Writer: Christos Gage
Based on a Story by Dan Slott
Artist and Cover Artist: Jorge Molina
Colorist: David Curiel
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
Reviewer: KrisK
As the book of Spider-Revelations in the Good Spider-Book had predicted, Spider-Geddon has come! Okay, those first things may be made up, but if you thought the wildly sucessful Spiderverse event could go without a sequel, particuarly in the year a Spiderverse movie releasing, you have not been paying attention to comic books. The whole cast is back to remind you why the team was so entertaining the first time.
The story starts off with the team getting back together. Someone arrogant uses Inheritor Tech, which risks bringing back the villains. The Inheritors, if you don’t know, travel the multiverse feeding off Spider-Totems a.k.a. the Spider-Men and Women of the multiverse. They pack incredible power, putting forth minimal effort taking out Spider-People. The proud fool messing with the technology ends up bringing them back, because whenever we do sequels, we have to recycle villains.
The story bulges with exposition, but the sin is not unforgivable because its been awhile since we played with these characters. If you haven’t read Spider-Verse, you will still be able to follow what’s going on and everyone’s schtick. The banter returns, making the issue entertaining and worth it on its own. I haven’t gotten to see many of these characters in years, so its great to have them return. I even got a Miles Morales fix to fill the void from his hiatus. This entry issue sets up the story and jokes around, but it doesn’t explore too much character growth. Hopefully, they won’t save that for the side issues; the personal side of the story was the strongest part of the original event. Besides, Peter Porker, of course.
The art fits in with the Spider-verse house style. It flows kinetically for the first 4/5 of the story. All the characters look exactly like they should, and I can tell that even when they add the rest of the Spider-People, I will have no trouble telling them apart.
The issue is the Spider-People are arguably the most kinetic heroes in Marvel, jumping around their opponents like Yoda in the Star-Wars Prequels. The Inheritors just kind of stand around and grab people. They slow the whole comic down. That being said though, the reason they come back feels natural considering the characters. I just think the Inheritors were the weakest part of the event last time and bringing them back seems a hindrance. I would rather they fought an army led by an evil Peter Parker from Earth 666 or something else. Pretty much anything else. Best decision of the new movie was to cut them out of the Spider-Verse story.
The biggest surprise in the comic felt rushed, and Molina drew them in an aloof fashion. I assume the thought process behind this decision was to keep the comic light, in spite of the events, but I would have rather they let the events be felt. If you are going to do something, do it right.
Verdict: Buy. While I wish they had moved onto a different villains, I loved watching the band get back together. A lot of the characters starring in the last event have moved to the background of the Marvel Universe for the moment, so seeing them all was amazing. With the dirty work of setting up the sequel done, I look forward to seeing where the story goes, and more importantly, how many pages of banter (i.e. Spider-Ham) I can get fed intravenously into my funny bone.
