Marvel has added another comic to their Free Comic Book Day line-up for this year — Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 #1, a tie-in to the video game series from Insomniac Games.
The story is set between the Spider-Man: Miles Morales game and the upcoming Spider-Man 2, which is scheduled to be released later this year. This marks the return of video game world, aka the “Gamerverse,” to comics, as it previously appeared in the Spider-Verse crossover series Spider-Geddon as well as several miniseries that followed the first game.
Here’s the description from Marvel:
When the story opens, MJ and Peter are back from Symkaria, and MJ has just finished her first book, “Perilous: A Journey Into War-Torn Symkaria.” But unfortunately, sales aren’t going well, and she’s been forced to go on J. Jonah Jameson’s “Just The Facts” podcast to try and drum up support for her book. As their ideologies clash and the interview starts to go south, the Spider-Men literally crash the interview while fighting The Tarantula (a familiar face from Spider-Geddon #0). Miles and Peter wrap up the Tarantula, which also wraps up MJ’s disastrous interview.
As the story continues, we see several worlds colliding in the lives of Miles, Peter, and MJ. Miles, a student at Brooklyn Visions Academy, sees all of his friends solidifying their plans for college—but he is feeling left out. He’s been so focused on other things; he hasn’t had time to think about the future. There are plenty of directions he could go but trying to pick the ‘right’ one is overwhelming and paralyzing.
Meanwhile, Peter is back in Queens, living in the house he grew up in. But he’s drowning in bills. May had mortgaged the house to keep F.E.A.S.T. running during the events of Marvel’s Spider-Man, and now Peter is left with the responsibility of finding a new job in order to make the payments. MJ would make a perfect housemate to help with the mortgage, but she needs to stay in the city for her job as an associate editor at the Daily Bugle. At least that’s what she tells Peter. There is unspoken tension between them, as both struggle to take the next step in their relationship.
On top of all that, there’s a new gang in town, and they appear to be using…magic? Our heroes work together to track down and confront members of this gang, using their super powers to uncover the gang’s leader: The Hood! This new Super Villain appears to have supernatural abilities that defy mere webs and fists. While Miles, Peter, and MJ attempt to balance their responsibilities to the city, and each other, they keep coming back to one of the main themes of this action-packed issue: is magic real?
The comic is written by Christos Gage and illustrated by Ig Guara, and will be in stores this Saturday. Check out the Free Comic Book Day website to find a participating store near you.