Web Warriors #2

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...

After disrupting a heist by a gang of Electros, Spider-Gwen was taken captive to their headquarters on Earth-1082. The Electros have their own version of the Web of Life and Destiny and they're using it to wreak havoc upon the Multiverse...

Story Details

The story begins with Spider-Gwen listening to the origin of the Universe-leaping Electros as told by their Electro-Prime. In short, he discovered his ability for inter-dimensional travel when he watched Morlun kill the resident Peter Parker on Earth-449 (during the original Spider-Verse storyline). Electro-Prime was then able to reproduce the electromagnetic fields necessary for dimension-hopping by mimicking Morlun's energy field. Eventually he reached a universe with Mike Dillon, a billionaire tech-genius, who was able to build a mechanism similar to the Web of Life and Destiny (originally used by The Inheritors).

Mike Dillon then assembled and army of Electros from across the Multiverse. Electro-Prime was eventually marginalized (to put it nicely) due to a combination of him being a loose cannon and Mike Dillon simply not respecting him...and now Electro-Prime finds himself relegated to performing menial tasks like guarding prisoners (eg, Spider-Gwen). Suffice to say he's not happy with that role and Gwen picks up on that.

Meanwhile back at Earth-001, Mayday rushes to get the troops assembled so they can save Gwen from Team Electro. The Web Warriors, led by Spider-UK, retrace Gwen and Mayday's steps (ie, they return to Earth-9105 where Gwen was taken) and are soon confronted by a group of Electros. Eventually Braddock and his team defeat the Electros forcing them to retreat. Braddock decides not to chase the Electros rather to return to Loom World (their base on Earth-001) so that Pavitr can concoct a way to trace the Electros back to their home world. This would provide them the element of surprise. Noir was not happy with that plan but he reluctantly complies.

Back on Earth-1082, Spider-Gwen convinces Electro-Prime to take her to Mike Dillon, since they share him as a common enemy. They use Gwen's transporter to make the leap, Electro-Prime was able to fix her broken transporter using his ability to power it and set the appropriate frequency. The two arrive at Mike Dillon's headquarters at which point Gwen double-crosses Electro by knocking him unconscious. Unfortunately for Gwen she finds Mike Dillon and she discovers that he is a being composed entirely of energy (he was one of the Electros that performed the heist back in issue #1)...so he's going to be a tough-out.

General Comments

I'm going to start with something that bothered me in the first issue, the use (or lack thereof) Arana Corazon. There are now as many books in this series as there are lines spoken by Arana. Mayday Parker on the other hand, has been used quite prominently. I actually like Mayday Parker more than Arana as a character, so technically I'm fine with this, what bothers me is the question as to why Mayday isn't one of the Web Warriors (in the place of Arana). There's no reason she can't fill that role and the creative team seems to be in agreement with that notion since Arana is basically non-existent throughout these first two issues. Again this harkens back to my pet peeve about team books and the lack of balanced screen time for each member. Mayday is clearly the better character and she should be a Web Warrior! Okay, I'll move on from this point.

Which leads me to my next point, the male characters of the Web Warriors are basically the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Spider-UK is the conservative, deliberate leader (Leonardo), Pavitr is the borderline-oblivious genius (Donatello), Noir is the agressive/non-leadership-trusting cynic (Rapheal) and Spider-Ham is the non-threatening comedic outlet (Michaelangelo). I understand that team dynamics tend to evolve in to these character stereotypes sometimes, but it's very obviously done in this case and quite frankly it comes off very unoriginal.

Despite my two aforementioned gripes, this book isn't terrible. In fact Spider-Ham is actually pretty funny (the Pigs-in-a-Blanket routine for one) and this team has promise. They'll need to dive deeper into the various backgrounds/motivations of each character as opposed to using the superficial character interactions we've seen to this point. I want to get know these characters on a more personal level, what makes them tick, why do they stay with the group and do they enjoy doing so? If we can get to know the Web Warriors on a personal level and appreciate them from that perspective, this team (and this book) can become a staple of the Spider-Verse...if not, its going to go the way of the do-do (and The Inheritors!)...

Overall Rating

Not really much to celebrate or complain about in this story as the second installment of the 'Electroverse' storyline plugs along. Hopefully this series starts ramping up the intrigue sooner rather than later.