Web of Spider-Man Annual #9
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeWeb of Spider-Man Annual #9 (cover date June 1993, on sale April 6, 1993) is the Spider-Man corner of Marvel's line-wide 1993 annual initiative — a publisher-wide effort in which each annual introduced at least one new character, with every polybagged copy containing a matching trading card. The issue is notable for introducing three new characters in a single story rather than the usual one, with the Cadre (Vortex, Shard, and Dementia) debuting as the designated new creations for this title's slot in the initiative. Beyond the lead story, the issue also contains a Nightwatch backup feature that continued the momentum Marvel was building behind that character, who had debuted just weeks earlier in the regular series, underscoring how the annuals of this era functioned as extensions of ongoing character-building campaigns rather than self-contained novelties. As a period artifact, the issue encapsulates the early-1990s Copper Age approach: big-format anthology structure, polybag gimmick packaging, and the ambition — not always realized — of planting seeds for new ongoing characters.
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The issue was written by Terry Kavanagh, who was the regular writer on the Web of Spider-Man monthly series at the time and was simultaneously shepherding Nightwatch across multiple Spider-Man titles. The lead story was penciled by Nelson Ortega with inks by Don Hudson, while the cover was painted by Sal Buscema; a second art team of Chris Marrinan and Keith Williams handled interior sections. Editing was handled by Eric Fein under group editor Danny Fingeroth, with Tom DeFalco serving as editor-in-chief. Marvel's 1993 annual initiative was a loose parallel to DC's 'Bloodlines' annual event that same year, though unlike DC's interconnected crossover, Marvel's annuals were editorially independent stories united only by the shared gimmick of introducing new characters and including a polybagged trading card.
Trivia · 7 facts
- First appearance of the Cadre — three demonic siblings named Vortex (wind powers), Shard (body spikes), and Dementia (hallucination/perception manipulation) — who are the designated new characters for Marvel's 1993 annual initiative as it applies to the Web of Spider-Man title.
- First appearance of the villain Seth Phalkon, the Cadre's primary antagonist, also debuting in this issue.
- The Cadre are established as half-human, half-Hellbent hybrids; the Hellbent are an ancient offshoot of humanity, a concept developed primarily in Marc Spector: Moon Knight, tying this annual into a broader Marvel mythology from that period.
- The issue contains a Nightwatch backup story written by Terry Kavanagh with art by Mark Powers and Hector Collazo, continuing the serialized push for that character, who had first appeared in Web of Spider-Man #97 (early 1993) just months prior.
- Writer Terry Kavanagh was the regular Web of Spider-Man series writer at the time, meaning — unlike many other titles in the 1993 annual initiative — the new characters introduced here had a legitimate authorial connection to the ongoing monthly book.
- The issue was released polybagged with a Marvel trading card depicting the Cadre, consistent with the packaging format used across all of Marvel's 1993 annuals.
- The Cadre did not achieve significant follow-up appearances in the Marvel Universe; they remain largely footnotes to the 1993 annual initiative, one of the few new character introductions from that wave that did not spin off into further stories.
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Reprinted in Die Spinne Comic - Taschenbuch #69 (1996)
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