Spider-Man And Spider-Gwen Just Crossed Over To The DC Universe

The latest issues of Marvel Comics Spider-Gwen and Spider-Man have been crossing over, partaking in the “travel through parallel dimensions” rite of passage that every title must eventually do. Sure, they’ve both already done it, multiple times, together, even, but who is keeping score. And now, in Spider-Man #14, they’ve gone even further into unfamiliar territory.

The series hook involves Miles Morales traveling to Gwen Stacy’s home dimension to figure out where his newly-reactivated SHIELD Agent father has disappeared to after a secret mission gone wrong.

Maria Hill recruits him to find his missing father and gives him a pair of reality-hopping gauntlets to allow him to leave Earth-616, which I thought they were never going to refer to the main Marvel Universe as Earth-616 again after Secret Wars but, what do you know, the shadow of Alan Moore looms large. Just ask the DC Rebirth folks!

Hill sends him to the alternate ‘verse, where he encounters the Spider-Woman for a teamup. The two characters begin hitting the criminal underworld for clues, where they discover that this universe’s version of Miles dad Jackson is actually a bit of a jerk.

Bad Dad

He’s actually a crime boss named going by the Scorpion, but whatever. It’s the Gweniverse, where everything that’s ‘up’ is ‘down’ and drenched in saturated neon color schemes.

That’s just the vessel for which this team up has to occur, because if you saw that cover from the first issue in the crossover (this is #5), or if you paid any attention at all to the narrative device of Miles talking to his two prep school roommates, then you’d know that sparks are bound to fly between the two heroes. 

And after their collaboration heads a bit south due to some damaged tech, the two start sliding through parallel realities without control over where.

They hit up a few brief locations, including Spider-Man Noir’s universe and the Marvel Zombies universe, before they end up…

Welcome to Rebirth!

In Metropolis? That’s definitely the Daily Planet in the back ground. And that’s definitely a red-caped streak in the sky, a tell-tale sign that “Superman Wuz Here.” And that’s definitely a bright blue sky. Damn you, DC Comics! Always overloaded with positivity!

It’s a fun nod among many in this issue. The billboards celebrating the 20th anniversary of Spiders-Man-and-Woman made the John Romita tribute cover all the more relevant in a world where covers rarely amount to more than a pinup.

But because we’re comic fans, let’s talk about all of the possible implications of what this could possibly mean in the grand scheme of both publishers’ future plans. Avengers/JLA 2? Spider-Man/Superman team-up? THE SECOND COMING OF AMALGAM COMICS?

CUE ARGUMENTS AND DEBATES OF WHETHER OR NOT THE DC AND MARVEL PARALLEL EARTHS EXIST ALONGSIDE ONE ANOTHER, because we can’t have nice things.