This week, Marvel’s Voices: Spider-Verse #1 swings into the main review! We’ll unravel the newest Spider-Anthology with plenty of spoilers. For less revealing reviews, scroll on down to the Rapid Rundown for blurbs about Captain Marvel and X-Men Unlimited.
What did you think of this week’s fresh Marvel Comics releases? The Beat is waiting to hear from you! Give us a shout-out right here in the comment section or over on social media @comicsbeat. Excelsior, True Believers!
Marvel’s Voices: Spider-Verse #1
Lettering by: Travis Lanham
Main cover by: Leinil Francis Yu & Jesus Aburtov
Spider-Man created by: Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
“Birthday Bash”
Writer: Vita Ayala
Artist: Alberto Alburquerque
Color Artist: Rachelle Rosenberg
This story sees Miles Morales tasked with a seemingly straightforward mission: obtain a meaningful gift for his mother’s birthday celebration. But the course of a simple task never did run smooth for any Spidey across the multiverse!
This is a straightforward story that completely satisfies, especially during the classic 2-page action spread (which counts down the minutes to his mother’s party as Miles saves several days) and with its heartwarming conclusion.
“Fire with Fire”
Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Color Artist: Ruth Redmond
We demand to know more about this very compelling Drag Symbiote. I loved, loved, loved the decision to include more than one drag queen in this story. When Cooper Coen, a.k.a. Web Weaver, shows up at Northstar’s birthday party, there are several queens in attendance in addition to the Drag Symbiote introduced by Kraven.
The decision to include drag queens is extremely important, especially in the current political climate. Although a federal judge temporarily blocked Tennessee’s law restricting drag performances. Northstar’s party wouldn’t be a violation per se, although lawyers worried that the “overly broad and vague” law would be used to target the transgender community, or anyone dressing in clothing that does not match their gender assigned at birth, so just walking to his party could be a violation of the law, at least in theory.
And if you’ve never learned how to do a death drop, they are hard.
“An Unraveling Web”
Writer: Jeremy Holt
Artist: Eric Koda
Color Artist: Erick Arciniega
Holt made a comic with a couple friends (Koda and Arciniega). It goes, “Womp, womp. All the Cindy Moon’s know everything is better with a fisheye lens.”
Holt’s decision to tell the story from a first-person perspective, Koda’s artwork centering Cindy’s reflection rather than Cindy herself, and Arciniega’s fisheye coloring technique, effectively draws the reader into the hero’s over-stimulated mind. As Silk’s anxiety overwhelms her coping mechanisms, the panel layouts get more erratic, and then flip upside-down when she finally relocates her center. An unusual, clever tale that makes me remember why Silk remains at the top of my personal Spider-List.
“Music for Uplifting Gormandizers”
Writer: J. Holtham
Artist: Ken Lashley
Color Artist: Ceci De La Cruz
Spider-Punk is back. Hobie Brown was created by accident in 2014 when Dan Slott asked Olivier Coipel to Spider-UK. “When Olivier drew it, in his mind, Spider-UK meant ‘punk,’ so he drew the character we know as Spider-Punk,” explained Slott at Marvel Unlimited’s “Beyond Amazing: Celebrating 60 Years of Spider-Man” online event. Fast forward almost a decade, and Hobie appears to be one of the most popular Spideys on the Spider-Verse roster. In fact, with the announcement that Spider-Punk (voiced by Daniel Kaluuya) will appear in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, (somewhat ironically) Marvel has been pushing the character in its comics.
Hobie is a fan favorite for a reason. And I was excited to see Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger writer J. Holthman on the story (that show was seriously underrated).
“Working it Out”
By: Jason Loo
In this excellent and unique entry, we get a story about Peter Park, Spider-Friend in a universe that bears an uncanny resemblance to late 90s/early 2000s sitcoms. Leaping from this clever foundation into a story that sees Peter feeling unappreciated because he’s been cast in a supporting role, this story’s Damage Control-style perspective is welcome and refreshing.
Plus, you know I’m all about the Star Trek references, and this story is right: Harry totally would be the Kirk.
