing Spider-Man vs. Morlun, Spider-Girl vs. Daemos, and all the Spider-Men vs. Morlun’s Dad. It is nice to have different Spider-Totems that have anger directed at different members of the family, it will add to the dynamic of the group. My biggest complaint with the death of Peter and MJ is the design of Daemos. Daemos is very derivative of Morlun’s design and has little features to make him stand out from the crowd.
B+
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Silk can do everything perfect — even though she ought to be a totally nuts after suffering a decade in solitary confinement, and should have no fighting skills whatsoever.
So been a long time since I’ve read MC2, but last I knew she had a Venom-clone-sister as well…she’s getting left out despite being the more reasonable one to want blood?
@21 My review was mostly positive? Don’t insult until you’ve actually taken the time to read the review.
To the rest of the comments:
1. You guys are totally right its Spider-Man UK’s group not Superiors so my bad.
2. SILK MADE THAT COSTUME HERSELF? How the hell can she do that haha
All I have to say I feel sorry for Mayday.
@#21
When they write something I can actually enjoy, I’ll let you know.
Alright guys. You clearly all have informed opinions and I’m not gonna tell you guys you’re wrong. But the wanton cynicism that pervades both these comments and some reviews in this site has been REALLY getting to me.
http://thehaunteddrive-in.blogspot.com/2013/08/cynics-will-kill-us-all.html?m=1
I don’t think I’m gonna visit this site anymore. No one here seems to even want to try to enjoy Spider-Man comics for what they are now. You guys take care.
@14: I feel like it’s due to biological differences, the most obvious being that Peter is male and Cindy is female. Also, maybe Slott thought it was a good idea to give her slightly different powers because that would make her more “interesting” and not just a Spider-Woman with powers derivative of Spider-Man’s, but that’s pretty much backfired.
@18 – “it turns May into yet another vengeance seeking orphan because her loved ones were fridged.” – This is what I hated the most about the backup. It’s so cliched, and he will now no doubt take all the fun out of May’s character. Fortunately if another writer wants to use Spider-Girl in the future they can easily hand wave this entire issue by saying that this takes place in a “version” of the MC2 universe.
To be fair Spider-Gwen isn’t a Slott creation, he’s had zero input in her character yet, he’s just as likely to screw her up like he has May.
IMO, there is zero story significance to the deaths in the backup.
1) we already knew the Morlun-pires were bad. This is merely gratuitous, the hack’s cop out to stir up reader emotion when one lacks writing skills and can’t use characterization, themes and arcs.
2) it turns May into yet another vengeance seeking orphan because her loved ones were fridged. Yawn, been there, done that, got the broken pearl necklace and the batarang.
3) it spits on May’s established characterization and universe for no other reason than for her to be a minor player in the event (you’re gonna tell me May will receive more page space and development than Slott’s pets Spider-Gwen or Silk?! Shyeah, right. She’ll get a ten or so page backup story in which DeFalco will do his best to work with the crappy hand he’s been dealt, and we’re lucky to get that. I bet Ashley Barton will play a more significant role in the story. And of course the male spiders will carry the day – it’s called Spider-Man after all).
Look, I get not wanting to include MC2 Peter in the event. But implying MJ and Wes are also dead? Leaving a baby without his mother? That’s crass, even for Slott.
I have a feeling the multiverses will reset at the end with zero lasting consequences – just like how SpOtto taking over Peter’s body ended with a damp squib of nothing – and I suspect this is just a big ol’ fat troll at the expense of fans who still have affection for older versions such as MC2 and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. Even so, this back up story was superfluous, unnecessary and lazy shock value for shock value’s sake.
Plus, the dialogue? So heavy-handed, the Hulk couldn’t lift it.
As for Silk- man! What can’t she do?!?!?!! I mean, sure, her spider-powers do whatever she needs them to do in the moment, but I thought her greatest superpower was landing a job despite a lack of documented education or government ID. And now she’s creating multi-colored spandex out of her bodily emissions: WOW! She should forget the superhero thing and go on Project Runway, stat.
@15 – Hahahah I used to love that show! But even that makes more sense than Silk creating a multi-color costume out of grey webfulid.
Oh wow i had no idea the video would appear that big. Thought it would just be a hyper-link. I feel like an idiot now.
@14 Why does Silk have a superpower that lets her make clothes? Well, she’s not the first one!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsL82F-SdTE
@12 – Why can Silk do that though? She was bitten by the same Spider as Peter, she should have the same powers. Is it because it bit her on the ankle or something stupid like that?
Marvel used to tell people to go read Spider-Girl if they wanted to read about a happily married Peter Parker. Then we had to deal with cancellations. And now this. And why? Because Slott happens. Yet another favorite character for him to piss all over for the sake of pushing HIS favorites. And when he does that, it makes it hard to acknowledge when he actually does something good in his books. Because you’re too pissed off to care.
im prety sure silk made the costume herself. she seems to have ability to make different types of webbing like during the issue when they cured electro she said that she could spin different types of it, so maybe she can do different colors too?
This is not the way MC2 Pete and MJ deserved to go out. It’s inconsistent with their characters’ stories to die at the hands of an interdimensional Morlun rip-off. I would very much like to hear Zach Joiner’s reaction to this. Maybe the panel could call him up when reviewing these issues?
…Actually, the newspaper strip still has a happily married Peter and MJ and I find them very identifiable, they seem to be being left alone in Spider-Verse so far
That didnt look like superiors squad. Spider Uk ans Last Stand spidey are there. This also lets us know which camp spider ham and last stand are in.
@6 Uhh dude, she just saw both her parents and presumably her boyfriend killed. She’s clearly racked with grief and anger. It makes perfect sense for her to feel that way.
It looks like she is rescued by uk spiderman not superior spiderman.
And once again slott doesn’t understand ANYTHING about the characters he writes. If May would really go down that path of anger and violence, it would basically like killing her father a second time. Cause as she pointed out, itd go against everything he very taught her and everything he ever stood for. I can not see the mayday I know, that was willing to sacrifice herself to stop the goblin\spider feud with normie and that forgave her clone for all the thing she has done just say that. She knows better.
Obscenities Intensify.
@#1-I doubt DeFalco was ever going to do that at all. It’d betray everything he’d done in the series and he’d turned down the idea of killing Peter multiple times.
@2- Peter, yes we see a corpse. MJ, no but we hear her scream so…..
So, do we actually SEE Peter and MJ getting killed?
Great review sir!
I really enjoyed the first part of the story. I love the interaction between ms. marvel and spidey, I love to see more team ups between those two
in the future.
The second part of the story I got mixed feelings. The thing is, spider-girl is the first comic/trade paperback I ever read. I bought it in a book fair when I was in elementary school and I became a big fan of comic books ever since. At the time when I was a kid, I didn’t grasp the concept of alternate realities in comics, so I thought the mc2 was the actual status quo in the marvel universe heh.
So the Mayday and her family are very dear to me and it saddens me that peter and mj had to die like that. But your right though, the deaths have an actual storytelling purpose and with the incursions going on the mc2 might be a goner any way. It was nice to see Peter go out as a hero protecting his family and it was nice to see mj to be strong and stay at peter’s side t’ill the very end.
And according to some people online DeFalco gave some hints he was gonna kill Mayday’s parents anyway. Apparently there’s an issue where she had a vision talking to an older Benjy Parker, and he made a reference to “the night their parents died”.