Comic Book / Dark Web

"Everything was stolen from us. Let's go get it back."

— Madelyne Pryor, Dark Web #1

Dark Web is a comic book event from Marvel Comics, a 2022-2023 Bat Family Crossover centered on Spider-Man that also draws on some plot threads from X-Men: The Krakoan Age. It takes place in Marvel's main continuity, the shared Marvel Universe.

At the conclusion of Spider-Man Beyond, Peter Parker's clone Ben Reilly was believed to have been killed in the final fight against the all-powerful Beyond Corporation. In reality, Ben survived, but his formative memories were completely and irrevocably erased in the process.

Consumed by the ensuing mental chasm and a deep hatred of Spider-Man — whom he views as the source of all the pain and suffering in his life — the now-rechristened Chasm has vowed to destroy his progenitor. To that end, Chasm has struck an alliance with another, recently resurrected, villainous clone: Madelyne Pryor, a.k.a. the Goblin Queen and now the newly ascended Queen of Limbo, who has suffered very similar experiences with the Mutants due to being Jean Grey's clone and having her own scores to settle.

Now, their quest for mutual vengeance will (literally) raise hell and draw in not just Spider-Man and the X-Men, but also Venom, Black Cat, Ms. Marvel, and even the now-reformed Norman Osborn.

Much like Spider-Verse before it, Dark Web primarily runs through Amazing Spider-Man. Tie-in mini-series and one-shots will weave in and out of the core narrative, with Venom the only other ongoing monthly title directly tying into it.

Events occurring in Dark Web lead into the limited-series, Hallows' Eve, in 2023 and then Madelyne's own Dark X-Men (2023).

Comics involved with Dark Web:

• Preludes:
  • Free Comic Book Day (2022): Spider-Man / Venom #1
  • Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #14
  • Venom (Vol. 5) #13
• Main Event:
  • Dark Web #1
  • Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #15-18
  • Dark Web: Ms. Marvel #1-2
  • Dark Web: X-Men #1-3
  • Gold Goblin #2-3
  • Mary Jane & Black Cat #1-2
  • Venom (Vol. 5) #14-16
  • Dark Web: Finale #1

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Dark Web contains examples of the following tropes:

• Animate Inanimate Object: The demons of Limbo and the realm's energies bring tons of inanimate objects to life, so we get things like Forge saving a man from being eaten by a hot dog cart, Ms. Marvel fighting toilets, Firestar, Iceman, and Spider-Man taking on the Rockefeller Center's Christmas tree, the Jersey City Mosque becoming fed-up with its congregation and running away, a pair of jackhammers proclaiming their undying love for one another, and Spidey using a whiny scooter in his first fight with Chasm and shrieking Christmas trees in his fight with Venom.
  Jameson: I just saw a yellow cab shiv an Uber over a passenger.
• Arc Welding: Wells is tying together threads from his current run on Amazing Spider-Man and his preceding work on Spider-Man Beyond, and Hellions.
• Asshole Victim: Ben and Maddie use Gus, the debt collector who has been hounding Peter, as their guinea pig for Soul Eating. According to Maddie, Gus had a nasty habit of using "special tools" on people in his attic and, after inhaling his soul, she further comments that Gus was definitely an "evil... evil man."
• Back from the Dead: The Inventor, who now looks like a zombie being held together by robot parts, returns in Dark Web: Ms. Marvel after being Ground by Gears back in Ms. Marvel #11.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Chasm and the Goblin Queen, two of Marvel's most-famous clones, are the primary villains of the event, having teamed up to get revenge on the people they feel have wronged them — with Ben Reilly looking to kill Peter Parker to take back the memories he believes Peter stole from him back in Spider-Man: Beyond and Madelyne Pryor looking to get revenge on Krakoa due to feeling that Jean Grey stole her life and son from her. Eddie Brock is also working with them, albeit not knowing what their plans are and so that he can save his son Dylan... at least before Chasm reverts him to "EAT SPIDER-MAN'S BRAIN!!!" mode while trying to brainwash him.
