The endgame.
Spider-Verse has left me with mixed feelings. On the one
hand, I got some genuine character moments that wouldn’t have been possible
with only one Peter and on the other, high octane action has sometimes deprived
this event of the depth it needed to be truly enjoyable.
And that is what rears its ugly head as Spider-Verse comes
to a close.
First of all, the artwork is terrific! Guiseppi Camuncoli
and Olivier Coipel make an awesome combo, and it shows in every panel. These
two have helped Spider-Verse be the visual spectacle it ended up as.
But when you go to the writing department, problems crop up.
Rushed pacing, weird reversal of stakes – everything wrong with event comics
are shown here.
SPOILERS FOLLOW…………….
The first group of panels deserved a lot of breathing space
and didn’t get it.
Lady Verna deploys a group of Green Goblins aka Norman
Osborns to attack Jessica Drew and Spider-Gwen. Mindful of the fact that in
most of their worlds, Peter lost Gwen thanks to Osborn’s machinations, he tells
her to back away and let him take on the Goblin.
But Gwen refuses, and knocks the Goblin attacking her out –
then thanks Peter of 616 for giving her the benefit of the doubt.
This could have been handled so much better. An event stands
as much on its explosive moments as it does on its heartfelt ones. This
sequence shows a change in balance with Gwen moving out of her victim labeling
– but by making it rushed, it looses a lot of the emotion it needs to evoke.
Anyway, in the inner sanctum of the Inheritors, Daemos
mourns his father’s death as he blasts the Weaver’s prophecies saying that his
father would outlive him (even though in the last issue only, we saw him say
the opposite. Continuity error!), only for Jennix to come up with a
crystal-like reservoir holding his essence that is sadly in need of a clone
body.
Morlun first of all kills the Other – making sure it can
never be host to any more Spider Totems. Then he wounds Silk, making sure the
Bride is destroyed. I wonder whether the Weaver’s statement of ‘unwanted luck’
points to the Spider Sense?
But just as he moves to attack the Scion aka Ben Parker, he
is interrupted by the Spider Army. While Superior Spider-Man and Spider-Girl
take on Daemos, Peter goes in to personally square with Morlun.
Reinforcements come with Karn and others – while this is a
good moment (especially seeing the smug smiles of the Twins go away), it again
feels too rushed given only an issue ago Karn was the enemy and this role
reversal happened in a tie-in.
Morlun goes to kill Ben to end the Spider line but finds
Spider-Ben has switched the baby with Spider-Pig (totally naked). More help
comes in the form of Spider-Man 2099, Lady Spider and the Robot Leopardon, leading to an
amusing quip from the Japanese Spider-Man.
Spider-Girl gets the crystal housing Solus’ essence, and
even as she threatens to break it, SpOck kills the Master Weaver.
Everyone is shocked, especially Morlun – given the Weaver’s
importance to the multiverse’s foundation, Otto’s actions could have doomed them
all.
Enraged, Morlun attacks Peter and starts draining his life
source, only for the latter to take them to the radioactive Earth 3145. With
Morlun’s greater sensitivity, he is weakened but Peter offers him Ezekiel’s
shelter. Peter himself has no strength left, but Silk’s timely arrival prevents
his death.
Mayday spares Solus and a confused Daemos is grateful but
doesn’t understand the concept of mercy. All of the Inheritors except Karn are
thrown into the radioactive wasteland after Morlun.
Even as everyone takes stock of what has happened, Cindy aka
Silk and Peter have a private moment – only holding hands, no roughness. It’s
been a long day.
But there is so much we still don’t know. What did the
Weaver mean by his cryptic mutterings when Morlun was ‘killing’ the Other and
the Bride? Is Kaine actually dead? And what will be the implications of the
Master Weaver’s murder? What will happen to Otto?
There are too many questions raised in this issue that
prevent it from being and end point to this event, only making it a stop to get
on for the next one.
SPOILERS END………………
Slott manages to craft a good enough event, but it goes
through numerous highs and lows before ending on the lower end of the
satisfaction spectrum.
Rushed pacing contributes a lot to the underwhelming ending,
though the artwork is fantastic.
Ultimately, this event ends like most of what Slott has done
– an excellent premise ruined by an over-long issue count and pacing problems,
even though there are some nuggets of gold scattered throughout the event.
So, I give it 7.0 out of 10.
+Some excellent artwork
+Each major character continues to have a distinctive voice
+The concepts
-Rushed pacing
-Underwhelming ending
-Too many questions raised for this to be a contained event
No comments:
Post a Comment