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In the debut issue of Marvel’s Spine-Tingling Spider-Man #1, a new villain takes advantage of Peter Parker’s newest and strangest weakness.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Spine-Tingling Spider-Man#1, available now on Marvel Unlimited.
In the Marvel Universe, Peter Parker has experienced many weaknesses that make him vulnerable in battle. Spider-Man’s love for Mary Jane and Aunt May has been exploited countless times, and villains such as Green Goblin have used chemicals, disrupters and other forms of tech against him. On a few occasions, Spider-Man has even struggled against falling debris since his super-strength can only go so far. But as he’s spent his superhero career dodging bombs and guns, Spine-Tingling Spider-Man #1 revealed his weirdest vulnerability ever: a lullaby.
In this story by Saladin Ahmed, Juan Ferreyra and Joe Sabino, Peter is having some trouble sleeping. He’s losing a lot of time due to bad dreams where he finds himself being haunted by birds, bleeding while climbing buildings and experiencing intense mental trauma as a wall-crawler.
Now, this is translating to the real world, as Spider-Man can’t get the lullaby that’s haunting him out of his mind. He’s starting to lose himself to the obsession as it makes him slower in the field too, as evidenced as he tries to stop robotic drones from stealing tech in New York. He admits he usually runs on low energy and a lack of sleep, but this feels like it’s draining the life from him literally.
Despite his intelligence and experience, Spider-Man is at a complete loss here, and he can tell this song is damaging him physically too, making him feel like a mere shell of himself. It worries him as he doesn’t want to become a liability in the field, as he has in the past when villains like Nightmare and Sin-Eater messed with his mind. Even when Mysterio played tricks by conjuring illusions, they took a massive toll on Peter. But in this case, the song is stuck in his head, poisoning him as something more than just a mere distraction or figment of his imagination.
It reaches a fever pitch when he swings down to aid a lady whose son is passed out on a New York street. But as Pete goes to help, the boy’s eyes turn white — giving him a ghoulish, zombie-like appearance — and he starts singing the song too, ending the chapter.
This petrifies Spider-Man, compounding how much the horror and psychological thriller within this adventure. For the moment, it’s not clear what this new villain, the Sleep-Stealer, is plotting or why they’re going after Peter Parker, but they have already left a serious impression on Spider-Man in his personal and public lives.
But as the lines are blurred between reality and dream, Spider-Man is set to face one of his greatest challenges as he doesn’t know how to stop his mind from cracking.
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