Warning: SPOILERS for Spider-Man #4 and The Amazing Spider-Man #16There seems to always be a Spider-Man event going on in the Marvel Universe, and whenever there's something troubling happening in the Spider-Verse it always demands Peter Parker's attention. However, that's not the case with Spidey's current Spider-Verse event.
Spider-Man's clone, Ben Reilly, has returned to cause problems for Peter Parker in the ongoing Dark Web crossover between Spidey and the X-Men. Now going by the name Chasm, Ben has teamed up with the Goblin Queen to facilitate an invasion of New York City by the hell dimension of Limbo. Random objects are becoming demonically possessed, and Spider-Man has to deal with a monstrous Venom as well as Chasm directly. The Amazing Spider-Man #16 ends with Chasm beating Spider-Man and sending him his own personal hell for torture.
Meanwhile, in Spider-Man #4 by Dan Slott and Mark Bagley, a whole other threat is preoccupying the Spider-Verse at large. This Spider-Man series is part of the End of the Spider-Verse event and sees the return of the mystical wasp villain Shathra. She is turning all sorts of spider characters from across the multiverse into her minions. She will continue to do this until the entire Spider-Verse is no more. In fact, Peter Parker was stabbed with a mystical dagger that completely erased any remnant of him from across the web of the multiverse. That means that only non-Peter Parker variants of Spider-Man are left to carry on in this event.
Dark Web And Spider-Verse Need To Share Spider-Man
Despite Spider-Man's status as one of Marvel's most popular characters, there have been relatively few Spider-Man-centric events that have involved the rest of the Marvel Universe. One example is the 2011 crossover event Spider-Island, where everyone in Manhattan was granted spider powers. The current event Dark Web is also affecting plenty of other characters outside of Spider-Man's realm. As a loner, Spider-Man's events tend to be more self-contained, usually taking up his main title, The Amazing Spider-Man, as well as other some other one-shots and spinoffs. Recent examples include Spider-Man: Beyond, Sinister War and Hunted, as well as the previous Spider-Verse events. That's why it's highly unusual that Spider-Man would have two blockbuster crossovers going on at the same time. Dark Web is not alone as it is sharing the comic shelves with End of the Spider-Verse.
Marvel's previous stories focused on the Spider-Verse were the original 2014 Spider-Verse and its follow-up, 2018's Spider-Geddon. In fact, Spider-Verse was used as inspiration for the very popular film Into the Spider-Verse. However, during those events, the main Spider-Man title, The Amazing Spider-Man, featured prominent tie-in storylines. This time around, Marvel had to publish a completely different book detailing the Spider-Verse story because the main TAS title is preoccupied with Dark Web. The fact that these two Spider-Man events are going on simultaneously is unique, and if this is indeed the end of the Spider-Verse, it seems strange that the main Spider-Man title is not involved in it.
Spider-Man #4 and The Amazing Spider-Man #16 are now available from Marvel Comics