From the Back Cover 

When the evil Inheritors begin exterminating spider-characters throughout the Multiverse, every single Spider-Man ever is needed to save the day! An interdimensional Spider-Army gathers to fight Morlun and his deadly family, but none of them is safe as the Prophecy comes to fruition! What will this brutal war for survival mean for Peter Parker and the rest of the spiders? Starring the Superior Spider-Man, the Ultimate Universe's Miles Morales and Jessica Drew, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Woman, Silk, Kaine, Scarlet Spider, MC2's Spider-Girl, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Man 1602, Spider-Ham, Spider-Monkey, Lady Spider, Spider-Punk, Spider-UK, a spider-powered Gwen Stacy...and hundreds more, from the beloved to the obscure!

Collecting:AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (2014) #7-15, SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN #32-33, SPIDER-VERSE #1-2, SPIDER-VERSE TEAM-UP #1-3, SCARLET SPIDERS #1-3, SPIDER-WOMAN (2014) #1-4, SPIDER-MAN 2099 (2014) #6-8 and material from FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2014 (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY) #1

Written by DAN SLOTT, CHRISTOS GAGE, MICHAEL COSTA, DENNIS HOPELESS & PETER DAVID with SKOTTIE YOUNG, ROBBIE THOMPSON, KATIE COOK, KATHRYN IMMONEN, JED MCKAY, ROGER STERN, GERRY CONWAY, TOM DEFALCO & MORE

Penciled by GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI, OLIVIER COIPEL, DAVE WILLIAMS, PACO DIAZ, GREG LAND & WILL SLINEY with HUMBERTO RAMOS, ADAM KUBERT, MIGUEL SEPULVEDA, JAKE PARKER, DENNIS MEDRI, KATIE COOK, MARK BROOKS, DAVID LAFUENTE, SHELDON VELLA, BOB MCLEOD, PAUL SMITH, RON FRENZ & MORE

Cover by OLIVIER COIPEL

Spider-Verse by Dan Slott

The first thing you realize when reading this book is that there are a hell of a lot of Spiders, of all shapes, sizes, names and from all over the Multiverse. For me in the MCU parlance this story is the one that should have been called the Multiverse of Madness and I mean in a very good way. 

With all those spiders coming out of the woodwork and practically every other work the story had a lots of chance to fumble and fall in all the messy webby stuff but it stands up to the task and gives thrills and chills with almost every page. 

The book is epic with one of the biggest canvas that I have had the pleasure to read and I have read "In Search of Lost Time" by Proust this year (https://sanjibsblogreads.blogspot.com/2022/11/a-century-after-proust-name-is-proust.html ), the longest novel ever.

With worlds of Spiders turning up at the same places simultaneously, readers might be forgiven if they thought they were visiting Spider Alley in the Marvel Booth at Comi Con. 

The stories grew intense with every page and it was difficult to hold on to the story web and keep track of the character(s) and their differences - here Peter is Spidey and we have Ben, Gwen, Mary, virtually everyone is a spider in some or the other universe. The numerals of the various earth's also start fading and the things that are burnt in the memory are "The Inheritors" and their rampant hunger for spiders (or spider totems as they say) and the myriad ways they hunt spiders along various webs, timelines and universes adopting gaming systems very much in the lines of the Predators when they visit earth. 

Ok sacrilege and note to self - no dropping other creatures while discussing the MCU.

The story arcs which would be familiar to many readers having appeared as separate stories and collections nevertheless engages with the readers and amidst all the bedlam and despair ends in hope. 

This book is a home run and a hole in 1 rolled up as one event. Marvel has hit its stride and just imagining seeing this on the big screen would be every nerd's favorite wet dream and would put the Dr. Strange & Multiverse of Madness to shame.

All the good things of any Spidey story is present here, the quintessential humor, wisecracks, good vs evil, with Spidey's, worlds over committed to being the friendly neighborhood super hero and the epic words in Spidey comic-dom and used wisely in Toby's movie, "with great power comes great responsibility", is an integral part of this massive book. I could go on and on.

The artwork across the multitude of stories is even and great and what this book did was introduce me to several other Spidey characters whose story arc's I had never read earlier and now has become of interest. 

Every story has some weak point and what did not work for me here is that the story starts meandering after the initial hoop-la. The murders become repetitious and at some point it feels like the same stories in an infinite loop with the murdered characters changing into a new version of Spiderman from yet another world. The antagonists, the Morlun family visit the worlds through portals and in true Predator style hunt the local spiders and in many pages there are massacres because many of the Spidey's have congregated at one place. 

Despite these hiccups, this is one massive long novel but worth a lot of weight. Some of the match-ups do not meet standards but in the greater interest of the book, they are just side shows. 

Recommended as a 4 star **** reading. 

If you do not like a lengthy graphic novel then skip this one. 

Please do not forget to post your comments. I am an equal opportunity person so would love to hear your love or your hate for the review or book in any order. Please write what you did not like or whether the book was an absolute disaster for you and why.

You can also follow/like my review at Goodreads here - 

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4469837776