• Bitch Slap: Jean, sick of Maddie's crap, gives her one of these while telling her to Bring It at the end of Dark Web: X-Men #2.
• Bittersweet Ending: Maddie is talked down by Jean Grey, Ben Reilly is defeated, and the demon invasion ended. But Maddie reclaims her power as Queen of Limbo without repercussions, and a Limbo tower/portal remains established in New York, which she has forced the U.S. to accept as her "Embassy" for the near future. And while Pryor has made peace with Jean Grey and the X-Men, whether she can be trusted remains questionable. And Ben seems too far gone in his rage and desire to destroy Peter to be helped, but also avoids serious consequences as, instead, Maddie has taken custody of him and placed in a comfortable imprisonment. Furthermore, Hallows' Eve and Bedlam — who is still missing the chunks of memory Ben stole from him — remain at large.
• Black Comedy:
  • The demonic sick sense of humor that was part and parcel of the original Inferno event is present and accounted for in its follow-up.
    Demonic Scooter: I just wanted to eat people! *sob* Is that so wrong?!
  • After capturing Cyclops, Maddie keeps him incapacitated by taking his visor away before surrounding his head with dangling puppies, forcing him to keep his eyes shut unless he wants to "blast puppy innards around the room."
• Bookends: Dark Web is introduced in Free Comic Book Day with a mailbox coming to life and talking, and closes in Finale on a mailbox still alive and talking.
• Borrowed Catchphrase: After Spider-Man snaps at him to stop butchering his catchphrases and just punch the Insidious Six, Rek-Rap apes Ben Grimm's catchphrase instead.
  Rek-Rap: It's wall-crawling time!
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In Venom #13, Eddie Brock joins forces with Madelyne and Ben when they promise to help him find his son. In Dark Web #1, however, the Goblin Queen and Chasm instead Mind Rape Eddie with the intent of brainwashing him to make him easier to manipulate, causing him to relapse into his old evil self. Madelyne notes to Hallows' Eve that they might have taken too much from Eddie when he goes AWOL to attack Spider-Man.
• Brick Joke:
  • The Goblin Queen had a severed finger from the demon S’ym as a "tribute". When Black Cat and Mary Jane encounter S'ym, his hand is wrapped in bandages.
  • The demonic mailboxes. In the Free Comic Book Day prelude, Spider-Man rescues a civilian from a demonic mailbox that wanted to eat someone's mail (along with, naturally, the mailer). In the epilogue, even after everything that's gone down, another demonic mailbox still wants to eat some mail.
• Call-Back:
  • In Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #14:
    • Chasm gained entrance into Limbo by using equipment salvaged from Project Purgatory.
    • Limbo demons heckle Pryor with quotes the omniscient narrator made about her faceless state in her Nightmare Sequence in Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #233.
    • Madelyne transforms Janine into Hallows' Eve by jabbing Janine in her chest with a severed finger from the demon S'ym, the same finger S'ym stabbed into Pryor's chest to transform her into the Goblin Queen in Uncanny X-Men #234.
  • In Dark Web #1, while asleep in Limbo, Ben experiences a nightmare similar to the one Pryor suffered in the aforementioned UXM #233.
• Calling the Old Man Out: While fighting Eddie after his transformation into Bedlam, Dylan calls him out for neglecting and abandoning him and the Venom symbiote to play god as the King in Black, sneering that he deserves his current state for that.
• Chainsaw Good: In the Venom tie-in, Meridius mocks Bedlam for not using a bladed weapon to counter Codex/Venom's Necrosword katana. Bedlam manifests a chainsaw arm-blade, which he uses in the finale to rip and tear Limbo's demons to shreds.
• Chekhov's Gun: Madelyne Pryor's "Scythe of Sorrows" repeatedly appears prominently on covers and story panels but becomes important only in the last chapters.
