Spider-Verse #5: BEEEEEEES!!! BEES EVERYWHERE!!!!

I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest Spider-Man Noir fan in the world. So heading into this issue of Spider-Verse, I had decided to just plow through it and  not really take all that much time with it, moving on to books that I’d probably enjoy more. Boy, was I wrong!

I enjoy author Christos Gage’s work a lot, but again, not a Spidey Noir fan, thankfully Gage puts enough of his spin on the character that while incredibly moody, he’s not the dark, depressing, somber character that he’s been portrayed as in the past. He’s pretty much a hard-boiled private eye who climbs walls. One of the things that I look forward to in each issue of this mini-series, is the different takes they have on Spidey’s rogue’s gallery. This issue, Gage brings us the Noir version of Swarm and cleverly ties it into the overall plot and main focus of this series. It’s nice to see Miles team-up with Spider-Man Noir, and I think after his adventure here is done, Miles is in the home stretch to finding Annie May Parker and getting the whole web of life fixed and all the Spider-Verse safe again.

Artist Juan Ferreyra was pretty much the only choice to pencil this book. His style is SO moody and is a perfect fit for the world of Spider-Man Noir, and 1930’s New York. I can say 100% that if anyone else drew this issue, it would’ve only been half as good. He does a great job making the fantastic fit right in with the New York City of 80 years ago and making monsters, gods, and Miles fit right in. And an extra round of applause goes to him for coloring this issue. He makes some brave choices, and they all pay off!