9/10 Comic Reviews: So Long and Thanks for All the Yaleo
Spider-verse vs Venomverse #5 written by Mat Groom and Kyle Higgins with art by Jim Towe
“There are only more beginnings.”
Fittingly for such a fast-paced book, the final issue of the hit summer event has arrived a mere two weeks after the penultimate issue. Unsatisfied by their champions refusing to fight, the Web-heart and Hive Mind have yanked a couple dozen more Spiders and Symbiotes from across the multiverse and psychically compelled them to throw down. The champions are untouched by that compulsion for soon to be revealed reasons, but even free of the entities’ control, they’re outnumbered and underpowered to take down two rival armies of super-people. However, as it turns out, there is one man uniquely qualified to save the day.
From the beginning of the event, Eddie Brock has been presented as the Symbiote’s counterpart to Peter Parker and Spider-Man, to the point of giving them a joint narration in the first issue to hammer home just how similar they are. It’s perhaps fitting that Eddie’s reward for protecting Peter in the previous issue is to now have the radioactive blood of the Spiders running through his veins making him a hybrid of both factions and therefore immune to the influence of either entity. Realizing that there’s only one way they’re making it out of this, the Symbiote faction chooses to put their faith in the Spiders and offer them their partners, creating more hybrids immune to being controlled while also protecting the original hosts by removing them from that network in the first place.
Now’s a perfect time to talk about Jim Towe’s art because one of my favorite things in this issue is the designs of the Symbiote-equipped Spiders. Rather than having them go full Symbiote-possessed, the Symbiotes become pieces of armor based on the costumes of the original hosts. There’s a version where the result could have been clunky and mismatched, but they actually blend together so seamlessly that it’s hard to tell where one starts and the other ends. It’s a subtle touch, but one that reinforces the idea that they’re stronger together which ultimately proves to be the theme of the book.
The combined heroes are able to rejoin the battle, but they’re still vastly outnumbered by the controlled armies. Thankfully, a beloved member of the Spider-family proves once again that big things come in small packages and helps turn the tide. Unfortunately, in all the chaos, everyone forgot about the unconscious Peter Parker unprotected by a Symbiote and susceptible to the Web-Heart’s control. Spidey dropping the quips and simply demolishing everything has never failed to be unsettling if not downright terrifying, and that’s fully weaponized here as he makes short work of the resisting heroes and attacks Eddie. In desperation, Eddie connects Peter to the Symbiote, linking their minds and allowing them to have a heart-to-heart decades in the making. With their entire lives laid out before them, they can both see how similar they are for themselves. For Peter, it also gives clarity to one crucial difference. As bright and optimistic as Spider-Man and his counterparts are, they always tend to be loners. The motto of “with great power comes great responsibility” has pushed them to perform incredible acts of heroism, but for many of them, it means feeling like they’re the ones who have to shoulder all of the responsibility. That unwillingness to accept help or allow anyone else in is what drove Peter to reject the Symbiote in the first place. But unlike Peter, Eddie has known when to ask for help since the beginning. Sure, it hasn’t always been in the right places, but he knew that there were some hurdles he’d need a partner to overcome. It’s what drove him to bond with the Symbiote, and it’s driven him throughout this whole conflict. As Peter points out, he was trying to avoid the conflict between the two factions, but Eddie was actively pushing for them to work together from the beginning. Ultimately, he’s the one most capable of uniting the factions and ending the conflict without further bloodshed.
Where we end up is a pretty interesting place. Peter, as our only mainstream character, returns home a little wiser, but otherwise unchanged. On the other hand, the rest of the cast, with two significant exceptions, are sent back to their own dimensions with new perspective and so much story potential that there should be a whole line of books following what these characters do next. This book has given me a window into a world where a Takuya/Yaleo team-up book exists and it’s the world I want to live in. Come on! Tokusatsu is in right now, and a toku book with Spider-Man on the cover would sell like hot cakes! Besides the best comic book concept in the world, there were several other newly-introduced characters with worlds of potential. Web-Weaver was a late addition who I became endeared to much more than I expected, and it would be great to see someone taking up the reins and exploring them in more depth. That’s not even getting into this version of Eddie and his exciting new status quo. As someone on the record as a fan of his heroic turn, it’s great to see him in a good place and there’s a whole new multiverse open to him now.
What a delight this book turned out to be. The last few years have been filled to the brim with Spider-Man multiverse events, and yet this book proves there’s an unlimited amount of potential for amazing stories within that concept. As I’ve said plenty of times, this book has been the quintessential Spider-Man story, chock full of humor, heart, and some of the coolest action in comics. Not only does this issue wrap the event up in a satisfying conclusion, it lays the groundwork for a dozen more stories anyone can build on. Much like the Spiders and the Symbiotes themselves, they have the potential to keep expanding to new heights and new worlds. If you’ve been reading these reviews but still haven’t picked it up for some reason, I’m able to promise now that this book is a blast from start to finish and more than worth your while. The event may be over, but so many stories are just beginning.