Edge of Spider-Verse #4
Writer- Clay McLeoo Chapman
Artist- Elia Bonetti
Everyone familiar with Spider-Man knows the ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ speech. It really is Uncle Ben’s defining moment in the comics and those two things helped shape Peter to become the person he is. What though, would happen if Uncle Ben wasn’t the person he was, and was someone more abrasive and abusive? How would that Peter turn out? Edge of Spider-Verse # 4 shows us, and spoilers…. It isn’t something good.
I had no idea what to expect with this issue, I only knew that it had a gorgeous old time (think 1930’s) style movie poster cover. Really amazing work there by Garry Brown. This version of Spider-Man is Patton Parnell and he’s unlike any of the Spider-Men yet, Clay McLeoo Chapman writes the this character really creepy. First off, it fits in well with the month of October, as this is a more horrific “Spider-Man” than I’ve ever seen. Why be good when you can be bad right? Honestly, I found the version of Patton pre spider bite to be more unsettling than afterwards when he’s gone straight crazy and ridiculously bad. That said, I still was pretty glad when Morlun decided to make his appearance at the end of the issue. I really did think we were getting 5 different versions of a hero with Edge of Spider-Verse so to be completely surprised with a “villain” so to speak was a nice surprise. I was slightly disappointed that the interior art didn’t match the cover, and that’s not to say Elia Bonetti’s pencils are bad at all, they’re actually quite good and it’s an enjoyable comic to look at. That cover though is just so good.
Verdict.
Buy it. Again with last week, it looks like were getting a one and done story from a universe I wouldn’t particularly care if we returned to. Unlike last week, I’ll recommend this issue for two reasons. One, it’s interesting to see a creepy and evil version of this character. It’s not often we get that Spider-Man. Two, it kind of fits in with the season. So if you’re looking for something that will make your skin crawl this month, you needn’t look further.
