Edge of Spider-Verse #1-2

Back in 2014 the Amazing Spider-Man series was back and Peter Parker was Spider-Man again but that wasn’t just, it was decided that the whole entire Spider-Verse was in jeopardy from a family of hunters. But I am not going to cover Spider-Verse just yet but I am going to start off with the first two issues of Edge of Spider-Verse.

Spider-Man Noir: The opening of the issue starts off with the premise of the series and then the background description for this series Spider-Man. The opening of the issue shows people in a theatre watching footage of Spider-Man beating up a group of mobsters with a narration over it saying that it has been three months since the last sighting and that mob bosses such as Al Capone, John Dillinger, The Goblin and The Crime-Master were dead and the voice overs asks if there is still a place for Spider-Man in today’s modern America. Outside the theatre two people are talking about Spider-Man noting that the way that he moves, his speed and agility that he has the blood of Anansi, a Spider God. The woman asks how they can find him and he replies saying that he’ll think of something. We then see a poster of The Magnificent Mysterio and a kid asking his dad if he would take him to go and see it but says no and then the child says what about Jungleworld which he agrees to take him to.

At the New York World’s Fair, we see Peter, Mary Jane and Aunt May and try to think on what they are going to see with Peter suggesting to see The Dream of Venus but May says that she doesn’t like Salvador Dali and then suggests that they see Mysterio and he decides to give MJ the decision who seems to have her mind on something else, which Peter narrates about, and she says that she would like to see some magic. Inside we see that Mysterio is at the beginning of an illusion called the Sphere of Death. But as the illusion starts Peter’s Spider-Sense starts alerting him of something and May asks if he is alright but he brushes it off as a migraine. We then see Mysterio’s illusion go off and the sphere that he is in gets electrified, with Mysterio coming out safe and dry. They leave and discuss on how they think that they did it and Peter suggests that it was done with dry ice and technobabble but he then think that this was an illusion and that he didn’t even get in the sphere but he says that he has no idea.

Back stage Mysterio and his assistant talks about how he spent three years coming up with the technique and he wastes it on the public when she says that they could be using it on Wilson Fisk so that they can run New York. But Mysterio says that he prefers Fisk as a willing partner until he can kill Spider-Man and show Fisk his true power. Then just as talking about him, Fisk appears who tells him that he has found somebody that Mysterio will want to talk to. They arrive in a shady back room and it basically gives exposition on the Spider-Totem and what happened during the run for Spider-Man Noir. The Ox then asks if he is going to be let go but Mysterio asks him about Felicia Hardy.

Fisk and Mysterio head to her apartment and they ask her if she was Spider-Man’s lover where she replies that it was pretty much a rumour. Mysterio asks her to take off the mask and when he butler/assistant trues to intervene Fisk shoots him. Mysterio again asks for her to take off the mask and she does with Mysterio having a shocked expression on his face and asks her who did this to her. Sher replies says that the it was the last man who thought that she could lead to Spider-Man. Fisk says that there is nothing that they can do since that she most likely won’t tell but Mysterio says that it doesn’t matter since they now have her and that it will make Spider-Man come to them.

A day or so later MJ reads an advert for Mysterio’s next special show where he will challenge Spider-Man to make a blood sacrifice to the spirit of Anansi or the masked Cat Lady will be killed. Peter excuses and calls the club that she owns to find out that she didn’t know where she went and Peter decides to don the Spider-Man costume one more time. On Thursday Spider-Man arrives at the theatre and drops onto the stage telling Mysterio to drop the knife. Mysterio is glad that Spider-Man had arrived and sheaths the knife he then tells his assistant Ella to do something and she drops a ball that released some sort of gas that causes Spider-Man to become disoriented and Mysterio clobbers him over the head with what looks like to be a mace.

He wakes up to find himself chained in a glass coffin and Ella sticks a syringe in his arm and takes a sample of his blood. He then starts a ritual in the name of the Lord of the Spiders and then challenges Spider-Man to escape the coffin before the water fills up and then he wraps around a curtain to block any attempts for the audience to see him escape. One of Fisk’s partner’s comments saying that Mysterio has some nerve trying to kill Spider-Man since that he can kill him and blame it on faulty equipment. Spider-Man manages to web his mouth to create a pocket of air so that he can regain his strength. Mysterio checks on the process Spider-Man’s death but when see that he has something over his face Spider-Man breaks out and takes down Mysterio rather easily.

