The Entire Marvel Universe Bids Farewell to the Spectacular Spider-Men in Their Final Issue

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Spectacular Spider-Men was an unusual series. It lasted fifteen issues, and yet it only told two stories, one seven issues long, and now a second story for eight issues. If you’re going to do a relatively short series, that’s really a great approach, I think, as you end up with two thick collections of stories that can be read and re-read for a long time. And this series really IS something that I would recommend people to pick up at any given time to re-read, as it was a delightful celebration of the friendship between Peter Parker and Miles Morales, but also of the joys of the shared Marvel Universe.

The Spectacular Spider-Men #14 is from writer Greg Weisman, artist Andrés Genolet, colorist Edgar Delgado, and letterer Joe Caramagna, and it closes the series out in a big way, with a MASSIVE collection of guest stars, and a sweet tribute to the basic setup of the series, which saw Peter and Miles decide to get together every Wednesday at Empire State University’s coffee shop to touch base on their lives.

Who are the Spider-Men looking for?

As I noted in last issue’s review, one of the central conflicts in “Strange Love” is the journey of the new superhero, Elementary. You see, in the opening arc of this series, a bunch of college students were experimented on with an artificial reality created by Arcade, using the telepathic powers of Mentallo to determine what people’s fondest wishes were. A shy student named Juliet dreamed of being with a girl she had a crush on named Anna, so in her artifical reality, they were dating. When everyone was “rescued,” Juliet went back to Anna not even knowing who she WAS, but then she and Anna DID become friends, right around the same time that Juliet discovered that she had superpowers.

Miles and Peter (and their superhero friends) began training Juliet, whose powers were elemental in nature (so she had wind, fire, water, and “earth” powers). However, it was clear that Juliet wasn’t the best student, and she was more interested in getting closer with Anna, who had a girlfriend, Rickie. Well, in Spectacular Spider-Men #12, Juliet’s overconfidence in her powers were literally shocked when the dual Electros (who were the major villains of this second arc) found a way to counter her powers and take her out of the game, but in the same process, Anna was electrocuted trying to help Juliet. When Juliet recovered, Rickie berated her, basically claiming that Juliet’s recklessness just got Anna killed!

Juliet still doesn’t know that Anna is alive, so in this issue, she is missing, and everyone is concerned. Is she possibly going to hurt herself? Will she hurt others? No one knew what to expect, and that’s why they all need to find her. So the Spider-Men turn to their superhero friends (including the ones who helped Elementary train with her powers) to help out.

How does the rest of the Marvel Universe help out?

Weisman embraces the variety of the Marvel Universe to have everyone come together to find Juliet. As I noted back in issue #12, where a bunch of superheroes helped Juliet develop her powers (like the Thing tutoring her on the “rock” side of her powers, Human Torch helping her with her fire powers, Aero helping her with her air powers, and Wave helping her with her water powers, and since Wave is a Pinoy superhero like Juliet, that was a fun bit of shared background, as well), Weisman does a really nice job playing up just how many superheroes there are in New York City at any given moment, and they are all helping out in this issue.

Wesiman had used a bunch of characters (including the physical therapist, Sha Shan Nguyen, who was Flash Thompson’s girlfriend for a few years) as supporting characters in his Starbrand and Nightmask miniseries, and Weisman loops in the entire supporting cast of that series into this book, as well. It’s a really cool celebration of the diverse number of characters in the Marvel Universe. At the same time, Weisman also pays tribute to the cast of this series, as well, as it wasn’t just Juliet who went through some things, it was ALL of the regulars at the coffee shop (and the workers there).

However, of course, Juliet was the key to the issue, and thankfully, her story had a happy ending, and Weisman got to tell just a nice, sweet story of a new superhero.

Andrés Genolet did a wonderful job on having to draw a TON of superheroes, including one crazy double-page splash where they all get coffee together. There’s basically a sort of “where is everybody now?” bit in the book, including a nice tribute to the professor who was killed in the series (by his evil brother, the Jackal). Colorist Edgar Delgado did a particularly notable job in this series keeping the various artists all on the same basic visual page. It’s a hard feat to achieve (and I once had a colorist get mad at me for saying that they did a good job keeping different artists appearing consistent. I think she felt I was saying she was too overbearing as a colorist, but i think it really is a very important thing for colorists to do, to give a sense of visual continuity in the series).

The issue had a very sweet, but funny, ending that tied into the truism that, in a shared universe, there is never a true ending. But what we got was a farewell to this series, and it was a heartfelt farewell to what was an excellent run of Spider-Man (Men) comic books.

Source: Marvel

“}]] In a CBR review of Spectacular Spider-Men #15, I show how the series comes to a close with the whole Marvel Universe of superheroes lending a hand  Read More