Earlier in season four, Miles Morales/Spider-Man traveled from his world to aid Peter Parker/Spider-Man when Doctor Octopus used the Siege Perilous to draft the Goblin from Miles' world into his new Sinister Six. The battle resulted in the shattering of the Siege Perilous and Miles unable to get back to his own world. While working to find a way to get him home, Miles would join Peter's spider-team and take the stupid name of Kid Arachnid to help differentiate himself from Peter in the field. For the sake of dignity, I'll just be referring to Miles in this review as Miles.
As the four-parter begins, we learn that when the Siege Perilous shattered, it spread across alternate dimensions and was now trying to reassemble itself, causing realities to begin to smash into one another, which will eventually result in total multiversal destruction. Since it was their doing, Peter and Miles are tasked with using a shard of the Siege Perilous to track down the remaining pieces across the multiverse and reassemble the gem before it's too late.
I remember during my review for the first "Spider-Verse" story about how the basic concept has been used before in the 90's animated series and the "Shattered Dimensions" video game. In this instance, my mind quickly jumped to "They're just copying the plot of 'Shattered Dimensions' now." In the game, the Spider-Men had to retrieve fragments of the Tablet of Order and Chaos to restore balance to the multiverse. Despite that, I'll still be reviewing this story on its own merits.
This leads to our first stop...
BLOOD SPIDER
Peter and Miles land in an alternate 19th century Manhattan, where they realize that vampires have taken over half the planet and spreading. The last hero remaining: the Blood Spider.
In the comics, Blood Spider was a supervillain trained by Taskmaster with the goal of defeating Spider-Man. In terms of popularity, the character never really caught on, so a different take, at least in name and origin, is a welcome change. While the previous "Spider-Verse" story mostly visited established worlds well-known to fans (with the exceptions of Spyder-Knight and the gender swapped world of Spider-Girl), this was our first indication that this year's story was going to get more creative with their universes.
That said, this version of Blood Spider is freaking badass. He's got a great costume (I always like a black/red color scheme), his web-shooters fire stakes like spider-stingers, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to end the vampire threat to his world. As far as I know, there hasn't really been a vampire hunter version of Spider-Man, so this was a pretty fun and dark take on the character, though there's indication he did/does have a lighter side to him, like there is still a more familiar version of Peter there.
In the course of the story, we learn two things. First off, it's the Lizard who leads the vampires and helped unify them in their world conquest. I scratch my head at that. Why and how Lizard? Wouldn't it have made more sense to have Morbius, an actual vampire, lead this army of the undead? The second is that the Siege Perilous has the ability to temporarily suppress vampirism in a human, and combining it with a UV light, they're able to cure all the vampires across the planet. It seems that the Siege Perilous will be granting others additional abilities to add more to the story...much like the tablet fragments did for the villains in "Shattered Dimensions." Again, I'm reviewing this as its own, but if I notice similarities to something else, I'm going to point it out.
By the end of this segment, we meet our main villain of the story: the Wolf Spider. Coming from another universe, he intends to gather the pieces of the Siege Perilous so that he can conquer the multiverse himself. So now it's not only a ticking clock, but a race for the fate of all existence.
WEB-BEARD
Well, this one was weird. In terms of animation and tone, it's similar to the Spider-Ham segment from the previous "Spider-Verse" story. Very comedic and reminiscent of Looney Tunes. I got quite a few chuckles from it. Aside from that though, there's not much substance other than "Look, it's Spider-Man as a funny pirate." I'm not even sure if this is supposed to be a parody of anything specifically. Besides that, this version of Spider-Man wasn't even the highlight of the segment for me. That honor goes to the animal pirate versions of Web-Beard's crew made up of characters from "Guardians of the Galaxy": Rocket Raccoon, Cosmo, Howard the Duck, and even Groot makes up their ship. Honestly, I would have liked to see a pirate universe of the whole Guardians of the Galaxy crew with Star-Lord, Gamora, and Drax as well. A pirate Spidey here just feels out of place.
Anyway, the main plot of this segment is that Peter and Miles have to help Web-Beard and his crew work through their trust issues over treasure while also fighting off a kraken. Oh, and the fragment of the Siege Perilous they're looking for? It's just sitting in a treasure chest and doesn't have any action until they use it to open a portal to the next fragment. Even Wolf Spider doesn't appear or is mentioned.
While creative, this segment doesn't meld with the common aspects of the rest of the universes shown in this story, but as we'll learn later, it's not the weakest.
