Honestly, I had no idea what happened in this issue. I've spent the last 90 minutes or so re-reading other issues and cross-referencing them, so I have a better sense of the story that Slott was trying to tell. But, if you're not willing to put in that effort (and, in particular, aren't getting the tie-in issues), you don't have a hope in Hell of understanding this issue.
The first problem is that Slott reveals here that Otto's Spider-People and the Safe Zone's Spider-People are two different teams. To be fair to Slott, it was clear last issue that Otto wasn't operating from Earth-13 (the Safe Zone) in his previous appearances (I even noted that in my review). But, it also wasn't clear that we were dealing with two separate groups. The Safe Zone felt like the logical next stage in assembling Spider-People, since they weren't all going to fit in Otto's existing base of operations in Spider-Man 2099's Earth. Otto wasn't in the Safe Zone in issue #9, but it didn't necessarily mean that he hadn't also moved his operations there. But, we learn in this issue here that Otto didn't move from Spider-Man 2099's Earth. As Old Man Spider confirms here, they are, in fact, two distinct groups.
I've read every issue of this event, and I had no idea that we were dealing with two different groups. I'm going to go through the issues and put together a coherent list of the two teams in a separate post. But, it clearly felt like we only had one group. Even though I'm sure that Slott and his co-authors were careful in keeping them separate, I would've sworn, for example, that Old Man Spider went on a mission with Assassin Spider-Man at some point. If I had to put my finger on it, this confusion likely comes because Slott didn't make it sufficiently clear that the Safe Zone Spider-People, when they started appearing, weren't working with Otto. Otto was essentially Spider-Zero in this endeavor, so it stood to reason that the Spider-People that escaped the Inheritors would wind up working with him. It's now clearly not the case, but it's a little late to make that clarification.
To be honest, we all knew that this sort of confusion was going to happen at some point. We're dealing with too many Peters not to get confused. But, Slott had to know that, too. Unfortunately, he didn't really do anything to mitigate the problem. In fact, I'm stunned that Marvel didn't use a standard intro page for each issue to show us the teams as they assembled. They use it for every other damn book, even when they don't need to do so, like how the intro page for "Avengers & X-Men: Axis" reminds us who the Avengers are. But, we really could've used it here. The question at this point is whether Slott can just draw a line under this issue as the necessarily confusing one and move forward now that all the Spider-People are together in one place (more or less).
Turning to other revelations, we learn that Old Man Spider is an alternate Ezekiel from a world where Morlun killed Peter. He warns Peter with his dying breath to protect the Bride, Other, and still-unidentified Scion. This revelation isn't all that Earth-shattering, since we've heard other characters mention them as "special" in other issues. Here, Otto implies that they're special because they're the only ones unique to a dimension (namely, our dimension), though I'm sure we'll get more information on that as we go.
The bigger revelation is that the Inheritors can clone themselves, explaining (in all likelihood) how Morlun has twice survived dying on Earth-616. Slott is going to have to go into more detail on this one, since I'm not really sure how it works. It raises all sorts of questions. For example, the important part of killing the Spider-People for the Inheritors is feeding on their energy. If a clone feeds on it, how does that help the Inheritor? I think the answer is that the Inheritors only have one body at a time; presumably, when they die, their consciousness is immediately sent to a cloned body. Although it makes sense, I'll admit that this revelation feels like a stunt just to justify the spin-off book, "Scarlet Spiders," where the clones present on the two teams -- Earth-94's Ben Reilly, Earth-616's Kaine Parker, and Earth-1610's Jessica Drew -- try to get to the bottom of the mystery. But, if it's handled well, it could be pretty cool. If the clones shut down this clone program, it would definitely raise the stakes, since it implies that the Inheritors could finally be stopped for good.
As should be obvious from this scattered review, a lot happens in this issue. We've got the revelation that we've been reading about two different teams all along, the discovery that the Inheritors use clones to prolong their lives, and the confirmation that the Bride, Other, and Scion are important for some reason. We also split into different groups; in addition to "Scarlet Spiders," Spider-Man Noir and Spider-Woman go to protect Silk from the Twins in "Spider-Woman" and Miguel and someone else are going to have to hide from Daemos to examine the body of his clone in "Spider-Man 2099." Given how confusing this issue was, I don't have high hopes that Slott and his co-authors are going to be able to coordinate these stories as well as they did with "Spider-Island" and its tie-in issues. But, I'm willing to keep hope. If they do, this event is really going to kick ass.
** (two of five stars)
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