• Clone Angst: The motivation for the Big Bad Duumvirate are the emotional pain Ben and Madelyne have suffered since they were created and their desire to seize something for themselves that their genetic sources have.
• Clones Are People, Too: Peter makes his stance on clones clear at the start of the saga, explaining that he considers them different people than the ones they were derived from, but they're still real and deserving of a chance to have happy, peaceful lives. This lies in stark contrast to Ben's view of the matter, in that there can only be one true instance of a person or that the instance is obligated to share its existence with their clone(s).
• Commonality Connection: Madelyne feels sympathy to all her allies:
  • Ben and Madelyne bond over their shared suffering as clones created for sinister purposes against their genetic sources. They then plot to aid each other in achieving their goals against said originals.
  • When Janine expresses a desire for the power to seek retribution against the world for making her suffer, Madelyne expresses sympathies as another victimized woman.
  • In a prelude issue in Venom, Madelyne expresses camaraderie towards Eddie Brock for being both royalty and a single parent. This doesn't last, as she grows annoyed with Eddie's insistence on being taken to his son immediately, and resolves the issue by reverting him to his original mindset as a villain.
• Continuity Nod: At one point in Dark Web: X-Men #3, Pryor brings up that she gave birth alone in the kitchen of the X-Mansion, as was described in Uncanny X-Men #200-201.
• Continuity Overlap: The prelude issues establish the event as beginning some time after the finale of Vita Ayala's New Mutants (2019) arc "Labors of Magik", wherein Madelyne succeeded Illyana as the new Queen of Limbo. Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #14 and Venom (Vol. 5) #13 show Ben Reilly and Eddie Brock being drawn into Limbo, encountering Madelyne as the Queen, and allying with her for their own separate reasons — Ben due to also being a clone feeling betrayed by his genetic template; and Eddie because Limbo happened to be the closest parallel dimension with a symbiote in it when he decided to practise multiversal travel, and he's desperate for a way to return to the present to save his son Dylan from the machinations of Meridius, Eddie's evil future self.
• Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Whereas the previous conflict had Pryor less the primary instigator then pawn of other truly malevolent schemers and unleashed chaos more for the sake of chaos then much else, while here she plays equal instigator with Reilly (at first) and unleashes chaos as means to an end towards defined goals.
• Convenience Store Gift Shopping: Iceman's contribution to the X-Men's gift exchange was a bootleg X-Men hoodie with his face on it that he just bought from one of the vendors who are always hanging out around the entrance to the Treehouse.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Maddie's stake in the plot was to heist Jean's memories of raising Nathan from Krakoa, under the belief they wouldn't give it freely and balking at the notion of begging for them. Jean confronts her for a moment before surrendering all the memories she wanted and more, winning Maddie over to their side.
• Counter-Attack: Ben's Spider-Sense is now enhanced to not only detect attacks, but lash out with energy to defend against them.
• A Darker Me: Invoked by Ms. Marvel in Venom #16, where she scoffs that Dylan is deliberately trying to invoke Darker and Edgier on himself as Codex.
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Brought up when Ben traps Peter in Limbo, claiming that he will only let Peter go if Peter will eat a certain fruit. Ben expresses certainty that Peter will eventually break from the torturous routine of Limbo, but Peter states that if Ben believes he'll do that then Ben has clearly forgotten everything about being Spider-Man.
• Demon of Human Origin: In Amazing Spider-Man #18, Hallows' Eve steals Madelyne Pryor's Scythe of Sorrows and gives it to Ben to make him the new King of Limbo, causing him to undergo a demonic transformation.
• Demoted to Extra: Cyclops and Nathan were both present and participants in the original mess between Grey and Pryor, and Magik is usually important in events that involve Limbo. Now, Cyclops and Magik's involvements are almost irrelevant here, and Nathan is merely The Ghost.
