The reality-rippling event Dan Slott's been building up to apparently since he began writing the Spider-Man books has been a bit of a damp squib. The Spider books have gone downhill a little ever since the Superior storyline ended (where Doctor Octopus took over the webhead's body for a while), with Spider-Verse Spider-Men from different realities teaming up to fight a multidimensional enemy not really sticking the landing of all that anticipation. Where the good stuff has been is on the peripheries. As with any major comic book events there are umpteen spin-offs and tie-ins, which are often where the interesting ideas happen, unchecked. The Edge Of Spider-Verse series focusses on a different alternate reality Spider-Man each issue, and so far each one has been a treat. There have been cyborg Spider-Men, the return of Spider-Man Noir, but the two stand-outs have to be Spyder a Japanese-style giant robot story written by My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way and Spider-Woman, which starred doomed girlfriend Gwen Stacy as the one who got bitten by a radioactive spider and has since been promised a proper series in the new year.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
