The Spider-Verse is set to expand its web this summer, though Marvel and returning writer Dan Slott warn that it won't be for long: The End of the Spider-Verse is slated for later this year, and it will apparently end the multiversal Spider-family for good.
We'll see...
Beginning in August, Slott will play point guard for a five-issue anthology limited series, Edge of Spider-Verse, which employs the same name as the 2014 anthology series which introduced beloved characters like Ghost-Spider and Spider-Man Noir.
In the original limited series, creators introduced alternate-Earth variations of Spider-Man, and this new series will also introduce new Spider-characters, as well as "redefine" characters like Araña, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Gwen/Ghost Spider, and Spider-Man: India.
Issue #1 features four stories, 'Something Wicked This Way Comes' starring a new Scottish Spider-Man variant Spider-Laird by Slott and Martin Coccola; 'The Hero Within' starring Araña by Alex Segura and Caio Majado; 'Spider-Rex' starring the new dino-Spider-Man variant of the same name by Karla Pacheco and Pere Pérez; and 'My Dame... My Destiny' starring Spider-Noir by Dustin Weaver and D.J. Bryant.
Check out a lettered preview of pages from each of the four stories along with some additional first look pages.
Each issue will then feature new stories by various creative teams starring different Spider-variants, although some stories will be bridged by an overarching saga written by Slott.
New additions to the Spider-Verse canon include classic antagonists with new powers. Night-Spider is a new persona for world-class cat burglar Felicia Hardy, from a world where she got spider-powers instead of Peter. Her costume is designed by Kris Anka. Then there's Hunter-Spider, aka Sergei Kravenoff, created by Mark Bagley, who receives his Spider-powers in an unusual way.
It's probably best not to get too attached to these new spider characters, however. Marvel and Slott are promising Edge of the Spider-Verse brings the story of the Spider-centric Multiverse to a close and that later in the year readers will see "The End of the Spider-Verse."
Check out a gallery of Edge of Spider-Verse #1 variant covers.
That said, it seems unlikely that Marvel will totally do away with one of its most successful multiversal properties, especially with the two-part Across the Spider-Verse film production at Sony coming in 2023 and the MCU beginning to pay with multiverses in Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But we'll see what Marvel and Slott have up their sleeves.
Edge of Spider-Verse #1 will hit shelves August 3, with the rest of the limited series following on a bi-weekly schedule.
Will these new characters measure up to the weirdest versions of Spider-Man from across the Marvel Comics Spider-Verse?
