W.E.B. of Spider-Man #1 shows off the inner workings of the World Engineering Brigade which also plays host to the first Avengers Campus ride.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for W.E.B. of Spider-Man by Kevin Shinick, Alberto Alburquerque, Rachelle Rosenberg and Travis Lanham, on sale now.
Disney prides itself on its ability to create intriguing worlds and backstories for its parks and attractions. Avengers Campus at Disney’s California Adventure is proving to be no different. With the recent opening of Avengers Campus and its first ride WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure, Marvel has incorporated the characters that appear in the ride into an all-new comic, W.E.B. of Spider-Man. The first issue just proved that there is more to these characters than the plaques in the ride’s queue depict.
W.E.B. of Spider-Man #1 depicts Peter Parker’s first day with the Worldwide Engineering Brigade. Peter was invited to join W.E.B. by Tony Stark. He was joined by the brightest young minds from around the world including Onome from Wakanda, Moon Girl, Squirrel Girl, and Harley Keener, the young man last seen at Stark’s funeral during Avengers: Endgame. Along with a strong crew of brilliant minds came the use of Spider-Bots. Trouble struck when a computer virus came to life in the form of Spidey’s greatest villains and began to steal the data from W.E.B., so Peter and his newfound team had to defeat the virus using their individual talents. One still remains, but the W.E.B. team are just now learning to work together and will continue their battle in the next issue.
The comic expands on the characters and scenes seen in WEB SLINGERS. The ride sees the Spider-Bots of W.E.B. stuck in a replication loop and the guests of W.E.B.’s open house need to help Spidey stop the bots from their continuous cloning cycle. While Spider-Man and the Spider-Bots both appear in the comic, the Easter eggs and hidden references don’t stop there. As guests head towards the landing platforms to load their vehicles, they may notice a sign that reads “This factory has worked 39 days without a potato gun malfunction.” While this might seem like a weird thing for the scientists to be worried about, Harley Keener was revealed to be well-versed in potato technology. He was even seen using a hand cannon similar to Iron Man’s, but Harley’s uses non-lethal pellets made from potatoes.
The Spider-Bots cause all sorts of havoc on WEB SLINGERS, but W.E.B. of Spider-Man showed that the engineers were already growing weary of them during the first few days. Peter Parker’s personal Spider-Bot speaks, but Onome was quick to let everyone know that she muted the rest of them. The plaques in the queue of the ride are not the only mention of Onome and the other engineers.
Spider-Bots can be purchased at select shops around the park, and they can be enhanced with Marvel-themed tactical upgrades. Each of these upgrades is designed by one of the engineers of W.E.B. Harley Keener makes the Iron Man ones while Onome makes the Black Panther version. These Bots also reveal that there are some other famous members of W.E.B. such as Cassie Lang and Anya Corazon, better known as Spider-Girl, who have both designed enhanced gear as well.
W.E.B. of Spider-Man #1 is a strong start towards creating more content that could enhance the story seen in the WEB SLINGERS attraction. The attraction created a great ground floor to build a comic around. As W.E.B. of Spider-Man progresses, time will tell if the ride incorporates any of the comic’s ideas or vice versa.
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