Edge of Spider-Verse Review

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time to talk about the comics we are reading

right now here inside the pull bag. Wow, and

I'm supposed to be the fired one. Wow, but you're

gonna save that for two weeks Anyway, that's

true, but I've already mentioned it before. So,

yeah. So yes, we are back. In the post -oaks,

what Karen and I are doing, keep it moving and

whatever else. The whole night's gear and plans

just kind of bought up in the air. Originally,

this was It's supposed to be at the Cirque du

Soleil, really. It's supposed to be what it was.

They're gonna be covering things with spider

webs. My goal for 2019 is to get the top test

for a family video episode. Sadly, that's not

gonna happen. Spider webs are gonna happen next

year, in 2020. It's funny that we're talking

about spiders and spider men and spider women

and spider hands. Whatever other kind of... Talk

about this today. As of this recording, November

19th is the 25th anniversary of Spider -Man,

the animated series. Never heard of it. Oh, stop.

You know better. Is that on Disney Plus? Yes.

Yeah, I know. I'll realize that as soon as they

said it. It's out of order, but it's there. Yeah,

to be fair, all their shows are out of order,

so... It's very odd. Wait till you see the X

-Men animated series if you haven't already.

Oh, okay. It's pretty fun. I don't know. We got

a lot of issues, but it's nice to have it there,

but yeah, everything's bare bones and needs work.

But you know Yeah, I can't remember if it was

on Netflix us I rewatched it on Netflix Canada

but even then there's so much other stuff you

know you mentioned the simpsons seasons one to

ten uh it's weird it just ended uh at that point

and never kept on going as a nightmare show of

itself uh or no i mean there's stuff like gargoyle

hasn't been compiled since the ancient dvd box

sets which were a bare bones and b never contains

the goliath chronicles aka season three And there's

a lot of other shows like that like Darkwing

Ducks another one that They had certain episode

packages, but never compiled in a season theory

So yeah, it's worth it just to have a lot of

these even if it's not necessarily in the best

Format possible and hopefully they'll get there.

It just kind of sucks that it was released bare

-bones Now, you know when we've gotten used to

Netflix and other streaming services having all

these different features and then you get Disney

and it launches with nothing. Like, it can't

even tell me what I watched or I can't pick up

where I left off or... Well, now here's the thing.

You can pick up where you left off if you pick

up at that episode. Yeah, but you gotta remember

what episode you were on, that kind of thing.

Like, if you sat there and you just let it go

for a while. Yeah, that's true. I mean, it does

have some pickups and it does have a few things.

If you say watch six or seven episodes of Tarot

Royals in a row and can't remember where the

hell you left off... I don't know. Anyway, I'm

nitpicking. I know you are. So the Spider -Verse...

Yeah, which sadly is one thing that's not on

there. It would be nice if... I know it's Sony

production, but Spider -Verse should be... It

was fantastic. And this series has a little to

do with it? It sort of does. I mean, so this

one's a spin -off from the Spider -Verse crossover

event, whatever you want to call it, from Marvel

that year. And this is a collection of one -shots

introducing some of the characters you'd see

in that collection. And I shouldn't necessarily

say introducing because the Spider -Man Noir

existed years beforehand during a period of time

where they did Wolverine Noir, Punisher Noir,

Spider -Man Noir, another one I can't remember.

Crap. Uh oh. Anyway. Yeah. The Noir stuff was,

I want to say like 2010? It was a long time ago.

Thank you. Aaron Aitken does Spider -Man. He's

written by Justin Bieber. I assume he is the

writer and artist of this book. I want this spider

written by William Brown, champion artist who's

done an audio run by Hello to Color Artists.

um yeah what why don't we talk about the individual

things and then get into the four out of the

five things i really enjoyed one of them Man,

why does Spider -Gwen scare you so much? So noir

is a continuation that should be noted of the

Spider -Man noir story from whatever, whatever

year that was. Sometime in its essence, I can't

remember. I'm tired, making a moan. Anywho. And

yeah, so for you I figure this was the introduction

to him. Yeah, but I don't think you've read the

original... I don't remember him being in...

