Spider-Man: The Spider'S Shadow

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Trilogy Creep: The series was intended to be a four-issue series, but it got bumped up to five issues. Anti-Hero: Peter dips into this after he kills Hobgoblin, going on to kill at least 19 other criminals, including the Sinister Six. Catapult Nightmare: Peter's been having a lot of these lately. At one point, he accidentally shoves MJ against a wall when he wakes up. The writing here is good, which pretty much sets the book up for success automatically given that Spidey's more recent run of things in comics hasn't really met the usual expectations for most people. It's refreshing to see Peter Parker struggling against a darkness and facing some serious danger, all laid out against an interesting premise and storyline.

This thing... it's alive. It has a right to make choices just as I do. It chooses to be with me, and I... choose to be with it. We're helping each other, I can feel it. It shouldn't be kept in a prison here. — Spider-Man Appearing in "Part One of Four" Gaining the Will to Kill: At first, Peter manages to resist the symbiote's urgings to kill Hobgoblin, settling for unmasking him and warning him to stay away unless he wants another beating. It isn't until Hobgoblin murders May Parker that Peter gives in and crushes Hobgoblin's skull. But this could be one of those stories where it goes too dark and possibly too far. I get that Venom is a violent, dark mirror of Spider-Man -- a creature that is the bonding of two entities that hate Peter Parker. And the idea the alien costume might feed into some of Peter's internal self-doubt and loathing is an intriguing one. But honesty, the concept of Peter going dark was better realized in the animated series from the 90's when the dark suit was brought into the story. I guess I wanted to see Peter do more than just become a violent sociopath who kills or hurts everyone around him before getting a bit of redemption and an obligatory happy ending. Keystone Army: While the symbiote has removed its traditional weaknesses from its offspring, the original symbiote is still vulnerable to fire and sonics, and its link to the junior symbiotes it has spawned means that killing it kills all of its offspring, although this required Johnny Storm to basically hit it with a point-blank flame blast. Removed Achilles' Heel: Once the symbiote takes over Reed Richards, it genetically modifies its offspring to remove their vulnerability to fire.Evil Costume Switch: Downplayed. Although he still tries to protect innocent people, Spidey's costume becomes more menacing in appearance shortly before he kills the Hobgoblin, featuring a pair of fangs that allude to both a real spider's and Venom's below his lenses, added bulk, claws, and writhing tendrils of symbiote biomass protruding from his torso. However, the art does not always keep the same consistency across the series. When it comes to the finer details such as faces, there can be some distracting inconsistencies. Also, the coloring seems washed out a bit in issue #5. This might be a result of the change of palette due to the final showdown’s setting, but it is noticeable. Thankfully, these inconsistencies are minor and do not detract too much from the overall experience.

Point of Divergence: This issue starts during Amazing Spider-Man #258 , but there's a small change: instead of going to the Baxter Building immediately after his nightmare, he gets distracted by a fight with the Hobgoblin, where he ends up giving into some of his darker impulses and beats and unmasks Hobgoblin, warning him that he's "playing for keeps." This allows the suit a little more control of Peter and when he finally does have Reed Richards examine the suit and learns it's alive, he doesn't remove it like in the original story, but keeps it. From Bad to Worse: Jameson manages to remove the symbiote from Peter by forcing him into a burning barn and presumes it to be dead, but Peter senses that it survived the fire. The symbiote makes its way to the Baxter Building and takes over Mr. Fantastic, and to make matters worse, it has begun to spawn more symbiotes. Chip Zdarsky delivers a modern 'What if?' story here with some sadness and dark tones - at least by the standards of a Spider-Man book. Hair-Trigger Temper: In Issue #1, Peter is shown to be incredibly agitated due to a mix of the symbiote's corrupting influence, several days without sleep, and being plagued by nightmares involving the symbiote. Pasqual Ferry delivers some tremendous art, which is key in showing Spider-Man slow descent under the influence of the suit. The action scenes are top notch and he excels in the horror driven moments, with a symbiote influenced Spider-Man’s clash with the Hobgoblin and later with the Sinister Six being particularly memorable. I’d be remiss not to mention Phil Noto’s stunning covers which terrifically showcase the horror driven aspect of the series and key scenes of the series.The design of his suit after Hobgoblin kills Aunt May is also very terrifying, as he adopts the claws, tendrils, and a bit of the added bulk typically associated with Venom and changes his mask into a more arachnoid visage, with four spider-like fangs painted on.

That symbiote is a ride-or-die to the fullest, and I love reading it's subversive thoughts and seeing the way it lures Peter into trusting it, while pushing away those he loves. It's like the textbook version of schizophrenia. After enjoying Spider-Man: Life Story, I was optimistic to see what Chip Zdarsky might do for an encore. The result is the fairly disappointing extended "what if" story The Spider's Shadow. Kingpin: So I went about investigating. Seeing if you had any other close family members. A wife, a girlfriend- someone I could threaten. But there was no one. So incredibly sad. You have no one, Peter Parker. Anyone you ever loved is-Unscrupulous Hero: As described by Peter, the symbiote isn't entirely evil. It genuinely wants to help people based on what it knows from Peter. The problem is that it has zero understanding of morality.

Orifice Invasion: How Peter kills Scorpion. Specifically, Spider-Man forces the symbiote's biomass into his adversary's lungs through his mouth, suffocating him to death. He repeats this with Mysterio. The series ends with Peter joining the Fantastic Four, which was what the very first original What If? issue was all about. Dark Is Not Evil: Peter goes full-on Anti-Hero after Aunt May's death at the hands of Hobgoblin, officially accepting the symbiote. Then the thing with what happens with Sinister six and finally the final battle when he discards and who the symbiote takes over next and its an epic battle between Spider-man and the forces that are and its something plus such a great emotional impact and showdown but regrets and all for sure but the ending is fantastic and the cliffhanger! Kingpin with the carnage symbiote holy shit!! My God, What Have I Done?: When Jameson and Kraven successfully manage to remove the symbiote from Peter via throwing him in a burning barn, the symbiote's influence wanes and is promptly horrified of his actions.Spider-Man: Spider's Shadow #1 is scheduled for release in April 2021. That also happens to be the month Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman are wrapping up their Venom run with the Venom #200 anniversary special. Kryptonite-Proof Suit: The symbiote, having learned its lesson from past encounters with fire, builds itself a fireproof suit of armor once it takes possession of Reed Richards. It stars with Peter getting the Venom symbiote but the question is what if he kept the symbiote even after Reed told him not to and then you see what happens to Aunt may and then he snaps and what he does to the Hobgoblin and how everyone is after him and in particular Kingpin and when they fight its something but then things get violent as he takes out many villain and its like a dark path and really lives up to what if and its bloody, dark and violent and gory even and I love how the artist brings it out. And then when there's no psychoanalyzing that portion of the story, enter Hobgoblin acting a fool and getting his shit subsequently pushed in because he took the "ca t and mouse" crap too far. After an incident with the Hobgoblin, however, things begin to change: Reed Richards informs Peter that his costume is actually alive and he should probably leave it with the Fantastic Four to investigate further, but Peter doesn't want to do that. The costume chose him and he's choosing it.