Warning: contains spoilers for W.E.B of Spider-Man #3!
The genius billionaire playboy philanthropist Iron Man has already built the next Ultron, and the design is even more insidious than the original version. Tony Stark may be one of the smartest characters in the Marvel universe, but he evidently hasn’t learned from his repeated mistakes when it comes to creating artificial intelligence. In the pages of W.E.B. of Spider-Man #3, written by Kevin Shinick with art by Alberto Alburquerque and colors by Rachelle Rosenberg, the grand successor to Ultron ruins the life of – who else? – Peter Parker.
Peter Parker has been made a member of the newly-created Worldwide Engineering Brigade. Founded by Tony Stark, the W.E.B. is a think-tank of sorts for people like Parker to create new inventions and collaborate with other likeminded geniuses. Harley Keener (or Iron Man 3 fame), Onome (from Wakanda), and Lunella Lafayette are all members – but after the group accidentally knocks out all the power to Manhattan during a fight, Tony Stark sends the gang on a plane to the W.E.B. branch in Paris.
The plane is attacked by the Green Goblin, the pilots are incapacitated and it’s up to Peter and the W.E.B. gang to safely land the plane (all while Peter tries to conceal his Spider-Man identity from the others). After a rough but ultimately safe landing, the group is met by Tony’s latest invention: the Spider-Bots. These diminutive arachnid-shaped robots are positioned all over the world in every W.E.B. facility, sharing a collective AI network. They can access the internet and they even understand human concepts like sarcasm and humor. And they didn’t lift a finger to help Peter land the plane.
The Spider-Bots are more than capable of remotely accessing most technology on the planet, but for some reason, chose not to aid Peter. Furthermore, they know Peter is Spider-Man; a Spider-Bot in W.E.B of Spider-Man #1 deduced Peter’s identity from his voice patterns alone (and even greeted him as Spider-Man). One AI network was able to achieve in seconds what most characters in the Marvel Universe fail to do even after years of research. Tony’s AI projects have never worked perfectly, and these Spider-Bots appear to be no exception – but any invention in the Marvel universe with the “Spider-” prefix will undoubtedly be tied to Peter Parker, who will undoubtedly be blamed when the robots inevitably malfunction.
W.E.B. of Spider-Man #3 concludes with the team meeting new Hulk Amadeus Cho in Paris – surrounded by Spider-Bots. Perhaps Cho isn’t aware of the potential threat they could become, but then again, the rest of the team is similarly left in the dark. Iron Man seems obsessed with creating new life, but the Spider-Bots are hardly an improvement from Ultron; he still has to fix a few bugs.
