Spider-Man: The Spider'S Shadow

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The series ends with the Kingpin being presented with what appears to be the Carnage symbiote, which brings to mind the " King Carnage ◊" trading card from The '90s. Trilogy Creep: The series was intended to be a four-issue series, but it got bumped up to five issues.

From Bad to Worse: Jameson manages to remove the symbiote from Peter by forcing him into a burning barn and presumes it to be dead, but Peter senses that it survived the fire. The symbiote makes its way to the Baxter Building and takes over Mr. Fantastic, and to make matters worse, it has begun to spawn more symbiotes. This thing... it's alive. It has a right to make choices just as I do. It chooses to be with me, and I... choose to be with it. We're helping each other, I can feel it. It shouldn't be kept in a prison here. — Spider-Man Appearing in "Part One of Four" When MJ looks for Peter in his apartment, she finds him sleeping in-costume and suspended in midair by the symbiote's tendrils. Needless to say, it's very creepy. It's nice when What If? stories are able to breathe. With five issues to explore this story rather than the usual one and done, Spider's Shadow gets to really dig into the consequences of Peter's actions as the Venom symbiote goes wild. There are a few dark turns and some deaths (because what's a What If? without someone getting brutally murdered) but it manages to have a somewhat optimistic ending despite the doom and gloom. The story goes in some fun directions, and it shows once again how well Zdarsky gets Peter Parker (and J. Jonah Jameson, to a lesser extent) as a character.But this could be one of those stories where it goes too dark and possibly too far. I get that Venom is a violent, dark mirror of Spider-Man -- a creature that is the bonding of two entities that hate Peter Parker. And the idea the alien costume might feed into some of Peter's internal self-doubt and loathing is an intriguing one. But honesty, the concept of Peter going dark was better realized in the animated series from the 90's when the dark suit was brought into the story. I guess I wanted to see Peter do more than just become a violent sociopath who kills or hurts everyone around him before getting a bit of redemption and an obligatory happy ending. Moral Event Horizon: The symbiote driving Spider-Man to begin killing his rogues gallery and trying to infect New York with its spawn makes it a Well-Intentioned Extremist, but it goes too far upon murdering Reed Richards and trying to kill Mary Jane for undermining its attempts to corrupt Peter. And then when there's no psychoanalyzing that portion of the story, enter Hobgoblin acting a fool and getting his shit subsequently pushed in because he took the "ca t and mouse" crap too far.

Kryptonite-Proof Suit: The symbiote, having learned its lesson from past encounters with fire, builds itself a fireproof suit of armor once it takes possession of Reed Richards. Dark Is Not Evil: Peter goes full-on Anti-Hero after Aunt May's death at the hands of Hobgoblin, officially accepting the symbiote. Spider-Man: Spider's Shadow #1 is scheduled for release in April 2021. That also happens to be the month Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman are wrapping up their Venom run with the Venom #200 anniversary special. Chip Zdarsky delivers a modern 'What if?' story here with some sadness and dark tones - at least by the standards of a Spider-Man book.Kingpin: So I went about investigating. Seeing if you had any other close family members. A wife, a girlfriend- someone I could threaten. But there was no one. So incredibly sad. You have no one, Peter Parker. Anyone you ever loved is- Spotting the Thread: Fisk notes that Spider-Man began resorting to brutal methods to deal with criminals after he killed Hobgoblin, which has him investigate the circumstances behind the villain's actions before his death. When he discovers that Hobgoblin killed May Parker, he realizes Spider-Man's murder of Hobgoblin was a violent reaction to the old woman's death, meaning Spidey is someone close to May Parker; her nephew Peter Parker.

Anti-Hero: Peter dips into this after he kills Hobgoblin, going on to kill at least 19 other criminals, including the Sinister Six. After an incident with the Hobgoblin, however, things begin to change: Reed Richards informs Peter that his costume is actually alive and he should probably leave it with the Fantastic Four to investigate further, but Peter doesn't want to do that. The costume chose him and he's choosing it. Not Quite Dead: In the epilogue, Wilson Fisk is revealed to have survived in his encounter with Spider-Man and is only left maimed. The series ends with Peter joining the Fantastic Four, which was what the very first original What If? issue was all about.

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My God, What Have I Done?: When Jameson and Kraven successfully manage to remove the symbiote from Peter via throwing him in a burning barn, the symbiote's influence wanes and is promptly horrified of his actions. The design of his suit after Hobgoblin kills Aunt May is also very terrifying, as he adopts the claws, tendrils, and a bit of the added bulk typically associated with Venom and changes his mask into a more arachnoid visage, with four spider-like fangs painted on. The story is then fully realized by the art team. Pasqual Ferry and Matt Hollingsworth capture the narrative’s dark and eerie tone and add another level to it. There are a lot of haunting images here such as Peter unconsciously suspended above his bed by the symbiote, or the monstrous visage the suit begins to take on. These moments are striking and add to the grim tone. The colors work really well throughout especially in the darker sections. A nice touch throughout is the red and blue highlights around the symbiote’s edges that nods to the ’90s animated series.

Removed Achilles' Heel: Once the symbiote takes over Reed Richards, it genetically modifies its offspring to remove their vulnerability to fire. Well, according to this collection of five issues, Peter Parker would become public enemy number one, slaughtering multiple members of his rogue's gallery along the way because the Hobgoblin kills Aunt May. There's always been a bit of a dark undercurrent to the story of Spider-Man, though many writers haven't really explored that side of things. Zdarsky did that over the course of Peter's life in Life Story and maybe part of my issue here is that the timeline is simply too compressed to make for a satisfying story like the original collection was. Seeing Peter slowly descend into darkness makes sense and the question of "what if" Spidey had a really bad day and was pushed too far is an intriguing one. Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: In issue 5, the symbiote impales Reed with its tendrils as it abandons his body. The symbiote shifts all of the blame of May's death onto the Hobgoblin; while this is technically true, it ignores that it was the one that prevented Peter from trying to save her in the first place. Spider-Man: Spider's Shadow is a 2021 Marvel Comics five-issue mini-series written by Chip Zdarsky, with art by Pasqual Ferry and Matt Hollingsworth. The reality this comic is set in has been officially designated as Earth-21619. It is the first in a new line of What If? mini-series, in this case: What if Peter Parker became Venom? The story received a follow-up called "Spider's Eclipse" in Extreme Venomverse.Gaining the Will to Kill: At first, Peter manages to resist the symbiote's urgings to kill Hobgoblin, settling for unmasking him and warning him to stay away unless he wants another beating. It isn't until Hobgoblin murders May Parker that Peter gives in and crushes Hobgoblin's skull.