Spider-Geddon #5 Limps Across The Finish Line

Everything has built to this. The Inheritors are preparing to tear through Spider heroes from across the multiverse and unless a miracle happens, they’ll be successful. Get ready for a knock-down, drag-out fight for the ages as every deus ex machina Spider character you can think of is about to get into the action.

First off, I want to point out that if you haven’t been reading the various tie-ins and mini-series, Spider-Geddon #5 is going to confuse the heck out of you. Characters literally appear out of nowhere so they can be seen for the finale. This includes Spider-Gwen, fresh off an adventure in another world, Spider-Girl, Spiderling, and Spider-Woman who were investigating ancient scrolls in Spider-Girls, and our own Peter Parker, who’s been battling Morlun in the pages of Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man. All this, plus the Enigma Force thrown in for good measure.
To say Spider-Geddon is a confusing mess is an understatement. The story is convoluted and jumps from one idea to another at a moment’s notice. The novelty of seeing all these different takes on Spider-Man only takes you so far. It lacks impact or any real meaning. I don’t think you can look at any of these characters and say that they’ve learned any sort of lesson or grown as a result of the events in this comic.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that this final issue required four different artists to complete. Jorge Molina, Carlo Barberi, Stefano Caselli, and Joey Vazquez all contributed work to Spider-Geddon #5. While none of the artwork is bad, the styles do clash so it is a jarring reading experience bouncing from one to another.
Although there were four artists involved, only one colorist was used. David Curiel held it down across the entire comic, keeping a consistent color scheme through every attack. He matched the tone of the story, going darker for the more somber moments and brighter for those of hope.

Similarly, letterer Travis Lanham guided us through this jumble of characters and events. He controls the excitement level with how big and bold the dialogue appears. When things get intense, especially with the final blows, you can almost hear the intense screams of the characters as they give it all they’ve got.
Writer Christos Gage has some choice dialogue throughout Spider-Geddon #5. When you put all these characters together, you’re bound to get some fun interactions. My favorite came when Peter Parker shows up in his battered costume and sees Miles Morales, who mistakes him for some other Spider-Man.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of Spider-Geddon is the lack of payoff for the coolest twist the series saw. Norman Osborn, the evil Spider-Man who once had a Cosmic Cube as seen in Edge of Spider-Geddon #4, took off with a piece of the web of life. He closed off Earth-616 from the web and looked like he was going to play a major part in the finale. He’s still out there but it’s a bummer we didn’t get much else with him.
I wanted so much to like Spider-Geddon, but it fell way flat. There was a lot of potential with putting all these Spider heroes together, but ultimately, it lacked any real purpose. There has been talk of “event fatigue” and with something like this, I can see why. If you reach the end of “the Spider-Event of 2018” and feel like there was no real impact, why would you want to do something like this again?
Spider-Geddon #5 from Marvel Comics is currently available at your local comic shop and digitally through ComiXology and Amazon Kindle.