Spider-Verse #2 Review

The little things……………..

This issue is an exploration of the Spider’s multiple sides as an icon – a trickster, a rebel and a person.

We take a look at four different Spiders before moving forward to an intimate moment during the final conflict with the Inheritors. The pacing is a little abrupt but it makes us by the beautiful storytelling.

Given this issue is handled by a team of artists, it varies between wonderful to okay.

SPOILERS FOLLOW……….

Dan Slott opens the issue with an interesting take on videogame Spidey, as Morlun is unfazed by all the combos and double combos before making it ‘game over’ with an inheritor fist attack.

The childlike joy in seeing each attack heralded by its name being shouted out and the irritating boss battles where you face foes that seem immune to your attacks are both mentioned here.

Next up is a celebration of Anansi the Trickster God. Anasi is a West African spirit that appears as a spider, and is the storyteller due to him being lord of all knowledge.

The artwork is vivid and really transports you to the African heartlands – and poor Spider-UK is placed smackdab in the middle of it.

We see Anansi in multiple roles here – the trickster, the storyteller and the friend. He includes Spider-UK in his ‘story’ of the tiger stealing the sheep.

Spider-UK is dressed up as a sheep and Anansi’s friend the Tiger leads the owner of the sheep, Mr Mighty, on a fruitless chase. When it’s all over, Spider-UK asks Anansi why he even tends Mighty’s flock despite the latter’s animosity towards him and it’s here we see a glimpse of Peter – it’s his responsibility.

We also see a lot of West African folklore – Spirits, talking animals etc.

Then we move on to a dysoptian world where the President is Norman Osborn who uses a Venom-like substance to suppress the public. Here, we see Spider-Man as the voice of the people, the rebel unbending to oppressive rule – as they use sonics to stop the army and Punk-Rock Spider-Man himself takes out the President.

We’ve seen this character on SpOck’s army before (the one with the spikes in his mask) and it seems like we may get more of him later.

It’s amusing to move from that to Mexico City, where we see a Lucha libre inspired Spider-Man (whose origins mirror Daredevil’s to a certain extant) as we see him tirelessly try to save a young girl. It’s a very straightforward story made a little different for the dual Spanish/English dialogues.

This shows how Peter is not just an American icon, but a global one with fans in the farthest reaches of the planet. And anyone can be Spider-Man, doesn't have to be born in a particular place.

Dan Slott comes back for the final story, a tease of the final battle on the Inheritor’s homeworld. Two Spider-Men run dry on their webbing and talk heart-to-heart of their similarities and differences.

Whether this is our Peter (616 version) or not doesn’t matter. Both feel like variations on our known history of Peter Parker. They even mention the similarities in both their histories without finding differences, and chalk it up to little things.

But of course, we know Peter has only worn the black costume a few times. And if this is post-Back in Black Peter, he lost Aunt May and killed the Kingpin. It brings back memories of a horrible period in the readers’ and Peter’s life (selling his marriage and unborn daughter to the devil for the life of an aunt who was already close to dying of old age. Through to be fair, she was dying because of his stupidity).

They also mention Tobey Macguire ('Sea-biscuit')and Andrew Garfield’s ('Social Network') incarnations; with 616 Peter saying Garfield was good. The Sony deal prohibits using their names and likeness, but if you know those two actors’ famous films, you’ll get the hint. Also, we got the Electric Company Spider-Man ('teaching me english') and the infamous Spider-Man musical Turn Off The Dark ('showtunes').

So many Spider-Men......

SPOILERS END……………….

A little abrupt and haphazard but overall well told, this anthology has been very good in showing the different sides of Spider-Man’s mythos.

The artwork, especially the Anansi portion, was solid and did credit to the stories.

So, I give it 8.0 out of 10.

+Some good showing of Spider-Man’s different roles

+Artwork in sync with the stories told

+Intimate moments

-Abrupt jumps

-Isn’t really that impactful on the event