WEB-SLINGER
NOIR
Things start to pick back up in this segment. In this alternate old west world, we have the cowboy Web-Slinger taking on Sheriff Dr. Octavius "Doc Ock" Holiday, who killed the previous sheriff Ben Parker, and placed a strong hold over the town.
I'll start with Web-Slinger himself. As far as I know, there hasn't been an old west version of the character, so again, I have to applaud the creativity. The guns that shoot out web-bullets are a nice touch, and the costume itself is pretty much what you'd expect from a cowboy version of the character. You have the spider like symbols and on the front and back of the poncho which also has web pattern on the ends and around the neck. If I have one problem though, it's with the mask. The web pattern just looks weird when it's only a half-mask. I think it would have worked better if he had a regular domino mask like the Lone Ranger with a plain red bandana over his mouth.
I really liked this version of Doc Ock, even more so than the mainstream version on this show. It's just nice to see Doc Ock up and walking again, not to mention he's even created his own mechanical arms thanks to the fragment he found of the Siege Perilous, which he was also able to use to fight off Wolf Spider from taking it (Yes! The main plot returns!).
Ock also has a right-hand henchman called the Phantom Rider, who wears all white everything: shirt, pants, gloves, mask, hat, and cape. At first I though this was a version of Moon Knight, but the end of the story brings a pretty good twist that I won't spoil here, but it does make for an emotional moment.
If there's one fault I have with this segment, it's that it wastes a perfect opportunity for a classic old west saloon brawl. The battle crashes into a saloon and while the patrons run, the piano player continues to play, only for the battle to lead back outside 15 seconds later. I don't know if it's considered cliche, but how can you go to an old west world and not have a saloon brawl? Was more time really needed for the Web-Beard segment? Even the preceding "Spectacular Spider-Man" series played with the idea with Spidey fighting Mysterio on a saloon movie set, with the piano playing and Spidey even getting hit over the head with a bottle. But I digress.
I kind of found Web-Slinger similar to Spider-Man Noir, specifically the aspect of the main villain being responsible for Uncle Ben's death, but also that he's pretty serious, gruff, and fighting corruption. There's also a sense of realism, but that's downplayed by the magical elements at hand.
NOIR
Speaking of Noir, we have our only returning universe from last year's "Spider-Verse". But he's not alone this time. As you can see from the pic, we are introduced to this universe's Hulk. Since there was never a Hulk Noir comic series and he didn't appear in any of the others, this is an original creation, using the Mr. Fixit look and name from the mainstream universe, which fits with the Noir reality. He even has two partners in Noir versions of General Ross and Rick Jones.
As we re-enter this world, Peter and Miles wind up in the middle of a shootout between Fixit's crew and Hammerhead's. Peter and Miles get pulled away by Spidey Noir, who is more than happy to let the two gangs finish each other off. At first I found this to be little dark, even for Spidey Noir, but I'd like to assume he'd step in if civilians were in danger. Surprisingly, Miles agrees with him, which adds for some conflict between him and Peter during this segment. But when Hammerhead's receives a new tommy gun powered by a fragment of the Siege Perilous created by Martin Li, Spidey Noir feels the need for him and the other Spiders to step in. During the battle, the fragment becomes loose, and when Li grabs it, he uses its power to become this universe's version of Mr. Negative. Unlike the mainstream version, this Mr. Negative uses the Siege Perilous to turn people and objects to stone, using it on not only Ross and Jones, but Hammerhead as well, taking over his crew in the process. It's not like Negative's actual powers are as dangerous as that, so I can welcome this change.
The Spiders and Fixit retreat back to Spidey Noir's place, where we find not much has changed. At the end of last year's Noir segment, it seemed him and Mary Jane were going to reunite, but in the time since, it's revealed that Mary Jane had been killed during one of the battles between Hammerhead and Fixit. It kind of sucks that he didn't get a happy ending, but I guess when it comes to darker vigilantes, much like Batman or Daredevil, there's no such thing. As you can imagine, Spidey Noir isn't feeling any love for Fixit, which leads to them duking it out. Miles thinks they should just let Fixit be taken care of, but Peter believes there's still a hero in Fixit, much like the Hulk in his world.
Meanwhile, Mr. Negative modifies a spotlight on top of a tall building to amplify his powers and continues to turn people to stone from great distances. Think of the giant freeze cannon used in "Batman & Robin." Negative is approached by Wolf Spider, who wants to join forces with Negative much like he did with Lizard in Blood Spider's world. While he explains the potential for more power, Negative isn't having it and attacks Wolf Spider, who decides to open a portal to another dimension and leave. You know, for our supposed main villain of the event, Wolf Spider doesn't seem as much as a threat as Goblin was last year. Goblin stayed until he got what he wanted, the blood of that world's Spider-Man. Between this and the mention of his unsuccessful encounter with Doc Ock Holiday in Web-Slinger's world, Wolf Spider's kind of cowardly. I suppose it's more of a strategic reasoning and he's still finding other fragments in other worlds while Peter and Miles are on others, but I have to wonder how he's accomplishing this if he seems to run at the first sign of trouble.