Spider-Man frees Felica and then he starts to get more migraine when one of the Inheritors arrives and tries to kill Spider-Man. He tries to pull a gun on him however the Superior Spider-Man appears out of his own portal and rescues Spider-Man. The Inheritor tries to kill them but he fails to. Mysterio asks where the blood of Spider-Man is but he can’t find it because Felica stole it. In 2099 Spider-Man asks where he is and Otto fills him in what has happened and says that a homicidal madman is out to kill the Spider-People through the Multi-verse and he decided to create a meeting with the people that he has been able to save ending issue one where we see Spider-Chip, another Spider-Man, a different Spider-Woman and what appears to be Man-Spider but still in a human form.

 

Gwen Stacey: Spider-Woman: The issue opens more differently to the previous issue and this is we see a bad rehearsing in Midtown High Gym which is led by Mary Jane called The Mary Janes and for some reason MJ can’t get the song right. But this then gets diverted to the origins of Gwen Stacey, the drummer in the band, and how she got her powers and how she became a public menace. In this Gwen becomes Spider-Woman and in a different twist Peter Parker becomes The Lizard and then apparently is killed by Spider-Woman but that could be more taken out of context since that it is only a brief introduction. Gwen then starts playing rather angrily and one of the group called Glory asks her if she is alright and asks if she wants to talk about any problems but she just brushes it off. MJ calls her a total head case but Glory tells her to leave her alone since that it seems that she has a lot on her mind.

We then cut over to Gwen who is now sitting on top of a billboard that has a wanted sign on for her and she narrates on what has been bothering her since that she has a lot of secrets and that she wouldn’t be able to say that and that Peter will never know. She changes into her costume and talks with her dad where he says that she should give up the band a focus on her studies but she replies saying that she loves music and it’s what she wanted to do. He then goes on to some up saying that if you pay attention life will show you where you’re needed most. He rushes off the call but it seems that Gwen wanted to talk more, but then a police officer notices her and tells her to freeze and put her hands up. She tries to calm him down so that he doesn’t end up shooting civilians, she tries to get him to lower the gun but he then shoots her. She dodges the shots and then webs the cop to a column, he asks her not to kill him and she questions why she would kill him and says that if somebody got hold of the footage and edited to music he would be remembered by the internet. Gwen leaves the cop as back up arrives and tries to leave to but a helicopter manages to track her down and reinforcements follow her.

Cutting over to a restaurant we are introduced to the two villains of the issue the first is Aleksei Sytsevich, this earths equivalent to Rhino and Matt Murdock who in this is the Kingpin. This sets up that Kingpin wants him take out a target that turns out to be Captain Stacey. Aleksei asks why he wants him out of the picture and he replies saying that it takes Captain Stacey out of the picture for him and makes Spider-Woman look more like a villain.

We then cut back over to the Mary Jane’s where Gwen is running late and they head on without her and we see that Cpt Stacey is in the crowd for the performance. Gwen gets into the green room that her bandmates were in and rushes out of her costume to head on stage. But the contest gets cut short when Aleksei attacks Cpt Stacey and throws him on stage just as Gwen came on. Aleksei gets on stage to try and deal a possible killing blow but Spider-Woman makes the save. She tries to take the fight to him and but that fails and Aleksei says that he is here to help her but he grabs her into bear hug and Gwen finds it hard to get out, but she uses her drummer instincts and bashes him in the face and webs his arms to a wall. She then punches him in such a powerful strike that it knocks him through a wall.

Cpt Stacey tells her to freeze and she asks him why and that she just wants to be loved by the people but he isn’t having anything of it. He tries to place her under arrest for the murder of Peter Parker but she tries to explain her side of the story and twirls away from his line of sight that but he still focuses on her. He says that deciding isn’t his job but she replies that it would be left up to Jameson’s angry mob or the cop that shot at her. He continues to say that he is going to bring her in and even says that no matter how long that it will take she will see justice. So she decides to take it one step further and that is revealing herself to her father. He seems rather shocked at first and asks her how and why she is Spider-Woman and to sum it up she is first doing it for freeing her from her responsibilities but when Peter died trying to follow her she uses his death as a cause on why she does what she does, to keep the monsters at bay. Cpt Stacey tries to wrap his head around what had happened and tells her to get out of here and she thanks him and she web swings away with Captain Britain Spider-Man observing her ending the issue.

For these first two issues, I really do like them. In the first issue, it does make me interested in picking up the run for Spider-Man Noir since I really want to know what the story about what happened before this and finding out what happened to Felicia Hardy. But in the case for Gwen Stacey: Spider-Woman it made me curious on what they were going to do with her character for the series since that this is bringing back a character that was dead in the current universe and seeing what it would be like for Peter to interact with her. Plus since that we are in more current times, she does have her own new run and it is something that I do think that I am going to pick up in the future.