This Event Has Gone Off The Rails In Spider-Geddon #4

The Inheritors work to revive their father, Solus and recreate the cloning technology that will allow them to live forever. Meanwhile, the Spiders bicker about who is right and scramble to find even more heroes, while accomplishing little to nothing. To make matters worse, Norman Osborn, the Spider-Man of Earth-44145 is about to make an under-handed and downright evil play to put an end to this once and for all.

I’ve become increasingly frustrated by Spider-Geddon on multiple fronts. It’s turned into a loop where every issue is pretty similar. They all follow the same formula and the plot moves forward at a snail’s pace. Plus, all of the important or downright interesting moments are happening in the tie-in issues so the main event book feels like the least required of the bunch.
Let’s start with the repetition. The Web Warriors have fought the Inheritors before. They know what they’re up against and they know how dire the situation is. Despite this, they’ve been scrambling like chickens with their heads cut off. You’d think this is their first mission ever. Sure, some of them are new to the bunch, but it’s like they’ve never had a team-up before.

I wonder if this speaks to one of the core principles of Spider-Man as a character. While he’s been an Avenger and a member of the Fantastic Four, he’s always been a bit of a loner. This could explain why groups of Spider heroes have such a hard time seeing eye-to-eye as a team. It just becomes frustrating because they’re all pretty smart people and yet they can’t see the forest for the trees.
This leads to a lot of scenes of the most nimble and agile characters in the multiverse just standing around talking. Yes, it looks cool because we have all these different types of Spiders with unique and interesting costumes, but it’s a huge missed opportunity. At least have one or two of them hanging from the ceiling or something. Artists Jorge Molina & Carlo Barberi did a fine job with what they had to work with and colorist David Curiel makes all those different costumes pop on the page.

The annoying part about all this talking is that it’s essentially the same argument they’ve been having since the series began. No one can agree on how to deal with the Inheritors. Letterer Travis Lanham has the unenviable job of cramming all this dialogue onto the page and manages to keep the conversation flowing, even though it’s a rehash of everything that’s come before.
My other major issue with Spider-Geddon is that it can’t be read on its own. This boils down to a failure in planning and structure. As a case in point, this issue opens up with Spider-Woman returning to our earth with a crystal. If you weren’t reading Spider-Force, you’d have no idea what she was doing. To make matters worse, this actually spoils Spider-Force as that mini-series hasn’t wrapped up and the characters there are still searching for this crystal.

All that being said, there are a couple of unique plot points that are starting to bubble up, but we’re in the penultimate issue of the series, so I have no idea how they’re all going to be fleshed out in an satisfactory manner. One of them in particular could serve to sort of reboot a character, sending him back to a previous, more evil version.
Spider-Geddon had such promise when it started, but has quickly gone off the rails. It’s been treading water while all the heavy lifting has been done in the tie-in comics. This is the opposite of how a great event comic should run. I’m hoping that writer Christos Gage can pull this together as we head into the final issue.
Spider-Geddon #4 from Marvel Comics is currently available at your local comic shop and digitally through ComiXology and Amazon Kindle.