REVIEW: Cruel Hope in SPIDER’S SHADOW #4

by Rebecca Kaplan · July 19, 2021

In Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow #4 by Chip Zdarsky, Pasqual Ferry, Matt Hollingsworth, and Joe Caramanga, with a main cover by Phil Noto, there is a glimmer of hope that Peter Parker will be able to push back against the symbiote and retake control of his life! But considering this is a What If…? tale, there’s no guarantee that he’ll manage this goal and achieve a happy ending! As we creep closer to the end of this story, the personal stakes have rarely been higher for our favorite wall-crawler!

Spider-Man: Spider’s Shadow #4. Photo: Marvel Comics

What if… it was too late to fix anything?

This week in Spider’s Shadow #4, we get to see a few scenes in which Peter Parker and Mary Jane seem to have a conversation that could finally lead to redemption and reconciliation for the couple.

However, there’s a clue in the panel layout that fore-spider-shadows a darker conclusion!

Spider’s Shadow #4. Photo: Marvel Comics

In the scene in which Peter and MJ share a kiss on the roof of a building, the pair is facing one another as they talk, but then, in the next two panels, the couple is framed as though they’re facing in opposite directions.

It’s all about spider language. Photo: Marvel Comics

This is the art giving us a hint, Marvel Blog True Believers: even though the characters are saying the right things, and think they are facing one another, the layout reveals that they are looking in different directions… This can’t be good for our hero, can it?

Now that everything has gone wrong

Meanwhile, there’s something at water in the Marvel Multiverse, and the Avengers are dealing with a serious issue: the venom symbiote has taken over the Baxter Building, homebase of the Fantastic Four!

Photo: Marvel Comics

Peter thinks that he can handle the situation himself… but can he?

In this issue of Spider’s Shadow #4, we are beginning to see the real worst-case scenario of what can happen when you bring a hyper-advanced alien symbiote life-form back to Earth, and it’s terrifying, isn’t it?

Spider’s Shadow #4. Photo: Marvel Comics

It was symbiote all along!

Can Peter stop the spread of the Venom symbiote before it’s too late? Because What If…? continuity doesn’t affect the main Marvel storyline, it could go either way, Marvel Blog True Believers! We’ll certainly be sticking around to find out.

According to the ad in the back of this issue, the finale of the series will arrive on August 11th! This run was originally only meant to be four issues, but as we reported back in May, it was expanded into five issues (probably because this much mayhem deserves an extra 22 pages)!