• Diplomatic Impunity: King Chasm teleported a massive tower from Limbo into New York, which remains there after his defeat. All are forced to accept its presence and Goblin Queen Madelyne's conditions that it's her territory and also that Ben remain in her custody instead of the X-Men's or U.S. authorities. Just like the Mutants have their Treehouse in the city, now Limbo has an Embassy.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Peter's first good look at the scantily clad Madelyne leaves him near speechless, allowing her to get close and snatch up the defeated Venom.
• Dramatic Irony: That Ben does so many amoral actions to steal Peter's memories — memories that inform his moral compass, which is the entire reason Beyond had them removed — means that were Ben to succeed he probably wouldn't be any happier with himself.
• Era-Specific Personality: Inflicted onto Venom/Eddie Brock via Chasm's memory-alteration powers, reverting him back into his original 80s to very early 90s villain characterization in order to keep him compliant. This reversion later ends up being the catalyst for Eddie's transformation into Bedlam.
• Et Tu, Brute?: After regaining her memories with help from the X-Men, Madelyne Pryor attempts to make things right by halting Limbo's invasion of New York and informs Ben and Janine as such, claiming that things have gone too far and that they were essentially riding on her good will long enough. Ben becomes furious at what he interprets as yet another betrayal from someone welshing on their half of a bargain made the moment they got what they wanted. Janine becomes embittered upon realizing someone she trusted has used and abandoned her yet again, motivating her to betray Madelyne and steal her scythe in turn.
• Everything Is Racist: Arjun, Kamala's lab partner at Oscorp, jokes about how they were probably only paired together because they're both brown. A couple of pages later, after getting romantically rebuffed by Kamala (still weary from her past relationships), he awkwardly asks if she would've said yes if he was Muslim rather than Hindu.
• Eviler than Thou: Ben Reilly/Chasm is this compared to Madelyne Pryor. While Pryor tries to operate with at least some manner of decorum and is open to negotiations with the captured X-Men, Reilly has become increasingly erratic and unstable due to his fractured mental state, and is obsessed more with hurting Peter and everyone else he feels has slighted him than actually getting his memories back. When Pryor is granted the memories she wants from Jean (who notes that Maddie could have just asked her to share them from the beginning) and attempts to call off the demonic invasion of New York, Ben ultimately interprets this as yet another betrayal, turns on Maddie and usurps her as ruler of Limbo, and attempts to pull all of Manhattan into Hell in a mad attempt at destroying Peter once and for all.
• Fisher King: Limbo has imprinted on Madelyne as its new queen, which caused it to draw Ben to it because of their shared suffering as clones.
• A Gift for Themselves: Cyclops's contribution to the X-Men's white elephant gift exchange is... Band of Brothers on 4K Blu-ray and signed by Tom Hanks, a gift that is both obviously more than the price limit, and clearly intended for Cyclops himself. Havok also just settled on getting his own "Coffees of the World" gift back because he "didn't love the look of his teammates' choices."
• Given Name Reveal: Gold Goblin #2 reveals that the Jack O'Lantern from Donny Cates's Venom is named Owen Ward, and that Norman Osborn's childhood dog was named Mucky.
• Go-Go Enslavement: Havok wakes up in a tattered, revealing outfit after he and most of the other X-Men are captured by Maddie — a Call-Back to his initial romance with her.
  Cyclops: Wait... what are you wearing?!
  Havok: Gimme a break. I woke up like this.
• Grand Finale: Mary Jane & Black Cat serves as the final installment of Jed MacKay's overarching Black Cat Myth Arc, ending his 5 year run with Felicia Hardy. Custodianship of Felicia would pass to Celeste Bronfman beginning with the next crossover event Gang War.
• Haunted Technology: All over the place because technological objects are among the many things possessed by demons. Of note in particular is that the Inventor gets inadvertently reanimated because the computer chip that forms part of his brain got affected too.
• Humanity Is Infectious: After Peter helps out and is nice to a small demon being bullied by a bigger one, it gets inspired to imitate Parker by becoming a SpiderMan-style demon and calls itself "Rek-Rap", to Parker's chagrin.
