Spider-Man Unlimited is an Infinity Comics webcomic from Marvel Comics, featuring stories about Spider-Man. It's initially written by Christos Gage with art by Simone Buonfantino and color art by Fer Sifuentes-Sujo.
The series is set in the shared Marvel Universe.
As with Marvel's other Infinity Comic webcomics, it's a single-column vertically scrolling comic that's designed to be readable on a phone screen, rather than using a traditional comic book approach to panels and pages.
As an Infinity Comic, the series is initially only available via the Marvel Unlimited app.
The first issue was released September 5, 2023.
Spider-Man Unlimited contains examples of the following tropes:
- Actually a Doombot: The first issue opens with Spider-Man and Doctor Doom fighting above the streets of Manhattan. Spider-Man manages to kick Doom in the head and immediately realises he's just fighting a Doombot.
- Air-Vent Passageway: Deconstructed. Bailey and Christina try to escape the rats and dogs chasing after them by crawling through F.E.A.S.T.'s ventilation shafts. Unfortunately, the vents not made to be crawled through. Bailey and Christina's combined weight causes the vents to cave in, nearly leaving them at the mercy of the animals until Vermin calls them off.
- Alliance of Alternates: The Spot has been offering his alternate selves the chance to join an alliance, working together to exploit their worlds. However, he's lying - as soon as they absorb some of his energy, he's killing them off.The Spot: You'll become part of a network of... well, us. Helping each other find and exploit the most lucrative opportunities on any world.
- Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Spider-Man is hampered dealing with his counterpart from the video game because he has a lot more gadgets to throw at him. Spot also comes across a counterpart that temporarily had the same powers, but also studied them enough to use them to access places he never thought to.
- Beat Them at Their Own Game: Bailey typically ends fights by paralyzing his opponents with his venomous bite. He's not pleased to be on the recieving end of bites while fighting a horde of Vermin clones and their rat followers.
- Cathartic Scream: When faced with Vermin's endlessly duplicating clones, Bailey asks for a time out before screaming into his hands loudly enough to give the rat monsters pause. He apologizes and says he needed to get that out of his system before leaping into the fray.
- Dead Alternate Counterpart: After falling into the Renew Your Vows-verse, the Peter Parker from Earth-4477 is shocked to see an adult version of Mary Jane swinging around New York. In his universe, Green Goblin killed her the same way he killed Gwen Stacy on Earth-616.
- Death Is Cheap: In the first issue, Spider-Man observes that that Spot has died multiple times, but some weird sort of Resurrective Immortality lets his powers keep reforming him in the dimension they connect to. This time, however, he seems to be Deader than Dead. It turns out that's because the body is a weaker Alternate Universe version of the Spot.
- Destination Defenestration: Bailey deals with a Maggia goon inside F.E.A.S.T. by hurling him out the nearest window into an alley.
- Evil Versus Oblivion: Although Doctor Doom is a supervillain, when the Spot seems likely to destabilise reality itself, he's keen to stop that happening. Downplayed as his initial response is to alert Spider-Man and order him to fix it, rather than solving the problem himself. If Spider-Man doesn't fix it, Doom's solution will involve fewer moral qualms and far more collateral damage.Doombot: Resolve the matter, or Doom will. By annihilating whatever landmass the Spot occupies... and all others unfortunate enough to dwell upon it.
- First-Episode Twist: Doctor Doom warns that the Spot "pursues a course that could destabilize reality itself" and orders Spider-Man to stop him. The first issue ends with the reveal that the Spot is already dead, with Spider-Man finding his corpse in pieces on a mortuary slab.
- Help Mistaken for Attack: We don't see exactly what happened, but the series starts with Spider-Man fighting a Doombot, only for it to be revealed that Doctor Doom sent the robot to warn Spider-Man about a threat to the multiverse and give him some tools to help stop it. This being Doom, it was an order, phrased by the Doombot as "Submit to the will of Doom!", so it's no wonder they ended up fighting.
- Hive Mind: Vermin and his duplicating clones all share a single mind with the original at the helm. While this makes them a dangerously coordinated force too dangerous for Bailey to take head-on, they also share sensations like pain. Bailey and Christina exploit this by blasting them all with a recording of a high-pitched frequency that rats cannot stand. The Vermin hive mind has its discomfort multiplied many times over by its shared senses, leaving Vermin fleeing for the sewers.
- Infinite Canvas: As with Marvel's other Infinity Comics, it’s presented in the vertical scrolling variant. Each issue is a single long page, with one column of panels.
- Just a Kid: Issues #19 through #24 focus on Spider-Boy, who is struggling to get any respect from civilians or supervillains because of his Unperson status after a stint of nonexistence at Shathra's hands. The civilians at F.E.A.S.T. bemoan the fact that Spider-Boy came to help instead of Spider-Man, with some people failing to even get Spider-Boy's name right, calling him Spider-Kid. The only adults to treat Spider-Boy with any respect are Mr. Kaur and Aunt May.
- Karma Houdini: After killing off a number of his counterparts and threatening the fabric of the multiverse, the worse Spot gets is a taste of his own medicine from one of his counterparts before being restored to his usual power levels and evading the Spider-Men's attempt to apprehend him.
