Comic Book / Spider-Verse

BEHOLD! A multiverse of accursed Spider-Men!

Spider-Verse is a 2014 comic book event from Marvel Comics, a Bat Family Crossover storyline within the Spider-Man comics. Inspired by the finale of the 1990s animated series, it continues the "Spider Totem" arc introduced by J. Michael Straczynski during his 2000s run of the comic, featuring Spider-Heroes from across the multiverse — up-to-and-including the likes of characters like Spider-Ham and live-action tokusatsu Spidey.

In the first Spider-Verse event, Peter and the other Spiders of Earth-616 learn that the Inheritors (a family of vampires that includes Morlun, the vampiric creature that once infamously killed him) have not only returned, but are currently traveling the multiverse and devouring anyone that wears a large spider on their chest. And they're starting to rack up quite the kill count. With not only the lives of countless Spiders, but the multiverse itself in jeopardy, our heroes must travel to new realities to help recruit all remaining Spiders to form an army powerful enough to stop them.

The ongoing series involved with the event included the main Amazing Spider-Man book, Superior Spider-Man (2013), Spider-Man 2099, and Spider-Woman (2014). Outside the bookending Spider-Verse issues, a number of miniseries were also created for the event, including Edge of Spider-Verse (2014) (an anthology series focused on the various alternate Spider-Men and -Women), Scarlet Spiders (following Ben Reilly, Kaine Parker and Ultimate Jessica Drew on a smaller sting operation against Jennix), and Spider-Verse Team-Up #1–3.

In the aftermath of the event were two new solo series: Spider-Gwen, focusing on both the aftermath of the Earth-65 Gwen Stacy's romp in the story and picking up where her tale in Edge of Spider-Verse left off; and Silk, focusing the adventures of Cindy Moon as she works as a mole for S.H.I.E.L.D. and tries to adjust to modern life after years of isolation.

There are also several exceptions, such as The Spectacular Spider-Man, who does not appear because of copyright restrictions.

The "Spider-Totem" storyline itself was followed up a few months later during Secret Wars (2015), with one of the tie-ins being a self-titled miniseries featuring a group of Spider-Heroes traveling the multiverse to take stock of the damage caused by the war with the Inheritors. This directly led into the short-lived Web Warriors series, where this team would continue working to monitor and protect worlds who had lost their Spiders. In 2018, a sequel event entitled Spider-Geddon released; in it, Morlun and his clan manage to escape imprisonment and seek revenge on our heroes, prompting yet another multiverse roadtrip in order to stop them once and for all. Tropes for that event go on its respective page. This was followed by a second Spider-Verse miniseries in 2019, wherein Miles Morales aims to repair the Web of Life and Destiny with the help of other Spiders following the events of Spider-Geddon.

Tying into the original Spider-Verse was the third season of Ultimate Spider-Man (2012), entitled Web Warriors, with the cartoon's version of Peter Parker teaming up with Miguel O'Hara, Miles Morales, a version of Spider-Knight, Spider-Ham, and a female version of himself named Petra Parker. An endless runner mobile game called Spider-Man Unlimited was also released during the lead-up to the event, with the selling point of players being able to collect various alternate-dimension Spider-Men. However, both tie-ins had alternate plots with different villains prompting the multiversal team-up: Ultimate has the Green Goblin traveling to different universes to get spider-DNA samples to enhance himself with, while Unlimited features an invasion by an interdimensional Sinister Six. Unlimited did hold a more direct tie-in while the comic was running, though, bringing in Inheritors as guest bosses in daily events and specifically adding Spider-Men (and -Women) who were being featured in the comic to the game's roster.

A second Edge of Spider-Verse limited series begins in 2022, acting as a prologue to the event that Marvel's announced as a conclusion to the whole Spider-Verse storyline, End of the Spider-Verse. A third series followed in 2023 in the aftermath of that series, following up on some of the characters introduced there.

Sony Pictures Animation produced a number of Spider-Verse animated films that are loosely related to this storyline. The first entry, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, was released in December 2018. The second entry, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse was released in June 2023, with a third film titled Beyond the Spider-Verse releasing... eventually.^note The film was originally scheduled for March 29, 2024, but the 2023 WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes ended up postponing its release until further notice.

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The Spider-Verse comics contain examples of the following tropes:

Spider-Verse (2014 series)

