WARNING: the following contains full spoilers from Edge of Spider-Geddon #1 by Jed McKay, Gerardo Sandoval, Brian Reber, and Corey Petit.


The best thing about Spider-Man is how Marvel has literally taken the idea that he can be anyone to heart. A Spider-Man that's actually a pig? That exists. A Spider-hero based on an alternate reality version of a girl he loved? That exists, too. It's allowed for some truly wild and interesting concepts to emerge from the possibilities and expand the idea of what a Spider-Man story can be.

This, of course, means that a punk rock anarchist version of Spidey exists too, and Hobie "Spider-Punk" Brown kicks off the Spider-Geddon event Marvel's been hyping up over the summer with an Edge of Spider-Geddon one-shot.

While the sequel to 2014's Spider-Verse event will once again see the Spider-heroes of the multiverse come together to fight the Inheritors, the Edge of stories serve to show what certain Spider-Men and Women do in their own universe when they're not being threatened by evil vampires. And true to his anarchic nature, Spider-Punk is found fighting an enemy only he could appropriately go toe to toe with: capitalism.

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Specifically, Punk takes on Kang the Conglomerator, fresh from the year 2099 of this universe, sporting a purple suit to show that he means business. In the future, Kang owns everything associated with Spider-Punk -- as in life rights, merchandising... everything. Well, except the comics; according to Kang, they don't make him a lot of money, but the movies certainly do. Kang being Kang, he decides to just lift Spider-Punk from his present time and cart him back to 2099, since he does own the rights, in order to turn an even bigger profit.

So Spider-Man is fighting... basically the nightmare scenario of what a good amount of people imagine the Disney/Fox merger will eventually lead to. Kang quite literally weaponizes Spider-Punk against himself, with little plush dolls that look like the hero praising capitalism and spouting off "Anarchy!" and "Fight the power!" as they chase him through a punk rock version of New York. It's a dystopia of a different breed, one much more personal for a hero who already fought and succeeded in overthrowing a tyrannical regime.

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Considering that the "punk rock" thing belongs more to Spider-Gwen and her recently concluded solo comic, Spider-Punk needed a different angle to take to feel worthwhile. In lieu of just turning the issue into a straight up rock musical (which would've been entertaining all on its own), it's about what makes Spider-Man as a character both so fun as a brand and highlights the fear that everyone has about monopolizing properties and having an iron grip on superhero brands.

Beloved as these characters are to fans, the companies that own them will always look at how to turn them into a profit. Kang's time traveling powers allow him to realize that Spider-Punk is the safer bet over Captain Anarchy, who he declares will die "fat and irrelevant" while Hobie will die young enough for his heroic persona to be bankable and matter.

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Given the lead time for publication, the issue itself was written as the Disney/Fox merger was still shaking out, but there's a certain timeliness to it that allows for more weight as Kang muses about sanding out Spider-Punk's "rough edges" and making sure his dialogue is more marketing friendly. It's definitely been a joke that's cropped up regarding what might happen to Deadpool and Wolverine in particular once their movie rights belong to the House of Mouse.

Spider-Punk's timing couldn't have been better, given the conversation around not just the merger, but also Sony's insistence on turning every part of the Spider-Man brand its executives can think of into a film. Spidey's situation as a joint custody character is very different from what's going on with the X-Men, but he's also an everyman who can be stuck into any situation. Sure, it may take more than one or two film failures for Sony to wash its hands of the hero once and for all, and for Marvel to get Spider-Man back from Sony, but as we've seen in recent years, anything is possible.

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Ironically, the future that Hobie doesn't want to be a part of is about to come for him (though he likely won't know it). In just a few weeks, Marvel's new Spider-Man game from Insomniac will release for the PS4, and the Spider-Punk costume is one of many that can be worn during the game. Not to mention that he likely could wind up as one of the Spider-heroes in the Christmas film Into the Spider-Verse, which will feature Spider-Man Noir and the Spydr mech suit. The issue doesn't rob Spider-Punk's story of its point, though; if anything, it just goes to show that for all the inter-dimensional vampires and sworn enemies all the Spider-Heroes have fought over the years, not even they can make a real stand against capitalism.