Bug Wars might have been the standout comic of 2025 – Jason Aaron and Mahmud Asrar crafted a world that was equal parts violent and compelling. Asrar drew bodies bursting open like ripe balloons, limbs were torn off, and brains hung out of caved-in skulls, while Aaron crafted a tale packing enough scope to rival any epic fantasy and remind readers why they were scared of bugs. Yet it only felt like Bug Wars was scratching the surface of something bigger; it was even labeled “Book One”. Bug Wars: The Spyder Wytch Special #1 finally starts peeling back those layers.
True to its name, The Spyder Wytch Special #1 features a trio of tales that dig deep into the mysterious Spyder Wytches and their role in the insect hierarchy. “Lair of the Fire Spiders” by Aaron and Baldemar Rivas turns its attention to Wysta, the Spyder Wytch who accompanied Slade Slaymaker on his quest through the Yard. Though she was excommunicated from the Wrydweb, Wysta is called upon to investigate a mysterious lack of communication from their agents. She soon encounters the Wydow, another exile, whose baby spiders bring a new level of horror to the world of Bug Wars.
The reason the story is titled “Lair of the Fire Spiders” is due to the fact that those babies’ webs actually burn like fire, sizzling the flesh of whatever it touches or setting the Yard ablaze. Rivas proves he has the same penchant for drawing horrifically compelling imagery that Asrar does, whether it’s mites screaming in agony as they’re wrapped in the burning webs or Wysta’s sword cutting through flesh and bone. On Aaron’s side, readers will witness a story that fully explains why Wysta was exiled, not to mention the fact that she shares a few things in common with the Wydow. It’s this gift for character work that makes Aaron such a prolific writer, especially as he explores how belief can be used to manipulate people, and what it means to break free of those beliefs.
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Asrar gets his chance to add to the Bug Wars mythos with the remaining stories, “The Long Way Back” and “The Webs of Fate”. With “The Long Way Back”, Asrar takes on the role of writer and showcases the dogma that drives Wrydweb, as well as how Wysta started to grow disillusioned with the path she was following. It’s also beautifully illustrated by David Messina. Messina brings the same sleek, eye-catching style that defined his work on Ultimate Spider-Man to Bug Wars, though he’s drawing a different kind of spider with Wysta. Her multiple eyes and pale white skin are the only hints that she isn’t human.
In “The Webs of Fate”, Asrar reunites with Aaron, Matthew Wilson (who also works on “The Lair of the Fire Spiders”), and Becca Carey (who letters the entire book) to deliver a prequel of sorts to Bug Wars: Book One. It turns out that the Spyder Wytches actually tried to kill Slade in his sleep, before their mistress Xyreena had a vision of his future. Not only does this story feel like the perfect teaser for Bug Wars: Book Two, thanks to a page that’s filled with foreshadowing, but it’s also the purest Bug Wars story in look and feel. Asrar once again draws massive action at miniature size, pitting the Spyder Wytches against the flying Roach Knights, while Wilson’s vibrant colors highlight the blood being spilled and Carey’s letters highlight the size difference.
The Spyder Wytch Special #1 also contains the backmatter that made Bug Wars such a compelling read. Chief among said backmatter is a short story titled “Lost in the Weeds”, centered on an encounter Slade’s father James – or “The Jim”, as the Yard’s denizens refer to him – had with a Spyder Wytch. Aaron proves just as prolific in prose as in comic book scripting, and his words give “Lost in the Weeds” the feeling of a pulp paperback you’d stumble upon in a bookstore.
Bug Wars: The Spyder Wytch Special #1 is chock full of all the gore and lore that powered the original series, yet it also lays the tracks for more adventures in this world. If you missed out on the first Bug Wars, you owe it to yourself to pick up this book.
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