• Alliance of Alternates: The whole point of the series.
• Alternate Self: The event showcased Spiders from other worlds, nearly ever Spider-Man and alternate costume in history, and some new ones as well.
  • Last Stand/Old Man Spider-Man is from Earth-4, whereas the one seen being gunned down in Spider-Man's vision of a possible future is from Earth-312500. When he's killed, it's revealed that he's not an alternate of Peter, but of Ezekiel, who failed to save his world's Peter from Morlun and took up the Spider-Man name in his memory.
  • While gating to another world, Jessica Drew of Earth-616 encounters a spoiled, arrogant version of herself. It turns out that this nastier Jessica Drew is Morlun's serving girl/concubine.
  • The Master Weaver is an older version of Karn.
• Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Some of the alternate Spiders invoke this (such as Cosmic Spider-Man), but the Ben Reilly of Earth-94 has a string of successes under his belt. He even won during events where 616 Spidey failed, such as stopping Electro's attack on the Daily Bugle building, preventing the Spider Slayer's attempted murder of Marla Jameson, and even reversing Dr Octopus' attempt to switch bodies with him.
• Animal-Motif Team: Peter Parker and other Spider-Men in the multiverse decided to become a team in order to defeat the main villain, Morlun.
• Anyone Can Die: Dan Slott mentioned he cannot vouch for any of the Spiders surviving his event, and seeing as they've killed off cartoon characters... Most of the Earth-616 Spiders did have a nice set of Plot Armor during the event, one of the last casualties during the event was Kaine Parker, though as of #15 it appears he'll be coming back again.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: Spider-Monkey is absolutely flabbergasted that Spider-Ham is a thing. Spider-Ham calls him out on this.
• Art Shift:
  • The art style of each universe wildly varies from Super-Deformed to Animesque to super-realistic, and the Inheritors and visiting Spiders are often rendered differently as they cross from dimension to dimension.
  • Peter Parker from Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) is drawn in the same style of the show, regardless of setting.
  • Manga Spider-Man is drawn in monochrome and slightly chibi.
  • Everything in Earth-67 is in the style of the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon. Everyone visiting the dimension notes the bizarre design and appearances of everyone and how difficult it is to navigate a city where the Daily Bugle is the only building that has any unique features.
• Ascended Extra: The Gwen Stacy Spider-Woman was so well received that she's gotten her own solo series.
• Back for the Dead: Many incarnations of Spider-Man, including Spider-Man 1602, House of M Spider-Man, Assassin Spider-Man from The Spider Who Went Into The Cold, the protagonists from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and Spider-Man Unlimited, the elderly Spider-Man from Spider-Man: Reign, the Mary Jane Spider-Woman, the Hostess-advertising Spider-Man from Howard the Duck, MC2 Spider-Man, Bullet Points Spider-Man, Spider-Monkey from Marvel Apes, the Prince of Arachne from Marvel Fairy Tales, the Betty Brant Spider-Girl, Arachnosaur, and the Spidey from Marvel vs. Capcom reappear only to be killed.
• Back from the Dead:
  • The promo banner prominently showcases deceased Spideys like both versions of Ben Reilly (Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man II), the Spider^note A psychopathic version of Peter Parker bonded with the Carnage symbiote from Earth-15, who debuted in Exiles #12 and died in Exiles #44, Last Stand Spider-Man, and the Superior Spider-Man.^note Although he comes from a time before he'd given Peter his body back. Most of these are explained as being alternate counterparts of the Spiders who were killed.
  • In the actual storyline, The Electro of Lady Spider's world revives Leopardon, who proceeds to kick ass. Then Miguel and Lady Spider rebuild its body.
  • In the epilogue, Kaine yet again resurrects, crawling out of the body of his Other incarnation.
• Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: In the finale, Otto slits the Master Weaver's throat to rob the Inheritors of their most important remaining source of power, namely the power to travel across universes. Unfortunately, this is seen as a very bad thing in-universe, since said actions may cause the Multiverse to collapse even sooner due to not having this being to monitor it.
• Badass Boast: Spider-Man Japan dishes out an epic one when he crashes the brawl between the Spider Army and the Inheritors.
  Takuya Yamashiro: *translated from Japanese* I am the emissary of Hell! And I shall fight this great evil for the fate of all Spiders!
  • Spider-man makes one then mentions that they have to have a great plan because otherwise the boast will just sound stupid.
    Daemos: You don't really think you can beat us do you?
    Spider-Man: Actually, I'm Spider-Man. So yes I do.
• Badass Crew: Spider-UK, Miguel O'Hara, and Otto Octavius all set out to accumulate allies to fight the Inheritors. Their groups unite into a single army, although not without some issues.
  • Superior Spider-Man recruits Spider-Monkey, Spider-Man Noir, Assassin Spider-Man, Old Man Logan Spider-Girl, Cyborg Spider-Man, and Spider-Man India.
  • Spider-UK recruits Old Man Spider, Spider-Ham, Spider-Gwen, Sp//dr, MC2 Spider-Girl, Amazing Spider-Man, Amazing Jessica Drew, Spider-Man 2099, Anya Corazon, and Silk.
  • In the event's continuation in Secret Wars (2015), Mainstream Spider-Girl, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Man India, Spider-Ham, Spider-UK, and Spider-Gwen are set to team up.
• Badass Family: The Inheritors appear to be this, as an entire family of multiversal Hero Killers.
• Bat Family Crossover: It features Spider-Men from different dimensions and different versions of 616 Spider-Man, but related characters such as MC2 Spider-Girl, Spider-Woman 616, Ultimate Spider-Woman, Doppelgänger... and more. Interestingly, it has elements of Crisis Crossover as well, due to the universe-hopping and many, many Spider-Men. Miguel O'Hara actually considers turning this into a Crisis Crossover when he ponders getting someone besides a Spider to help, such as the Hulk.
• Batman Gambit: Peter proves himself as the leader of the group when in confrontation with SpOck by claiming that he will 'let' the other Spider kill him. Since Octavius believes that Peter is his past self rather than a future self restored to normal, he hesitates at the idea, allowing Peter to knock him down and affirm that killing the Inheritors isn't a solution given their immortality.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The Inheritors, who are hunting everyone with a spider Chest Insignia. Karn is the youngest brother, and Daemos is the eldest brother.
• Big Good: 616 Peter is hailed as the best of all the Spiders, though SpOck thinks he's the hero, as this happens in the last issue of the "Necessary Evil" arc of Superior Spider-Man (2013), which is before his Character Development and Heel Realization.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Inheritors are exiled into the radioactive wasteland that Ben Parker lived in except for Karn, who made a Heel–Face Turn, The Prophecy is stopped, but the Master Weaver is dead at Otto's hands and must be replaced by Karn, while Spider-UK's world is gone due to the incursions and the other killed Spiders are most likely still dead... except for Kaine.
• Black Comedy: Many agree that Morlun killing the Hostess ads Spider-Man and the scene ending with a parody of the Hostess slogan was good for a dark laugh.
• Bland-Name Product: The Hostess Twinkies-advertising Spider-Man now advertises "So-So Cakies", a fictional counterpart from Howard the Duck, the comic where he debuted.
• Bowdlerise: Ashley Barton, who was called Spider-Bitch in the Old Man Logan universe, is simply called Spider-Girl in the Spider-Verse books. Probably due to how controversial the name was.
• Brain Uploading: Realizing he's beaten, the Superior Spider-Man nonetheless prepares a contingency plan by having his AI assistant Anna copy his consciousness into one of his gauntlets, setting up the events of the next volume of The Amazing Spider-Man.
• Breakout Character: Spider-Gwen got her own book after one issue in Edge of Spider-Verse. Lampshaded in Amazing 9, where she is introduced as "your new favorite."
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: The Spider-Man from the Ultimate animated series is in fine form in this regard, though it gets some raised eyebrows from Miles Morales and the Spider-Man from the 1967 animated series.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu: Solus wrecks Leopardon... but in the process burns out the Enigma Force, which likely made it a lot easier for the Other to kill him and allowed the other Spideys to escape. Leopardon was later rebuilt as a Man of Kryptonite to the Inheritors, meaning more or less all Solus accomplished was burning out his own God Mode and making himself easier to kill.
• Brought Down to Badass: While fighting to give the others time to flee, Takuya Yamashiro has his monster-slaying giant robot destroyed by Solus, who had powered-up from eating Cosmic Spider-Man. Sure, Takuya no longer has the mighty Leopardon at his beck and call, but he's still a Spider-Man, and the other Japanese Spider-Men promise they got his back.
  • Solus himself has this happen to him. He burned out Cosmic Spider-Man's stolen power doing so. He's still certainly a threat, but it probably made the Other killing him a bit easier.
• Brought Down to Normal: The Six-Armed Spidey saves a Peter Parker from his Man-Spider transformation by using the formula that gave him his extra arms. It pretty much saves him from the Inheritors.
• Calling Your Attacks: The Spider-Man of the Marvel/Capcom fighting games still does this. Morlun gets into it with his "INHERITOR FIST!"
• The Cameo:
  • The versions of Spider-Man from Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and Spider-Man Unlimited briefly appear as corpses. The Amazing Spider-Man #9 is rife with cameos.
  • Spider-Boy from the Amalgam Universe crossover can be glimpsed in Spider-Verse #2, and Tobey Maguire Spider-Man and Andrew Garfield Spider-Man are mentioned in the same issue, despite Dan Slott stating they wouldn't be able to include them due to licensing issues.
  • Also mentioned in Spider-Verse #2 was Komori Yuu, the Manga Spider-Man.
• Canon Immigrant: The concept of the Inheritors may have been inspired by Morlun's sister and two brothers from Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours^note Although said three siblings do not appear. which was itself inspired by a comment Ezekiel made about beings similar to Morlun existing.
• Chekhov's Gag: In The Amazing Spider-Man #9, Silk half-jokingly suggests Peter relocate to the moon in order to solve their problem. The issue opens with Morlun killing Spider Moon-Man, a Peter Parker who had done just that.
• The Chosen One:
  • The Master Weaver refers to Karn as this, the sole member of their family who doesn't want to kill but create.
  • Spider-UK designates Peter as this, as he's the "greatest one of all".
  • Old Man Spider tells Peter there are three: The Bride, the Other and the Scion. Kaine is the Other - although that used to be Peter; Silk is the Bride; and Benjy Parker is the Scion.
• C-List Fodder: This story line is used to thin the herd of alternate Spider-Men, in the lead up to Secret Wars (2015).
  • Morlun's first confirmed kill? The Spider-Man of Marvel 1602.
  • Superior Spider-Man #32 shows us that the Spidey of the Fantastic Five, the Spidey of House of M, a Spidey that stuck with Iron Man during Civil War (2006) and a Spidey that kept wearing the old Spider-Armor have perished. The Amazing Spider-Man #7 ups the ante by killing off even more Spiders, namely the cast of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and Spider-Man Unlimited.
