It’s time to find the final member of the Spider-Team as The War of the Multiverse heats up in Web of Spider-Verse: New Blood #1 — written by Vc Chris Eliopoulos, Mat Groom and Greg Pak, and drawn by Vc Chris Eliopoulos, Sumit Kumar, Alan Robinson, Luciano Vecchio and Federico Vicentini. What does it take for one of these Spider-People to be chosen for the team? Extra super strength? Superhuman drive? Or perhaps something even greater?
The Web-Heart must build a team of Spider-Heroes from across the Spider-Verse to go up against their counterparts in the inevitable War of the Multiverse. The choice must not be taken lightly as its pick will directly correlate to that of their enemies. Three candidates are put under the microscope to see if they will be the right fit. Will Peter Parker’s newly found strength as Spider-Hulk be enough? Will Count Parker and Mary-Jane Van Helsing’s devotion prove strong enough? Or will a Miles Morales from the future swing in as an unstoppable force as he takes on two mantles as Spider-Prowler?
Spider-Hulk Spider-Smashes Through New York
Peter Needs To Stick To The Rivers and the Lakes That He’s Used To
A version of Peter Parker that readers are very familiar with, laments that he’s an underdog in the superhero world even with his super-strength. When he’s going up against literal gods and monsters, his strength pales in comparison. That is until the day Pete gets a hit of gamma and turns into Spider-Hulk. This chapter is really fun and a great way to start off the issue. It’s chaotic in a great way. Peter starts to lose control of his newly found strength and, at the same time, readers lose track of what’s going on. Spider-Hulk attacks Doc Ock, who has taken MJ in his clutches. Peters slams Doc Ock down to the ground without saving MJ first. She gets lost in the panels for a bit before popping up unharmed. The chaos really works to help readers feel the upheaval of Peter’s superhero-ing. This also ends up being one of the big reasons that the Web-Heart decides that this Spider-Hero isn’t the right one for the job. Everyone’s on the same page by the end. The cherry on top of this chapter is the incredible reference to the iconic ending of The Incredible Hulk TV show.
Move Over JCVD, MJVH Is In Town
Mary-Jane Hunts Down the Reason Behind Her Spidey-Sense
In this world, Mary-Jane is a well-known vampire hunter named Mary-Jan Van Helsing. She’s jaded from years of hunting down “fangs” and considers it all just another day’s work. She approaches an eerie-looking house, the kind you’d expect to be filled with vampires, but then suddenly stops when she feels a tingle. She presses on and slays some vamps while confessing to them that she’s had dreams of bigger things for herself. The tingle makes a lot more sense when MJVH comes face to face with Count Parker, a vampire version of Spider-Man. She has visions of the two of them together throughout the Spider-Verse and can’t bring herself to kill him. Instead, Count Parker turns MJVH into a vampire. Together, they live out their lives in love.
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Spider-Gwen is a great character, but I have concerns about her inclusion in the upcoming second season of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.
This chapter is filled with a lot to like. There’s great artwork and penciling throughout, great writing, and a really moving story at its core. It’s impressive that such an effective, character-driven story could be so well told in such a short amount of time. The reasoning behind Web-Heart’s decision not to choose MJVH or Count Parker also makes total sense given the story readers have just read. These two, while extremely driven, also live their lives as vampires do; for themselves and for their own pleasure and indulgence. Not the best pick for the team.
Miles Has Heroism for Kilometers
The Web-Heart Finds Its Hero
In 2051, Miles and his Uncle Aaron defend a war-torn New York City from the Kree. In this state of war, The Prowler is willing to do whatever it takes to turn the tide, including killing Kree indiscriminately. Spider-Man, on the other hand, refuses to kill when he could simply hack a system to accomplish their goal and avoid needless violence. As these two disagree and continue their mission, The Prowler is killed and Miles decides to take up his mantle as well and becomes Spider-Prowler. This chapter, unfortunately, comes across as the weakest of the bunch. Where the other stories are interesting twists and takes on familiar characters, this feels more like the same Miles Morales origin but in a different setting. It does ultimately make sense though, as Miles’ heart ends up being exactly what the Web-Heart is looking for. Readers needed a sense that the version of Miles they know is the same version that they can be confident would be a good addition to this team.
The War of the Multiverse Is On
This Issue Lays Out an Exciting Path Forward
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How to Read the Spider-Verse Events in Order
Spider-Man and his extended family of characters came together for the epic Spider-Verse event, which led to sequels and series with fun new variants.
Like the many other journeys through the Spider-Verse in other media, this is a lot of fun. It’s exciting and interesting to see different takes on these familiar stories. These are heroes with strong foundations that creative artists can build something new on top of. These three chapters were each told really well and really efficiently considering their length. The premise also provided a great structure for these pieces to work together. That small framework elevates what could have felt like a simple anthology. Whereas this issue leaves readers excited to see what this team will get up to in the future of this multiversal war.
Spider-Verse
- Cast
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Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfield, Oscar Isaac, Jake Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry
