The Amazing Spider-Man (Spider-Verse) #10
Previously in Spider-Verse #1
Earth-1610
Verna and her hounds are about to feast upon Miles Morales and Jessica Drew when Assassin Spider-Man (Earth-8351) and Spider-Punk (Earth-138) arrive on the scene with The Self-Ascribed Superior Spider-Man of Earth 616 (Doc Ock’s brain in Peter Parker’s body). They do the whole “come with us if you want to live” bit and demand that the teens suit up.
The Safe Zone (Earth-13)
While the team makes arrangements to hook up with another group of Spiders banding together, Silk wanders around trying to see if she shares the same connection with any of the other Peter Parkers. Remember: being bitten by the same spider as our Peter (Earth 616) has Silk drawn to him. So far, she doesn’t.
Our Peter is given his own portal device and is told to pick a team to go with him to bring in the other group. He chooses Miguel, Spider-Woman, and Silk, but Grumpy Spider-Man (which is what I’m calling him now) doesn’t want Silk to go. Of course, she slips through the portal anyway.
When they arrive at the new group’s hideout we get a look a few more totems like Spider-Man Noir of Earth-90214, Spider-Monkey of Earth-8101, and Ashley Barton, Spider-Woman of Earth-807128. There’s a particularly funny beat where Spider-Monkey has the nerve to side-eye Spider-Ham.
Of special note here is that the new group has the “Superior” Spider-Man of Earth-616, but he’s from the past; misplaced in time. Our Peter has to make sure he doesn’t learn he’s defeated in the future or else Superior might try to change the outcome.
Unfortunately, thanks to Silk’s presence and an abundant supply of totems in one place, Daemos arrives looking to feast. He takes out a Cyborg Spider before being killed. As the group debates what to do next, Spider-Man (Ezekiel) is killed when two taloned hands come out of nowhere. The other Inheritor siblings have arrived, including Daemos! The first Daemos on the scene was a clone.
All hell breaks loose.
In the chaos, the group is fractured. A few of the clones - including Jessica Drew (Earth-1610) - jump to the location from which the clone Daemos came. They hope to learn more about how it’s possible he had one. A clone thang; we wouldn’t understand. (We’ll pick up that story in Scarlet Spiders #1)
Ezekiel isn’t dead after all and passes on a message to our Spider-Man: keep the special totems - including Silk a.k.a. The Bride - safe. Feeling guilty, and hoping to draw the Inheritors away from the group, Silk snatches Spidey’s new portal device and opens one up. She jumps through and Spider-Woman (Earth-616) and Spider-Man Noir are tasked with following her. (We’ll pick up that story in Spider-Woman #1)
And another group jumps away with the Daemos clone’s corpse and Daemos is following closely. (We’ll pick up that story in Spider-Man 2099 #6).
Back at the safe zone, Superior Spider-Man declares he’s in charge.
Questions & Thoughts
- Boy am I glad I decided to go back and read the entire Spider-Verse series and not just read Spider-Woman. These stories are so layered - and a bit hard to keep up with sometimes - and fun to read. It’s been interesting watching the different totems interact.
- The way the group managed to become fractured, and thus break off into their own series, really felt like it came out in an organic way. It made sense that these totems would those decisions.
- The panel with the real Daemos snapping that Spider’s neck was brutal. It was just so eerily drawn and sudden.
- So, Peter’s clone is The Other and Silk is The Bride.
The story continues in Spider-Woman #1, which I already reviewed when it was first released. You can read that review here.