  • The Miguel O'Haras of Avengers Forever, Exiles and Timestorm have also perished.
  • Bullet Points Spider-Man, Bruce Banner, gets his spine broken and then devoured by the Inheritors.
  • The elderly Spider-Man from Spider-Man: Reign is killed by Daemos, and Mary Jane Spider-Woman from Exiles is eaten by Morlun.
  • Assassin Spider-Man and Cyborg Spider-Man are killed by Daemos, as is Old Man Spider.
  • Despite being hyped up as the one force capable of taking on the Inheritors, Cosmic Spider-Man is easily killed by Solus. Though he did take out Jennix with little effort... not that it matters, since he respawned instantly.
• Comedic Sociopathy: In-universe Spider-Woman apparently had to stop fighting mid battle because Hawkeye's badly broken arm "looked all floppy" and she found that hilarious.
• Composite Character: A lot of the Spider-Men are mash-ups with other characters, some of the more prominent ones being Spider-UK (Captain Britain), Cosmic Spider-Man (Captain Universe), and "Spider-Gwen" (Gwen Stacy).
• Contemplate Our Navels: Pavitr Prabhakar is creeped out by the sheer number of similarities between himself, the Peter Parker from Earth-616, and the other Spider-Totems, stating that it feels like they're all expendable copies of him. Spider-UK snaps him out of it and reassures him that that's not the case.
• Continuity Nod: The basic premise of this arc draws on the Spider Totem plot introduced in The Amazing Spider-Man (J. Michael Straczynski) and expanded on by Arana, Spider-Island, and Scarlet Spider.
  • When Peter and Mayday meet each other, Peter recognizes her instantly, a nod to a story arc in Mayday's old title where she was sent back to the past.
  • Miles recognizes the Superior Spider-Man from the last time he went romping in the 616 universe, back in Cataclysm: The Ultimates' Last Stand. He also recognizes the Amazing Spider-Man from Spider-Men, leading to him becoming very confused.
  • The story explains why Otto reappeared from being time displaced in Superior Spider-Man shouting "You haven't seen the last of Doctor-"
• Continuity Porn:
  • Oh, is there ever. The arc promises to feature some Spideys even dedicated fans would barely remember, like the Prince of Arachne, Spider-Monkey, Old Man Spider-Man from Spider-Man: Reign, and Manga/Spider-Man J. Then you have the various costumes Pete's worn over the years — Big Time, Future Foundation, Secret War, Iron Spider, Captain Universe, Bombastic Bag-Man, etc. They even included Betty Brant as Spider-Girl, from the "What If?" story where the spider bit her instead of Peter. Most of them are Back for the Dead cameos, though.
  • In The Amazing Spider-Man #13, Otto finds out that Peter is from later on in Earth-616's timeline, meaning he loses control of Peter's body. This ends up explaining why he reappeared in Superior Spider-Man #19 shouting "I'll find a way! You haven't seen the end of Doctor—"
• Cosmic Chess Game: Solus states that the war between the Spiders and the Inheritors functions as such, with the Other (Kaine Parker, formerly Peter Parker), the Bride (Cindy Moon), and the Scion (Benjy Parker) being important players on the side of the Spiders.
• Crisis Crossover: Between the various Spider-Man related titles, such as Spider-Man 2099, MC2 Spider-Girl, and Spider-Man Noir, as well as the numerous What If? comics and animated series featuring versions of Spider-Man.
• Crossover Villain-in-Chief: The Spider-Men from the Multiverse fight against Morlun and his family, the Inheritors, before this villain murders every version of the friendly neighborhood.
• Cruel Mercy: After the final battle, The Inheritors are banished to Earth-3145, a nuclear wasteland. Earth-616 Peter pities them enough to give them the location of Ezekiel's bunker.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • Most battles with the Inheritors turn into this. Even when one of them dies, they have a cloning facility on Earth-802 that gives them replacements.
  • The Inheritors have a natural advantage over animal themed beings, thus aside from the Spiders, any other animal based superhero is doomed to lose quickly, such as the entire population from Spider-Man Unlimited.
  • When the Inheritors go after Kaine, they quickly proceed to curb stomp the New Warriors to get to him. When Kaine comes Back from the Dead in Clone Conspiracy, his first concern is whether or not the New Warriors are still alive after the thrashing they received while defending him.
  • Amazing Spider-Man VS Superior Spider-Man. Despite the latter supposedly being superior, the former easily dodges his attacks and manages to win by taking advantage of the latter's arrogance in order to get him to lower his guard down and knock him out. They later have a rematch at the end of the comic when Superior tries to destroy the Web of Life, but Amazing manages to easily kick his ass one more time.
  • The Punisher 2099 versus Daemos. In favor of the Punisher, who takes exactly one hit.
• Cutting the Knot: Otto thinks he's doing this when he kills the Master Weaver, but what he really does is FUBAR the Multiverse.
• Darkest Hour: Morlun, Solus and Jennix invade Earth-13, kill Spider-Monkey, Captain Spider, Cosmic Spidey, Spider-Girl (Betty Brant), Arachnosaur, and the Prince of Arachne, then capture the Scion - Benjy Parker.
• Deal with the Devil: When captured by Miguel and Lady Spider in 2099, Daemos attempts to make a deal with them by claiming that he will spare them from the hunt if they release him right now. Miguel rejects this offer, noting that he doesn't trust Daemos given that the Inheritor is evil, and he doubts that he or Lady Spider would ever consider betraying their fellow Spiders just to save themselves.
• Death World: Earth-3145 is in the immediate aftermath of a thermonuclear war that at the very least reduced New York City to an uninhabitable wasteland.
  • On the bright side, the Inheritors can't go there due to their crippling weakness to radiation, which ironically makes it the safest place in the multiverse for our heroes.
• Don't Make Me Destroy You: Mangaverse Venom warns Spider-Man away from the temple to stop him from participating in the Spider-Verse. When Peter insists on entering, Venom decides to kill him himself, but was steamrolled by several Spider-Men, Women, and Girls.
• The Dreaded: Morlun is terrified of Earth-616 and its Peter Parker to the point where he refuses to set foot in that dimension.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • For the storyline itself. During Superior Spider-Man (2013), the current Madame Web (ex-Spider-Woman Julia Carpenter) cryptically says "ALL SPIDERS MUST DIE!", which goes ignored while doctors go treat Angelina Brancale (a.k.a. Stunner), Doc Ock's ex-girlfriend who'd just came out of her coma and found out about Doc Ock's "death".
  • Ezekiel mentioned that Morlun had a family in the same profession as him, but aside from a – presumably now non-canon - novel, they haven't been seen or mentioned since... until now.
  • Spider-UK shows up at the end of the Gwen Stacy Spider-Woman story prior to his appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #7.
  • The married incarnation of Spider-Man who shows up in Spider-Verse #2 is the main character of the The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows tie-in for Secret Wars 2015.
• Eldritch Location:
  • Morlun considers the Newspaper Comic Spider-Man to be one due to the glacial and repetitive storytelling pace, which leaves him so confused and horrified that he almost breaks his brain trying to puzzle it out instead of eating the resident Spider-Totem and leaving.
  • Miles Morales and the Peter Parker from the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon are creeped out by the flat pastel-colored palette and repetitive backgrounds of the world of Spider-Man (1967).
• Enemy Mine: Keeping in mind that several versions of Spider-Man are antagonistic - if not flat out evil - and that several spider-themed supervillains are getting dragged into this conflict, if they are going to work together to defeat Morlun and his family they will have to do this.
• Evil Counterpart: As a non-Spider-Man counterpart to Peter, we have Karn, as shown in Superior Spider-Man issue 33, whose hesitation to kill the Master Weaver resulted in his mother's death and his own shame, mirroring Peter's arrogance leading to the death of Uncle Ben, with each going down diametrically opposed paths of heroism versus murder to secure their place as heroes of their people once again.
• Evil Doppelgänger: When you're gonna bring in every version of Spider-Man, it's important to remember that some versions of him - like the Superior Spider-Man, Spider from Exiles, and Assassin Spider-Man from The Spider Who Went Into The Cold, to name a few - have been far darker, if not outright turned super-villain... and that's not counting the non-Spider-Man Spider-themed villains.
  • One Earth which houses the Inheritor's secret cloning facility is completely taken over by them. All of the Earth's superbeings seem to work for them, including versions of Johnny Storm and Tony Stark.
• Evil Only Has to Win Once: Turned into an inspirational speech, of all things, when SpOck uses his numerous defeats as Doctor Octopus to inspire a rather broken Uncle Ben Spider-Man.
• Expendable Alternate Universe:
  • The Inheritors are going through from universe to universe devouring every Spider Totem they come across. Many of the universes are just Peter Parker in his various uniforms, which are not especially important to the main timeline anymore. Other examples are Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and Spider-Man Unlimited, which had the totems killed along with their friends.
  • Pavitr Prabhakar remarks to William Braddock that he gets the feeling that all of the assembled Spiders are pale reflections of the Spider-Man from Earth-616, and that they're all expendable in the coming final battle. Spider-UK assures him that's not the case.
  • This is inverted when Mayday calls all the Spider-Men (including Post-OMD 616) as fakes. From her perspective, all the others come from expendable universes and to her, her reality and her family is real and valid, which challenges the reader for how they see alternate universes in general.
• The Family That Slays Together: The Inheritors used to be this before Karn got their matriarch killed. Morlun, Daemos, and Karn now hunt solo, while Brix and Bora are a Brother–Sister Team who compete with their other siblings as well as each other. All of them except for Karn answer to Solus.
• Fighting a Shadow: If one of the Inheritors is killed, they just get reborn in a cloned body. Until their clones are all destroyed.
• Flanderization: It's stated that the Spider-Man from His Amazing Friends "can't understand" death. In their actual show, Peter finding out Uncle Ben had been killed was actually shown and Never Say "Die" was sometimes subverted with the characters actually saying the word killed.
• Foregone Conclusion: The early announcement of such titles as "Silk" and "Spider-Gwen" show that these characters would survive the event. Spider-Man and Spider-Woman also return. While other solicitations seem to hint that Spider-UK would die in the lead-up to Secret Wars (2015), it's revealed that he'll be a major player in the tie-in series named after this storyline.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Madame Web waking up out of a coma with glowing eyes and stating "ALL THE SPIDERS WILL DIE!" foreshadows the appearance of Naamurah and her ilk and implies she may be possessed.
  • After Kaine bonds to the Other, a pair of glowing red eyes in a place between worlds states "Spider.", while at "the End of All Things" a shadowy figure seated on a throne in a room filled with bones remarks that the "the Culling will soon begin."
  • In Spider-Verse itself, May's line about hoping that somewhere in the Multiverse a version of herself exists who never lost her parents seems to be foreshadowing the The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows tie-in for Secret Wars 2015.
