Spider-Man: Long Way Home #1: War for the Cube

Despite being titled as a Spider-Man series, issue #1 is tightly focused around Punisher and only introduces us to Spider-Man’s role in the narrative later on. While it works fine as the setup to a five-issue series, fans who come to this series specifically for the web-head might feel put off at first by this opening issue.

Hickman is known as one of the premiere world builders in the comics industry right now and for good reason. Whether it be his run on X-Men’s Krakoa era or his creator-owned work at Image Comics or 3 Worlds / 3 Moons, he consistently puts the world the character’s inhabit first. This issue immediately brings us into that world by setting up a three-sided conflict over a “device” we come to know as a cosmic cube as seen on the issue’s cover and in the solicitations, which have been out for a while.

Set outside of the main 616 continuity, the potential for Long Way Home’s setting is naturally very high. And while interesting parts of that world are laid out early and cleanly, the characters end up a bit shortchanged by the focus on the world’s conflict. Due to his small role in the issue, we don’t learn much about how this version of Spider-Man is different from the one we know and love, which puts a lot of pressure on issue #2 to make this version of Spidey feel new as quickly as possible. However, we do learn quite a bit about the Punisher and his role in this universe, who is portrayed as a gritty soldier overseas. The Hulk is also a bit of a mystery to us despite a significant presence in the issue, serving as a lever to push the story forward for more than half of the issue.

Each of the characters has natural-sounding dialogue, but side characters like Punisher’s team lack memorable character traits for the most part, like unique skills or roles on their team. The exposition also does exactly what it needs to because it’s spaced out well, without overloading the reader other than two of the last four pages, which have some dialogue that can be hard to follow at first.

Adam Kubert’s artwork deserves a deep look in this issue. For starters, every page makes excellent use of visual distance and is crammed with details that make for an immersive read. Several characters are put in the same panel or move across panels together without getting lost or blending into one another. This is mostly helped by how distinct the characters look, even the side characters like the members of Punisher’s team who all have unique designs and face shapes that make it clear who’s who. There is a variety to the scenery as well, such as when the team goes into this compound while Punisher remains outside in the surrounding lush jungle.

The transitions between those two scenes are handled smoothly from panel to panel and give page turns a cinematic quality like watching some big overarching storyline despite it being in a very limited area. For instance, towards the middle of the issue, a transition between the easy-to-get-lost-in jungle and a blaze of fire and bullets is broken down from panel to panel, which helps the buildup of the pacing and evens out the action itself. The panel structure itself is unorthodox. Many pages use a single splash page or a full-page spread, while others vary between five and nine panels without getting lost.

Arthur Hesli’s colors are the icing on the cake here. Bullets have this explosive texture to them while the jungle is cast in shades of natural greens and moonlit blues. Lighting is consistent, with light coming in through windows or gunfire itself being used as the light source in a scene.