Web Warriors #1 (Story 1)

Background

During the events of Spider-Verse, Morlun and his family (The Inheritors) sought to rid the Multiverse of Spider-People. Because of this imminent threat, a group of Spider-Men and Women from across the various universes worked together to defeat Morlun and his fellow vampires. Many Spider-People died because of The Inheritors and now a small group of heroes has formed to protect the worlds of the fallen Spider-Men...they are the Web Warriors!

There are six members of the Web Warriors: Spider-Gwen, Spider-UK, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man: India, Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Girl (Arana Corazon). Together they work to protect the Multiverse...

Story Details

The story begins on Earth-3015, a universe who's inhabitants hail from the classic 1967 Spider-Man cartoon, as the Web Warriors (and Mayday Parker from Earth-982) converge on a collection of Spidey's rogues. The villains are no match for the Warriors as they quickly subdue the group. Spider-UK (aka Billy Braddock) reminds the team that this universe was perfectly suited to be a training exercise for the team (due to the fact these were non-lethal opponents).

The team then returns to Earth-001, which is the former home of Morlun and his family (see the original Spider-Verse storyline), the headquarters of the Web Warriors. Each member of the team is equipped with a transporter-wrist-band which Karn, a former member of The Inheritors and now the Master Weaver of the Web of Life and Destiny, uses to coordinate the team's travels between universes.

Mayday Parker decides to return home and she invites Spider-Gwen to join her for lunch, Gwen accepts and two leave the team. They decide to eat their lunch at a Tacos Locos located on Earth-9105, a modernized version of Ancient Egypt and the home-world another deceased Peter Parker/Spider-Man. Mayday questions the need for a team of Spider-People to patrol the Spider-Man-less worlds of the Multiverse and then, perfectly on queue, an explosion destroys a building across the street from the restaurant. The Web-Women (trademark!) quickly gear up.

The explosion came from a heist perpetrated by a group of Electros interested in stealing silver bullions, the attempted robbery was thwarted by Gwen and Mayday. Not all the Electros are created equal however, one of them appeared to be composed entirely of energy, he leads the charge against the two Spider-Women.

The story then shifts back to Earth-001 where Spider-Man Noir joins Pavitr in his laboratory. Noir plants the seed in Pavitr's head that Braddock's commitment to this endeavor is due solely to this being "all he has" and thus it may not be a great idea for all the Spider-People to be as consumed as Braddock. Noir is clearly depicted as a cynic/skeptic and its obvious he wants more people thinking that way.

Back on Earth-9105, Mayday and Gwen lose the upper-hand against Team Electro when Spider-Gwen's transporter is destroyed from an electric blast just as Mayday was teleporting back to Earth-001. Alone and unconscious, Gwen is taken captive by the villains to their headquarters on Earth-1082. Mayday quickly returns to Earth-9105 help her comrade but Gwen is gone. When Gwen wakes up she's imprisoned and greeted with the unpleasant news that there are literally thousands of other Electros out there in the Multiverse all working in cahoots with her captors.

General Comments

I'd like to start by saying I'm a little confused with the premise of this series. To the best of my knowledge the Multiverse was destroyed (and only Battleworld remained!) due to the events of 2015's Secret Wars. Yet somehow these characters are jumping between universes and there's a seemingly endless supply of Electros out there...how does this jive with the collapse of the Multiverse? I have no idea what the answer to this question is, so if anyone knows please share with me...either way, its not explained in this story which limits my appreciation for this tale.

Like Noir and Mayday, I'm a bit skeptical as to this team's value. The major problem with team books is that the interesting (or sometimes more likable) characters tend to get more attention then the other team members. Arana, who's featured most prominently on the cover, has literally one throw-away line in the entire story and is barely seen in the book. Spider-Ham sole-purpose is to make random comedic interludes and Spider-UK is as vanilla as a leader can be. I understand that not every character gets equal screen-time and that future stories may feature them in a more fulfilling manner, I just want to note that this series is not off to a great start in that regard. In fact, Mayday (who is not even a Web Warrior) is actually the most-used character in the story (next to Spider-Gwen of course, who's clearly the most popular character on the roster)...should we continue to expect more of Mayday and less Arana? I guess time will tell.

There is an appreciable angle to this team's goal in my opinion. They are looking to patrol worlds where Peter Parker was killed by Morlun and the Inheritors so, in a sense, Peter lives on in those worlds. This is a nice homage to the notion that Spider-Man is eternal...which is truly the Holy Grail of any super hero. So in my opinion, their mission is legit.

One last note, this debut issue technically isn't an origin issue since these characters have all been introduced prior in various books, in that sense the book benefits from being able to jump quickly into action. My broader concern is that there is not one character on this roster that really intrigues me and since I'm reasonably familiar with each of them I'm less hopeful that my lack of intrigue will change. Hopefully I'm wrong...

Overall Rating

Off to an okay start. Some intrigue built, but really not enough to get me rushing to grab the next issue off the shelf.