Spider-Verse kicks off into high gear…or does it? Has this web slinging menagerie finally started to swing, or is it still bogged down in verbose speeches about Spider Totems?
“Spider-Verse Part One: Superior Force”
WRITER: Dan Slott
PENCILS: Oliver Coipel
COLORS: Justin Ponsor
INKS: Wade Von Grawbadger
LETTERS: Chris Eliopoulos
ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Ellie Pyle
EDITOR: Nick Lowe
PLOT: We begin the issue on earth 1610 (properly labelled this time around) more commonly known as The Ultimate Universe. Miles Morales, and Jessica Drew are attempting to fight off Lady Verna. Suddenly the Superior Spider-Man and his team of Spider-warriors pop in to save the day quickly dispatching Verna’s hunting dogs. They escape through a portal with Miles commenting that Verna has made it personal….because I guess she destroyed his mothers tombstone? Back in the universe with cosmic Spider-Man they attempt to devise a game plan, while Silk wanders around attempting to see if she has an immediate attraction to the other Spider-Men. She does not, and once the main group of Spiders decide to go out and join Superior’s Spider-Gang the adventure begins. Silk who was previously told to not go on the important Spider-Man mission decides she isn’t going to let some old man tell her what to do, and decides to enter the portal. When the two groups meet things begin to escalate quickly with Superior Spider-Man being a Spider-Dick to the new Spider-Men telling them that he had everything under control before they arrived. The added Spider scent of Kaine, and Silk cause the inheritors to close in on their position in order to attack. Daemos shows up, but is easily killed by The Superior Spider-Man (he only kills Spider-Cyborg). Oddly enough Daemos’s body doesn’t seem to be disintegrating as the inheritors normally do when defeated. This leads Ben Rielly and Kaine to surmise that they are using clones. Soon a new Daemos appears, snaps old Spider-Man’s neck and all the spider clones jump to whichever universe originated the clones (catch them from here on out in their tie in series called 
Scarlet Spiders). The Old man Spider is revealed to be *sigh* Ezekiel who delivers exposition about the importance of “The Other”, “The Bride”. and “The Scion”. Silk realizing she is important proceeds to lure the inheritors jumping through her own portal with Spider-Woman and Spider-Man Noir. The Spider-Men fly through a portal to escape, and Superior Spider-Man yells that “he is now in charge”.
STORY: So this issue is almost entirely set-up, but interesting things still occur. Silk is for once in her existence endearing, and I adore her outright refusal to listen to Ezekiel. She is sassy, and unruly which makes her more of a real character. Speaking of Ezekiel I honestly was disappointed with this reveal. All he served for in this story was to bring more exposition, which is a lot less interesting then what could have happened with an Uncle Ben spider. Superior Spider-Man was less of an aggressive hero in this issue, and more of an unruly ass. Sure I laughed when he commanded Captain Spider-Britain to shut up, but it didn’t seem to fit his character. Sure Superior Spider-Man would be a jerk, but I doubt he would suddenly become completely totalitarian. It is sad that A. Spider-Britain did nothing this issue, and B. Cyborg Spider-Man died. RIP you cybernetic dream from my childhood we barely knew ye.
Unfortunately a lot of the other Spiders get lost in the big battles of this issue which is why it makes sense for all of the rampant tie-in issues we are going to be swamped with for the next few months. There just isn’t enough comic space to flesh out all of them. Scarlet Spiders should be a delightful blast from the 90s, and it will be good to see Ben Rielly do some awesome Spidering yet again. The Spider-Woman tie-in actually became interesting due to the events of this issue, and by god I think silk is slowly growing on me. As for the rest of the Spider-Verse tie-ins it appears that the Spider-Verse title is more of an anthology series, and the Spider-Verse Team-Up will take place in the Superior Spider-Man early days not directly affecting the main plot. Spider-Man 2099’s tie-ins are getting a lot of teases which is leading me to suspect he may in fact by the scion. So in summation if you are low on dollars the essential Spider-Verse tie-ins are for sure are Scarlet Spiders, and Spider-Woman, with Spider-Man 2099 possibly being important. Personally I would have preferred if they had split the teams up more naturally by having them each be sent on individual missions but it worked well enough in the story. Also not enough Spider-Gwen, come on Spider-Verse you know all we want in life is more Spider-Gwen.
Where in the time line of Ultimate Spider-Man does this take place? Regardless of the time shouldn’t Ultimate Peter Parker still be at large when this issue occurs? Is this a secret spoiler for Ultimate Spider-Man or have the inheritors just forgot about one Spider-Totem.
