Edge of Spider-Verse #1
Spider-Man: Noir
Edge of Spider-Verse continues from Superior Spider-Man #32…
New York City, 1939[1]
The illusionist known as Mysterio has come to the theater with his assistant Ella to watch a newsreel about the Spider-Man. It details how Spider-Man fought crime during Prohibition but has disappeared from the public eye.[2] The reel ends by asking the question: With Prohibition abolished, is there still a place in the world for the Spider-Man? Exiting the theater, Mysterio realizes that he has to do something to draw out the Spider-Man but doesn’t know what. He becomes annoyed when a father and son opt not to see Mysterio’s magic show in favor of Frank Buck’s Jungleland which features 1000 monkeys.
Meanwhile, Peter Parker is enjoying the New York World’s Fair with his Aunt May and Mary Jane Watson. As they decide which show to see next, Peter can’t help but think about how Mary Jane has changed since coming back from her three-year tour with the Abraham Lincoln International Brigade. However, whatever happened to her during that period she doesn’t like to talk about it. Mary Jane suggests they see Mysterio’s magic show. Peter tries to enjoy it but his spider-sense has been throbbing in his head for weeks, making him miserable. They witness Mysterio perform an escape artist’s trick called the Sphere of Death. He is lowered into a tank of water chained up and bound in a straitjacket and must get out in two minutes in which time the water will become electrified. Before a stunned audience, Mysterio manages to escape in the moment that Ella throws the switch.
After the show, Peter, May, and Mary Jane try to figure out how Mysterio pulled off his magic trick. Although Peter noted that Mysterio was completely dry when he reappeared, he still can’t figure out how he did it. While backstage, Ella complains about all of the things they discovered in the Amazon rainforest is being wasted on rubes and suggests they use their new skills to take the Kingpin’s place. Mysterio rejects this idea, saying that he wants to work with Wilson Fisk for now until he manages to steal Spider-Man’s blood and gains the power to overthrow him. That’s when Fisk himself enters the room and says he found someone Mysterio is going to want to speak with. This person is the Ox, the last surviving member of the Goblin’s gang.
They beat the information they want out of him and learn how the Goblin had smuggled a statue into the country in 1933. The Ox recalls how a swarm of spiders came out of the statue and killed his friend, Fancy Dan. This was the day before Spider-Man made his first public appearance. The Goblin recovered as many of the spiders as he could and kept them in a glass jar until it was smashed by Spider-Man in a later battle. The Ox isn’t sure where all the spiders went but is sure they are all dead by now. Mysterio then asks Ox to tell him everything he knows about Felicia Hardy.
They soon pay a visit to Hardy and demand that they tell her where they can find the Spider-Man. When they refuse, the Kingpin shoots her butler. They then order Hardy to take off her mask. They are horrified by what they see underneath and she warns them that the person who did this to her face was the last person who came looking for Spider-Man. Mysterio figures that if they take the Hardy woman hostage it will draw Spider-Man to them.
Soon enough there is an advertisement put out in the Daily Bugle for Mysterio’s next show. It calls out Spider-Man to come save the “Cat Lady” by participating in a blood sacrifice to Anansi or the woman will be sacrificed in his place. It’s Mary Jane who finds this and reads the ad to both May and Peter Parker. May and Mary Jane figure its probably some kind of publicity stunt to sell more tickets and doubt the real Spider-Man will be involved. Peter retired to his room, saying he has an essay to finish. In reality, he calls Felicia’s club and confirms that she hasn’t been seen recently. He then changes gets out his Spider-Man costume and equipment for the first time in years.
On August 31st, Mysterio puts on his show and as expected, Spider-Man arrives to save Felicia’s life. Mysterio knocks him out with one of his gasses and, after extracting some of the vigilante’s blood, seals him in a glass coffin that begins to fill with water. Watching from the crowd is the Kingpin and his minions, who wait for Mysterio to drown Spider-Man and claim it was an accident. However, when they close the curtains on Spider-Man, it gives the vigilante the chance to web up a crude oxygen mask over his face. When Mysterio pulls open the curtain, he is shocked to discover that Spider-Man is still alive. The wall-crawler then breaks free of the coffin and quickly knocks out his foe.
However, his spider-sense is still throbbing even after he has untied Felicia. That’s when the entity known as Karn teleports onto the stage, having come to this dimension to consume the life force from its version of Spider-Man. That’s when the Superior Spider-Man teleports in just long enough to snatch this world’s Spider-Man away from Karn. The rogue Inheritor vows that he will track them all down and destroy them and vanishes as well. Thinking that this was all part of the show, the crowd goes wild. Recovering from Spider-Man’s blows, Mysterio looks around frantically for the needle of Spider-Man’s blood, unaware that Felicia Hardy has secretly snatched it up.
Meanwhile, the Superior Spider-Man has taken Spider-Man Noir to the future year of 2099 where he has gathered a small army of other spiders from across the multiverse to stop Karn from wiping them all out.[3]
… Edge of Spider-Verse continues in Superior Spider-Man #33.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man Noir, Kingpin, Karn, May Parker, Mary Jane Watson, White Widow, Ox, Superior Spider-Man, Six-Armed Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Mercenary Spider-Man, Spider-Monkey
Continuity Notes
This story takes place on Reality-90214. It was first indexed in Secret Wars: The Official Guide to the Marvel Multiverse #1.
The film real references the fall of both the Goblin and Crime-Master, two criminal that Spider-Man fought in the past. For more on the past adventures of Spider-Man Noir see Spider-Man Noir #1-4 and Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without a Face #1-4.
Although they are in the year 2099 AD, this is also an alternate reality. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005 classified it as Reality-928.
Historical Facts
Since this series takes place during the 1930s there are a number of historical facts in this story that mirror the real world. They are:
Newsreels: With the advent of the moving pictures were short documentary films that contained the news or covered topical references. The first newsreel was created in 1911 by Charles Pathé. They were a common source of information by the 1930s and they were used until the end of the 1960s when television news rendered them obsolete.
Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was an artist that was just starting to dabble in surrealism that became his trademark in the 1920s and 30s.
The Lincoln Battalion, aka the Abraham Lincoln International Brigade, was a group of American volunteers who fought in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939.
May refers to Albert Einstein’s “cosmic rays”. Einstein (1879-1955) was a brilliant theoretical physicist. In 1905 he made one of his greatest discoveries the Theory of Relativity. It completely changed what we knew about physics and astronomy.
The front page of the newspaper Mary Jane is reading had a headline saying that Europe is on the brink of war. This is foreshadowing World War II, which officially began in September 1939.