• For Want Of A Nail: As with many Alternate Universes in Marvel, this is how things tend to turn out.
  • The world where Ben Reilly comes from is one where Peter is powerless, most likely having his powers removed after the Spider-Man: The Last Story mini-series instead of losing them temporarily.
• Freudian Trio: In the Scarlet Spiders team, Jessica Drew (Earth-1610) is the superego, Ben Reilly (Earth-94) is the ego, and Kaine (Earth-616) is the id.
• Gender Flip:
  • Peni Parker, aka SP//dr.
  • Penelope Parker, aka Spider-Girl.
• Going Commando: Ultimate Jessica Drew and Ben Reilly have an awkward moment when they need to disguise themselves in hospital gowns and realize that neither of them are wearing underwear under their costumes. Ultimate Jessica later gripes about a time she had to fight stark naked and doesn't want a repeat performance.
• Good Counterpart: Sasha Kravinoff (or just a female version of her husband, Kraven) is one of Penelope Parker's teachers in Spider-Verse #1. Karn eventually turns into one for his siblings.
• Hard Head: Those spikes on Spider-Punk's mask aren't just for show, they help protect his head. So much that he was able to get into a head-butting match with Hammerhead and stay standing.
• Heel–Face Turn: Karn joins the Spiders near the finale to fight his family, sick and tired of being a pariah.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In Amazing Spider-Man #8, the MC2 Peter Parker and Mary Jane stay behind to deal with Daemos. It doesn't hold much, but it's enough for Spider-UK and Last Stand Spider-Man to save Spider-Girl and Benjy.
  • In Amazing Spider-Man #9, the Bullet Points Spider-Man is crippled and captured by Daemos, buying Old Man Spider-Man and Spider-Gwen time to rescue Kaine. Old Man Spidey's quite pissed off at losing Bruce Banner.
  • Ben Reilly sacrifices himself to blow up the Inheritors' cloning facility.
• Heroic Spirit: The Ben Reilly of Earth-94 speaks of overcoming "impossible odds," and even managed to shake off a paralytic effect that had Old Man Spider and Spider-Ham frozen in place.
• He's Back!: Concerning the Marvel Mangaverse Spider-Man, as the last time we saw him he had retired after trying to get in touch with his Spider-Side and just rejecting everything.
  • Leopardon's return after Miguel and Lady Spider rebuild him.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: In Amazing Spider-Man #9, Spidey confronts a Spider-Man who still has the Enigma Force. When Peter asks why he doesn't just go and vaporize the Inheritors, Cosmic Spidey says that he can't leave his world or he just becomes another normal Spidey as the Enigma Force stays in his world. On the plus side, they're not going to mosey on over to this world because of that reason, thus making Cosmic Spidey's world a safe haven.
• Humanoid Abomination: Some of the Spider-Men are monsters who have let their spider side take over.
• Humongous Mecha:
  • Peni Parker pilots the Evangelion-esque SP//dr.
  • Leopardon from Spider-Man (Japan) appears as well.
• Hypocritical Humor: The Marvel Apes Spider-Monkey finds it completely absurd that one of the Spider-Totems is a talking bipedal pig.
• I Hate Past Me: Superior Spider-Man assumes Amazing Spider-Man is from earlier in the Earth-616 timeline, before Otto pulled his "Freaky Friday" Flip on Peter. Later on, this crosses over with Other Me Annoys Me when he finds out that his Earth-3145 counterpart was responsible for that Earth being a radioactive wasteland.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: In a twist, Gwen Stacy as Spider-Woman feels this way about her Peter Parker, since he took the Lizard formula and died after their climactic battle, an unfortunate accident for which she is wanted by her own father.
  • Taken up to eleven and beyond when Spider-Gwen travels to a universe where Peter became the Hobgoblin as a result of the guilt from Gwen's death, Gwen ends up watching him die to the Inheritors as the two attempt to connect.
• Imagine Spotting: When the Spider-Man from Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) suddenly turns into a Super-Deformed version of himself in a hippy costume upon arriving in the world of Spider-Man (1967), Miles is taken aback and Peter sheepishly admits he has an overactive imagination. Miles and Spider-Man '67 later snark at Ultimate Animated Peter's habit of breaking the fourth wall to narrate things.
• I'm Having Soul Pains: Spider-Man 2099 feels the pain of the alternate Miguels when Morlun kills them.
• Immediate Sequel: Kaine is ambushed by the Inheritors immediately after the conclusion of New Warriors.
• Inherently Funny Words: Black Widow comments that Alternate Ben Reilly looks like he's been through the blender and Ben says that cuisinart is a funnier word to use.
• In-Series Nickname: Animated Ultimate Peter refers to the team he and Miles are putting together as the "Web Warriors". Miles starts calling them that despite hating the name.
• Insistent Terminology: May Reilly is Lady Spider, not Spider-Lady.
• In Spite of a Nail: Referenced in the title of one chapter, "It's The Little Things", and discussed between two Peters wondering what the difference between the two of them is (besides that one of them's wearing the classic red-and-blues, and the other's wearing the black suit inspired by the symbiote). Turns it it's that one of them is still married.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, Spider-Man Unlimited, Ultimate Spider-Man (2012), Spider-Man (1967), and the Marvel Vs. games have been integrated into Spider-Verse.
• Intra-Franchise Crossover:
  • This event is a major example based on the Spider-Man character, they promised "Every Spider-Man Ever", it's a comic-book arc focused around the many different versions of the hero, and joining forces in a quest to fight a villain who wants to wipe all of them, with the multiple Spider-Men from comics, ranging from alternate universes, alternate timelines, alternate identities and other superheroes that also have a spider theme, they also mixed in other Spider-Men from animated and live-action series, manga and videogames.
  • Despite this, thanks to copyright issues, they can't have all the versions of Spider-Man as promised, the famous versions from Live-Action movies couldn't be shown on panel, but one Spider-Man mentions that he saw another one that looks like the guy from Seabiscuit, another movie by Tobey Maguire, and another one mentions one that looks the guy from The Social Network, another movie by Andrew Garfield.
• Invincible Villain: A common complaint about the Inheritors is that not only do they seem to never lose, but they seem to win effortlessly more often than not. Solus gets the most such complaints.
• I Told You So: Cindy tells Peter this after he's told about Morlun and Daemos.
• Joke Character: The Hostess/So-So Spider-Man. To the point where Spider-Verse #1's preview shows off his entire story as just one page - there to dead in 8-9 panels!
  • Doubles as a Mythology Gag, since all of the old-style Hostess ads were wrapped up in a single page!
• Jumping the Shark: In-Universe. Miles Morales thinks that being chased by the police, riding in a sentient Spider-Mobile with the animated Ultimate Spider-Man, 60's animated Spider-Man, Mini Marvels Spider-Man and a street-clothes-ish Spider-Man flanked by a cowboy Spider-Man with a wall-crawling horse is that. Animated Ultimate, though, thinks it happened back in the cowboy Spidey's world.
• Kryptonite Factor: The Inheritors can't stand radiation, which is why Morlun died the first time he tried eating Peter.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo:
  • Thanks to the films being made by Sony and not Marvel Studios, the versions of Spider-Man from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy and Marc Webb's The Amazing Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 could not appear. However, Spider-Verse #2 has a brief scene where two Spider-Men mention having seen alternate versions of Peter who looked exactly like "The guy from Seabiscuit" and "The guy from the Social Network" when unmasked.
  • They also mention a Spider-Man who was constantly trying to teach proper grammar to everyone and a Spider-Man who sings show tunes. They also get in the actual Manga Spider-Man in a name drop. Spider-Boy, Spider-Prime and even 3 Dev Adam Spider-Man also appear as small cameos in the same issue.
• Lethal Joke Character: Spider-Ham, who proves a formidable fighter using violent Toon Physics.
  Spider-Ham: Hey, where I come from, an anvil to the head is a flesh wound. You people are so fragile.
• Let's You and Him Fight: The Amazing Spider-Man and Superior Spider-Man take issue with each other when their respective Spider teams meet up, and come to blows over who is going to lead the combined team after Old Man Spider's death.
• Lighter and Softer: Morlun notes that Earth-1983 is this compared to other Earths. He has a slightly similar reaction to So-So Cakes Spider-Man.
  • Penelope Parker's world also seems to be this.
  • Averted in the Spider-Man (1967) universe as 60's Spidey mentions the death of his Uncle Ben.
• Made of Iron: Karn gets caught in an explosion, hit by a tree, electrocuted, and stabbed, and he keeps going.
• Man of Kryptonite: Leopardon is rebuilt to be this, with its weapons being enhanced to utilize radiation to exploit this weakness.
• Massively Multiplayer Crossover: Every Spider-Man is promised to show up in this, in the number of thousands.
• Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness: The Spider-Man of the 2012 cartoon show cartoon and Miles from the comics end up meeting the original animated Spider-Man of the 1967 show. While they mostly get along 2012 Spidey finds his counterpart's villains to be hilarous and briefly worries he will be racist due to the time period, while 1967 Spidey finds him a little annoying and strange with how he talks to people who aren't there. Also neither one of them likes the way the other dresses.
• Me's a Crowd: Whoo, boy. When you not only have Spider-Men, Spider-Women, Scarlet Spiders, and Spider-Girls from different universes, but also Spider-Men from different points in Peter's history...
  • The Ben Reilly of Earth-94 is attacked by a "flock" of Vultures made up Jimmy Natale, Blackie Drago, and Old, Young, and Noir versions of Adrian Toomes.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: Otto killing the Master Weaver destabilized a multiverse that was already collapsing leading up to Secret Wars (2015).
• Mistaken for Racist: Very briefly, Animated Ultimate Spider-Man thinks Spider-Man '67 is going to call out Miles Morales on being black, but no, he's just surprised that Miles is a high-school kid.
• Monstrous Humanoid: Patton Parnell and Man-Spider or Spider-X; Scarlet Spider's The Other form, and Doppelgänger are just a few of the more monstrous Spiders.
• Mood Whiplash: Amazing #7-8 is this as we deal with Spider-UK and MC2 Spider-Girl while Peter gets to romp around with the new Ms. Marvel.
  • The Penelope Parker feature by Katie Cook is a Lighter and Softer story presumably aimed at kids. A far cry from the violent, gorey crossover going on around her!
• Mook Carryover: The Looter assumed command of what was left of the Superior Spider-Man's Spiderlings. He also commandeered a Spider Tank.
• Moral Myopia: The Inheritors see absolutely nothing wrong with murdering Spiders across the multiverse but go absolutely batshit if anyone of their own is harmed. Morlun seems to be the only who understands them as he quietly asks them why they are only banishing him and his family after their defeat.
• Most Common Superpower:
  • Verna of the Inheritors is very busty and not afraid to show it.
  • In an example of Depending on the Artist, Mayday Parker, Gwen Stacy Spider-Woman, and Ultimate Jessica Drew are drawn as being far more buxom than they usually are.