Overall this issue is mainly just a set up issue, so its not especially important in the wide scope of this event, but its still a fun enjoyable read.
With Lady Verna having a major beef with Miles Morales now I feel it apt to remind you of the Spider Grudges:
- Amazing Spider-Man vs. Morlun
- Superior Spider-Man vs. Karn
- Spider-Girl vs. Daemos
- Miles Morales Ultimate Spider-Man vs. Lady Verna
ART: Yet again I would have to say the stand out of this issue is the outstanding artwork. Coipel continues to deliver some of the best artwork I’ve seen in a long time, and I really hope he stays on the book after this event has finished its run.
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I too have been wondering about the other two “Spiders” in the Ultimate universe. I don’t know if it’s because Peter gave up being Spider-man to run away with Mary-Jane, if that unmakes him a totem so to speak…. Kaine, though, should definitely be around, and I was hoping to see that interaction of Ultimate (1610) Kaine with Miles….
BTW… Thanks for the awesome reviews. 🙂
And while I’m ranting, let me go on to say: Does this character have any motivations for doing anything? She just pops out of the magical prison and within seconds starts gaily adventuring? It’s like she popped out of a toaster.
And wasn’t she (presumably) a virgin? She’s torn out of her prison cell by a masked man she’s never met, is forced to mate (her first time) with that unknown man, and doing that has absolutely no damaging impact on her? Any young woman would feel this was some sort of nightmare. But Cindy Moon isn’t angry, or horrified, she doesn’t weep, she doesn’t feel… violated? She’s a pornographer’s dream.
I said this before, but it comes to mind again: After all those years in complete isolation, Cindy Moon should be bouncing-off-the-walls insane. Nuttier than a Snickers bar. Crazier than Caesar Romero on a bad hair day.
Also: If she is better than Spider-Man, why couldn’t she escape Ezekiel’s magical, Morlun-proof apartment on her own? Peter easily broke in. I don’t see a reason why she couldn’t break out.
How did she eat? What happened when she got sick when she was a kid? Where did her parents go? Didn’t they look for her?
I agree with #5 Big John’s take on this, I like Silk even less now, if that’s possible. There was nothing ‘spunky’ about her idiotic decision to endanger other people’s lives. On the other hand, I liked the reveal of Ezekial as the older Spider-Man, makes sense to me. My big hope in all of this is that both Ben and Spock can somehow survive the end of this series and be continuing characters.
Nice, Andrew! I actually really liked this issue for some of the opposite reasons you disliked it, and vice verse lol! First off, Silk is anything but endeering to me here. Fresh off of her showing up Spider-Man, she feels the need to run off half-cocked when she has a universe full of Spider-Folks telling her that, for the good of them all, she needs to stay the eff put. Who does this chick think she is?! And good gracious am I tired of the Spider-Gwen hype. It’s making me like her character even less than I did (I’m not harping on you or the Crawlspace so much as the Internet as a whole). I understand the Emma Stone was a hit, and flat out agree that her costume looks awesome, but the character herself has gone from being a genuine disappointment in a misfire of a story to just a flat out “Emperor’s New Clothes” type of frustration. I was hoping that we would get a genuine “What If. . .?” Gwen got Spider-Powers story, but her abrasive, anti-authoritarian, occasionally foul-mouthed, and punked-out drummer of a character neither resembles 616 Gwen nor Emma Stone (she does kind of resemble 1610 Gwen, but who cares?). *huffhuff* Anyways, sorry to rant, and genuine kudos to those of you who dig her, but I’m just not on board with this interpretation. But, still, great review! Thanks Crawlspace!
Great review. I agree with #3. Cloning the villain in that way can lead to a lot of cheap fake-outs for the reader. Or it can be a kind of retroactive explanation for a supposed death. I do love that artwork.
Its interesting that Slott is using mystical clones to why Morlun and family are still alive and how the Master Weaver really killed the mother. Makes sense and if the clones basically merge back with the originals like Multiple Man it makes sense how they all survive. However, its an easy out like the Jackal using multiple clones or Hobgoblin using brainwashed thugs or Mysterio using illusions and his automatons to keep you from believing the original ones is there.
It seems the mc2 version of Kaine was forgotten along the way too.
So, Peter basically has next to no importance in this portion of the story?
Geez- I knew that it was bad, but I kind of thought that in a series based all around Spider-Man, Peter would at LEAST avoid getting sidelined in his OWN STORY for Slott’s pet characters.