This article contains Edge of Spider-Verse #2 spoilers.
Marvel Comics squandered their most significant multiverse disclosure. Multiverses may be trendy right now, but Marvel Comics has been using the notion for decades. The finest multiverse tales allow you to ponder the question “What If…?” – to picture universes where heroes were beaten instead of triumphing, planets were broken, or entire new champions created. Sometimes these “What If…?” tales help to establish concepts that will ultimately make their way into the regular comic book narrative, and maybe even into the movies themselves. In the comics, Jane Foster initially appeared as Thor.
Edge of Spider-Verse #2 features “A Single Thread,” a short narrative by Dan Slott and Paco Medina that has just been used to change the history and nature of the entire Marvel world. The universe started untold billions of years ago, long after the ancient Elder Gods were expelled, according to Edge of Spider-Verse #2. Gaea and Oshtur started producing new gods and demigods, and they entrusted the construction of the universe to the early spider-goddess Neith. She fashioned the Web of Life and Destiny, which is centered on Earth-001. Finally, the Spider-hidden Verse’s genesis has been exposed.
Marvel has just rewritten the structure of the whole multiverse.
It’s odd, though, that Marvel practically squandered such a big disclosure. The real nature of the universe is introduced in what seems to be a tangent or side-story to the main event, rather than in a large ” event ” issue with a great amount of hype behind it. This choice is even more astounding considering the importance of multiverses in popular culture, and Marvel Comics’ own multiverse is now serving as inspiration for the MCU’s. Spider-Man: No Way Home, like the comics, has established spider-characters as prominent players in the universe.
To be fair to Marvel, Edge of Spider-Verse #2 does have some backstory. The first Edge of Spider-Verse miniseries debuted with the original Spider-Verse storyline in 2014, and its second issue featured the famous Spider-Gwen. Marvel may have decided to make the second issue of this new Edge of Spider-Verse miniseries seem just as important – but if so, the comic book publisher could have pushed it more aggressively.
It’s enthralling to discover the real genesis and nature of the MCU’s cosmos. The important issue is whether it will survive much longer; this tie-in is tied with the End of the Spider-Verse event, implying that the multiverse’s laws are going to be altered. Marvel’s universe has been defined, but it may not last.