Meet The Creepiest Spider-Man Of Them All In Vault Of Spiders #2

With the threat of the Inheritors rising, we once again dive into the multiverse to look for additional Spider heroes to help in the fight. The Vault of Spiders is opened and we’re diving in with some of the most unusual characters yet. This time around we’ve got Spider-Ma’am (aka May Parker), The Spider (aka Captain George Stacy), and my personal favorite, Spiders-Man (a horde of spiders who think they’re Peter Parker).

I’m all for books like this and the earlier Edge of Spider-Geddon as it allows creators to put a new spin on the old classic of Spider-Man. Sometimes a small change is enough to create an entirely new character that can set the world on fire. Other times it’s something so very radical that you would never see it coming. That’s the case with Spiders-Man. This is an incredibly dark story that looks at what defines a monster.
We’ve already seen this character pop up in Spider-Geddon #3 and he was an instant favorite there too. Here we get his origin from writer Cullen Bunn, artist Mark Bagley, inker Andrew Hennessy, and colorist Chris Sotomayor. Peter Parker falls into a vat of radioactive spiders and never comes out again. Instead, this mysterious hero takes the streets and starts fighting crime, but has the personality and memories of Parker. It’s an intriguing and chilling concept, especially when you see it in action. The spiders can look like a person, but if they take a hit, they explode out, not unlike Sandman or Clayface.

This can be used as a weapon too. Imagine how quickly a villain would run if you shot a bunch of spiders into their face. No one is going to mess with that guy. You can see the look of fear in the faces of the Goblins that thought they’d outmatched this hero. It’s saying something when a group of mad villains like this turn tail and flee.
This creepy quality extends to Spiders-Man’s speech too. Letterer Travis Lanham leaves no question as to the monstrous entity at work with its speech appearing in black boxes with spiders crawling all over them. This is such a great effect that works so very well here.

The other stories in this one-shot are solid, although they don’t stand out as much as Spiders-Man. Spider-Ma’am is a fun concept, but it takes up a huge amount of this issue, so the gag wears thin after awhile. It’s a ridiculous idea where Aunt May is bitten by a radioactive spider and fights crime with the help of her husband and nephew.
Her costume is insane. She’s wearing what looks like a chef’s hat, which I don’t understand. Artist David A. Williams brings this to life in a classic fashion, akin to the old Spider-Man comics of yesteryear. That’s fitting given May’s older sensibilities. She can web-swing with the best of them, but she tends to fight her battles with good sense and manners.

As mentioned earlier, this is a joke that runs way too long. It could have been shortened to make room for another character or give us another story with Spiders-Man. The other tale, featuring a version of Spider-Man with Captain George Stacy under the mask, is a bit like a hard-boiled hero It’s fine, but doesn’t make much of an impact.
Vault of Spiders gives us a fun look at a few more Spider characters, although we’re getting a lot of this in Spider-Geddon itself. At this point, the novelty of the various different types of Spiders is starting to wear off. This was really interesting and unique at first, but after so many, it’s starting to wear on me. Maybe this is something that could be shared for special occasions, like a bi-monthly or quarterly special, or a regular series that focuses on just one character at a time. If they go that route, please make Spiders-Man the first subject.

Vault of Spiders #2 from Marvel Comics is currently available at your local comic shop and digitally through ComiXology and Amazon Kindle. It features writing from Jed MacKay, Cullen Bunn, Ryan North, and Geoffrey Thorne, artwork from Scott Koblish, Mark Bagley, David A. Williams, and Todd Harris, inks from Andrew Hennessy, colors from Andres Mossa, Chris Sotomayor, and Andrew Crossley, and letters from Travis Lanham.