Yes, it's here. I hope. In any case, yeah, this

story reimagines, most notably, Mysterio. And,

like I said, it's a continuation of Spider -Man

and his stories, and... I don't know how in -depth

I want to get into it, but long story short,

he, May, and Mary Jane go and see a show, and

it's Mysterio. Mysterio is working... for the

kingpin although ultimately surprise surprise

with lots of overthrowing him and in an effort

to get so much Spider -Man's miraculous blood

they've kind of drawn out to the next mysterious

performance promising they're going to kill the

noir version of Black Cat Felicia Hardy and I'm

such Felicia Day, I'm real tired apparently,

hey you. And yeah, it does dry out Spider -Man

noir. A fight ensues. He's able to defeat Mysterio,

but gets jumped by one of Morlin's family, who

are the main overall villain in Spider -Verse.

You only get little pieces of each of them. Morlin

himself appears in a later one, but there's only

little bits. And there's only little bits of

the other Spider -Men. However, that's what this

closes with. He's rescued by... version of superior

spider -man and meets a bunch of them at the

end. I really liked what they did with Mary Jane

where she is a veteran of the world war and so

she's kind of she's very different and I like

that everybody was different but everybody is

similar enough that it's not that you're not

lost by it. And, yeah, the Spider -Man noir just

kind of works. He's a superhero that, when you

ground him that way, just still works. And part

of that, too, is his villains are fantastic.

Like, Mysterio is interesting in this. He's a

fun villain to have, especially in this time

frame, like the idea of magic slash technology,

et cetera. It works really well. And, yeah, I

think that's one of the reasons why Spider -Man

Always works in all the various formats. We're

gonna see and read through I shouldn't say always

anyway He's got great villains I think next to

Batman spider -man has the best villains gallery

in all of comic books And that's saying something

so it's And even then I'd argue it's fairly close

like Batman's got the one stand out really With

the joker and then after that he still got a

lot of really fantastic ones the spider -man's

just got a lot of really great ones period I'm

fine with lumping it in Craven is a great one

that's underused. The Punisher, Rhino, like,

he's got quite a few. Yes, he is. I completely

drift off that. Anyway, but we didn't mention

Dark Owl. But anywho. No, it's... Oh yeah, I

kind of say it's a... Green Goblin and Doc Ops,

which is awesome, but which of those two would

you style them into? They both have elements,

yeah. Right, because Doc Ops, you just have to

look up, you just have to look up a lot of options.

It reminds me of something like Superior. Anywho,

this is all why I think this works really well

here. And yeah, I like Noir, or Spider -Man Noir

anyway. He is one of the Noir universes that

I don't mind seeing more of. Absolutely. I love

Noir. Moving on to issue number two, and this

is Spider -Woman, because they are actually called

Spider -Girls. And uh, she's in the Mary James

fan. Yeah, that's fair the Well, I mean the plot

of this is she's being hunted by Captain Stacey

Who is of course her father? in this version

Peter dies becoming the wizard in an attempt

to emulate Gwen and be a hero And yeah, Daredevil

hires, of all people by the way, Matt Murdoch.

He appears in a couple of these. And it's just

kind of, they were guest appearances I didn't

expect, but still kind of work. I'm not sure

it works in this one, in that he's looking to

get rid of, I guess Daredevil's evil in this

universe, I don't know. Because I mean, yeah,

because he's looking to get rid of Captain Stacy

to allow her to be a hero. He thinks he's helping,

but it just seems weird for Matt. Anywho. Whatever.

And in the ensuing melee, she reveals herself

to him and sort of that's when they get into

the origin. So she's believed to be the one that

killed Peter in this. No. theater was just trying

to be her. And I agree. So if you've seen the

film as well, which does a great job of making

you understand why Spider -Gwen would kind of

become her own character and kind of be somewhat

of a phenomenon, really, because I mean, she

caught on. And it's interesting to me that we've

had multiple Spider -Men catch on. I think that's

good, though. Oh yeah, it is. Especially with

art things, because all of us really know in

let's say the 16th and 16th universes that, oh,

in some cases you get killed, and it's art's

fault, or whatever kind of thing. So, having

her in a different universe and having her take

the mantle of the universe. Yeah, so a couple

of things too I want to mention. I love the art

in this. Robbie Rodriguez's work really helps

make this feel different and make her... Make

it kind of come alive like it matches the personality

and everything from the funk band to How she's

drawn moving and the action sequences it really

sells it and helps a lot and To I just want the

character it's interesting and it's I mentioned

this earlier that each of these is Peter Parker

and Peters Extended cast in different ways that

we haven't necessarily seen them before and holy

crap does this one work well because like you

said i didn't get to do a lot really she was

kind of a classmate and then that that's about

it really and she i'm not trying to say she wasn't

interesting or anything like that it's just That's

basically what she's all she was known for is

she's the one you know Peter tried to save and

she died and then her kids came in a nightmarishly

bad storyline and Like all comic book characters

would have run for a long time there's some real

bad spider -man stories Anywho, this was not

one of them though. I like Gwen in this. I am

glad this universe became its own for a little

while too before she got, you know, merged into

the 616. Because it was just, I thought the whole

thing was kind of interesting. Like, I mentioned

before that Matt, this version of Matt Murdock,

definitely not my favorite, but I really like

the idea of Captain Stacy essentially hunting

his daughter. That's so interesting. This might

have been the most fun out of the batch, too.

