Spider-Woman (vol. 5) #1
Spider-Verse continues from Scarlet Spiders #1…
Fleeing the Inheritors across the multiverse, Spider-Woman and Spider-Man Noir have been charged with keeping Silk — an important spider-totem known as the Bride — safe.[1] They find themselves riding lizards across a purple desert after leaving a version of Manhattan that was carved out of gold. Both Silk and Spider-Man Noir find this experience breathtaking, however, Spider-Woman is untouched by all of this after her experiences as a superhero.[2] As they pull into a small settlement, Spider-Woman offers to come back and enjoy this strange world when it’s all over, for now she wants to focus on them getting through this alive.
Spider-Woman tells Silk and Spider-Man to keep a low profile while she hunts up some clothes they can wear to blend in. However, when Spider-Woman is gone, the pair spot a couple of youths on hover devices hassling a woman trying to get by with her groceries. Silk suggests they not get involved until the old woman throws an egg in the face of one of the young men. Angered, he summons cybernetic armor and is about to attack the old woman until Silk intervenes.
When Spider-Woman sees that there is a fight going on, she drops what she is doing and rushes to stop Silk and Spider-Man before they attract too much attention. Unfortunately, her attempt to break things up comes too late as Silk’s spider-sense begins going haywire. Moments later, the Inheritor twins known as Brix and Bora arrive through a dimensional portal. Seeing Silk in their path, Spider-Man Noir dives between them with guns blazing. Unfortunately, his bullets harmlessly bounce off Brix who then slams Spider-Man into the ground. Afraid for her friend’s life, Silk pulls Spider-Man to safety. That’s when Spider-Woman arrives and crashes a hoverbike into the pair. With Spider-Man Noir injured, Spider-Woman decides their best course of action is to retreat and teleports them away to another dimension.
They return to Spider-Man Noir’s home dimension of Earth-90214 where they take him to the Black Cat’s Speak Easy. There, the White Widdow treats Spider-Man’s wounds. Despite this, Spider-Woman questions why they came here because this era doesn’t have any super-science, but Silk insisted on bringing Peter back home to his friends and family. Spider-Woman also insists that they keep moving and leave Peter behind, pointing out that his injuries are the cost of keeping Silk alive, no matter the cost. This makes Silk upset, and Jessica tries to remind cheer her up. That’s when they hear a crash from upstairs. Fearing that this might be the Inheritors, Spider-Woman, Silk, and the White Widow rush upstairs to face the threat.
As it turns out, it is actually the Spider-Man and Spider-Girl of Earth-616, who have arrived with the Spider-Woman of Earth-65 to check on how things are going. Spider-Man has come to pull Spider-Woman for a secret mission, leaving Anya and Gwen to look after Silk. Jessica can’t believe this because of all the trouble that Silk has gotten into. However, Peter insists that this is important because the war against the Inheritors is not going very well for them. Spider-Woman resigns to this but first gives Anya and Gwen a pep-talk. She reminds them how important this mission is and that they need to keep moving and, while under normal circumstances she would absolutely love Silk, she warns them that if they don’t keep focused she will get them killed. Silk overhears this from inside the speakeasy and is deeply upset by the words. With that, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman teleport off to start her secret mission.
When Spider-Girl and Spider-Gwen go into the speakeasy to get Silk, they are told by the White Widow that she took off. Silk has taken one of the dimensional jump devices to it on her own. She arrives on Earth-981, a world where New York is a frozen wasteland. She figures she can handle things on her own when suddenly her spider-sense starts going off and she starts getting chased by a monstrous creature. Quickly, she web-slings away and figures she’s got it in the situation under control. Unfortunately, she doesn’t realize that Brix and Bora are watching and waiting for the right time to strike.
… Spider-Verse continues in Spider-Man 2099 (vol. 2) #6.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Woman, Silk, Spider-Man, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Girl, Spider-Gwen, White Widow, Inheritors (Brix, Bora)
Continuity Notes
It is mentioned here that Silk was previously locked away in a bunker. This was after she was bit by the same spider that turned Peter Parker into Spider-Man. She was only just recently freed from her prison. See Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 3) #1, 4 and 5.
Spider-Woman contrasts her life by recounting how she was busy fighting Super-Skrulls and fighting in space wars. This is a reference to how Jessica was briefly an agent of SWORD to hunt down left over Skrulls on Earth after their failed invasion of Earth. See Secret Invasion #1-8 and Spider-Woman (vol. 4) #1-7.
Topical References
Spider-Woman refers to Silk as living in a “Y2K” bunker. This was a reference to the Y2K hysteria of the late 90s when people absurdly thought that computers being unable to display the year 2000 was going to lead to the utter collapse of society. From the perspective of this story, Silk was imprisoned for 13 years which, based on the year of publication would place Silk as being imprisoned at the turn of the century. This, however, is a topical reference for obvious reasons.
Real-world products: Twinkies
