PS4 Spider-Man Meets Superior Spider-Man! (Spoilers!)

Okay so we are getting into Spider-Geddon #0. Most of it was because the Spider-Man from the recently released PS4 game makes his first comic appearance. I just want to say really quickly that the Spider-Man game is absolutely amazing, and if you can you should really check it out. It is one of the best superhero video games I have played in quite a while. Before we go in any further there will be spoilers for both the Spider-Geddon #0 issue and the Spider-Man video game.

This issue takes place after the events of the main Spider-Man game, and this piece of information will be more important going forward in our discussion of the issue. The issue starts with Peter getting a call from Mary Jane Watson, his girlfriend, about a bank robbery by this guy that also has a spider on his chest. When Peter arrives at the scene it turns out to be this villain called Tarantula. He isn't a very big character, so I won't really go into him.

Superior Spider-Man Arrives!

Spider-Man fights Tarantula with relative ease by tossing some web bombs. That's when the Superior Spider-Man shows up, and reveals that there is a Multiversal crisis brewing, and that he needs the help of as many Spider-Men as he can. The interesting thing about Insomniac's Spider-Man is that he has never been exposed to the multi-verse. This world is much like ours in the sense that the multiverse is possible in theory, but we haven't experienced this in any way or seen any proof. Spider-Man is seeing that the multiverse is real by coming in contact with Superior Spider-Man of Earth-616. However, Insomiac's Spider-Man has never seen another Spider-Person from another Earth before, so he naturally thinks the Superior S-M is a bad guy. During that time, Tarantula gets out of the web bombs' webbing and escapes. The two Spider-Men then agree to listen to each other, and that's when Superior Spider-Man begins to explain who he is.

Who is Superior Spider-Man?

During Dan Slott's run on Spider-Man, Peter Parker of Earth 616 was fighting with Doctor Octopus. At this point in time, Doctor Octopus was dying from injuries he had gotten during his time fighting with Spider-Man and other heroes, so he tried to find a way to keep himself alive. During this time, Octavius manages to switch bodies with Peter Parker, gaining his memories. What happens here is that Octavius sees all of the villainy that he had wrought, but also lives the events that Peter Parker experienced that lead to him becoming Spider-Man. This includes the loss of Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, and others as well. Octavius realizes all the wrong he commits and promises Peter, in the dying body of Doctor Octopus, to protect New York and to continue being Spider-Man. Doctor Octopus does this for a while, using Peter's body, and therefore, physical abilities to continue being Spider-Man, but also uses his own mind to enhance both the lives of Spider-Man and Peter Parker. Eventually Peter regains his body back and becomes Spider-Man again. I won't get into too much detail about this run because of the length of this post.

The Spider-Men vs. Tarantula

After the two Spider-Men talk for a bit, The Superior Spider-Man asks Insomniac's Spider-Man to come with him to help him with this multiversal event. However, Insomniac's Spider-Man says that he needs to stop Tarantula. Superior Spider-Man agrees and they start making their way over to the research facility that Tarantula is attacking, which Insomniac's Spider-Man was alerted to because he hacked into the New York Police Deprtment Radio. The two take Tarantula down with relative ease, especially because Superior Spider-Man's tech is much more advanced than Insomniac's. Now we get to the part about this issue that I like the most.

A Fate Otto Octavius Will Never Suffer (Spoilers!!!)

After the two Spider-Men finish with Tarantula, they begin to speak about Earth-1048's Otto Octavius. We need to remember that even though the two are both Spider-Men, one of them only has the body and mind of Peter Parker, the other only has the body of Peter Parker. Peter notes that it gives him hope to see that there is an Otto Octavius that turned out to become a hero somewhere in the multiverse. What Peter says makes sense as his Otto Octavius was his closest friend, with whom he was conducting research that would save countless people, including Otto. It shows this Peter that perhaps he can save his friend from being betrayed by his mind and body. If not that, then perhaps had there been different circumstances, his Otto could be a hero as well. Superior Spider-Man then goes on to note that he, like other Peter Parkers, are rash, but undeniably brave. And had Insomniac's Otto's mind not been altered as a result of his research, he would be very proud of Peter. Now this statement by Superior Spider-Man is quite interesting. Earth-616's Doctor Octopus was bombarded with radiation that allowed him to control his mechanical arms with his mind, but also altered his mind. However, his character began to change when he became the Superior Spider-Man. I'd go as far to say that Ock's experiences as Spider-Man made him find a new found respect for his world's Peter Parker, and those like him. After this short conversation they have, Superior Spider-Man wants to see what his counterpart on Earth-1048 is up to. That's when the two Spider-Men head over to The Raft, a super-max prison that holds a lot of super-powered villains. For Superior Spider-Man, seeing his counterpart could mean that he is 1. reminding himself of the man he used to be, and to never be like him again, and 2. learning about a possible outcome that he may experience and would probably try planning ahead to avoid. With this portion of the comic ending, we move over to Earth-1048 Miles Morales' place before the two Spider-Men get ready to leave for somewhere in the multi-verse.

Getting Ready to Hit the Road

This segment with Miles Morales gives us an idea on what Insomiac is planning with their version of Miles Morales. Essentially Earth-1048 Peter Parker tells Miles that while he is gone, he should only stop crimes if its an actual emergency. At this point, Miles Morales only recently got his powers as we see in the Spider-Man video game. So this version of Miles Morales is too inexperienced to join the fight against this threat. We will get into what this threat is very shortly. It is likely that Insomniac wants to save Miles Morales becoming Spider-Man for the next game or maybe in the three upcoming DLCs for the Spider-Man game. So, if you're wondering why this Miles Morales won't be in the upcoming issues, you know why now. With the short conversation that Peter and Miles have coming to an end, Superior Spider-Man and Insomniac's Spider-Man head off to fight the Inheritors.

Seven Months Ago...

The following scene at the end of the comic gives new readers a chance to understand what threat is looming at the beginning of Spider-Geddon. I personally liked this scene because of all of the different versions of Spider-Man that show up. The scene begins with an alternate versions of Spider-Man, Hobie Brown (AKA Spider-Punk) and Pavitr Prabhakar (Spider-Man: India) send in these drones to an alternate Earth to monitor a group of beings called the Inheritors from their base outside the multiversal plane. The Inheritors are basically vampires that eat Spider-People to survive. The last time that the Spider-People of the Multiverse fought the Inheritors, the Spider-People trapped them on an Earth that was highly radioactive, likely due to some kind of nuclear fallout. These drones were used to monitor the Inheritors so that they didn't escape their prison, but what the Spider-People do not realize is that the Inheritors are gathering these drones to plan their escape, which culminates in the Spider-Geddon event. With that, the issue ends, and we are left to find out how this continues in the Spider-Geddon event with Superior Octopus, which I'll try to cover as soon as I can.

Review of the Issue

In all honesty, not much happens during the issue itself, but I did find the meeting and conversations that Insomniac Spider-Man and Superior Spider-Man to be pretty interesting. I think this could be a pretty good crossover event, but it all really depends on the writing and the narrative techniques that the writers use. Hopefully, the writers do not create a hugely powerful enemy that the Spider-People have no chance of defeating because the only way the issue would get resolved is through some kind of ridiculous Hail-Mary that they include at the very end. I find those kinds of endings to be pretty anti-climactic and bring down the quality of the story in my opinion.

Reading List

• Superior Spider-Man
• Spider-Verse
• Clone Conspiracy
• Edge of Spider-Geddon

Note: I do not own the panels, texts, and images shown in this post. All panels, text, and images belong to their respective owners.