Spider-Geddon-It? Are You Geddon It?

Remember when only DC Comics did alternate universe stories? Yeah, me, too. Now it's all this.

Spider-Geddon is a five issue series from Marvel 'We're All About Alternate Universes Now' Comics. Once again, there is a crisis that requires several alternate universe versions of Spider-Man to team up and punch at said crisis. And punch they do. And make quips. And hang out with one another. Even for a Spider-Man comic, there is a lot of hanging out.

The crisis this time is (once again) the Inheritors, a collection of goth douchebag vampires that subsist on incarnations of the Spider-Totem. Brought back to life accidentally by Otto Octavius (who is now the Superior Spider-Man), they are ready to feed once more.

I love alternate universe stories. I also love Spider-Man. I may not have loved this, but I did really enjoy it. Just as long as I didn't think about it too much.

What I liked: all the various versions of Spider-Man. From all the variations on a theme that exist on Earth 616 alone (Scarlet Spider, Miles Morales Spider-Man, Silk, Spider-Girl, Spider-Woman, Superior Spider-Man) to the alternate Earths that are apparently slacking and only provide one Spider-Man, (for the most part--there is a husband and wife team of Spider-Family, and an uncle and nephew version, and, oh, you get the idea), I enjoy them all.

The story is ridiculous. If the all the alternate Spider-Men weren't enough to draw you in---(the Japanese Spider-Man and his giant robot? Check. The hero from the recent Sony video game? Double check.) the story also digs deep into Marvel lore, pulling something that premiered way back in Micronauts to help with the final battle. I'm surprised that a kitchen sink wasn't seen flying in the background at some point.

Spider-Geddon also quietly lets you know that if you want THE FULL STORY you should pick up all the additional titles that spun out of this. So, even though I passed on picking up the tie in issues of Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Spider-Girls, Spider-Force, and Vault of Spiders, I did pick  up one issue of Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider. It was fun, but didn't really add much to what was going in the main title. I don't think my enjoyment of the main story suffered that much by exercising financial restraint.

The only thing I remain ambivalent about, really, is just this multiversal approach to Spider-Man. I liked the idea that a one in a million thing happened to some nerdy student, and that he decided to use his newfound powers for good. The idea that this is a universal constant takes away a lot of that magic. The idea that all across the uncounted dimensions different versions of the same person all gain spider-powers and lose a loved one--and usually have names and relatives that correspond to Parker and his family's names--is something I applaud for its sheer comic book dumbness. But when you consider this part of the Spider-Man mythos--along with Webs of Destiny tied to the workings of the cosmos-I'm not sure that it really hangs together that well. The Spider-Man narrative framework can't hold that much weight.

And I think the writers may realize that. At the end of Spider-Geddon, when all the dimension hopping has come to an end, Spider-Gwen says:

"To be honest, it's probably better to put some brakes on it for awhile."

Then she adds:

"Unless there's a crisis."

I smiled at that.

Spider-Geddon was good at providing smiles. Overall, it was a fun comic, but like Gwen says, it's best to leave this idea alone for a while.