- Killing Your Alternate Self: Issue #3 reveals that the Earth-616 version of the Spot has empowered, then killed, his Alternate Universe counterpart. It's part of a plan to bleed off some of his power to stop it affecting his brain.
- Knight in Sour Armor: The Peter Parker of Earth-4477 is embittered by the deaths of his Aunt May and Mary Jane Watson. He's cynical, snarky, and rebellious, refusing to listen to any of the Renew Your Vows Spider-Family until Spinneret speaks to him alone. Despite this, his heart remains in the right place and he fights his version of the Sinister Six for the sake of protecting others.
- Laser-Guided Karma: After hopping universes many times to find oblivious counterparts he empowered then killed, Spot encounters one that is already familiar with their powers and turns the transfer around on him to drain him dry.
- Last-Name Basis: The mysterious spider-person who appears in Issue #14 is an alternate version of Peter Parker whose Mary Jane Watson was killed by the Green Goblin in the same manner as Gwen Stacy in Earth-616. This, combined with the passing of his Aunt May, results in this Peter becoming embittered and cynical. When Spinneret tries to talk to him, he tells her not to call him Peter, as only his Aunt was allowed to call him that, instead going by "Parker".
- Magic Pants: Vermin's clones seem to grow out of each other's bodies as complete duplicates of each other. This apparently extends to their clothing, as each Vermin has a pair of identically torn shorts once the cloning process is complete.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The first arc begins with a First-Episode Twist discovery that the Spot's decapitated body is now in a city morgue.
- Quest Giver: In the first episode, one of Doctor Doom's Doombots turns up to alert Spider-Man to the threat and order him to stop it. Spider-Man directly comments that Doom, unlike less villainous characters, doesn't get to be a quest giver.Spider-Man: Now, hold on. You don't get to show up like some quest giver, like Reed Richards or Dr. Strange! You're a bad guy!
- Reckless Gun Usage: A Maggia goon tries to scare F.E.A.S.T. into listening to him by firing his gun into the air. Everyone else present asks what the hell is wrong with him for waving a gun around so carelessly. Spider-Boy punishes him with a bite full of paralyzing venom.
- Recycled Title: Spider-Man Unlimited has already been used as the title for a 1993 comic, an animated series, a tie-in comic for that series, a 2004 comic and a video game.
- Self-Duplication: The Vermin clones that Bailey faces continuously duplicate themselves as time goes on. Bailey watches this happen in real time and is grossed out by the cloning rat monsters. Even worse, they've been duplicating for some time, as his escape to the roof is cut off by another dozen clones.
- Sensory Overload: Bailey chases away the rat infestation plaguing F.E.A.S.T. during the gang war by playing a loud, high-ptiched screech on a cell phone that the rats cannot stand. Christina helps him scare off Vermin by playing the same frequency but on a much louder set of speakers.
- Skewed Priorities: In Issue #19, a police officer is freaked out by Spider-Boy's venomous fangs and is prepared to fight him after Spider-Boy incapacitates a member of the Inner Demons. Spider-Boy questions whether the cop is really going to pick a fight with a kid in the middle of a gang war. Sure enough, said cop is called away to another scene before sprinting off.
- Smarter Than You Look: Despite his 90s teen rebel attitude and looking down upon "nerds" like Gwen Stacy, the Peter Parker from Earth-4477 is as smart as most of his counterparts, robbing several stores to construct an interdimensional portal from their parts entirely on his own. As the Renew Your Vows Peter points out, this level of intelligence makes "Parker" as much of a nerd as he is.
- Speech Bubbles: In the first issue, "Doctor Doom" gets normal speech bubbles until he's revealed as a Doombot robot duplicate. At that point he switches to italics and his speech bubbles acquire jagged tails, emphasising his mechanical nature.
- Super Window Jump: Vermin and his clones make their presence known to Bailey and Christina by busting through a window while jumping inside.
- Swarm of Rats: Vermin besieges F.E.A.S.T. with a swarn of dozens or hundreds of rats (and two dogs), leaving everyone else present fleeing for the hills as the rats bite and scratch everyone they get their paws on.
- Terms of Endangerment: Vermin repeatedly refers to Spider-Boy as "little spider" in a manner that's both childish and condescending to Bailey as the youngest of the spider-themed heroes.
- The End... Or Is It?: At the end of the "Spider-Boy: Gang War" story, Bailey and Christina breathe a sigh of relief when Vermin and his copies flee into the sewers. But as the tension finally leaves them, Bailey notices a rat scurrying past them and screams, "No!" The story leaves off with "The end?"
- Trailers Always Spoil:
- The "About this issue" promo text on the Marvel Unlimited app spoils the First-Episode Twist that the Spot is already dead.
- Marvel.com's promotion for the first arc of the series reveals that it will introduce the usual Marvel Universe version of Spider-Man (the "Earth-616" Peter Parker) to an Alternate Universe counterpart based on the Insomniac video games. That doesn't happen until the reveal at the end of the third issue, though.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The Spot states that the reason his competence is all over the board is because he has spots on his brain messing up his mind. After being restored to normal, however, he laughs off what he previously said and states the spots in his brain allow him a form of cosmic awareness to observe parallel universes. Either way he's figuratively not all there at normal power levels.
