WEB-WARRIORS #1

Capsule Review

I’m tepid on these re-launched Spider-books, and utterly indifferent to the whole notion of a “Spider-Verse,” but I kinda liked Web-Warriors. I think having dozens of Spider-Men running around is a hot mess, but this book so completely steers into the skid that it is hard to resist. If we must have a Spider-Verse, then this book does it proud. The premise here is that there are dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of Spider-People spread across a web of universes, and even more Spidey villains, and they are all intent on crossing into each other’s timelines to punch each other in the face. Our particular band of Spider-Folk have banded together to protect those worlds that have lost their own native Spider-Guy … and while I can’t get worked up about the intricacies of a Spider-World that has abolished the Earned Income Tax Credit (or whatever nonsense distinguishes one world from the next), I was charmed with an opening sequence that saw the Web-Warriors battling baddies in a world drawn directly from the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon series, complete with meta-observations about swinging through the sky on webs that aren’t anchored to anything, and a meme-acknowledging cameo of the animated Web-Head sitting behind a desk. David Baldeon’s art is bouncy and versatile, and writer Mike Costa wrings good characterization out of the disparate cast, playing the many Spider-People off against each other and hanging a lampshade on the ridiculousness of it all by having his characters talk to one another about the ridiculousness of it all. By the end I decided to stop being a fuddy-duddy and just embrace it.

Approachability For New Readers

Pretty hopeless, but the whole point of the book is to whip us from world to world and character to character, so maybe it doesn’t matter if you don’t know what the heck is going on.

Read #2?

All right, all right already! I’ll read another.

Sales Rank

#26 November

Read more about Spider-Man at Longbox Graveyard

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• Top Ten Issues of Amazing Spider-Man
• Spider-Man Covers Gallery
• Spider-Man!
• Spectacular Spider-Foes Gallery
• Top Ten Loves of Peter Parker Part 1 and Part 2
• Spider-Man’s Bottom Ten Bronze Age Bums
• Steve Ditko’s Spider-Faces
• Face-to-Face With … The Lizard!
• Spider-Man Gallery
• Best Frenemies Forever
• Top Ten Spider-Man Battles Part 1 and Part 2

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