The Dead Web

Spider-Man’s soul has been transported to the Insect Dimension by the soul-eating Arachnix. Sensing that he is a spider-like them, they sent him out to kill the Sorrow-Fly. The Sorrow-Fly a former mystics apprentice has sensed that the spider that bit Peter Parker was the one that entrusted its last egg into his care before it died. He warns Spider-Man that the Arachnix have hollowed out the abyss they all live in and their hunger will consume them all.

Back in the domain of the Arachnix, King Korozon has grown tired of feasting on toffee fleas and asks Daddy-Long-Legs to tell him of the human world that he recently visited. Long-Legs tells him that it full of souls ripened with terror just waiting to be eaten. That’s when another Arachnix named Funnel Web spots a shooting star and warns that it will bring about their destruction.

This “shooting star” is actually Doctor Strange, who has been traveling the Webwaze searching for Spider-Man’s soul. He sees the massive web aboard the Arachnix’s abode which has caught all those seeking to learn their secrets. He scans the area with the Eye of Agamotto but cannot detect any trace of Spider-Man below and hopes he is not too late. That’s when the magic wand he threw for the humanoid dogs named Doggy and Pugly streaks by his line of sight. Believing it is following the same path he has, Doctor Strange decides to follow it.

Meanwhile, the Sorrow-Fly has brought Spider-Man to an entity he calls the Mother. He tells how she mated with King Korozon. However, instead of devouring the king — as is tradition - he attacked her and she fled here to the Insect Dimension. Here she was attacked by wasps but remained alive just long enough to give birth to her eggs in among the towers of this massive termite mound. All of the eggs but one were then devoured by scorpions. The Sorrow-Fly was able to recover the last egg and hand it to Driddil who took it to the human world where it hatched. This last spider has lived on ever since it bit Peter Parker. Now it rest upon his head and grown in size. It tells Spider-Man that it cannot return home as it must stay so they can rule over the insect dimension with the Arachnix. That’s when Doggie’s magic wand comes flying in and kills the spider by impaling itself into the arachnid’s head.

The sudden death causes the termite mound to collapse on both Spider-Man and the Sorrow Fly. However, they are freed by Doggie and Pugly who have arrived to retrieve their magic wand. With the spider dead, the man is now in peril due to the astral poisons running through his soul. Luckily, Doctor Strange arrives and he and the Sorrow-Fly work together to cast a spell to cure Spider-Man. The same spell is able to restore the Sorrow-Fly’s humanity changing him back into Victor Neumenon while also creating a construct of the Sorrow-Fly to give to the Arachnix. When Spider-Man hands over the fake Sorrow-Fly King Korozon and his followers eat it greedily. Suddenly, they become stricken by the poisons inside the phony Sorrow-Fly. As they reel in agony by the poisons, Spider-Man tries to race back to the Insect Dimension as an army of beetles, under Victor’s command, cuts the Arachnix’s web.

Unfortunately, Spider-Man is grabbed by King Korozon, but he manages to fight free, punching a hole into the massive spider. He is shocked to discover that Krozon is hollow inside and filled with millions of smaller spiders. As Korozon falls into the abyss, Spider-Man lands on a strand of webbing. There he is ambushed by Daddy-Long-Legs who tries to consume his soul. Luckily, Spider-Man is saved by Ms. Ningirril who knocks Long-Legs into the abyss with her boomerang. With the battle over, both Spider-Man and Ningirril are brought back to the Insect Dimension by Doctor Strange. There, both Victor and Ningirril agree to return home with Doggy and Puggly and teleport away.

Doctor Strange then tries to explain the Webwaze and the abyss to Spider-Man but these are concepts that are far too complex for the web-slinger to understand. Instead, Strange decides to erase Spider-Man’s memory of his time here before returning them back to Earth. Spider-Man wakes up in Doctor Strange’s bathtub remembering nothing after his battle with the Vulture. Strange assures him he was suffering from toxic shock and nothing else but now he is safe. He then sees Spider-Man out the front door. On his way out, Spider-Man pauses long enough to remark how Spider-Man makes the same hand gesture to fire his web-shooters as Doctor Strange does to cast spells and finds it kind of strange. Doctor Strange, agrees that it is strange.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Arachnix (King Korozon, Daddy-Long-Legs) Sorrow-Fly, Fetch Doggy Fetch, Pugly

Continuity Notes