Spider-Man #4 Review

Written by: Dan Slott
Art by: Mark Bagley, John Dell, Andrew Hennessy
Colors by: Edgar Delgado
Letters by: VC’s Clayton Cowles
Cover art by: Mark Bagley, Edgar Delgado
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: January 4, 2022

Spider-Man #4 finds the surviving Spiders grappling with the loss of the “Chosen One” – the original Peter Parker – while Shathra’s forces overrun the multiverse. Is there no hope left?

Is It Good?

Spider-Man #4 is a chaotic, noisy mess of a comic. Marvel might as well rename it to “How many multiversal Spiders can we stuff into a single comic?” because that’s all this comic accomplishes. When you step back from the chaos, almost nothing of note happens in this issue except for three small developments.

Everything around those three developments is a who’s who of alternate Spider appearances and messy battles that have no bearing on the main plot, so if the goal here was to end the Spiderverse, this issue appears to be going in the opposite direction.

When last we left all the remaining Spiders, Peter Parker, aka the “Chosen One,” was stabbed by the magic dagger and unraveled. The magic artifact that could have been the last hope to bring back victims of the dagger was destroyed, and everyone else went in different directions to pursue half-baked plans of attack.

Now, Peter’s still gone, and the survivor group is smaller and running to regroup. But for those three aforementioned developments, where the comic starts is effectively the same place it started in terms of plot. What are those three developments? First, we learn Shathra is after something more than just killing or absorbing all the Spiders. Next, there are other Spiders beyond Miles Morales who can resist the wasp bite. Dan Slott “resurrects” a Spider-Man not seen in a very long time. In fairness, those bits are interesting developments but as minor novelties and not much else.

The art’s fine in this issue. Bagley, Dell, and Hennessy deliver a serviceable set of visuals to get the story told. It’s not mind-blowing art, and in truth, the art looks mildly two-dimensional and flat, but it gets the job done.

About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.

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Bits and Pieces

Spider-Man #4 amps up the chaos, noise, and silliness for an issue that barely moves the plot along. If the goal with this run was to end the Spiderverse, it appears Marvel is trying to burn it out rather than let it fade away.