Spider-Verse Team-Up #3 continues the pattern of delivering two adventures to readers featuring two different team-ups. This issue is the final of three in the series, and it brings the most Spiders in total, with six webslingers in the first ten-page story and another pair in the second adventure for eight active Spider-People over twenty pages. Of course, given that this is set in the depths of “Spider-Verse,” there are also a number of Spider-Wallflowers throughout the issue, but the main thrust of the issue leaves those others in the background.

The first story, titled “Too Many Spider-Men,” written by Christos Gage and drawn by Dave Williams actually features a trio of Spider-Males and a matching set of Spider-Females. Bringing the Y chromosome are Spider-Punk, Billy Braddock (Spider-U.K. of Earth-833) and Pavitr Prabhakar (Spider-Man India from Earth-50101). Their feminine counterparts are Anya Corazon (Spider-Girl of the 616 Universe), Ashley Barton (Spider-Girl from Earth-807128) and Spider-Ma’am (Aunt May from Earth-3123).

The story itself feels more important than relegating it to a title like this deserves. That’s not to say Spider-Verse Team-Up hasn’t been enjoyable, but the developments this Spidery-Half-Dozen make with Karn deserves more attention than ten pages in an ancillary title can properly provide. Not only is the action taken in this first half of Spider-Verse Team-Up #3 going to be critical to the outcome of “Spider-Verse,” but it comes out of nowhere, develops quickly and hits resolution in the span of ten pages. That’s quite a leap to be made, even for a story with the relative powers of a spider. 

When the Spiders attack in the splash page, Williams gives readers strong, dynamic drawings of the characters that come together more like a collage than a team-up in shared space. Each character is at an odd angle, as if they were each drawn individually to maximize their appearance, but not considered to be composed together until press time. Beyond that odd, patchwork image, Williams’ characters are bold and strong, filling the space and seizing command of the story. Williams keeps the setting easy and clean, accentuating the characters and their emotions as they struggle against the Inheritor, Karn.

Some of the costumes get a bit shaky, like the cut of the red into the blue for Spider-Punk and the exact shape of Karn’s headgear, but the overall appearance is clean and sharp. Inker Dexter Vines helps ensure the characters stay focused and clean and uses a nice array of lines to vary backgrounds, foregrounds and characters in space. Chris Sotomayor brings his coloring wizardry to the adventure, putting textures and building depth into the panels where the backgrounds get sparse. Letterer Joe Caramagna does his usual magic with the lettering and labels, keeping everything clean and friendly for readers who may just be following the mishmash of Spiders in this title, in case “Spider-Verse” is a little too much.

Readers consuming the entire “Spider-Verse” saga are not going to find this comic book overwhelming, though, and will instead find a nice supplemental read to season the space between panels and outside covers given the collection of characters presented here.

The cover blurb proclaiming that Spider-Verse Team-Up #3 is “featuring a Spider-Girl reunion!” is misleading in that it displays the Mayday Parker Spider-Girl and a shadowy figure. Readers might be expecting to see Mayday swing into action with her father (or at least an other-dimensional version of him), but the true reunion is for the creative team. “Bugged!” brings Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema back together for a wonderful reunion that is certain to scratch all kinds of nostalgia itches for Mayday’s fans.

Frenz and Buscema melt nicely one into the other, and give this story a direct connection to the fan-favorite Spider-Girl series of yesteryear. If not for the other Spider-People milling about, this story could very easily have been an inventory tale from that series. Andrew Crossley’s colors are spot on, augmenting the heroism at the heart of Mayday’s tale, while Frenz and Buscema start to let the shadows creep in to Mayday’s heart and hope.

Caramagna reserves the over-the-top font-work for this second tale, giving readers fun font choices for the set-up and the dialog as Mayday struggles to stay collected given the disappearance of her baby brother. He uses color fills on accented words and provides an imaginative range of volume, even in the caption boxes depicting the monolog running through Mayday’s mind.

Mayday’s angst is extreme and her temper is fierce as she lashes out at the Spiders around her. She’s bitter and volatile, physically abusive and angry. Normally, this would seem out of character, but given the developments of her life, especially throughout “Spider-Verse,” I think it is safe to say this is not completely unreasonable. The swing her relationship takes with Spider-Ben is not as extreme as the plot resolution in the first half of this comic book, but given the volcanic emotions powers Mayday, the conclusion, and direct outcome, of this second story in Spider-Verse Team-Up #3 is surprising.

This story definitely expands on the tale in Amazing Spider-Man #13, giving more space to the struggle to stay upbeat than that latter issue could afford. While fans of Mayday will feel her anger and pain, they might also find themselves very concerned for the dark path she appears to be setting out on. She’s been forced to grow up a lot through the course of “Spider-Verse,” and still has some tough decisions ahead of her. That said, Frenz and DeFalco keep this story from spiraling into total darkness or navel-gazing and drive home a message that Ben and Mayday hammer into one another: Try. Try to live. Try to be safe. Just try.

Fans of this site will be happy to see the attention to detail in the conversation between Mayday and Ben, especially as it comes down to the catchphrase that drives the Spider-Man franchise. The banter between the two characters teeters on cheesiness, but the meaning in their words is clear and the emotion drawn from the Spider-Man legacy is unmistakable.

It has been nice having a team-up series back on the racks, even if it isn’t Marvel Team-Up. That said, Marvel has launched a pseudo-team-up book in S.H.I.E.L.D. and has a true team-up series on the horizon in the form of Guardians Team-Up. Be sure to check this space in the coming months as there is certain to be an appearance or two by some webslingers in those titles.