Looking Back on Spider-Man’s 2015 Comic Year

A lot of crazy stuff happened to Spider-Man in 2015, from dimension hopping hi-jinks to running a successful international business. As the year winds down and we approach 2016, let’s take a look at the key events of Peter Parker’s 2015.

Spider-Man had his hands full at the start of the year, dealing with the realization that his old foe Morlun was back, and that his former nemesis had brought his family (The Inheritors) with him this time around. What better way to get thrown into the craziness of Spider-Verse than to suddenly run into every Spider operating in New York, then find yourself hanging out with over twenty different versions of Spideys… and holy wheat cakes is that Gwen? Sweet costume.

I’ve written a lot on the Spider-Verse, and many Spider-Fans know the gist of what went down, so here’s the extremely paraphrased version. Spider-UK recruits a team of Spiders, the Superior Spider-Man does likewise. The Inheritors attempt to absorb the Spider-Totems’ life forces and perform a ritual with the Bride (Silk), the Other (Kaine), and the Scion (Benjy). The two Spider-Forces meet up and Spidey beats SpOck in a duel to assume the leadership position. Throw in a couple of skirmishes between the Inheritors and the various Spider-Totems they were trying to consume, the giant mech Leopardon, a trip to the year 2099, Spider-clones blowing up a cloning facility, a no holds-barred throw-down with all the pieces in place, and an enemy turning into a friend, and we finally found ourselves at the moment shown below: victory. Quite a crazy ride for our boy Peter Parker. Equally so for Otto Octavius, who was flung back in time to a previous issue (

) after turning on Peter and company.

With SpOck taken care of (for now) and the Spider-Verse re-balanced, what was next for the Wall-Crawler? How about a little company called Parker Industries.

May

of 2015 saw the Web-Head return to New York, back to battling foes like the Iguana in sunny locales such as the Central Park Zoo. With a new plan to create a high-tech prison that cures and reforms super-criminals, Pete was balancing heroism, competing with rivals Alchemax, and trying to get along with work partners Sajani and Anna Maria Marconi (the former girlfriend of the Superior Spider-Man and the newest secret-keeper of all things Spidey).

Tiberius Stone, the creator of Alchemax, isn’t one to deal business fairly, so he hires the intangible villain Ghost to shut down the competition. Days later, Pete begins his first successful demonstration of his company’s new prison tech in front of his entire staff, so of course it’s at this moment that Ghost infiltrates Parker Industries and hacks the tech seconds after the demo starts. Sajani tries to betray Peter (no surprise there if you’ve kept up with their relationship –hint: it’s not good) and ends up getting her heart’s electric impulses disrupted by the villain, but with a little help from employee Clayton “Clash” (donning the Sonic Spidey suit) and Anna Marconi (expertly wielding some web-shooters), they take the Ghost down. The downside? The Parker Industries building is a complete wreck and they’re back to square one. Spidey’s 2015 could only get better from here…

Wait a minute, who’s this guy? Married to Mary Jane AND father to a wall-crawling daughter? This must be some kind of non-Brand New Day universe, but rather than different universes, there is only

.

August

of 2015 introduced a new version of Peter, one that’s happily married with Mary Jane and has a daughter named Annie who has inherited his Spider powers. This Peter’s still working the Daily Bugle gig, snapping pics of Spider-Man fighting villains. There’s only one problem, heroes and villains are showing up dead. A quick swing over to the Avenger’s Mansion and Spidey is recruited for a final assault on the main suspect: a C.E.O named Augustus Roman. Just as the attack commences, the Parker luck strikes again, as a mass breakout at Ryker’s puts Peter’s family in Venom’s cross-hairs. Roman will have to wait.

Roman reveals himself to the Avengers as the all-powerful Regent, a super villain intent on harvesting all of the heroes’ powers. Spidey’s got his plate full with a villain of his own, as he chases down a vengeful Venom who’s after his wife and daughter. He finally corners Venom into a burning building, where he has to make a tough decision. Peter chooses his family and ends up bringing the entire building down on ole’ Eddie Brock. R.I.P to both the symbiotic fiend and the entire squad of Avengers who were put down by the all-powerful Regent while this was happening. Time passes and Regent has taken over as ruler of the city, using squads of villains to hunt down anyone who has powers. Spidey tries to live life as a regular father but his incognito lifestyle doesn’t last long, and with Regent and the Sinister Six gunning for him, he dons his black suit. It’s go time ladies and gentlemen.

Pete’s not playing games anymore, as he absolutely dismantles Dr. Octopus and the Hobgoblin while taking the fight to the Sinister Six. His efforts go unrewarded as Regent eventually captures Peter, along with his old pal Sandman (who in this case is a good guy working with a resistance consisting of S.H.I.E.L.D heroes and other survivors). Regent finally reveals his plan to harvest Pete’s spider-sense and accomplish his ultimate goal of taking out the big bad god Doom, but when MJ and Annie sneak into Regent’s base to save Peter, it becomes a 3v1 family vs. god-like villain brawl. And even though this Peter has been a tad more ruthless than usual, he ends the fight in perfect Spider-Man fashion: a joke and a punch to the jaw. Suffice to say, they live happily ever after!