“Training Day”
Writer: Cody Ziglar
Artist: Jahnoy Lindsay
Color Artist: Java Tartaglia
One of the most important elements of Spider-Man’s long legacy is his history of team-ups! This story emphasizes that fact by pairing Miles with Misty Knight. This gives the characters a chance to bounce off each other in entertaining ways and gives Misty a chance to impart some wisdom to the next generation.
Plus, I appreciate that this story brought in what I consider to be a Marvel’s Voices mainstay: a story that includes food as a major part of the tale!
“Recluse Endangerment”
Writer: Cheryl Lynn Eaton
Artist: Julian Shaw
Color Artist: Andrew Dalhouse
This story is an excellent introduction to a new Spider hero, Recluse. The story swiftly introduces both the character and her world, deftly adding some clever entanglements to the standard “Spidey” formula.
In addition to a solid introduction for Recluse, this story also introduces an engaging world populated with interesting alternate Marvel heroes. This includes a Dazzler cameo (who appears in hologram form in the background in one panel) and a supporting role for one of the best Captain America variants this side of Dani Cage.
“The Beatdown”
Writer: Saint Bodhi
Artist: Chriscross
Color Artist: Arciniega
This quick-and-simple three-page story sees Ghost-Spider at a loss for musical inspiration… only to regain her rhythm after bashing some bad guys. Short and sweet, my only complaint about this story is that I think it would have been better served as an opening act for this anthology, rather than an encore.
CONCLUSION: While this issue is a definite buy for me, I’ve heard valid criticism from my fellow disabled peers about Marvel’s decision to do an anthology centering the Spider-People before an anthology for the disabled community. With Across the Spider-Verse hitting theaters on June 2, I’m sure there were marketing considerations at play in this decision. However, as a member of the disabled community, which is large and intersectional, I feel like we deserved to be served before the fictional heroes of Spider-Verse no matter how much I liked this anthology (and enjoyed the diversity of creators behind the stories).
Disability is severely underrepresented in comics, especially superhero comics. In many of these stories, ableist language is regularly used with no comment from the slew of reviewers across the internet. Just like Marvel’s Voices: Identity, Marvel’s Voices: Pride, Marvel’s Voices: Comunidades did for each of their respective communities, I want to see an anthology that tackles the systemic ableism I face every day.
Note: The Marvel’s Voices: Spider-Verse review copy advertised the Season 1 soundtrack for Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, and readers are strongly advised to seek out both this and the Disney+ series upon which it is based. But be advised: the soundtrack may contain some slight spoilers for the show’s stellar (lunar?) first season.
RAPID RUNDOWN!
- Captain Marvel #48
- I’ve had a blast with this Brood-centric arc so far, and this penultimate issue does not disappoint. Kelly Thompson brings a menacing energy to the Brood, but imbues every character with a wonderful lightness to them, keeping the story from becoming too much of an absolute downer of a book (crazy of me to say… but Carol should always hang out with X-Men). I can’t go far without talking about the wallop of a two-page spread brought to us by Sergio Dávila, Sean Parsons, and Ceci De La Cruz, featuring a trip with Carol through her own psyche, warped and distorted by the machinations of the Brood. It’s also necessary to doubly praise Cruz’ vibrant colors, which allow characters like Binary to leap off of the page with a head of gorgeous, flaming hair. Clayton Cowles rounds out the team with his always superb lettering. Though the issue has some devastating moments, the last page spread sets up a tremendously cool finale that I can’t wait to check out. — CB
- X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #80 – 82
- In “The Unofficial X-Men” by Grace Freud, Alberto Alburquerque, Yen Nitro, and Joe Sabino, The Matt Baker House “Super Trans” support group from the 2022 Marvel’s Voices: Pride story “LGBT-D” make their return. No punches are pulled in this scathingly funny story, which sees Mojo constructing a team made of more marginalized X-Men (“–ones who will be real heroes and fall in line because they’re so happy for the opportunity and x-tremely oppressed and x-tremely easy to control.”) Featuring a supporting role for Jubilee, a new villain called “Sentin-Ally,” and very real stakes, this story is a must-read. While you should seek it out in the Marvel Unlimited app, let’s also hope this arc is eventually published in paper form: this story should be in as many readers hands as possible. Gee, it’s almost like giving writers who actually have something meaningful to say a chance to write the X-Men is… a good idea? — AJK