• Multinational Team: Most of the Spiders are Americans. A couple are British (616 Jessica Drew and Spider-UK), one is Indian (Spider-Man India) and five are Japanese (Sp//dr, Spider-Man J, Mangaverse Spider-Man, Manga Spider-Man, and toku Spider-Man). Some, like Anansi and Doppelgänger, aren't even human.
• My Future Self and Me: Otto Octavius as Superior Spider-Man assumes that Peter Parker as Amazing Spider-Man is from the Earth-616 timeline before the body swap, causing him to forfeit their duel. In actuality, Peter's from after Otto's Heel–Face Turn and Heroic Suicide.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Mayday has a hold of Solus' life crystal and is preparing to crush it in front of a begging Daemos. When the Master Weaver is killed, she stops and realizes what she's doing.
• Mythology Gag: The first appearance of British Spider-Man (also known as Spider-UK) has him observing Gwen Stacy as Spider-Woman. In The Amazing Spider-Man 2 movie, Spidey was planning to join Gwen in England until her death ruined the plan.
  • Spider-Gwen's version of Peter becoming the Lizard was probably a reference to the Spider-Lizard◊ storyline.
  • Spider-Gwen's universe is Earth-65, a reference to Gwen's first appearance being in 1965.
  • The Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends Earth is designated Earth-1983, a nod to the year the show ended.
  • Ben Reilly's universe is Earth-94, a reference to the year he first took on the name (1994).
• Negated Moment of Awesome: Japanese Spider-Man arrives in the Leopardon to save the day from Solus, but the robot is promptly torn to shreds. Subverted, as Solus burned out the power up he got from eating Cosmic Spiderman in the process and thus was left vulnerable.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The solicits proclaimed "every Spider-Man ever" and then some would partake in the event. Not even close to all of them did, with notable absentees including Poison from What If?: The Other, Izumi from Spider-Man: Fairy Tales #3, Zombie Spider-Man from Marvel Zombies, Symbiote Spider-Man from What If: Brave New World, the Spider-Man from the Playstation video-games, and Ai Apaec as Dark Spider-Man. It was even admitted in a Letters to the Editor section that delivering on this would have been an impossibility and that they had to draw the line somewhere, specifically choosing to exclude the symbiote-related characters like Agent Venom and Carnage.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • How does this get kicked off? Peter freeing Silk from her containment room thanks to the Orb unleashing the secrets of the Watcher's eye.
  • Silk leaving Earth-13 attracts Daemos, Brix, and Bora to Earth-928 and results in the deaths of Spider-Cyborg, Old Man Spider, and Assassin Spider-Man. To make amends she warps to a random dimension in order to distract the Inheritors.
  • Jessica Drew ends up sending Silk running off in a huff after she warns Anya and Spider-Gwen over her naivety.
  • Kaine's Roaring Rampage of Revenge and Silk trying to rescue Jessica ends up giving the Inheritors exactly what they needed to start up the prophecy.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The Electro of Lady Spider's world blasts Leopardon's head when she dives behind it for cover. It's enough to revive the robot, which proceeds to kick ass. Not only that, said robot is now upgraded to have radiation-based weapons to exploit the Inheritors' weakness, and now Solus, the only one who was strong enough to destroy it head on, is dead, meaning Electro just revived a very big threat for the villains.
• The Nicknamer:
  • SpOck refers to most of his team's members with nicknames such as "turtleneck" for Noir and "polymelian" for the Six-Armed Spider-Man.
• '90s Anti-Hero: The Anti-Hero Team SpOck pulls together are mostly these as they include Spider-Monkey, Spider-Man Noir, Assassin Spider-Man from What If: The Spider Who Went Into The Cold, and Spider-Girl/Bitch (Ashley Barton) from Old Man Logan, and a cyborg Spider-Man with Spider-Man India as the Token Good Team Mate. The Assassin Spider-Man and Ashley Barton are singled out as the most likely to murder, however, and brought into an inner circle within the group.
• No Fourth Wall:
  • Morlun is utterly perplexed and horrified by the repetitive and glacial storytelling progress of the Newspaper Spider-Man's universe.
  • Miles and the animated Ultimate Spidey are perplexed at the world of Spider-Man (1967) and its repetitive backgrounds.
  • Miles has no patience for Animated Ultimate Peter's Cutaway Gag tendencies.
  • Spider-Man '67 and Miles have an amusing background conversation about Animated Ultimate Spider-Man breaking the fourth wall.
  • Morlun breaks into the Marvel vs. Capcom universe and kills the Spider-Man there, confusing the kid who's playing the game.
• No-Sell: Morlun becomes one of the few villains in comic book history to resist those delicious So-So golden sponge cakes^note formerly Hostess Twinkies and their cream filling! Truly a most fearsome opponent. He also defeats the Marvel vs. Capcom Spider-Man with a perfect victory.
• Odd Friendship: Old Man Spider-Man is partnered with Spider-Ham.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Spidey freaks out when he learns about Morlun's return and that he has a brother. So much so that he demands every last Spider around back through the portal double time - they were not safe there.
  • Peter gets another one when SpOck brings out the claws and screams out that he is in charge now.
  • A even bigger one happens when Captain Universe Spider-Man gets slaughtered with ease by Solus.
  • Otto has a subtle one when he figures out that the Peter Parker from Earth-616 is from later on in the timeline, meaning that he lost.
• One-Winged Angel: When Kaine arrives on Loomworld, he transforms into a Man-Spider so monstrous that even Morlun is scared.
• Original Generation: The creative team made brand new Spideys for this event, including a Cyberpunk-looking Spider-Man clad in Powered Armor named Dr. Aaron Aikman, a hooded Gwen Stacy Spider-Woman, a supervillain Spider-Man named Patton Parnel, a 14-year-old Japanese girl named Peni Parker who pilots a giant robot called SP//dr, and a cyborg Spider-Man with a heavily weaponized body. It's also the debut of a Captain Britain Spider-Man.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Both Spider-Monkey and the six-armed Spidey can't stand SpOck due to his arrogance.
• Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions: The arrogant and scientifically-minded Otto dismisses all the talk of supernatural Spider-Totems as nothing but backwards superstition, an attitude that leads to him killing the Master Weaver, the god that weaves the Web of Life and Destiny and grants the Spider-Totems their powers. Even worse, Otto hits his full Villainous Breakdown as he starts cutting the Web of Life, declaring that he's going to Screw Destiny.
• Parody Product Placement: The snack cake-advertising Spider-Man from Howard the Duck #14 learns the hard way that Morlun is able to resist them. We can only speculate as to whether things might have worked out different if Daemos had been the one to face "So-So Cakies" Spider-Man. Or if they had been the real-deal ads.
• People Farms: Jennix's ultimate plan is to clone Spider-Totems so they can continuously eat, rather than risking hunting them to extinction. The problem is that he can't clone the essence of the Totems, which makes the Scarlet Spider Team a very tantalizing target for him.
• Pet the Dog: The Spider-Man Newspaper Strips, one of the few active universes with Peter and MJ still married, is spared by the Master Weaver in one of his only acts of rebellion, placing it in a pocket dimension away from the Great Hunt.
• Phlebotinum Rebel: The Master Weaver greatly resents being controlled and ejects Morlun from the newspaper comic universe, claiming it was temporally unstable.
  • Amazing Spider-Man #12 reveals that he has apparently planted subtle seeds for a much grander rebellion for a long time.
• Physical God: The Spider-Man from Earth-13 retained the Uni-Power, and as such the Inheritors aren't going anywhere near there. Until Solus decides to take him out.
• Post-Final Boss: After the inheritors are defeated, Otto goes a bit crazy and attempts to cut off the Web of Life to save his own hide, so the rest of the Spiders have to stop him.
• The Prophecy: Turns out that the Inheritors' big reason for needing the Other, the Bride and the Scion is so they can sever the connection with the Web of Life and Destiny and prevent more Spiders from being created through their blood. They get the Other, preventing it from ever manifesting again, and the Bride, preventing new Totems from arising through chance or magic, but fail to get the Scion, whose blood would have prevented any new Spider Totems from arising at all.
• Pun: The Spider-Friends' home universe is retconned to Earth-1983, and Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends was cancelled in 1983. It's ironic since the Spider-Friends make their comic book debut being killed by Morlun.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Mayday keeps constantly doing this after the Spiders' escape from Earth-13, constantly telling the others that they're a bunch of fakes, that her Peter was the one, true Spider-Man and when Uncle Ben tries to initially comfort her, she tells him that her Peter would be disappointed with him. Of course, she's incredibly distressed and angry over the presumed deaths of her loved ones and Benjy getting kidnapped.
• Retcon:
  • Slott confirmed via Twitter that he intends to retcon the designations of universes not already featured in comics, completely disregarding the databooks:
    • Spider-Ham's universe has been changed from Earth-8311 to Earth-25. The 2015 Web Warriors and Spider-Gwen continuation revert this, with the latter saying he was from Earth-8311 all along.
    • The universe of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends was changed from Earth-8107 to Earth-1983.
    • The universe of Spider-Man Unlimited was changed from Earth-751263 to Earth-7831.
    • The universe of Spider-Man (1967) was changed from Earth-6799 to Earth-67.
  • Averted with the Marvel vs. Capcom universe. The designation best known by the fandom (Earth-96169) was a long-perpetrated bit of Fanon that was taken at face value. Spider-Verse #2 was actually the first time Marvel provided an official designation for the reality: Earth-30847.
  • Spider-Verse #1 shows Mangaverse Spider-Man from Earth-2301 joining the Spider-Army by being recruited by a bunch of Spiders. Amazing Spider-Man #12 states he was recruited by Earth-616 Spider-Man, Anya Corazon, and Gwen Stacy. The 2015 Secret Wars: Official Guide to the Marvel Multiverse #1 databook retcons him to the Mangaverse Spider-Man from Earth-7122, an alternate version of the Mangaverse, directly contradicting what's in the comic itself.
  • When asked why no symbiote characters were appearing, Nick Lowe made up the answer that the essence of the Spider-Totems was incompatible with the symbiotes' alien DNA.^note The real reason was that there was no way they could include every Spider and had to draw the line somewhere. However, What If: Spider-Man Killed Kraven the Hunter established Venom and Anti-Venom as Spider-Totems, which is supported by images of Venom and Carnage appearing in the Web of Life and Destiny in one of the Spider-Verse spinoffs.
• Sacrificial Lion: The Spider-Man of the 1602 universe is killed by Morlun rather easily, cementing the danger he represents. The Wolverine of What If: The Spider Who Went Into The Cold is also killed fairly easily, in a single blow from Karn's spear, while the FF from What If? #1 is massacred entirely off-panel. It gets worse with the cast of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends and Spider-Man Unlimited, and Marvel Comics 2's Peter Parker joining the ranks of the fallen. Though, highly doubtful they'd kill them, Hummingbird and Nova of the New Warriors are beaten by Daemos.
