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Darkhold: Spider-Man #1 reveals the worst nightmare of Marvel’s iconic webslinger, and as terrifying as it is, it also makes perfect sense.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Darkhold: Spider-Man #1, available now from Marvel Comics.
When Earth’s Mightiest Heroes turned to the pages of the Darkhold in their bid to stave off the impending threat of Chthon, they never could have imagined it would bring them face-to-face with their worst nightmares. Of all these twisted visions of the Marvel Universe, it is Peter Parker’s that stands out as the most tragic. Not only has Spider-Man been saddled with the greatest responsibility yet, but he could never be powerful enough to carry it.
Despite the eerie silence that has overtaken the world, Spider-Man has never been busier. When a mysterious event known as the Unraveling struck, the very fabric of the world began to fall apart. Spider-Man and a select other few were able to go largely unscathed thanks to their powers, but the world around them never stood a chance. In true hero fashion, Peter Parker has taken it upon himself to use his webs to stitch his city back together as best he can. In Darkhold: Spider-Man #1 (by Alex Paknadel, Dio Neves, Jim Charalampidis, and VC’s Clayton Cowles), this goes beyond setting leaning buildings upright and keeping people stitched together. As grotesque as that is, things somehow become even worse once it becomes clear that this isn’t just some living nightmare for Peter Parker. Rather, it is simply the darkest lens through which to view the reality of the life he is already living.
In the midst of the unending chaos that surrounds him, Spider-Man pieces together villains such as Doctor Octopus alongside their unwitting victims. Having to do this once would be disturbing enough, but it has become Peter’s everyday reality in the Darkhold. Once his webbing disintegrates, Spider-Man has to constantly replace it. In the process he is confronted with the most tragically devastating versions of his enemies, including the previously mentioned Octavius desperately hanging onto what little is left of his fleeing sanity. Saving the city, defeating supervillains, and repeating ad nauseum is certainly a Sisyphean sort of Hell for Spider-Man to inhabit, yet it is merely the worst version of what he already knew. Over the course of his nearly sixty years in comics, Peter Parker has gone through that same exact cycle countless times.
Keeping the city together has been a near all-consuming task for the Spider-Man of this world, but that still isn’t what he has centered his life around. Instead, Peter has been given the chance to keep Gwen Stacy from dying to the Unraveling so long as he kept up with his reality’s preternatural entropy. When Peter loses irreplaceable time to another unforeseen tragedy, it takes with it the minutes needed to repair Gwen before she comes apart completely. This is arguably worse than how Peter lost Gwen in the mainstream universe, with Peter facing the responsibility of staving off her slow demise every single day. Gwen’s death in the primary Marvel Universe was a defining moment in Peter Parker’s life, but her state in this reality defines every waking moment of his life.
This is not the first horrifying alternate history that has predominantly involved Peter Parker, but none of the others has laid out the devastating truth of his superhero career like the Darkhold has.
This gut-wrenching version of Spider-Man’s life is made all the more tragic by the fact that it is a mirror image of the life the mainstream Peter Parker lives, presented in a way that suggests that his cycle as a hero can one day become as horrifying as it is redundant.
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