Yeah, I think it was. Issue 3 is Aaron Peacock.

No. I mean, maybe, actually. I don't know. So,

this is where I'm not disgusted with this, This

one was the most kind of in -depth individual

story, even though it takes place over one issue.

And yeah, I liked it. So there's a bunch of homage.

art kind of in the original first few panels

which I like the artist's actual work more than

just trying to pay homage to John Romita and

the like because it's tough to do when you're

trying to I don't want to say copy because you're

not trying to copy it but I mean he's trying

to be similar to someone else's art it's going

to be tough whatever you're you know an actual

really great artist on your own And you try to

emulate somebody who's as iconic as Ramita or

somebody else. Anywho, as for the story, yeah,

this one was out there. It's very different.

This is one of the ones that doesn't feature

really any of our familiar Spider -Man cast.

Tony Stark's spider -man kind of Well, yeah,

not the same way like so he's a lot more empathetic

especially with who is I Don't want to call her

a villain Because she's not I mean there the

people get possessed by Everyone but and essentially

so the story is spider -man trying to stop somebody

and along the way is girlfriend, assistants,

whatever you want to call her. Another doctor

gets intertwined in this. Her daughter has been

not mortally wounded, but she's essentially comatose

and never going to move again. And then we sort

of enter the villain who is able to help, but

does so by possessing the... people, and that

that. I had to simplify this like big time because

there's an awful lot of dialogue and I think

it works really well in the context of this trade

though because it's so different from the others.

Right, yeah, absolutely it is. It's an interesting

story. It's just like you kind of need a little

bit more preamble to it I think. Usually that's

my bit. I was gonna say, usually that's your

bit. Yeah, usually it's the breaking bad thing

and somebody texts me. That's a good point. I

should probably turn that off. Dang you. I enjoyed

it. I'm a little more cool on it than the others

just because I think these one shots work a little

better when they're able to kind of tell a...

I don't know what to call it. It's still encapsulated

really well. It's still a good single issue story.

I would say it's... I don't know. I'm kind of

liking it to an almost... It's Spider -Man Mythos.

It's a brand new Spider -Man mythos to those

that haven't read it. To those that don't know

the characters, this could be an interesting

introduction to this Spider -Man's universe.

You don't need to know if there's a Peter Parker

or if there's a Gwen Stacy or if there's a Mary

Jane Watson. There's a... Eddie Brock, or whatever.

This dude, Aaron, has his own stuff going on.

I dunno. And then, things turn down. Nightmares

feel lame because, edge of Spider -Verse, I walk

with a spider. I have no idea why this story

was made. Mean I know why it's still in so this

is one of the few appearances of Marlon himself

so in terms of I Don't want to be showing the

threat because Patton is not the most fearsome

spider -man in this But so anyway, this tells

the story of what if spider -man was a fucking

sociopath I could have done without a lot of

this. So you mentioned the nightmare fuel. Let's

get into... The overall thing is just meant to

be disturbing. I'm not a fan of this because

a lot of it seems like being dark for the sake

of being dark. So A, Patton just randomly torches

animals in general anyway because Uncle Ted mentions

it at one point. B, Uncle Ted is a merciless

abuser and kind of the piece of shit. C, Patton's

a jackal, creepy guy anyway. And D, it all gets

way worse when he's bitten by a spider on a field

trip with Sarah Jane and turns into sort of a

spider thing. This is like... what if 94 Spider

-Man stayed with Man -Spider? Or what if the

JMS version where he briefly became a spider

-man spider before going into a cocoon, etc.

Etc Was a psycho There, like, it's very, like,

this is something, like, I would see on some

of the True Facts shows that I would watch. Obviously

not the spider monster part, but just the fact

that he is, that he is a monster, but still the

spider even wants him, kind of thing. And there's

a line in here about, hmm, good is boring. Something

about being the good guy is the boring part of

something. I'm like, oh my god, who is this dude?