• Saying Too Much: When Peter asks Otto if he based his holographic assistant on Anna Maria Marconi, Otto - who had been operating under the assumption that Peter was from before his Grand Theft Me abruptly realizes that Peter never met Anna Maria before his Grand Theft Me, ergo that Peter is from later on in the timeline and eventually regains control of his body. He doesn't press the issue at the time, but it comes up later on and explains why he was shouting "I'll find a way! You haven't seen the end of Doctor-" when he reappeared in Superior Spider-Man 19.
• Schizo Tech: There's a point where May Reilly and Miguel O'Hara fix up Takuya Yamashiro's giant robot using a combination of 1895 and 2099 technology.
• Screw Destiny: Otto attempts to do this by cutting away the Web of Life.
• Sequel Hook: Tyler Stone secretly oversees Spider-Man 2099 and Lady Spider's scanning/dissection of both Daemos and a device that allows dimension hopping.
  Lady Spider: Astounding. I've never seen anything like this.
  Spider-Man 2099: Stick with me. You'll see all kinds of new things.
  Tyler: Indeed. We all will.
• Shipping Torpedo: The "Welcome Home"^ExplanationA series of covers welcoming back Marvel's Star Wars cover of The Amazing Spider-Man #13 shows Spider-Man 2099 and Spider-Gwen struggling to keep Spider-Man and Silk away from each other◊.
• Shout-Out:
  • One of the alternate Spider-Men shown in the Web of Life and Destiny in Amazing #9 is based on Rorschach.
  • The sentient Spider-Mobile's Verbal Tic is similar to the one possessed by Speed Buggy.
• Significant Name Overlap: invoked This is not counting how many Peter Parkers and Spider-Men we got, we also have to count in the numerous Spider-Girls, Scarlet Spiders and Spider-Women here. Otto even complains about how all the Spider-Men he's encountered thus far are versions of Peter Parker, and that there are no others like him. Explicitly lampshaded during Peter's brawl with Otto:
  Spider-Gwen: Go get 'im, Pete!
  Ultimate Cartoon Spider-Man: Which one? They're both Pete. Heck, most of us are Petes.
  • The Spider-Man 2099 tie in also shows that alternate versions of Miguel O'Hara are also being attacked, like the ones from Avengers Forever, Timestorm, and Exiles.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism:
  • In one issue, Superior Spider-Man makes a sort of inner circle with Assassin Spider-Man and Spider-Bitch, believing that they're the ones who can do what needs to be done.
  • Conversely, when Old Man Spider and Spider-Ham go to recruit Ben Reilly from a universe where he remained Spider-Man while Peter lost his spider powers, Ben's insistence that things work out in the end allows him to overcome Vulture's venom, as he simply never considered that he might lose. Freaking Spider-Ham (who is a cartoon pig) thinks this Spider-Man is naive.
• Smug Super: Otto, as usual. He makes the other Spider-Men call him "Superior".
• Stable Time Loop: After the Master Weaver is killed and revealed to be his older self, Karn takes his place and, due to the convoluted nature of time in Earth-001, is eventually imprisoned by Inheritors and killed by Otto, after which Karn's younger self takes up his place.
• Story-Breaker Power: Played with: The Spider-Man of Earth-13 has the powers of Captain Universe. Despite being pretty much omnipotent, he can't actually deal with Morlun and pals because the Enigma Force is tied to his universe, meaning that if he tries to leave it he'll just become a "normal" webslinger once again. However, it does make his world one of if not the only safe haven for the Spider-Men of the multiverse... At least until it turns out the Enigma force is pure life and creation, which is exactly what the Inheritors feed on. Universe Spidey takes out only one of them before Solus easily defeats him.
• Straight Man: Miles Morales of the Ultimate Spider-Man comics is this to his entire team when he goes out on missions in this crossover. Crosses over into The Comically Serious.
• Suddenly Ethnicity: At the end of his solo story, Spider-Punk removes his mask to reveal that he's an African-American teenager. As his story deals with citizens rising up to fight against an oppressive and totalitarian police state, this arguably fit even better.
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: In Amazing Spider-Man #15, Otto, knowing if he goes back to his time, he will die, attempts to destroy the Web of Life after killing the Master Weaver, which would destroy all of reality in the process. He's stopped before he gets too far.
• Super-Deformed: Spider-Ham, Mini Marvels Spider-Man, and Spider-Man J have ridiculously large heads in comparison to the rest of their bodies. Animated Ultimate Spider-Man also becomes super deformed in his Imagine Spots, which it turns out aren't so imaginary.
• Superior Successor: Subverted with Otto. He tries to lead the Spider-Army by proclaiming that he's the Superior Spider-Man so he's most suited for the role. Not only does no one want him to be the leader and would rather have the OG Peter Parker for the role, but when he and Peter get into a brawl for the role of leadership, Peter easily dominates the whole fight and winds up outsmarting him, proving that despite his constant claims that he is superior, he truthfully isn't. Also, at the end of the comic, he and Peter get into a fight again because Otto tried to destroy the Web of Life out of the belief that it will grant all of them (but especially Otto himself) free will. Peter manages to beat him once more.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: The Captain Britain Corps ignore Spider UK's warnings about the Inheritors because they're too busy dealing with the collapse of the multiverse.
• Take That!:
  • Peter's fight with Otto is one glorious Take That! towards Superior Spider-Man, and doubles as Self-Deprecation on the part of Slott.
  • In Spider-Verse Team-Up #3, Tom DeFalco sneaks in a jab at Dan Slott for kiboshing May's happy ending in Spider-Girl: The End when Mayday tells Uncle Ben that she hopes that somewhere out there an alternate version of herself exists who never had to suffer the loss of her parents and brother.
  • President Osborn from Spider-Punk's world resembles Ronald Reagan when not using the Venom symbiote.
• Talk to the Fist: Peter punches SpOck in the face in order to get him to shut up and work with the rest of the team.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With so many Spideys around, it's not going to be a surprise that some of them just don't want to play nice, especially considering some versions of Peter are evil. This is especially shown when it comes down to Spider-UK and the Superior Spider-Man's teams meeting as Superior just absolutely believes his team is the "superior" one.
• This Is Something He's Got to Do Himself:
  • When Otto and Peter finally tussle, Mayday begs Cosmic Spidey to stop it, but he states that this is something that must run its course.
  • When Peter sees Gwen is being attacked by a feral Green Goblin, he orders the others to pull her out while he takes on Norman himself. Gwen tells him she can handle herself, so Peter calls off the rescue, letting her kick Gobby's ass herself. She thanks him for letting her prove herself, and he thanks her for showing him the impossible could happen.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: This is how Miles is able to tell that Superior Spider-Man isn't the Spidey he met before. On the other hand, Peter's shocked when Mayday says that she wishes she was the one to kill Daemos.
• Token Heroic Orc: Karn is the only heroic Inheritor by the end of the story, just as the Master Weaver thought he would be.
• A Truce While We Gawk: When the Superior Spider-Man murders the Master Weaver to stop the Inheritors' plan, Morlun and Peter pause in beating each other up to stare in horror and call him out.
• Uranus Is Showing: Animated Ultimate Spider-Man chuckles when Dr. Noah Boddy mentions that the weapon is powered from a rock obtained on Uranus.
• Villainous Breakdown: We see the true beginning of SpOck's breakdown with this story as his glorious plan to stop the Inheritors utterly backfires, leading to the deaths of Cyborg Spider-Man, Assassin Spider-Man, and Old Man Spider as well as forcing them from their 2099 base, leading to SpOck utterly flipping out and screaming out that he is in charge now and the fact that he has his claws out means he's ready to fight.
  • It gets worse at the end: having realized that he'll lose Peter's body, he flips out, kills the Master Weaver and then starts cutting the Web of Life in a desperate attempt to defy fate.
• Villainous Glutton: Daemos of the Inheritors. He stayed in the Spider-Man Unlimited universe after killing that universe's Spider-Man because the Beastmen of Counter-Earth count as Animal Totems, so he stayed to eat them all. It got to the point that another Inheritor had to be sent to retrieve him.
• We Can Rebuild Him: Miguel and Lady Spider quickly return to Earth-13, only to find the carnage done by Morlun, Solus and Jennix. However, they also find the wreckage of the fallen Leopardon and Lady Spider declares she can fix it and she knows the perfect place to do so. They also enhance its weapons with radiation, making it an even bigger threat to the Inheritors.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • When Spider UK warns Saturnyne and Roma of the deaths of Spider-Men, Saturnyne, frustrated and angry that he only cares about "trivial" deaths when entire universes are dying tells him to get lost. Thankfully, Roma's a lot more sympathetic to UK's worries and charges him to save the other Spiders on the off-chance that the Inheritors' attacks are connected to the Incursions.
  • SpOck, despite deciding to follow Peter, snaps at him after a few incidents cost them a few bases and powerful aids. He then calls out the Uncle Ben that quit being a hero on his cowardice, telling him every time he's failed he's gotten back up and for him to do the same.
• The Worf Effect:
  • Cosmic Spidey is naturally played up as the Spider-Totems' heaviest hitter. When the Inheritors attack his home dimension, he is quickly taken out by Solus.
  • In the following issue, Supaidaman's Giant Mecha Leopardon is called in for backup, and is effortlessly torn apart by Solus. The rebuilt and upgraded Leopardon gets one of its own when Electro accidentally activates it.
  • Solus gets one-shotted by an Other-powered Kaine.
• Worth It: Peter doesn't care how beat up his face ends up, giving SpOck his deserved licks in Amazing Spider-Man #11 is more than worth it.
• Writing Around Trademarks: The Spider-Men from the Spider-Man Trilogy and The Amazing Spider-Man Series couldn't appear in the crossover event because their rights were owned by Sony, but the comic manages to imply that they were involved in the story anyway by having them mentioned in passing and referred to as "that guy from Seabiscuit" and "that guy from The Social Network" respectively.
• You Are Too Late: When Spider-UK and Last Stand Spider-Man drop in to rescue MC2 Spider-Girl and her brother, she begs them to help her save her father, only for Last Stand Spidey to tell her that there are only two Spider-Totems in that world. This breaks Mayday.
• You Killed My Father: In Amazing Spider-Man #8, Mayday Parker swears to kill Daemos after the Inheritor kills her boyfriend and parents. Daemos' response is Bring It.
• You Remind Me of X: Issue 2 of Spider-Verse Team Up has Miles Morales team up with the Ultimate Spider-Man (2012)... who just got through teaming up with a Miles Morales in his cartoon!
  • 616-Peter sends them off to recruit more Spider-Men. So they get a sentient Spider-Buggy, the 60's cartoon Spidey, and a Spider-Cowboy!
• You Shall Not Pass!: Mangaverse Venom does this to Mangaverse Spider-Man, trying to keep him out of the temple of the Spider-Clan. The other Spiders just web him up and ask Mangaverse Spidey to join them.

