Marvel’s Darkhold: Spider-Man #1 tells a dark, sinister tale that marries grotesque body horror with Peter Parker’s biggest adventure yet.
The Necronomicon of the Marvel Universe, the Darkhold, has been unearthed, and the dark lord Chthon is coming for it. He seeks the Darkhold to break free of his prison and plunge Earth into a hellish landscape. Scarlet Witch calls upon five superheroes from across the Marvel Universe to prepare for the upcoming fight. But things go awry when the heroes read too far into the Darkhold, turning into evil versions of themselves. Marvel’s Darkhold one-shots have shown a disturbing future for heroes, showing what happens when their actions are too catastrophic to rectify. In this final Darkhold one-shot, Darkhold: Spider-Man #1, Peter Parker meets a similarly dark fate as the world around him crumbles.
Written by Alex Paknadel, drawn by Dio Neves, and with colors by Jim Charalampidis, Darkhold: Spider-Man #1 spins a web of horror, mystery, and malice into an intricate plot. As always, Peter Parker is late. New York City is collapsing, and Spider-Man is too late to help everyone. He’s also late for his anniversary date with his wife, Gwen. No one knows the real reason behind “The Unravelling.” While Mister Fantastic tries to figure out how to stop the event, Spider-Man is using his webbing to keep the city from disintegrating. But since it disappears after three hours the real question is, can Spider-Man keep up with the corrosion, or will his sanity finally give in?
With Darkhold: Spider-Man #1, Alex Paknadel has created a psychological horror that is hauntingly beautiful and extremely terrifying. In this disintegrating post-apocalyptic future, Spider-Man is still tirelessly helping the neighborhood as a hero but the toll that it takes on his mind and body creates an overall tense ambiance. Like Spidey’s Spider-Sense, there is an underlying sinister current whose blaring gets louder and louder as the story continues. The Marvel one-shot places its narrative focus on Peter’s experience. The reader sees what he sees and feels the terror he feels.
Artist Diogenes Neves gives this book an eerily sinister look with grotesque mangled skin and bloody decomposition. Neves gives even the horrifying elements of his visceral artwork a dramatic, cartoonish appearance. He employs bold lines to capture the tiniest of details in every character that appears, lulling the reader before shocking them again. Colorist Jim Charalampidis is the perfect partner to Neves’ artwork. While using a wide range of colors in Darkhold: Spiderman #1, Charalampidis does not forget the goal of this one-shot. He plays with different hues of red to create unsettling series of body horror images.
Spider-Man is one of those few Marvel superheroes whose intriguing origins and malleability as a character have led to tons of stories that are not for the faint of heart. While some have been hits and others miss, Darkhold: Spider-Man #1 is definitely one of the hits that’ll stick in readers’ minds for some time. As Peter Parker swings over his city, his obsessive need to fix things pushes him over the edge mentally and physically, leading him to make some dark choices by the end of the book. A character-driven narrative peppered with horror elements, Darkhold: Spider-Man #1 is a compulsory read for Spider-Man and horror genre fans alike.
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