• Hypocrite: Ben Reilly's stake in instigating the conflict is to get revenge on Peter Parker for ruining his life, believing he stole his memories at the end of Spider-Man Beyond. However, in Dark Web #1, he helps Madelyne Pryor Mind Rape Eddie Brock by removing chunks of his memories in order to make him easier to manipulate, exactly the same thing that was done to Ben by the Beyond Corporation. In Venom #14, his girlfriend Janine even notes the hypocrisy of her, Maddie, and especially Ben's actions... before deciding she doesn't care.
• I Am Not Left-Handed: When Synch fights Eddie Brock — who's been reverted to his classic Venom persona — he primarily uses Scott Summers' Eye Beams, which Eddie powers through. When he's alerted to Hallows' Eve trespassing, he decides to stop holding back, copies Eddie's symbiote powers, and effortlessly trounces him.
• Ironic Echo: In ASM #14, Limbo heckles Pryor with, "A NOTHING PERSON! From a NOWHERE PLACE!" And in Dark Web #1, Reilly is taunted with, "A NOTHING PERSON! In a NOWHERE PLACE!" During the Finale, when Maddie is the victor and Ben to become a prisoner of Limbo, she proclaims to the heroes:
  Pryor: I ask you to see me as I see me. The QUEEN OF LIMBO... not a NOTHING PERSON ruling a NOWHERE PLACE.
• Ironic Hell: The forces of Limbo try to do this to Peter, Jameson, and Robbie by trapping them in a hellish parody of the Daily Bugle, but their tempers and general ineptitude (the demons have to play the roles of surrounding civilians) make it resemble coercive role-play than anything else.
• Kick the Dog: Chasm throws Kamala into Limbo both because he wants to practice the spell to do so and due to the fact that she's tangentially associated with Peter.
• Lack of Empathy: Cyclops seems either to have No Sympathy towards Madelyne (and almost says as much), or is incapable of expressing it properly. In contrast, Illyana, Alex, and Jean are genuinely sympathetic toward Pryor.
• Lighter and Softer: While the original Inferno was played dead serious nearly all throughout with a few scattered bits of Black Comedy included, almost all of Dark Web plays mostly for laughs and snarking.
• Lower-Deck Episode: The Dark Web chapters in Ms. Marvel, Mary Jane & Black Cat, and Gold Goblin are peripheral and have little importance in the main plot, and only Venom #14 has Eddie Brock participate in the main plot. Brock (as Bedlam), Ms. Marvel, and Gold Goblin are then briefly included in the Finale, though Mary Jane and Black Cat are not.
• MacGuffin: All of the Goblin Queen's plotting and alliances were just to lure and distract the X-Men in order to steal and access a Cerebro drive, which was all completely unnecessary.
• Mask of Power: New villainess Hallows' Eve (actually Ben Reilly's girlfriend Janine) is given several special masks that grant her different powers, such as a witch mask, a Dracula mask and a mask of Frankenstein's Monster.
• Mind Rape: In Venom #14, Ben uses his new powers to painfully rip out a huge chunk of Eddie's memories, reverting him back to his brain-eating supervillain state.
  Chasm: Oh. Oh, wow. So this is what it's like to be a dad. All this pain... knowing just how badly you're messing everything up... fighting to change what can't be changed... Don't worry, champ. Maddie and me—we're gonna get you right back to your factory settings. And then... after you do us one little solid... I guarantee you'll see Dylan again.
  Eddie: [beard and moustache receding] D-Dylan...? [transforms into his classic Venom form] Who'sss... Dylan?!
• Motive Decay: After feeling betrayed by Madelyne, Ben goes to the tree to try and force Peter to eat its soul stealing fruit, only to find it withering. A dejected Ben is then given Madelyne's stolen Scythe of Sorrows by Janine, and usurps the throne of Limbo, undergoing a demonic transformation. He proceeds to use his newfound power and authority to...swat Peter out of his way to lead Limbo's Legions of Hell onto Earth.
