Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3) #12

Background

The Inheritors continue their assault on the Spiders and we now have several story threads going. Silk is on the run, but in a universe the Inheritors can’t go to due to the high level of radiation. Spider-Woman is stuck on Loomworld, posing as Morlun’s…favorite…hand-maiden. Spider-Man 2099 and Lady Spider are investigating the Inheritor bodies, while the Scarlet Spiders are attacking the clone facility directly. And the Ultimate Spider-Men are recruiting new Spiders. Even with all this going on, Solus and Morlun still manage to get the drop on the main crew, resulting in the death of Captain Universe Spider-Man and Mayday’s brother, Ben, the Scion, being taken by Morlun!

Story 'Spider-Verse: Anywhere But Here'

On Earth-13, the last hope of the Spider-Men has just been taken, as Solus has finished feasting on Captain Universe Spider-Man. Morlun states that they have the Scion now, giving the Inheritors one of the 3 they’ve been hunting. In a desperate gamble, the Spiders attack, hoping that by killing Captain Universe, Solus may be weakened. Of course, this is a fool’s hope, as he’s more powerful than ever. Mayday attempts to stop Morlun from escaping with Ben, by he smacks her aside with a single blow.

Spider-UK makes a desperate call to 616 Spidey, who arrives with Gwen, Arana/Spider-Girl and a trio of Japanese Spider-Men: Manga-verse Spider-Man, Cartoony Actual Manga Spider-Man, and Spider-Man from the Japanese TV show, complete with his giant robot (of course), Leopardon (less obvious). Unfortunately, even the mighty Leopardon can’t stand against Solus and his new power and he easily tears the robot apart. The rest of the Spider-Men and Women take this opportunity to escape.

On Earth-3145, Silk is just porting down from her escape from the twins Brix and Bora. However, she is immediately in pain, due to the world’s fatal level of radiation. As the radiation keeps the Inheritors off her, she fashions herself a full web-suit and begins to head off to an unknown destination.

The Spider-Army, meanwhile, jumps to Earth-8847, which is essentially a world where the dinosaurs have re-taken the world. Japanese Spider-Man is able to quickly follow, while the Spiders again discuss how dead they are. It’s at this time that Jessica Drew contacts Peter, letting her know she’s in Loomworld but she can’t come back because her device is damaged. However, in this world, Jessica Drew is Morlun’s favorite housemaid…which is all the subtle, slow workings of the Master Weaver. But more on that later. Checking in on the other Spider-Men, Miles and Cartoon Ultimate Peter have recruited a few more candidates, but the goofy kind that are only here for amusement. Spider-Man 2099 and Lady Spider are about to start their dissection, but the contact is cut off by Jennix, who has been monitoring their conversations. Deciding he can’t allow anymore tactical information to be shared, he sends his sister Verna after them. Another battle ensues…

Back in Loomworld, Jessica Drew speaks to the Master Weaver, who tells her that he has been serving the Inheritors, which has allowed them to gain dominion over all reality. However, he has manipulated some threads for awhile, such as that of Jessica and Morlun’s servant. With the time he has, he gives Jessica The Prophecies, detailing The Other, The Bride, and The Scion, as well as a mysterious fourth. Before he can explain more, Morlun returns with Benjy, handing him off to Bora and Brix. He then notices Jessica, who is clearly hiding something behind her back. However, when she shows him her hands, they are empty.

Returning to Earth-8847, we see that Jessica has used the last bit of power in her device to port it and the prophecies to Spider-Man. While trying to figure out their next move, Silk contacts Peter and tells them to come to Earth-3145. Verna allows, knowing what’s wrong with that world. The Spider-Army quickly discovers this themselves as well, but follows Silk’s clues to the safe house…which, of course, is Sims Tower, where Ezekiel once tried to hide Spider-Man from Morlun’s original attack. Inside they find Silk, as well as this world’s Spider-Man…Uncle Ben!

General Comments

Call me a buzz-kill, but the longer this event goes on, the less I enjoy it. The prospect of “Every Spider-Man Ever” definitely intrigues me, but there is a lot of other things which have been bothering me. The entire Inheritor’s back story contradicts a lot of what was established in Morlun’s initial appearance. Also, this issue doesn’t really do much and instead relies pretty heavily on us to be reading all of the tie-in issues.

The first parts of this event were interesting- we got to see the different Spider-Men, we got to see them interact and we got to see Spider-Men we know. I know we can’t expect that in every issue, it was just a bit of a let down here that most of this was the Spider-Army thinking about what they should do. We DID get some backstory regarding the Master Weaver and Jessica Drew, so it’s nice to see that moving forward.

However, there were a few plot points which I need to nag about. Jennix states he can and has been listening to the Spiders the entire time. That’s fine (even if he IS fighting the Scarlet Spiders…), but why does he then allow Jessica Drew to keep running around? Wouldn’t he want to maybe warn his brother? Or maybe try and stop her from doing exactly what she did?

Also, Ezekiel’s shelter now can protect the Spiders from Inheritors, but there’s a few things that negate that- for one, we now see that Jennix can essentially sent the Inheritors wherever they want to go, as evidenced by how Verna pops up right next to them. So sure, the world is irradiated, but that building is a fall out shelter. Couldn’t they just teleport right there? Also, Ezekiel said it would only work so long as Morlun hadn’t already touched/found Spider-Man. Since that’s happened already, I think the Inheritors can track these guys pretty easy.

In regard to the shocking conclusion…I don’t know. It’s interesting and calls back to Spider-Verse #1, but to me, doesn’t really do much. I feel like Uncle Ben should be left alone, really. We all know he’ll give some motivating speech and all, but I’m just not a fan of these “Surprise” characters- someone Spider-Man loves but failed is Spider-Man! And in this dimension, Peter is the one who died! Eh…I feel like we have enough established Spider-Men that we should use and focus on them first.

Overall Rating

It moves the story along a bit, but the action is a bit underwhelming and repetitive seeming. There’s too much relying on the tie-ins and we lose focus on characters who aren’t getting attention elsewhere. The twist ending was definitely a surprise to me, but personally didn’t really have the impact Slott was going for.