After a long while, Deadpool and old Hawkeye woke up. Old Hawkeye looked at his daughter and the resting Peter, momentarily confused about what had happened. Only Deadpool, upon waking, sighed with a sense of lingering desire: "Oh no, I dreamt I was the greatest superhero, famous both at home and abroad, even surpassing Wolverine in popularity polls!"
"I thought you'd say you became the greatest movie star."
Deadpool sat up, glanced at Peter, then stood up and patted his butt. "Nah, that's Ryan Reynolds' dream, that loser. Only a guy who can't get a movie made in our universe and is still wallowing in the failure of Green Lantern would dream like that. I'm not Ryan Reynolds; I don't need to be a movie star."
With that, Deadpool took off his mask. "I am, without a doubt, the sexiest man in Canada."
Ashley, seeing Deadpool's face, almost threw up, while Hawkeye burst into laughter. He then looked at Anansi, who was perfectly toasted on the outside, tender on the inside, and completely unconscious. "So, what are we going to do with this guy? Are you just going to keep him pinned down with Thor's hammer?"
"I don't know. The combined might of all the Thor-Spiders in the multiverse couldn't kill him. Just this hammer definitely won't do it." Peter shrugged helplessly. That last move might not have been multiversal-level, but it was at least beyond single-entity. Regardless, the fact that such immense power hadn't killed Anansi proved he was a formidable opponent, at the very least having a huge health pool.
Ashley, who had been watching the whole time, asked a question: "A lot of lightning bolts flew into the sky. Where did they go?"
"I don't know," Peter answered honestly. "I just followed my gut and sent them to wherever they were needed, I guess."
Just as he said that, Anansi woke up. He looked at the hammer pressing on his chest, tried to move it, but couldn't.
"I should've had the Phoenix handle this. She's not afraid of this thing."
"The Phoenix?" Hawkeye was startled by the word. "You guys have a Phoenix?"
"Of course. The Spider-Web Legion is far more powerful than you think," Anansi chuckled.
"I'm (You're) just the weakest of the Spider-Web Gods." *3
Anansi fell silent. He lay on the ground, turned his head, and looked at Peter and Deadpool who had stolen his line. He stayed quiet. Deadpool simply shrugged. "See? I told you. It's always this line. These villain organizations always pull this one, sending one minion after another to give the protagonist experience points."
Peter scratched his head. As long as it wasn't the Phoenix from the main 616 universe, Peter's last attack could at least have fought her to a standstill. But the problem was that if the Spider-Web Gods were indeed "Gods," there were probably more than one, and Peter couldn't fight them all.
Just then, Anansi did something unexpected. He began to recite a rhythmic verse.
"The day is dim, the night is deep. Into the earth, all things do creep. Justice is lost, the Gods' power reaps. The multiverse falls, into the Spider-Web's keep!"
"It's that! It's that!" Deadpool suddenly cried out in alarm, while Peter was speechless. Did these guys really have a Lantern Corps oath?
As Anansi spoke, he made a sudden retching motion. A ring with a spider sealed inside appeared in his mouth. Anansi smiled and left them with his final words.
"Don't worry, 'Patriarch.' We won't carelessly send the Spider-Web Gods to stop you. Every time a Spider-Totem who can shake the universe crosses the multiverse, it causes the Web of Life and Destiny to tremble, weakening the Web's seal on the Hive Goddess. That is... if the Web of Destiny has truly told you who the Hive Goddess is."
With a shimmer, Anansi vanished. Peter's Spider-Sense returned to normal, and it trembled continuously until it gradually subsided. Only then was he certain that Anansi had truly left.
They won't send other Spider-Web Gods? That just means they can send regular multiverse Spider-Totems, right? What's the difference? Peter complained internally. Hawkeye, however, asked with concern, "What is this Hive Goddess he's talking about?"
"She's probably the reason the Spider-Web Gods are recruiting. She's a multiversal-level goddess named Shathra."
Peter then explained who Shathra was, of course, feigning that the Web of Destiny had told him. Shathra was the daughter of Gaea, the most powerful of the four ancient gods. Gaea wanted her daughter to create a celestial map for all of humanity in the multiverse, and Shathra's solution was the Great Nest, a hive-like model where every human soul could grow and evolve in solitude until it eventually merged into the hive consciousness of the Great Nest.
However, Shathra's sister, another deity named Neith, created a superior celestial map called the "Great Web," which would later become the Web of Life and Destiny. In this Web, human souls were not confined to individual hive cells or merged into a hive consciousness. Instead, they formed a symphony of souls through the threads of the Web, each with its own free will. Gaea ultimately chose Neith's Great Web.
Shathra, enraged by the chaos brought on by free will, decided to destroy the Great Web and replace it with her hive to end the chaos caused by free will. Of course, she failed, and her body was sealed beneath the Web of Destiny, unable to escape.
Shathra was a very obscure villain, so why would Peter know about her? Because her story arc immediately followed the comic book event Spider-Verse, after the Web of Destiny was destroyed. Peter, after finishing the event, naturally sought to find out what happened after the Web of Destiny was destroyed, which is how he learned about her.
"A... multiversal-level evil god?" Hawkeye's voice changed. "What would happen if she escaped the seal?"
"She would undoubtedly replace the Web of Destiny with her hive, which would rewrite the reality of the entire multiverse, and all humans in the multiverse would lose their free will. But don't worry, the Web of Destiny is currently unbreakable, as long as those so-called Spider-Web Gods don't go running around everywhere."
Peter added a mental note, Or if someone completes the ritual to destroy the Web of Destiny.
Step one: Find the "Other." Rub his blood on the Web of Destiny so that the Spider-Totems will no longer be hosted by living beings. In the original comics, the "Other" was his clone Kaine, but now nobody had cloned him.
Step two: Find the "Bride." Let the Bride's blood flow through the threads of the Web of Destiny, and there will no longer be any randomly appearing Spider-Totems. The "Bride" was Cindy (Silk), so she was a top priority for Peter to protect.
Step three: The "Heir." This was the youngest spider among all creations. When the first two steps were completed, killing the Heir would cause the Web of Destiny to collapse. The Heir was probably the newest, recently born Spider-temple in the entire multiverse and was a bit random. In the original story, it was the child of a Peter from another universe.
As long as those Spider-Web Gods didn't run around everywhere and they stopped the ritual from happening, there wouldn't be any risk of Shathra breaking the seal.
Probably.
A huge thank you to Anshe Jun for the Lantern Corps oath.
Shathra first appeared in 2002's The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2, issue 46. Her first appearance was just as an entity that specifically fought against Spider-Totems. However, after Spider-Verse, she was retroactively changed into a multiversal-level Hive Queen, codenamed "Spider-Wasp."