• Moving Buildings: The effects of Limbo have even reached New Jersey across the river. Kamala's Mosque gets up and begins walking to Manhattan, taking the poor attendees with it. Apparently it feels alienated from the Muslim community in Jersey because of all their petty foibles and squabbling. The mosquegoers manage to hash it out with each other and the temple, who agrees to go back to Jersey.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In Dark Web: X-Men #1, Spidey briefly teams up with Firestar and Iceman, and quips that they're "my amazing friends".
  • Chasm's demonic knockoff of the Sinister Six is called the "Insidious Six."
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Pryor might never have unleashed the Limbo invasion and maybe even have helped offer Ben Reilly alternative means to repair his psyche, had Jean Grey approached her and been forthcoming and straightforward with all the facts before Illyana gave Limbo to her, which might've fixed Pryor's unhealed mistrust of Grey and all the X-Men much earlier and without creating this catastrophe.
• Ninja Zombie Pirate Robot: After the Inventor gets reanimated he's become a zombie cyborg half-cockatoo clone of Thomas Edison.
• Noodle Incident: Mary Jane somehow has — or just access to — various superpowers.
• No Sympathy:
  • In Venom #14, Synch quickly realizes that something is wrong with Eddie Brock by scanning his mind... before deciding he doesn't care since Eddie's the one who attacked him, making Eddie punch himself in the face. Janine's internal monologue also expresses that she should feel bad about what she and Ben are doing, but she doesn't because of what she's been put through.
  • Two issues later, even Eddie's own son Dylan believes he deserves his plight since 1) by now Eddie has transformed into Bedlam, whose future self tried to kill him before the event and 2) he's still pissed over Eddie's neglect of him over ruling the Klyntar, which he readily throws back in his father's face during their battle by the Hudson River.
• Oddball Doppelgänger: A demon, inspired by Peter's heroism, has his alchemist brother use a piece of Eddie Brock's symbiote to turn him into a bizarre, hulking Spider-Man knockoff called "Rek-Rap."
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: While Spider-Man seems unaware of Eddie's death and is definitely not in the loop about his time-travel and evil future self shenanigans, he immediately realizes something's not right about his old frenemy when Eddie attacks him in his old Venom form while making Brain Food threats again.
• Personality Powers: Janine Godbe, a woman who has spent almost her entire life forced to assume different personas due to being seen as a "monster" for killing her own father, is turned into a Halloween-themed supervillainess whose gimmick involves donning different "faces" in the form of monstrous Masks of Power.
• Pet the Dog: When he realizes that they're facing defeat, Chasm teleports Janine away to escape, against her pleas to stay alongside him to the end.
• Poor Communication Kills: What it all comes down to what might have prevented the whole mess in the first place. After Pryor was granted a Krakoan resurrection and before she was given the throne of Limbo, had Jean Grey taken the time to extend an olive branch and then she (or anyone else) had been forthcoming that she advocated for Pryor's return from the start, and it was not intended as a trophy for Alex Summers, and also helped Maddie feel accepted by Krakoa which might've prevented her being suspicious that handing her Limbo was a convenient exile, then Pryor might not have been receptive to plotting with Ben Reilly and also just asked for what she wanted from Grey.
• Rage Breaking Point: Having his memories stolen by Chasm, being humiliated by Synch, and realizing he doesn't have the Venom symbiote anymore causes Eddie Brock to snap and transform into Bedlam in Venom #14.
  • At the climax of the X-Men tie-in, Jean loses all her patience with Madelyne and starts physically hitting her when words fail.
• Redemption Rejection: In the epilogue, Peter visits Ben in Limbo's dungeons. Despite his anger at all that's happened, Peter genuinely wants to help his wayward clone and asks for a sign that the old Ben is still in there beneath the anger and obsession with him. Ben's response is to figuratively set Peter's laurel branch on fire.