Spider-Verse (2015 mini-series)

This miniseries occurred as part of the Secret Wars (2015) crossover event, and served as the precursor to Web Warriors.

• Gadgeteer Genius: Spider-Man India built a device that can locate and track his fellow Spiders. Spider-Man Noir built a counter device that masked his presence, as well as a sonic blaster that stunned Carnage in epic fashion.
• Godhood Seeker: Norman initially seems like a changed man... but it turns out he's crazy as ever and was trying to tap into the Web of Life and Destiny in order to obtain the power to overthrow Doom.
• I Am a Humanitarian: Gwen is horrified that Spider-Ham is all too happy to eat pork, ham, and bacon. He retorts that him eating non-sentient pigs is comparable to humans eating monkeys,
• Made of Iron: Spider-Ham reveals that he can get hit really hard and not get hurt. He demonstrates this by pulling a Your Mom on a Thor and getting smashed through several walls by her hammer. Cartoon Physics may be in play here, as well, given Ham's original universe.
• Threads of Fate: The Web of Life and Destiny is a Three-Dimensional construct in Five-Dimensional space that connects realities together. It was created by the Egyptian Goddess Neith to not only map out The Multiverse but to chart the destiny of humanity, specifically designing it so that mankind would be able to choose their own lives and destiny. She also created the Spider-Totems, god-like entities that are connected to the web and can pass on their powers to people they choose as their avatars. The Great Weaver is one Spider-Totem that has a special interest in Peter Parker, which is why most Peters (or at least variations of him) are destined to become Spider-Man. Breaking a thread of the web can also either radically change one's destiny or instantly end their life, which the Master Weaver demonstrates by breaking the thread of the mother of the Inheritors, killing her instantly and permanently. The Web is also the source of the famous Spider-Sense, explaining why they know of upcoming danger beforehand, and why some Spiders are borderline Seers. In essence, Fate itself is warning of upcoming danger.
• Unperson: Gwen Stacy discovers that the history of Battleworld says that she should be dead, fridged off a bridge.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The other Spiders call Spider-Man Noir out on violating their Thou Shall Not Kill policy when he shoots Cletus Kasady twice in the chest, and for his apparent racism.
• You Remind Me of X: When Gwen first sees Spider-Ham, she remarks that he reminds her of an imaginary friend she had as a girl. Whether that means she's eight years older than she was in Spider-Gwen or that's part of her muddled memories is unknown.

