Strange Spiders

Spider-Man’s soul has been captured by the Arachnix, a group of soul-eaters from a mystical dimension. Their leader, King Korozon orders Daddy-Long-Legs to hang him under the web so the abyss can witness his dismemberment. However, their resident mystic, the Shaman, warns against consuming a fellow spider. The Shaman draws a tarot card the Eight of Legs. Korozon then changes his mind and orders Longlegs to take him to the Insect Gate instead. There Spider-Man will be expected to capture the Sorrow-Fly and if he fails then they will consume him.

Given a wrap to protect him against the winds and a spear to hunt, Spider-Man is sent out into the Insect Gate, a massive killing field for insects. As Spider-Man walks this strange domain he can hear the faint voice of a woman on the wind.

Back on Earth, Doctor Strange scans the Liber Infinitas to try and find out what happened to Spider-Man. He determines that the web-slinger is in some kind of toxic shock caused by a sorcerer’s fever. The only way to save Spider-Man’s life will allow him to give him mystical aid. With the Eye of Agamotto, he opens a portal to the Webwaze to reach the Arachnix’s realm. Along the way, he comes upon a pair of humanoid dogs named Fetch Doggy Fetch and Pugly. They both are in mourning over their beloved M’Matrixx who was eaten by the spiders. They also saw the Arachnix take his friend and invites Strange back to their home so they can educate him on the spider-demons.

At their home, Doggy informs Strange that the Webwaze is not a sorcerer’s tract like he believes but a magical yarn spun by the Arachnix themselves. After imparting this information, Doggy then asks Strange to toss his magic wand so that he and Pugly can fetch it. After doing so, Strange continues on his quest, scanning the Webwaze with the Eye of Agamotto as he goes.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man continues his trek across the Insect Gate, guided a talking spider on his face. It leads him to a massive termite mound, the origin of the woman’s voice. The spider translates what the voice is saying. It demands to know he is, her demands begin painfully flooding the web-slinger’s mind. He is forced to relive the moment where he was bitten by the radioactive spider that gave him his powers.[1] He is then visited by another spider that claims to be the one that bit him and that Spider-Man’s powers were not given through the radiation, but through magic.[2] He is then haunted by the death of his Uncle Ben and is told how his inaction led to this tragedy. How his Aunt May kissed Ben after he was shot and how she washed his blood off her in the kitchen sink. How his blood went down the drain into the Insect Earth.

He collapses to the ground, feeling hollow inside after reliving this. The spider tells him that he has spent his life catching the flies that murdered his uncle and now he must catch and kill the Sorrow-Fly. Getting to his feet, Spider-Man is suddenly surrounded by a horde of insects.

At that same moment, Doctor Strange continues to travel the Webwaze and comes across a woman named Ms. Ningirrl who is caught in one of the Arachnix’s spare-snare and casts a spell to free her. The woman, an Australian aborigine, explains that she was on a walkabout in her Gadachi Shoes. She had been trying to evade the Arachnix when she got trapped. She talks about the death of M’Matrixx and how the spider-demons annihilated a woodlice colony. Wishing to help the Sorcerer Supreme, Ningirrl casts a spell that summons a bird-shaped boat that will take him directly to Spider-Man. Strange is surprised when the spell passes him through the Driddil’s Doorway and thinks that Ningirrl might make a good apprentice. He is taken through remote mystical dimensions governed by Illogickal-Magickal system. He witnesses amazing sights such as the emergence of a Falteen Heretic from a Foolpool. He encounters a Shoal of sentient match sticks and sails through a storm of pure chaotic energy. As he approaches the abyss he can feel the sudden change in temperature in this land of frozen hearts and loss and emptiness.

Back in the Insect Dimension, Spider-Man finds that the insects surrounding him are actually afraid of him and asks him to stay away. That’s when he hears a human voice and seeks it out. Over the ridge, he finally spots the Sorrow-Fly. The former human curses his teacher, the necromancer Albion Crawley for dooming him to this fate. Spider-Man grabs him and the Sorrow-Fly realizes that he is doomed to death. Although Spider-Man’s spider-sense is going crazy he hesitates in killing the Sorrow-Fly, much to the creature’s confusion. That’s when the Sorrow-Fly recognizes Spider-Man for what he is. He recalls how the spider that later bit Peter Parker gave it her last egg and the Sorrow-Fly took it to Driddil for safekeeping. Now the spider from the science lab is back, living through Peter Parker to reclaim its long lost egg.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Arachnix (King Korozon, Daddy-Long-Legs, Shaman), Fetch Doggie Fetch, Puggie, Sorrow-Fly

Continuity Notes

1. Amazing Fantasy #15.

2. This idea has been floated before by Ezekiel Sims in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #30-35. Later, Spider-Man would learn that he among many others across the multiverse were endowed with spider-powers by proxy from the Master Weaver. See Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 3) #9-15.