Hold on. That’s cool and all but where’s the Peter Parker from Earth-616? Well, he’s been suspended for eight years on a life raft designed to survive the collapse of the universe. And while they’ve been gone Doom has created the Battleworld and taken his position as god. The last time we see our boy in red and blue, he and Miles Morales have stumbled upon Doctor Doom’s power source: Owen Reece the Molecule Man!

shows that the final assault on Doom has begun and all hell has broken loose… but Spidey’s nowhere to be seen so let’s move forward to the Marvel Universe post

Secret Wars™

.

October

rolls around and I have to ask myself, “What on Earth happened after Battleworld!?” Parker Industries is on FIRE. Peter Parker’s an international celebrity whose new technology Webware™ has delivered unto Earth affordable internet access with unlimited data, anywhere on the planet, and hosted on a convenient wrist watch. Shanghai is showing Spider-Man love, and people are Parker-Scoping (Periscoping) some of the action as Spider-Man (with a snazzy new suit) and Mockingbird (also with a snazzy new suit) are chasing down some baddies in the Spider-Mobile. He’s also got some new web shooter tech in the form of micro-coiled z-metal, otherwise known as Bug Zappers (electric webs) and expanding web-foam. Wow, that’s a pretty extreme change of venue and tone from the crumbled down ruins of Parker Industries earlier in the year.

Those new baddies are the Zodiac, who are based on –you guessed it, the signs of the zodiac. Having just captured one of the leaders of the Zodiac (Leo), he returns to his Shanghai HQ. This is where we meet his Shanghai staff, including one Ms. Tang, creator of the Spider-Mobile and someone who’s very

close

to Peter Parker… Spider-Man you dog! He returns to San Francisco (where the costumed vigilante Prowler, hired by Peter to masquerade as “Spider-Man” while Peter does his CEO business, is currently active) to attend the wedding of his old Horizon lab boss Max Modell. Perfect time for some Zodiac goons to crash the party and force Peter to give them his personal Webware. It seems that the Parker Industries’ data contained within Pete’s personal device is wanted by the Zodiac.

Later, an underwater stealth mission conducted by Spidey and the Prowler on the Aquarius base of the Zodiac seems to go awry, as Zodiac boss Aquarius sends out the encrypted data from Pete’s webware to all of Zodiac’s bases. On top of that, the ship itself self-destructs with the heroes escaping just in time. Doesn’t sound like mission accomplished does it? Fortunately this was all part of the plan, and as the data gets sent out, the location of all Zodiac bases is exposed to S.H.I.E.L.D. Something sinister is happening in the background while all of this is going on, as a figure clad in shadow recruits Alexei Sytsevich by reuniting him with his “dead” wife Oksana. What the what?

November

has Spidey dealing with a different kind of threat altogether, an angry friend. Peter has repurposed the former Baxter Building into Parker Industries New York and Johnny Storm is a little *ahem* heated about it. He flies to the building and starts rampaging just as a Zodiac force attacks Nick Fury Jr’s Helicarrier over the East China Sea. Johnny finally cools down and gets the grand tour of the place, filled with various Spider-Vehicles, Harry “Lyman” Osborn, and the last stop, a grand statue of Marvel’s First Family smack dab in the middle of the lobby, commissioned from Alicia Masters herself. Bad news, while all this was going down, the Zodiac decrypted the data and shut down all the Parker-tech on Fury’s helicarrier, plus they assassinated the prisoner Leo. Looks like it’s time for a counter attack, a S.H.I.E.L.D global strike. But with a bandaged-face Norman Osborn lurking in the African Nation of Nadua things are bound to get dicey.

And finally there’s the most recent issue, Amazing Spider-Man #5, the last issue of the year. Since this is a relatively new issue I won’t recap what happened so you guys and gals can read it yourself, or if you’re so inclined, you can read WASC’s interview if you want a feel of what the issue is all about. That wraps up the recap of Spidey’s year of 2015! It was quite a wild ride, and a lot of changes came to Peter Parker’s life (with varying levels of reception from readers). Here’s hoping 2016 brings some awesome story lines to the Amazing Spider-Man.

For those of you who want to read more about last Spider-Man issue of the year, or simply want to know a bit more about the recent issues of the Amazing Spider-Man’s latest run, here are WASC’s reviews:

Amazing Spider-Man #1 Part 1
Amazing Spider-Man #1 Part 2
Amazing Spider-Man #2
Amazing Spider-Man #3
Amazing Spider-Man #4
Amazing Spider-Man #5