Spider-Verse Team Up #1
Writers- Christos Gage & Roger Stern
Artists- Dave Williams & Bob McLeod
After reading this and the first issue of Spider-Verse I’m left believing that Spider-Ham is going to play a huge part in this event. Yeah, you read that right. With Spider-Verse kicking off this week, you think I would have had my fill of teaming up Spider-Men there. Nope, not even close. Spider-verse Team Up is a mini series that will run during this event that shows multiple teams of Spider-Men recruiting others for the fight. It’s a fun idea and that fun translates well to the page, but the real question is it a must read for everyone?
Before we dive into that let’s talk about the contents of this issue. Spider-Man is a rather easy character to figure out. You have the power, the responsibility, the bad luck, and the bad jokes. The entire foundation is there each time. The trick with these team up’s and Spider-Verse as a whole, is that all of these Spider-Men don’t behave the same. Christos Gage and Roger Stern have to find that balance in these tales. Here in this issue we have two team up missions and in those we have two Spider-Men who aren’t opposed to violence and killing at all. This creates an interesting dynamic between these teams and raises the question of what’s the best way to handle certain situations. That quandary is only going to be more pressing once the Inheritors start showing up. What I found really great is that the story is so easily accessible to newer readers, but it is chocked full of references for long time fans. Another little neat thing is that these different versions of Spider-Man may not only be what you see on the outside, there’s a reference here to possible world altering differences between these characters and it is something to keep an eye on.
In a book about teaming up with a cartoon pig and a six armed Spider-Man, the art reflects the mood of the story. Dave Williams and Bob McLeod create a fun and lighthearted visual atmosphere for the tales. Even when faced with things that could be as scary as a man spider and a pack of carnivorous vultures these characters come off more comical than worrisome.
Verdict
Buy it
For long time Spider-Man fans as myself this is as obvious a call as I could ever make. For those who aren’t overly familiar with Spider-Verse or just looking to stick to the main event it gets more tricky. While I would say that this book is not essential to read the event itself, it is a fun issue that I would recommend picking up and trying out. At worst there’s always some value in Spider-Ham.
