Dan Slott and Mark Bagley’s Spider-Man kicked things off with an epic Spider-Verse story, and now it’s slowing things down to look at Peter Parker’s powers. Oh, and he has a long-lost sidekick bouncing around too. In Spider-Man #8, Electro enters the story, and Peter messes with his powers. You know it’s all going to go sideways very quickly. This is Peter Parker, after all!
And it does go badly for Spider-Man, which is kind of the angle Slott and Spidey’s sidekick Spider-Boy are looking at things when Spider-Man gets an idea to mess with his abilities. Before that, this issue opens with Spider-Man saving lives in a burning building.
Slott and Bagley show us the tried and true hero we know and love who pushes himself beyond his limits to save every life he can. The classic vibe of those who protect and serve and appreciate what Spider-Man does are present in this story, which is a nice feeling that’s deserved for the character.
The desire to save everyone spurs the new plot in this second story arc involving Spider-Man’s spider-sense. Since Spider-Man is now friends with Norman Osborn, they assume they could use their super brains to figure out how to amp up the spider-sense. It’s certainly one of Spider-Man’s weirder, more unexplained powers. Of course, both should be wary since this could hurt Peter or go bad quickly.
That dog is going absolutely mental.
Credit: Marvel
That’s where Spider-Boy comes in, who remains a mystery for the most part. He gets a couple of moments to reflect on Spider-Man’s actions, as they are somehow connected. The amped-up spider-sense, or even Spider-Man’s rushing in to save everyone and the urge to do so, are somehow understood by Spider-Boy, who isn’t even near him. This creates a new question that needs answering regarding this new mysterious hero, but that’s for another day.
Slott packs a lot into this issue, nearly all of which is interesting and enjoyable. From the montage scenes to the nightmare, there’s much to chew on and plenty to connect you to Peter’s experience. The only thing that didn’t quite work was the group of spiders from another dimension with a connected spider-sense. There’s a moment where Peter shows Norman if one reacts, they all react, but it’s not depicted very well. Likely they have some connection to Peter’s amped-up powers and a solution to the new problem introduced in this issue, but they feel tact and unnecessary to the experiment at this stage.
Bagley’s art brings back fond memories of his iconic runs on the character. Sure, a panel of Spider-Man tearing his suit in half looks very familiar, but that’s part of Bagley’s charm. The opening pages might stand out the most. Seeing Spider-Man holding multiple people–and even a puppy at one point–is profoundly moving, and Bagley nails the delivery. He also gets to montage Spider-Man saving people with the heightened spider-sense, each a creative new threat being thwarted to save regular folks. Props to Slott and Bagley for the gag save too.
Spider-Man #8 is an intriguing start that works well thanks to the excellent writing of Peter Parker, who feels like his classic self here. Throw in the mystery of Spider-Boy, Spider-Man’s new enhanced power, and a return of a classic villain, and you have a recipe for another iconic Spider-Man story from Dan Slott and Mark Bagley.
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