Back to the main story, Miles gets turned to stone by Negative, leading Peter, Fixit, and Spidey Noir to another retreat. Peter blames them because they couldn't stop fighting, but when Spidey Noir brings up that it's Fixit's fault that MJ died, Fixit reveals the truth. Hammerhead had tried to bring a building down on top of Fixit along with everyone else in it, but Fixit was holding it together as long as he could so people could escape. MJ was there as a reporter but did her part to get people out too. Unfortunately, the building finally caved in before MJ could make her own escape. Spidey Noir forgives Fixit and the three begin a plan to stop Negative. First, they use a blimp (don't ask where they get it) to crash into his spotlight and they lure Negative and his henchmen to a theater, where they're able to pick off his henchmen one by one through stealth moves (reminding me of the Noir levels of "Shattered Dimension") before turning to Negative himself. Spidey Noir gets turned to stone protecting Fixit, which can be seen as a bit of redemption for himself. Before Negative can do the same thing to Peter, Fixit grabs him and takes the fragment for himself, using it reverse all the damage caused around the city, reverting Miles, Hammerhead, Ross, Jones, and everything else to normal. There's one other thing it does though.
The feel of this universe is that it's all black and white, hence the Noir designation. But once Fixit uses the fragment to repair the damage, he also brings color to the world. I honestly think this was a mistake on the writers' part because it takes away this universe's unique style compared to all the others we've seen. While I can't speak for the other Noir titles, the Spider-Man ones had a bit of a sepia tone rather than black and white, but even then it had its own style. Here, they go with natural colors similar to the main universe and it just seems weird. Even Miles' world from last year still had a different pallet than the main one.
So overall, it was nice to revisit the Noir universe again. It retained its sense of realism even though it did deal with magical elements, much like the Web-Slinger segment, but I felt the realism was more prominent here, though that could be attributed to the fact that we had already seen this world before last year. Spidey Noir himself was still pretty badass, not taking any crap from anyone, though we still see he has some heart, and I really felt for him when it was revealed he lost MJ, who was probably the only person that gave him some kind of normalcy and calmness in his life. Sure, in the previous Noir segment, Aunt May was mentioned and that he "hadn't seen her in years", but no mention this year. It's possible that even if they did reconnect, he probably pushed her away again after MJ died. It was also kind of cool to get a Noir version of Hulk, even if they did just seem to pluck the mainstream version and drop him here, but it showed he had some relationships in this world, probably even more than what we were shown. Like the "Guardians" characters in Web-Beard's world, it's something that I would have liked to explore more, but at least they were able to make both Spider-Man and Fixit interesting, which they failed to do with Web-Beard. Still, it makes me wonder how they would have done a Hulk Noir miniseries during the time the imprint was still running.
SPIDER-GWEN
Last year's "Spider-Verse" story featured a Spider-Girl segment that really didn't adhere to the most well-known version of the character, that of Peter's daughter May. Apparently when it comes to female spider characters, this show has a problem.
Since her debut in the comics in 2014, Spider-Gwen has become quite popular, starting from a one-shot character to being given her own ongoing series. For those who don't know, in an alternate universe, it was Gwen Stacy that was bitten by the spider, giving her powers and becoming Spider-Woman. The Peter Parker of this world would become the Lizard and died in battle with Spider-Woman, who would end up being blamed for his death. There are many other differences in this universe that are pretty interesting, but let's not take away focus. That focus being how this segment completely ruins the Spider-Gwen concept.
So to start off, this version of Spider-Gwen lives in Miles' universe, which in my opinion is CHEATING. We find out that crime has been rampant since Miles disappeared, getting so bad that police have been targeting heroes and villains because apparently some villains were pretending to be heroes, although this is never brought up again, which makes me think they just needed some bull reason for the police to be after Gwen like they are in the comics.
