Review by Ian Keogh
Until the 1970s there was one Spider-Man and it was Peter Parker. Then came What If…? and assorted one-off alternatives whose lives had taken a different path were seen. Peter Porker, Spider-Ham provided comedy relief in the 1980s, while in the 1990s we met Miguel O’Hara, the Spider-Man of 2099, the Scarlet Spider and Mayday Parker, Spider-Girl. 2004 introduced the Ultimate Spider-Man and a year later we met Araña. From 2010 onwards, though, we’ve been introduced to a multitudinal multiverse full of alternate Spider-folk, with Miles Morales, Silk, Spider-Man Noir and Ghost-Spider spinning off into their own series. They, though, are just the tip of the iceberg, and the dam burst with Spider-Verse introducing dozens of other alternates and variations and integrating them with the original.
Across the Multiverse supplies around sixty self-contained stories of varying lengths about the assorted Spider-People by assorted creators, covering a fair amount of moods. Some characters feature several times, as is the case for Carla Pacheco and Pere Pérez’s Spider-Rex, a Spider-Man dinosaur played for laughs, but not always as funny as intended. Araña is another repeat performer under Alex Segura and different artists, the connecting point into Spider Society (not included here), drawn on the sample art by Caio Majado. Most alternatives, though, only have the one appearance As might be expected from an anthology, the quality varies, but with the average to poor end of the scale dominating.
Of note is Spider-Boy’s first solo adventure. Humberto Ramos art sets the right tone, but Dan Slott is still finding his way and Spider-Boy’s dialogue and his eventual victory are too smart for the ten year old he’s supposed to be. It’s a problem corrected in his solo series. Slott’s submissions rank consistently above the median level with several whimsical shorts such as a fleeting appearance for Spider-Laird, a combination of Spider-Man with Macbeth. Some, though, might feel the sentient Spider-Mobile is a joke too far.
Yet bellyflopping isn’t the fate of everything that on paper seems a terrible idea. Spinstress features in two stories featuring clever plots from David Hein and art from Luciano Vecchio. The notable aspect is this being a Disneyfied princess version of Spider-Man starring in a musical, with the lyrics as smart as the plots.
As far as the art goes, it’s veterans like Juan Ferrerya and Pete Woods, setting the pace, although Bob Quinn matches them without being as well known. He draws Kaare Andrews’ ‘The Terrible Horror of the Spooky-Man’, a sort of Nightmare Before Christmas version of Spider-Man.
All Spider-Boxes are ticked, but you might want to try one of the slimmer paperbacks before gambling on the expense of this. Look for Edge of Spider-Verse, Edge of Spider-Verse: Bleeding Edge and Edge of Spider-Verse: Spider Society.