Spider-Verse (2019 mini-series)

This miniseries occurred in the aftermath of the 2018 crossover Spider-Geddon.

• All for Nothing: During Spider-Geddon, Spider-Norman destroyed the Web of Life and Destiny in anger over being snubbed by SpOck. As it turns out, Annie May's awakening as the Patternmaker ended up rebuilding the Web, so Norman's attack did nothing.
• Alternate Self: Spider Ma'am battles a Carnage-hosting counterpart of herself while her husband and nephew fight the "Evil May's" cohorts.
• Blade on a Rope: Issue #4 introduces Garganza, the Earth-31913 version of the Scorpion, who fights with a chain attached to a hook. The hook is coated with venom from a deathstalker scorpion, making even one small cut fatal if not treated immediately.
• Came Back Wrong: Annie May's Web of Life and Destiny is kinda-sorta messed up and growing out of control and with her missing, it's going to get worse.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Takuya Yamashiro is the one who introduces Miles to Spider-Zero. In the final battle, he arrives to help the other Spiders and fight off the Machine BEMs with Leopardon.
• The Chosen One: Spider-Zero recruits Miles for their mission to find Annie May. As she explains, they're the new generation of Spiders for a rebuilt web, so there's no real need to grab Peter.
• Cliffhanger: The second issue ends with the reveal that Spider-Ma'am's Peter is hiding a still-living sample of the Carnage symbiote in his room. The story even ends with, "The End... for now?"
• Continuity Nod: Spider-Ma'am tells Miles that he needs no introduction, as they fought together in the last two Spider-Verse events, referring to the previous Spider-Verse title as well as Spider-Geddon.
• Evil Counterpart: Carnage-May and her murderous Ben and Peter serve as this to Spider-Ma'am's family. Carnage-May is soon joined by an equally evil counterpart of Miles.
• Filler: The second issue doesn't mention what happened in the previous one at all, making it more of a relatively light-hearted story about Spider Ma'am fighting off her Evil Counterpart from another universe with the help of her husband, her nephew, and Miles.
• Happily Married: Ben and May are in love as ever, going so far as to be a Battle Couple with Ben providing May with additional webbing support.

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