Second, it turns out that Gwen doesn't have any powers. Realizing the city needed help and being inspired by Miles and the late Peter of her world, she put together her own suit with tech that helps her stick to walls, shoot webs, and even a "digital spider-sense". It's worth mentioning that Peter was her friend. FRIEND. They could have made it more faithful and emotionally powered if she said "boyfriend", but expecting romantic relationships in this show is too much to ask at this point (hell, Noir had MJ and she died). You know what I really hate about this? It takes away this Gwen's significance. In her comic, she's the main spider-powered being of her world. She was bit by the spider. She lost the person she loved. Before the "Spider-Verse" event in the comics, she had no idea about all the alternate dimensions where Peter was Spider-Man in a majority of them. To have her following in both Peter and Miles' footsteps here doesn't give her her own identity. The aspect I do like though is that Aunt May acts as the Oracle to Gwen's Batman, mostly because it gives her the chance to interact with a version of her nephew who's alive in another dimension, making for some good emotional moments.
Anyway, they track the Siege Perilous fragment to an evidence locker in the NYPD where they encounter Wolf Spider, who has kidnapped Miles' mother for leverage. It's here we see the full capabilities of Wolf Spider's powers, the most prominent being that he has four large spider legs coming from his back. They battle and the good spiders manage to take away the fragments Wolf Spider had collected to completely reform the Siege Perilous. They save Miles' mother and retreat back to the Morales apartment. Peter is about to bid farewell before Wolf Spider busts in to steal the Siege Perilous back, revealing not only that he knew where Miles lived because he killed him along with ever other hero in his own world, but that he's Peter Parker (please hold back your "shock"), and that he's apparently the only evil Peter Parker in the multiverse. First off, it's not really shocking that Wolf Spider turned out to be a Peter Parker, because not only did they spoil it in the commercials, but a majority of universes have a Peter Parker as Spider-Man. However, it was interesting to see a purely evil version of Peter, making me think of DC's Earth-3, though the whole "conqueror of the world" thing is a bit of a stretch.
Peter, Miles, and Gwen track Wolf Spider down to his underwater lair where he begins siphoning off the lifeforce of the multiverse's spider-people to make himself more powerful, capturing Miles and Gwen as well. Peter then allows himself to be caught, entering a sort of mindscape where all of the spider-people are being held captive so he can inspire them to never give up. Peter gets freed as well as Miles and Gwen as the rest of spider-people inside Wolf Spider begin to fight back and tear him apart until he explodes, with Peter's reasoning being that all the good spider-people can't be contained by one evil version. So it all comes down to the power of good is stronger than the power of evil, a message I'd expect from a children's show aimed at a lower age group.
With the multiverse saved, Peter plans to head home, but Miles and his mother decide to come with him to his world since they don't have any other family and that Gwen is now the spider of their world. Okay, the Gwen thing I understand, but why the hell would Miles and his mother completely uproot their lives?! Does she not have a job? Do they not have any friends at? How do they expect to make a living in another universe? I mean, I guess SHIELD can help out with that, but still, it's all just an excuse to keep Miles as part of the show...which I guess means he'll still be using that idiotic Kid Arachnid name instead of being the Spider-Man of his own world like he's earned. I remember in Miles' own segment in the last "Spider-Verse" story when Peter said Miles didn't have to be like Peter Parker to be Spider-Man because "Miles Morales is just fine." I guess he should have followed that up with "but if for some reason we live in the same universe, I keep the Spider-Man name."
I guess the biggest problem with the Spider-Gwen segment is that it just uses the name and focuses mainly on Peter and Miles.
To begin my conclusion, let me rank the segments from my favorite to least:
1. Noir
2. Blood Spider
3. Web-Slinger
4. Web-Beard
5. Spider-Gwen
As for my overall feelings of "Return to the Spider-Verse"? Well, it was at its strongest when it was original and creative (except for how they portrayed Spider-Gwen; I can't forgive them for that). But it lacks a lot of what made the first "Spider-Verse" work, from a cohesive theme between each story as well as an unrelenting main villain. Wolf Spider had a lot of potential from his first appearance in Blood Spider's world, but mostly took a backseat until Spider-Gwen's. While it was obvious he was a Peter Parker, they could have built up more mystery about who he was. Hell, I had some theories that he was a zombie Peter either from Miles' or Gwen's world (before they revealed it was the same world) that came back to life and turned evil due to the Siege Perilous.
Another thing I liked in the original was that all the spiders came together to fight together in the finale, and while we kind of get it here, it would have been better to see an actual fight rather than the whole "good overpowers evil" morality lesson.
I might also be playing favorites too since the original story featured mainly alternate Spider-Men that were well-known, which made it fun and why I viewed it as a tribute to Spider-Man's overall legacy. With the new one, I don't get that same feeling. While still entertaining, it didn't have the same heart, which makes me hope they don't try another "Spider-Verse" story in season five.
RATING: 4.5/10
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