After a very long break, I have returned to see this story through to its conclusion.
Hopefully it shouldn't be nearly as long as phase three of this story was, but we'll get there when we get there.
So, with all that said and done, I present to you the next arc of this story:
Across the Spider-Verse!
Spider-Man and his crew walk through the portal alongside Jiro-2099 and Kendo, and find themselves in a vast, futuristic city filled to the brim with Spider-People left right and centre. From medieval knights in red and blue known as the Spyder-Knight to a fairy known as Cobweb, from a colony of spiders known as Spiders-Man to even a Tyrannosaurus Rex called Spider-Rex - thousands, if not millions of Spider-Men and Women and everything and everyone in-between now reside in the massive Spider-City, seeking a way to combat the threat of the Anti-Venom hordes across the universe.
They are in Earth-001, the Loomworld, and this is the Spider-Army. Peter and his gang are simply the newest arrivals.
Many of the Spider-People currently residing within the city are refugees from other universes, their worlds having been overrun by the Anti-Venom hordes and consumed entirely. Others are currently running back and forth between their own dimensions, trying to mount a defence against Cindy Moon's gargantuan armies across the multiverse. Despite the millions of Spider-People currently in the city now, they are stretched thin against the massive swarms of Anti-Venom zombies stretching out from universe to universe. There aren't enough of them to fight this bitter war.
But that doesn't mean they've given up yet.
Peter and the gang are led through Loomworld, seeing the sights of the multiverse gathered together in one place, from strange technologies to exotic villains and familiar yet different faces. References throughout the Loomworld would tell of an ancient war between the first Spider-Army and the Inheritors, a race of vampires that fed off the mystical energies of Spider-People all across the universe. The Spider-Army won that war and drove the Inheritors to silence, and took over the Loomworld and turned it into a hub for the various Spider-People travelling between parallel universes.
It is a mirror of Cindy Moon's twisted ambitions done right, an echo of her goals and dreams, made not out of oppression, but of the free will of others.
The guide for Peter's group would turn out to be a variant of Mei Hatsume, this one's name being Mei Kess, her hero name being Spider-Byte (she makes a comment during the tour that her universe's Izuku Midoriya is her boyfriend, to which Ochako and Keemia quickly get protective of their Izuku).
Along the way, they encounter all sorts of alternate Spider-People. They come across another variant of Jiro known as the rockstar Spider-Punk, a variant of Aoyama called Web-Weaver, one of Iida called the Prince of Arachne (which gets some pained expressions from Izuku, Ochako, and Momo), a variant of Felicia Hardy known as Night-Spider (no one knows what to think when she and their Black Cat start flirting with each other), a cartoon pig known as Spider-Ham, and-
And a woman called Mayday Parker, the daughter of the first Peter Parker to claim the name of Spider-Man, who herself is known as Spider-Girl.
Peter is greatly shocked to see this, as he can't imagine a world where he is able to have a daughter or even a family at all, and can't find the words to say to her. He simply stares at her in silence, the woman in question being reminded of herself back in the day when she looks at the younger Peter Parker.
Many other Spider-People, meanwhile, take issue with Peter wearing his black suit, many of them having had negative experiences with Symbiotes before, and give Izuku and Ochako a wide berth for their usage of the original Anti-Venom and Venom respectively, though they do calm down once the two Symbiotes prove to be friendly (or rather mindless in Anti-Venom's case).
Suddenly, Kendo is approached by the transparent apparition of a small girl that Kendo greets warmly. Spider-Zero, whom Kendo refers to as her daughter. When the others ask her about this, Kendo explains that Spider-Zero isn't her daughter biologically, but she was born of her powers and Cassandra Webb's teachings in the Web of Life and Destiny, created as a sort-of astral projection of the greater will of the Web, infused with life and personality by Kendo herself. Hence why Spider-Zero refers to herself as Kendo's daughter.
Spider-Zero then tells them that the Master Weaver has arrived, and the rest of the council has just been assembled, and Kendo and Jiro-2099 lead Peter's crew to a conclave of Spider-People numbering in the thousands, with the central figures in the middle of the conclave made up of the leaders and figureheads of the Spider-Army.
They call themselves the Inner Web, a leading council made up of Kendo Itsuka (the second Madame Web), Jiro-2099 (Spider-Woman 2099), Mayday Parker, the Master Weaver (formerly Karn of the Inheritors), Spider-Zero herself (speaking for the Web of Life and Destiny), and the original Radioactive Spider itself, serving as a conduit for Neith, the Great Weaver and the first Spider-Totem.
With all the relevant Spider-People and co gathered, the meeting begins.
As it stands, Cindy Moon's armies of Anti-Venom zombies are overrunning the entire multiverse, and no one has the capacity to stop or even put up a fight against them. If they don't do anything soon, then Silk has a very real chance of infesting and taking over all of creation, possibly even infecting the Web of Life and Destiny itself.
