Marvel’s Spectacular Spider-Men Previews Peter Parker vs. Miles Morales Showdown

It’s Spider-Man vs. Spider-Man in The Spectacular Spider-Men. The new series — from writer Greg Weisman (The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series) and artist Humberto Ramos (Amazing Spider-Man) — teams the two Spider-Men, Peter Parker and Miles Morales, in their first ongoing series. Besides bringing back familiar faces from across 60 years of Spider-media, the series has pit Peter and Miles against such classic Marvel villains as Arcade, Mentallo, and their mystery backer: Hammerhead. 

But in The Spectacular Spider-Men #5, out July 17th, the Spider-Men will duke it out in a no-holds-barred battle that Marvel is previewing below. After the reveal that the assassin-for-hire Arcade and the telepathic mutant Mentallo are behind the Arcadium — a simulator where New Yorkers have been living out their wildest fantasies — June’s issue #4 ended with yet another reveal: Hammerhead is funding the operation after almost dying during last year’s Gang War crossover.

The Arcadium is an amalgam of Arcade and Mentallo’s abilities: Mentallo uses his psychic powers to access the fantasy center of unsuspecting clients’ brains, then feeds that intel into Arcade’s computers to fuel these lifelike dreams. Using an artificial intelligence Frankensteined together from stolen technology — Stark A.I., the Fantastic Four’s Baxter Building security protocols,and the X-Men’s Danger Room hard-light holographic tech — Arcade’s so-called Arcadium A.I. is capable of creating realistic android simulations and environments where the client can fulfill both their conscious and subconscious desires.

The two villains captured the two Spider-Men and subjected them to unreality: Peter, retired from “arachnobatics,” is a Pulitzer-nominated Daily Bugle photojournalist. His Uncle Ben never died. George Stacy is alive. And Peter is a family man married to Gwen Stacy. Miles is dating Kamala Khan, a.k.a. Ms. Marvel. He has top marks at school. Brooklyn is mostly supervillain-free. But the brain-blasted Spider-Men eventually realized they were in a simulation and escaped… only for Arcade and Mentallo to make the two Spideys think the other is a robot, setting up a Spider showdown.

See the first preview pages below before the issue hits stands on July 17th.

Preview Page #1

Preview Pages #2 and #3

Preview Page #4