Spider-verse event

Vol 1: Amazing Spider-Man: Edge of Spider-Verse, written by David Hine, Jason Latour, Dustin Weaver, Henry P. Chapman, and Gerard Way; illustrated by Fabrice Sapolsky, Robbi Rodriguez, Dustin Weaver, Elia Bonetti, and Jake Wyatt

Vol 2: Spider-Verse, written by Dan Slott, Gerry Conway, Katie Cook, Mike Costa, Peter David, Tom DeFalco, Christos Gage, Dennis Hopeless, Kathryn Immonen, Jed Mackay, Roger Stern, Robbie Thompson, and Skottie Young, illustrated by  Mark Brooks, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Olivier Coipel, Paco Díaz, Ron Frenz, Adam Kubert, David Lafuente, Greg Land, Bob McLeod, Denis Medri, Jake Parker, Humberto Ramos, Miguel Sepúlveda, Will Sliney, Paul Smith, Sheldon Vella, Dave Williams
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The Edge of Spider-Verse title brings together five Spiders from other dimensions and lays the foundation for them being pulled together in the cosmic event, Spider-Verse. We start with Spider-Noir, where Spider-Man fights crime in the 1930s. He is challenged by the magician Mysterio, who wants Spider-Man’s blood for the Anansi, the God of Spiders. Next, we travel to another realm where Gwen Stacy was bitten instead of Peter. Gwen is the prime suspect in the death of Peter Parker, and her father is leading the investigation! Next, we find ourselves with Aaron Aikman who has developed a mechanized spider-suit to compliment his powers. Then, we’re off to a world where an obsessive Peter is bitten by a spider and becomes a hellish version of the superhero we know and love. The last story is SP//dr, a symbiotic mecha warrior with a sentient spider and young girl.

In Spider-Verse, all of these Spiders and a host more come together to fight The Inheritors, a family of powerful vampires-type beings who are jumping through dimensions to devour that reality's "Spider Totems". Some of the Spiders survive, but most fall to these god-like Inheritors. The family is aided by a Master Weaver who can show how all Spiders are connected through the multiverse, and the Weaver can open a portal directly to them. Guided by Earth 616's (our reality) Spiders, the small Spider-army fight back against The Inheritors and in order to save all former and future spiders from grizzly deaths. Fan favorites like Spider-Woman, Silk, Superior Spider-Man, Miles Morales, among others, are part of the fight, as well as new favorites like Spider-Punk and Spider-Gwen.

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This is one of the biggest events to hit the Spider-people in Marvel history, and it sets up a lot of what's happening from 2015 to present in any Spider story. This was also the basis for the popular Into the Spider-Verse movie that took everyone by storm in 2018, as well as the subject of the 2020 smash video game, Spider-Man: Miles Morales. The movie's sequel is set to hit theaters in June of 2023, so there's really no stopping this juggernaut of creative fodder. The number of types of spider-people and storylines is only limited by the imaginations of those on the Spider creative teams.

The Spider-Verse collection is a whopping 640 pages, which is about 4 times longer than a normal comic. There is so much ground to cover with all of the tie-ins and dozens of multiverse adventures the teams undertake to try and find out how to stop The Inheritors. There are a lot of spiders to keep track of, and sometimes the costumes are a little bit too similar to make everything out, but there are a lot of context clues and plotlines that help readers identify which Spider is who. The entire story has an elevated sense of urgency as it's all very fast paced and plenty of Spiders meet their end right on the page. Even though some of the Spiders have plot armor, the writers do build up enough of the background ones who readers will gravitate towards, only to have them ripped away with a premature death. This makes it feel like some of the main characters could meet their untimely death. 

It goes without saying that there is a lot of violence in this event, and plenty of characters die on the page. There is quite a bit of blood while characters are fighting. There are some implied swear words, but they're all censored out with symbols. 

Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Level: Grades 9-12

Publisher: Marvel

Edge of Spider-Verse
Publication Date: May 12, 2015
ISBN: 9781846536403 (Paperback)

Spider-Verse
Publication Date: May 12, 2015
ISBN: 9780785190356 (Hardcover)

​Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: High School, Comicbooks, Action Adventure, Superheroes, Marvel

Suggested reading order: All of these are included in this version of Spider-Verse, but not printed in this order.
FCBD Guardians of the Galaxy
Superior Spider-Man #32-33
Spider-Man 2099 #5
Amazing Spider-Man 7-11
Spider-Woman #1 -2
Spider-Verse Team Up #1-2
Scarlet Spiders #1 
Spider-Man 2099 #6
Amazing Spider-Man #12
Spider-Man 2099 #7-8
Scarlet Spiders #2-3
Spider-Woman #3
Amazing Spider-Man #13
Spider-Verse Team Up #3
Amazing Spider-Man #14-15
Spider-Woman #4
Spider-Verse #1-2