Warning: Hallows' Eve is a direct sequel to events in Dark Web and Spider-Man Beyond, so Late Arrival Spoilers for those comics are unmarked on this page.
Hallows' Eve is a 5-issue comic book limited-series from Marvel Comics. It's written by Erica Schultz with art by Michael Dowling and color art by Brian Reber.
Set in the shared Marvel Universe, the series stars Janine Godbe, a woman with a complicated past who's now the titular Hallows' Eve. It's positioned as part of the wider Spider-Man franchise, and directly spins off from events of Dark Web.
Janine's boyfriend is Ben Reilly, a clone of Spider-Man, and when the Beyond Corporation started working with Ben, they also got Janine released from prison. It ended badly, though - Beyond stripped away Ben's memories, sending him spiralling into villainy. Desperate to regain his identity, he forged an alliance with Madelyne Pryor, queen of the demonic realm of Limbo, and Janine was gifted magical masks and became the supervillain Hallows' Eve.
Their plan failed though. Janine's now on the run in New York, unsure how to rescue Ben from Limbo. To make things even worse, the remnants of Beyond are still operating and starting to take an unhealthy interest in her activities...
The first issue was released March 01, 2023.
A couple of months after the fifth and last issue, follow-up stories - first in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (2023), and then a one-issue Hallows' Eve: The Big Night - were released continuing to center on Janine.
Hallows' Eve contains examples of the following tropes:
- The Bus Came Back: Shari Sebbens, Spidey's Friend on the Force from the 2019 Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man series, is reintroduced investigating the "werewolf" that robbed the First National Bank.
- Didn't Think This Through: In the first issue, Janine tries to rob a bank to fund her escape plan. Using the ghost mask makes her invisible and intangible, so it's easy to get into the vault. However, that also means she can't touch the money - so she takes the mask off. At that point she loses her invisibility as well as her intangibility, so the guards immediately spot her on the security cameras and raise the alarm.
- Foil: While Janine came from a poor background, was in prison, and is a fugitive stealing to survive, she keeps a sense of responsibility and decency and won't allow innocents to be harmed. In contrast, Maxine Danger of Beyond is wealthy and arrogant, a narcissistic sociopath, and a Bad Boss to everyone.
- Have You Tried Rebooting?: Thinking quickly, Janine takes the werewolf mask and puts it on the guard she infected, which restores his rational mind while transformed, and then removes it, which restores him to human form.
- How Do I Shot Web?: As the first issue shows, Janine still doesn't fully understand the rules for her powers. Slashing a guard while wearing her werewolf mask unexpectedly infects him and he later becomes a werewolf himself.
- I Have a Family: Janine, in werewolf form, snarls and grabs a bank guard. He begs for mercy, saying that he has kids. Janine realises that she doesn't want to be a monster, and that he's just doing his job, so leaves him mostly unharmed.
- Mask of Power: As well as acting as a Transformation Trinket, most of Janine's masks also bestow some sort of superpower.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Janine draws attention to her bank robbery from special interests groups like the Beyond Corporation because they want to know how a werewolf could be transformed both without a full moon and in daylight hours. In spite of these exceptions, Janine scratching a security guard still infects him with lycanthropy and he soon transforms.
- Pet the Dog: The conclusion has Janine visit the Limbo Embassy and see Goblin Queen Madelyne Pryor for the first time since Dark Web, who lets Janine keep the masks and visit the imprisoned Ben.
- Recursive Canon: One of the valuables that is shown in the bank that Janine robs is a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15.
- Superpowered Evil Side: Janine is hesitant to use the vampire mask, one of her most powerful ones, because it comes with a vampire's bloodlust which makes it harder for her to control herself.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: In the end, Beyond will be out of the picture for a while, and Janine has found at least a few friends or allies.
- Transformation Trinket: Janine's masks physically transform her - most of them also act as a Mask of Power, bestowing some sort of superpower. Some, such as the Model and Police-Officer mask, simply change her appearance.
- Variant Cover: The first issue has at least eight variant covers. Most show Janine in her Hallows' Eve costume, but two show classic Spider-Man villain the Green Goblin instead.
- Viral Transformation: A bank guard injured by Janine's werewolf form is infected and becomes a werewolf himself. Janine didn't know the werewolf mask would do that. It's got some unique Synchronization where samples of his DNA transform when he does no matter where he is. Beyond Corporation uses this to help track him.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Downplayed since Dark Web. Janine still carries her immense bitterness over how society failed her, so she's breaking laws with impunity to secure a future with Ben. She carries enough of a conscience to spare a security guard when he mentions having a family, and also feels guilty upon learning she unwittingly cursed him to be a werewolf.
