Summary

With the deterioration of the barrier between the real world and the Negative Zone, Dr. Strange steps forward to perform one of the greatest feats by any Sorcerer Supreme. He reverts the world back to its original state, changing the laws and reverting the main source of power to come from Magic.

With certain individuals receiving a piece of a futuristic vision, different schools of thoughts arise. Those who study the mystic arts arise to help the people, technomancers harness magic push technological advances, and those who wish to bring forth a being called The Vision who will burn and destroy this new world.

Laura Kinney seeks out the Phoenix Vessel, the strongest source of magic, to stop The Vision.

Ilyanna then arrives to stop Laura from unleashing the Phoenix, believing she wont be able to control it and lead to a disaster

Miles Morales joins them to try and broker and peace between them, but their old friendships seems to push Miles aside, even though he has been named “The Chosen One” by the Teachers of the Mystic Arts.

Laura eventually gets a hold of the Phoenix Vessell, revealing her body is covered in summon sigils with the purpose of harnessing the Phoenix.

In the penultimate moment, Laura is shot through the head by Miles, who stands there in shock at what he did. With the painful screams of Illyana in his ears, Miles unleashes the power inside him, declaring himself to be the Scarlet Spider and the closing narrative stating that “The Day of the Vision is Here”

Review

I am absolutely flabbergasted. I love reading the first issue of a series because it can be a masterclass in how to establish a world and its characters quickly and I think Web of Blood does this beautifully. Laura and Ilyanna designs are sleek and powerful, showing you their capabilities through combat, displaying their abilities in a stylistically overexaggerated way, and yet there are parts that leave us wanting to know more about who these characters are.

The amount of gears turning in this issue is astounding and yet I didn’t feel lost at any moment. Were dealing with different factions with different ideals and it makes me itch for the next issue. It immediately places you in the position where you can choose who you want to side with and reading the issue through the lens of each character can change how the events of this issue are perceived.

Is Laura too far gone with the modifications to her body that Technomancy provided? Is Ilyanna gone too far by harnessing the power of the Yokai? Is Miles the true ground to this story with his devotion to the Mystic Arts? I think it’s easy to tell that I am extremely excited to keep up with the series and I’ll be keeping you posted along the way. Let’s jump into some of my favorite moments through ought the issue.

The Moments

I just simply love the style of these characters in how freaking ferocious she is. She doesn’t feel like the hero, she feels like that rogue element that shows up and makes the hero questions what’s going on. I love that we don’t get an explanation as to why she has eyeballs popping up when she is in this berserker like rage. We know that Laura dove into Technomancy, modifying her body to become a true killing machine.

These eyeballs give me the sense that there is something else living within her, sort of a symbiote type of organism. It modifies her body and adapts to different situations, giving her the best weapon for the job. I think this not only increases her cool factor, which is honestly what this comic is all about, but I think this shows how far Laura has gone in order to fulfill this mission she is on to stop, essentially, the end of the world.

We see that Ilyana has swam in the water of forbidden arts as well by harnessing the power of the Yokai. This symbiote like power that Laura seems to possess could be an indication that she did this as well. While we don’t know what is driving Laura to do these things, I’m very interested in finding that out

I mean come on! Robot Thor throws his hammer through Laura and she rebounds it back via her teeth! Let’s go!

I love that they brought the BAMFS back as Yokai’s whom Ilyanna can summon to fight with her. I think the BAMFS have always been underused so I appreciate their appearance

Throughout this issue we see some really cool and impressive feats and I love that they have given these moves names and announce them in big bold text, I think it just adds so much flavor to fight scene which a lot of times can feel very stale.

I think there is nothing better then being able to establish the relationship between character quickly and effectively and Miles is definitely give the tag of ‘Little Brother’ in this moment.

This scene is a mixture of hilarity and tragedy. Ilyanna summoned Juggernaut to fight against Laura like a freaking Pokemon and Laura counter attacks by summoning Ilyanna’s brother Colossus. He was presumed dead and by the look on Ilyanna’s face Laura has crossed a line that you can’t go back on. My half baked idea of what is happening is that Laura used Technomancy to save Colossus from the brink of death and in that moment he was bound to her for life. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but I could see it taking a very dark turn.

I find it incredible that a comic book can sometimes feel like a movie and this is an incredible page turn. The chaos of Laura trying to harness the vessell of the Phoenix, the shedding of her skin, the colors, the tears, it’s a busy panel with so much to look at. To go from that to a flat black background with only one real thing to look at is a punch to the chest. The twist at the end leaves us in utter disbelief and the scale of it is to a point where I’m not sure what’s going to happened next

Look, I’m not walking away from this with a new perspective on life and I don’t think that every great comic issue needs to do that. This issue is simply so cool, and I think by setting that foundation it can lead to a springboard for so many different rabbit holes we can dive down into.