After the excellent start to a new story arc in Spider-Man & Wolverine #7, the next issue out today equally raises the stakes while also slowing things down. The story sees Spider-Man and Wolverine stuck in an alternate dimension where the two heroes have combined into a highly deadly and very angry villain. With piles of Spider-Men and Wolverines from alternate dimensions at its feet, do the 616 Spider-Man and Wolverine have any chance at all? That’s what they aim to figure out!
There’s a lot to like in Spider-Man & Wolverine #8, even if it slows things way down with multiple exposition scenes. Not only do we get more info on Reed Richard and the enemy he made in Peter Logan by falling in love with Mariko Yashida, but also why he zapped our 616 heroes to his universe. That helps give context to the multiverse shenanigans, so it’s not so random.
After a brief flashback to Reed’s courting of Mariko, the issue dives back into a dangerous battle with Arachnix, aka Peter Logan. Kaare Andrews brings his kinetic and highly dynamic art to this scene, delivering a believable fight where Spider-Man and Wolverine could actually lose. Before long, they’re licking their wounds and asking Reed tough questions, but a plan comes together.
Maybe it was his name, Peter Logan, that really turned him evil?
Credit: Marvel
That plan takes a bit to get going, in part because Wolverine loses his temper and storms off. In a two-page scene, Peter and Logan connect on a rooftop, and while it’s nice to see them bond a bit, it also feels overly long and verbose. Marc Guggenheim gets at Peter’s inner guilt that drives him, which is a nice touch, but it still slows the issue down to a crawl.
This leads to the multiversefal fun amped up to eleven. You thought Arachnix was fun, but have you pondered what a Hulk/Ultron mashup would look like? There’s even more than that, which I won’t spoil, but it’s super fun in a classic ’90s comics feel. Andrews keeps the designs simple, with their captioned names and details making for a fun reveal near the end of the issue. Throw in a cliffhanger that seems impossible to win, and our heroes are in a world of hurt going forward.
Spider-Man & Wolverine #8 smartly balances lore expansion with escalating insanity, even if the narrative briefly bogs down in its emotional pit stop. Once the multiverse chaos kicks back into gear, the issue roars with wild ’90s-style imagination, outrageous villain mashups, and a cliffhanger that makes the coming fallout feel inevitable and catastrophic.
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