• Revenge Before Reason: Ben's obsession with hurting Peter, which makes him willfully blind to alternate, easier, and ultimately more peaceful means for getting his memories back. It also gets invoked as a plot point in the Finale. Peter cites this as why he has to be the one to face King Chasm in the final battle. Yes, Ben is more powerful now, but he also hates his progenitor so much that it makes him sloppy and stupid. It's an Achilles' Heel neither Madelyne or the X-Men would be able to exploit.
• Rule of Symbolism: Limbo conjures heckling demons that deride Madelyne and Ben as clones. When the two groups meet, they begin tearing each apart, literally and figuratively providing their targets comfort in the presence of each other.
• Screw the War, We're Partying: Norman insists on celebrating Normie's birthday normally in spite of the demonic invasion, and pays a bunch of his employees thousands of dollars to chance bringing their children to the party being held in Oscorp Tower.
• Sdrawkcab Name: A demon saved by Spider-Man is inspired to take up the mantle and fight with him, empowered by another demon to have similar powers. He takes to calling himself Rek-Rap, and asks people to guess where he got the name from. Spider-Man says he knows and he's not happy about it.
• Self-Serving Memory: Ben's recount of how he became Chasm has Peter maliciously destroying any chance to share his memories and deliberately pushing him into a vat of psycho-reactive material. Peter calls this out as incorrect.
• Sequel Series: Dark Web acts as a sequel to Spider-Man Beyond, but is also a sequel to the 1989 Inferno crossover (unlike the In Name Only 2021 Inferno mini-series).
• Shout-Out:
  • During Amazing Spider-Man #15, Peter's weapon of choice against a brainwashed Venom? Japanese manga! The cover of the graphic novel in question, Ramen Ninja, has a copyright-friendly, yet still familiar image of a certain blond-haired ramen-eating shinobi.
  • Battling the monster Rockefeller Center Christmas tree makes Spider-Man quip that New York should have used a Charlie Brown style tree instead, and Firestar rescues a beagle from the tree.
• Spontaneous Weapon Creation:
  • Ben as Chasm can now make any melee weapon he wants from his webbing.
  • When Ashley Kafka turns back into the Queen Goblin in Gold Goblin #2, she somehow spontaneously manifests clothing, weapons, and a Goblin Glider.
• Stealth Insult: In Venom #16, Madelyne Pryor makes one about Cyclops:
  Pryor: [Chasm] just wants the rest of the world to be as broken as he is... [My] husband was the same.
• Stealth Sequel: Jed MacKay's Mary Jane & Black Cat limited-series is a sequel to his Mary Jane & Black Cat: Beyond one-shot, which in turn continued his Felicia Hardy narrative following the completion of his original 2019-2021 run. It also follows the events of Iron Cat.
• Stupid Evil: Peter's opinion of Ben's entire 'master plan' in the Finale. As Peter lampshades to Madelyne, 'Eat Evil Fruit' doesn't exactly scream 'Evil Genius'. An embarrassed Madelyne agrees with Peter's assessment of her former partner.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Iron Man and Ms. Marvel are the only non-Spider or X-related heroes who are shown responding to the demonic invasion of NYC, and in Iron Man's case he only appears for a few panels in Mary Jane & Black Cat #1.
• Super Mode: Venom #15 has Dylan Brock transform into Codex and wield All-Black the Necrosword in the form of a katana in order to even the odds against Bedlam. Venom #16 reveals he can't keep it up for extended periods due to the Necrosword cutting both ways.
• Superpower Lottery: Literally, in this case. In Mary Jane & Black Cat #1, it's revealed that Mary Jane has somehow gotten the ability (seemingly from a bracelet she's wearing) to play an energy style of slots to pick up a superpower at will via Discard and Draw. Unfortunately, she could end up with crappy powers, such as the ability to become and control pudding. Paul and the kids knows she has this, Peter doesn't know she has this and MJ makes Felicia promise not to tell Peter for some unknown reason.
• Talking the Monster to Death: After coming to life, the Jersey City Mosque decides that it is sick of its congregation, so it runs off to Manhattan. Its attendees are able to calm it down and convince it to return to Jersey City by listening to its grievances.
