Five Spider-People to Look For in ‘Spider-Verse’
The upcoming Spider storyline “Spider-Verse” features all of the wild and wacky Spider-Men, women, boys, and girls Marvel has created over the years. Unfortunately, following the trend that superhero comics have been following since “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” the only thing comic creators can think to do with wild and wacky characters is show them being murdered, and that’s exactly what vampiric villian Morlun is going to do in Spider-Verse.
Oh well, at least we get to see them again. And hopefully some will survive.
Anyway, here are some characters I am looking forward to seeing again in the series, if they make it in.
The Lesbian Mary Jane Spider-Woman
Fom Exiles. With her hopefully meeting the real Mary Jane, for obvious reasons.
Web-Man
From 1977’s Spidey Super Stories 25, the kiddies version of Spider-Man associated with the Electric Company. Not a printing error, an evil version of Spider-Man that teamed up with Dr. Doom. There was actually a Spider-Man with almost this same costume tied to Spidey-Villian Mr. Negative recently and that seems to be in some of the preview artwork, but I don’t want that one. I want this one. I want the stupider one.
Betty Brant Spider-Girl From What If? (Vol.1) 7
Just because, wow, look at that costume. Who would willingly wear that? Also, yeah, she went with Spider-Girl. Apparently feminism hadn’t really caught on in the Marvel offices by 1978. She seems to be in the preview artwork, but will it be for a cameo or a substantial role? I hope she doesn’t show up just to be murdered. Considering every soap-opera tragedy Betty has suffered over the years, that would show that things haven’t changed a whole lot at Marvel since 1978.
Parody comic strip Spider-Man by Jay Pinkerton
OK, this one is a long, long shot, but is some of the best Spider-Man stuff in the last 10 years. You’ll never get “rape dollars” out of your mind. Check it out, with a warning that this is the least disturbing one.
The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man
It’s well-known that Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko was a disciple of Ayn Rand’s Objectivist theories, although Ditko’s philosophy is also kind of its own deeper thing. They come through in a lot of his work such as The Question, and even a little bit in Spider-Man, although they are deeply buried by Stan Lee’s dialogue.
Peter Bagge unburied it for The Megalomaniacal Spider-Man and the results weren’t pretty. This Spider-Man is in it for himself. It’s a hilarious take with a cynical, downbeat ending.