However, there is the chance for them to stop this before it is too late. Thanks to Spider-Zero's existence as an aspect of the Web of Life and Destiny, she can appear to those connected to the web in both this universe and Cindy Moon's as well, PU-MHA. That means that they have a window into that universe and through the barriers that Cindy Moon had thrown up using the Infinity Stones.
However, it is a small window that they need to force open themselves. According to Spider-Zero, Silk doesn't have the Mind Stone yet. The Mister Negative of PU-MHA - that being Aizawa - has it in his possession, but no one knows where he is. However, he's incredibly irrational and will probably make a move on Cindy and her operations. If they were to clash and either side got all six stones in their possession, then it would allow them to not only properly seal the barrier between their universe and the rest of the multiverse, but it would allow them to begin altering reality itself.
Unless the Spider-Gang in PU-MHA could find Aizawa and the Mind Stone first, then that clash was going to happen sooner or later.
But that's not even the worst part. Like Spider-Zero said, the window that they have into PU-MHA is too small for any of them to fit through, so they needed to force it open. They couldn't just hijack one of the portals that Cindy Moon was opening herself, as she has full control over them and could close them while they're all still in it. Either that or they would get swarmed by the billions, if not trillions of Anti-Venom zombies at her command across the multiverse.
No, they'd have to make a portal themselves.
However, that wasn't going to be easy. Originally they would've used the Infinity Stones from another universe to break in, but none of them were powerful enough to tear open holes in the multiverse. Someone asks how Cindy is managing to do it, and the answer is that somehow, before the crisis began, the Green Goblin had found a way to harness the power of Infinity Stones from other universes. That meant, through draining the power of other Infinity Stones from other universes, he could supercharge the Infinity Stones in his possession, therefore giving them the ability to open portals into other universes. At this rate, even if they had a hundred thousand Doctor Stranges with them, they still wouldn't be able to break through the walls around Cindy's home universe.
However, what they do have are the Totems. Peter speaks up, mentioning that he heard Cassandra Webb and the Spider-Society refer to Totems once before, and Kendo elaborates. Totems, or more specifically Spider-Totems, are people and concepts that are spiritually tied to the Web of Life and Destiny, holding an especially close connection to the threads of existence and the universe itself, more so than any other Spider-Person in existence. If they were to gather as many Spider-Totems as they could, then they could use the spiritual and psychic energies to further force open the door into Cindy's universe and take the fight directly to her. However, it would leave Loomworld an inviting target due to all the Totems gathered in one place, and the rest of the multiverse would be more exposed and easy pray for the Anti-Venom zombies. It is a choice that many Spider-People, Peter especially, don't like, but at this point they don't have any other options.
The rest of the multiverse is going to be eaten either way. At least this option gives them the chance to fight back.
So, with a plan put in place, the Spider-Army sets out, taking portals into thousands of different universes to fight against the Anti-Venom hordes. Peter, uncertain of this plan, wonders why they can't just use the portal devices - the dimensional transporter watches, or Web-Watches as they're nicknamed - to break into PU-MHA's universe, only to be told that, of course, the barriers around that universe block all attempts to get through with the wristwatches as well.
So, Peter and his group depart, splitting themselves up and heading off into their assigned parallel universes to gather the required Totems.
But before they all left, Peter would find the will to talk with Mayday, expressing his surprise at the thought of another variant of himself having a family, as he thought that it would be impossible for himself to do so. Mayday is reserved, but does eventually open up to him.
Her parents, Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, are in their old age now, living together peacefully while Mayday has taken up the mantle of the Spider. They had to fight to make their marriage and family work, and numerous times they had to walk through hell to get their happy ending...
But whenever Mayday asked them if it was really worth it, the two would always reply in the affirmative.
Peter is uncertain of how to reply to that, and Mayday simply tells him to get a move on. Tine is off the essence.
So, with that in mind, Peter fumbles with his Web-Watch, activates it, and sets off on his journey.
One by one, they march off to war once again.
I know it's been a long break, but I'm finally here to see it through to the end!
Exploring the Spider-Verse, no matter how big or small the resulting stories will be, is going to be both fun and challenging. Fun because the idea of visiting who knows how many worlds filled with different Spider-People and their resulting counterparts and alternate characters will always be an entertaining prospect to me. Challenging because trying to think about said different worlds and different characters and trying to make them unique to each other is hard.
It'll hopefully be both familiar and different for everyone who's reading.
Also, I was originally going to have Nezu taking the place of Spider-Ham (Spider-Rat), but then I decided that Peter Porker was too much of a treasure to replace so I immediately decided against it.
But with all that said and done, thanks a lot for reading! Remember to follow and favourite, leave your thoughts, and with all that said and done, I shall see you all next time!
Titanmaster 117 out!