Web Warriors #5
Written By: Mike Costa
Art By: David Baldeon, Walden Wong
Release Date: 3/16/16
The ending of the Electro story arc brings us a shocking ending…oh yeah pun totally intended. The fate of two spider heroes are up in the air. One of those heroes being my favorite character of all time. Not just my favorite comic book character, but my favorite character in any medium.
Plot
The Web Warriors must fight a big electrical monster created by the Electro team. The team is able to trap the monster in a big webbed dome, which also trap their teammates Spider-Man UK (Billy) and Spider Woman (Mayday Parker).
Story
When the Electro storyline was originally introduced I was interested in the different type of Electros we would see in the alternate universes, but as the story arc continued I was getting bored with these army of Electros. I wanted this arc to explore the different worlds, but instead the story led to our heroes defeating a one dimensional electrical monster.
The big cliffhanger in the issue was Mayday and Spider-Man UK being trapped in the Spider dome that the team created for the Electro monster. The last few pages make it seem like that Mayday and Spider UK have the opportunity to escape the dome, and hopefully this will be a story explored in a future arc because their “deaths” felt really rushed and lackluster.
Spider-Man UK was trying to help Karn with his hunger and this led them both into the woods. After helping Karn, Billy gets ambushed by a group of Electros. Mayday went into the woods to help Billy. This is the event that led to their “death”, and I don’t know why Billy had to go to the woods in the first place. He could have fed Karn somewhere else where the Electros weren’t attacking. This portion of the storyline felt very rushed just for the sake of a shocking ending.
As a Mayday fan I was happy to see how she dealt with the situation she was given. She was in character when she was trying to help Billy in the woods. She punched a Electro in the face and said, “I’m not just going to let you stay down here and die, you selfish jerk.” She is the type of character that would put her life on the line to help a friend.
Even though I am happy May was in character I am still upset about how she “died” in this issue. May has defeated much stronger villains in the past. These Electros should have been no match for her. Knowing May she would have figured out a way to get out of the dome, and that’s something we do not see on panel for this issue. Now that doesn’t mean we won’t see them escape, but we don’t know how many issues we will have to wait to see this story resolved.
It’s also upsetting to think that we may not get the opportunity to see May’s friends and family react to her “death”/disappearance. In her Spider-Girl ongoing series one of the best elements about her book was her supporting cast. Even if we don’t get to see Courtney, Davida, or Wes find out about these events on panel I sure hope we see Mary Jane’s reaction.
Mary Jane just recently lost her husband in the Spider-Verse event and in the small panels we saw from her post Spider-Verse she stayed strong for May, but you can tell she was in a lot of pain. In the Spider-Girl series she always worried for her daughter and in some events May quit being Spider-Girl for her mother’s sake. So I would hope to see Mary Jane’s reaction to losing her only daughter.
The only panel we get referring to Mary Jane is in the end with Uncle Ben saying, “I can’t stay, with Mayday gone. I’m the only person who can protect her mother and baby bother Benjy.” Protect her from what? Shouldn’t he be more worried about breaking the news to her. After he witnessed how hard May took the news of losing her father. Mary Jane is losing both her husband and daughter in practically the same year!
Another disappointing reaction was how Spider-Girl (Anya) reacted to Mayday and Billy’s “death”. She didn’t really seem to care. She just thought it was the right thing to do and that was that. This is a bit ironic because Anya’s series in 2011 was the one that replaced May’s Spider-Girl series. She changed her name to Spider-Girl from her original identity Arana. I still never really understood the name change, but I felt this was another gut punch to Mayday fans.
Art
I have gotten use to the more abstract art style, but with this issue the artwork made the final battle feel crowded. It was one of the reasons why it was hard tell what was actually going on with Billy and Mayday’s final scenes. This crowded feeling could also be attributed to the number of heroes on this team, which I guess will be significantly less for the next arc with Mayday and Billy gone.
I do have to compliment the coloring for this arc. Everything felt very bright, which was fitting for an Electro centric storyline.
Verdict
Overall this issue disappointed me, especially as a long time Mayday Parker fan. I am hoping the future story arcs for Web Warriors can redeem this overcrowded first story arc.