Edge of Spider-Verse #5

History

Writer Steve Foxe first announced Web-Weaver publicly via social media in June 2022, crediting character designer Kris Anka as the visual architect of Cooper Coen's distinctly fashion-forward aesthetic. The Hunter-Spider story brought together Dan Slott and J. M. DeMatteis — two writers deeply associated with Kraven the Hunter through earlier landmark stories — alongside veteran artist Bob McLeod, giving the Kravinoff variant a creative pedigree rooted in that villain's most celebrated comic history. Phil Lord's involvement in the Syllie Spider segment represented an unusual cross-pollination between the theatrical Spider-Verse productions and the source comic medium, with Lord scripting and David Lopez providing art for a story deliberately rendered in a vintage newspaper-strip style to match the character's in-universe 1919 origin.

Trivia · 8 facts

• First appearance of Web-Weaver (Cooper Coen, Earth-71490), identified by the creative team as the first canonically gay male Spider-hero in Marvel Comics.
• Web-Weaver's origin: on a high school field trip, Cooper pushed classmate Peter Parker out of the path of a radioactive spider bite, receiving the spider-powers himself; later evicted by his homophobic parents, he was raised by his aunts Laurie and Mel Coen and channeled his fashion-school training into his superhero identity.
• Web-Weaver story written by Steve Foxe with interior art by Kei Zama; character costume designed by Kris Anka, who also provided a variant cover.
• First appearance of Hunter-Spider (Sergei Kravinoff of an alternate Earth), a Kraven the Hunter variant who absorbs spider-venom and wasp toxins to augment his powers, and who joins the Spider-Army at issue's end; story by Dan Slott, J. M. DeMatteis, and Bob McLeod — the latter two veterans of 'Kraven's Last Hunt.'
• First appearance of Syllie Spider (Earth-22105), a 1919 newspaper-cartoon spider who breaks the fourth wall to enter his creator P.T. Parker's reality; co-created by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse filmmaker Phil Lord and artist David Lopez.
• The issue is the fifth and final chapter of the 2022 Edge of Spider-Verse limited series and functions as a direct prologue to Dan Slott and Mark Bagley's Spider-Man (2022) ongoing, with Morlun and Shathra as the antagonists driving 'The End of the Spider-Verse' storyline.
• Also features the first appearances (within this story's alternate continuity) of a version of Rhino (Aleksei Sytsevich) and Spider-Thing, both of whom die in the Hunter-Spider segment.
• Cover by Josemaria Casanovas; variant covers by Kris Anka (two design variants), Mark Bagley (Hunter-Spider design variant), and David Lopez (spoiler variant for Syllie Spider).

Cast · 16 characters

Full credits

Key issues in Edge of Spider-Verse

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#1 1st appearance — Zarina Zahari

#4★

#4 1st appearance — Princess Petra

Variants (5)