What is this dude I met? Yeah, I just I don't

know what to say The final issue Well, let me

close it out. I just I wasn't a huge fan of it.

It's a lot of it I understand and I can enjoy

the kind of horror comics or creepy comics but

gonna do this i'm not sure emulating peter parker's

story i know it's not the same one etc etc but

it's not this i don't feel like it works and

there's some contexts that maybe spider -man

you know doesn't work in yeah another big fan

anyway issue number five Sure, it's the thing

with these anthologies, right? There's only so

much to kind of get into with each one. Yeah,

with the exception of ones that get killed. Thankfully.

Weird Morelands is a hero in one of them. Anywho,

the final one that should be noted, so Jared

Way, as would think most people know, is one

of the... members of My Chemical Romance and

so this tells the story of Penny Parker who takes

up the mantle of spy slash slash laughter I don't

know how to say I'm not cool Penny who takes

up the mantle of the spider man spider robot

thing machine And yeah get strange briefly by

this universe is Matt Murdock again, so there's

Daredevil This one's a lot closer to Matt. But

anyway This is completely different from the

other so I mentioned it before a B we get more

of the other spider -men In this one really than

the others, but I'm just talking about the early

stuff. So In a lot of ways, this is kind of a

young... With the suit, it's more of an Iron

Man sort of feeling of a hero. But she's still

very young, still kind of finding her way. And

I really like this version. So the Mysterio was

really neat. The Mysterio is just sort of a deranged

fan of Spider. and the way the technology works

and the way... Yeah, I brought it up before because

Jared Wei is a musician and the way music, despite

this being a comet, gets kind of incorporated

and you kind of feel it in certain sequences

is really neat. I love that. She is Yeah, this

is really Enjoyed this one. This one's just kind

of fun. It gives us the most insight that this

is the closest to an actual Prequel story about

it because we get an actual explanation of what's

going on that all of the different spider verse

characters all the different spider -men spider

-women spider -girls spider -boys spider -ham

are being hunted and killed so yeah this is the

only one that actually serves up an explanation

really there's hints at it in the noir when superior

spider -man is speaking, but this one just lays

it all out. And it works well, and this is another

one that it's not necessarily Peter or his or

our usual cast, but still works. Penny, it's

fun. She was a welcome and extremely surprising

addition to the film and she's a welcome and

surprising addition to the comic book Watch the

movie. You should also watch the movie even though

it has nothing to do with it Oh, wasn't sure.

Yes, I've seen the movie, I know. Alright, why

are we? Um, but no, very, very cool. Uh, a set

of people is spider -teed. Um, four out of five

of these people are spider -teed. That's such,

I'll give it a four out of five overall, but

yeah, same feeling that... Four of them work

really well and are fun stories and I think especially

if you're a... Big fan of Spider -Man, you get

a kick out of the references to a different universe

than the other ones, but even if you're not,

it's pretty easy to understand. Most of these

characters are so iconic that it's not like you

need an introduction to them to know they exist.

It's a weird inclusion because despite the fact

despite the fact that each of these varies pretty

widely from each other in a variety of different

ways and Feelings that sort of thing. It doesn't

mesh at all with the others But the others have

elements of darkness or that sort of thing to

them but don't just go completely in that direction

and it overall feels weird and it makes it more

jarring and really makes it feel kind of out

of place. Hi, I'm Terry Smith, the host of Music

Talks, the podcast where I ask guests a simple

but beguiling question. Choose a song from each

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search on Music Talks, Terry Smith. If you'd

like to be a guest on the show and talk to me...

Then send me a tweet at MusicTalksPod. I look

forward to doing some music talking soon. So,

spoilers ahead folks. Anything else you want

to bring up? Anything else you want to say? Nah,

maybe, I don't know, we'll talk about it. Maybe

during your gap I'll uh... I can fill in, do

some solo shows, or maybe I can, maybe I'll argue

with Sarah about... comics. We'll see, anyway.

I am at TSC Mike on Twitter. You can also find

me at the podcast video and I can pull back on

Twitter as always. Um, where can people find

you on Twitter and other places? Only on Twitter.

At Nightbeat. No. Make your grace in the comics.

Have a happy holiday, folks. Happy Thanksgiving.

Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah. I want to thank

everybody. that has listened to serious epimonica

even though we are coming back. So I think we're

going to close out with Spidertop. You're not

going to make me sing the Spider -Man theme,

are you? Take it away! No. Come on! No. I triple

dog dare you! No. Spider -Big. Spider -Big. Does

whatever a Spider -Big does. You've just heard

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