  Spider-Man (Miles): Can I ask what the situation is?
  Aamir Khan: Our community is so prone to infighting that we've ostracized our own mosque!
  Spider-Man: Oh.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. Havok tells Madelyne that he's taking counseling to work with his issues and tries to connect with her with what he's learned from his sessions. Pryor just snidely looks down on him for seeing a therapist.
• Throw the Dog a Bone:
  • Violently confrontational with Pryor at first, Jean Grey eventually backs down and generously gives Madelyne everything she wants, also confessing that she supported resurrection for Pryor from the start.
  • Eddie Brock stumbles into what he wanted all along — finding his son Dylan. However, his memories of Dylan have been erased and Dylan attacks him assuming he's the same Bedlam who almost killed him.
• Toilet Humor: A demon craps on the Rockefeller Center's Christmas tree, causing it to come to life and begin rampaging.
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: Chasm sends Ms. Marvel to Limbo. The demons there send her back to Earth because they find her really annoying, especially since she is too powerful for them to kill.
• Trauma Button: After Ben's opening salvo of demonically transforming inanimate objects to attack people, it's reported on the news that survivors of Inferno were triggered by the similarity.
• Ungrateful Townsfolk: Peter, Bobby and Angelica fighting off demonic objects in Rockefeller Center gets them a lot of flack from civilians for the damage. A firefighter even yells at them to stop helping after Bobby freezes the possessed Christmas tree so thoroughly that (according to the narrator) it won't thaw out until March.
• Unstoppable Rage: It's Chasm tampering with his mind that leads Eddie into becoming Bedlam before being confronted by Dylan.
• Useless Protagonist: Peter spends most of the event putting out fires and rescuing people with Jean and Madelyne being the major figures who stop Chasm's invasion.
• Villain Decay: A bizarre inverted example. Spider-Man's battle with a brainwashed Venom only lasts half of an issue due to Eddie being rendered into an odd composite of his earlier villainous and anti-hero personas, both of whom Peter has had a lot of experience with fighting.
  "What's gotten into you? You sound — Don't take this the wrong way — dumber."
• Villain Team-Up: The event catalyst is Ben Reilly and Madelyne Pryor teaming up to get revenge on those they feel have wronged them, with Venom joining them to save his son, only to be brainwashed into his old villainous state by Chasm and Madelyne.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Black Cat and Mary Jane are the only main or title heroes involved in the crossover who don't appear during the climactic Finale. In the Mary Jane & Black Cat issues that follow #2 (and released following Finale's publication), the pair are shown continuing their adventure in Limbo, but now the issues are not labeled as part of Dark Web.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Because the demon possessed objects scream in pain and terror, Firestar repeatedly asks for clarification that they're just destroying animated objects and not killing living beings.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Kamala Khan spends most of #16 upbraiding Dylan for giving Normie Osborn — who is 10 years old — a symbiote and trying to kill Bedlam, who she overhears say is Dylan's father. She's shocked to discover they're even younger than she is, and bemoans that she's starting to sound like one of the Kamala's Law proponents.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Each of the villains of this event has been through quite a lot of trauma: Madelyne was rejected just for being a clone and ended up possessed by a demon for years, Ben had his memories erased and feels inferior to Peter, and even Janine still experiences intense prejudice for killing her father and being a victim of sexual assault. With all that in mind, it's really not that far of a stretch that any or all of them would be willing to go to any lengths to obtain the chance at a new life that they see as rightfully theirs.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: In the space of a single page, Chasm removes all of Eddie Brock's memories that are not related to "I MUSSSSTTT EAT SSSPIDER-MAN'SSSS BRRRRAAAIIIINN!!"-mode, and with them several years (In-Universe and out) of Character Development.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: Prelude issues show that Ben plans to take Peter, force him to eat a fruit from Limbo that will separate his soul from his body and then eat it to gain all of Peter's memories for himself.

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