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It’s all been leading to this!

Over the last few years, fans have been reacquainted with  icons and discovered all-new favorites in the blockbuster hit  comic book series. Now, see the final evolution of this saga in SPIDER-SOCIETY, a new limited series launching this August.

From acclaimed author ��(Secret Identity) and rising star Marvel artist ��(), SPIDER-SOCIETY will spin the entire Multiverse into one epic saga! Fans got their first taste earlier this year in a special prelude story in the  one-shot. That action packed tale saw Miguel O’Hara, AKA , attacked by a new army of villains led by an alternate universe’s Gwen Stacy who became the !

Anya Corazon, also known as Araña, is one of the many Spider-People currently webslinging around New York City. Now, however, writer Alex Segura takes her on a new adventure that strands her in the future, causing her to team up with Spider-Man 2099, billionaire CEO Miguel O’Hara�� and the two discover they have similar enemies in the present and the past.

There is no better compliment than saying that only Alex Segura could have written Secret Identity. His historic knowledge of the comic industry combined with a formidable Latinx heroine makes Secret Identity one of the highlights of 2022.

Alex joined Red Carpet Crash to discuss SECRET IDENTITY

The combination of first-class storytelling, scholarship, commitment to character, and the special appeal of the artwork makes Secret Identity more than the sum of its parts. This isn’t just a “literary mystery;�� it’s Kavalier and Clay with a body count. And like Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 2000 novel set at the dawn of comics�� Golden Age, Secret Identity is a book destined to be admired and enjoyed by a readership that’s never cracked the cover of a comic, and for whom the dark days of the mid-70s might as well be the Middle Ages.

In “Secret Identity,�� Segura directs the reader’s focus to experiences �� the experience of being raised in an immigrant family, of working in the comic book industry at one of its low points and of living in New York during a time of both rampant crime and unparalleled creativity in art and music. 

Readers will want to follow her through the twists of the plot till a critical ending moment, when Carmen finally, satisfyingly, casts aside her final mask.

There’s much to love and appreciate here, specifically the inclusion of sequences gleaned from the pages of the actual DC Lynx comics, the inside dish about the comic book industry, and the book’s excellent evocation of mid-seventies New York City. Read it for all those reasons, but primarily for its sensitive treatment of Carmen, a classic example of an “other�� or “outsider,�� and also because it provides a realistic answer to the eternal question of where creators get their ideas. Rather than springing fully formed from their minds onto the page, characters and stories usually develop slowly, the product of compromise, numerous false starts, and a terrific amount of frustration. Here, it’s simply wonderful to see the creators�� ideas move from concept to actuality.

While technically a noir murder mystery, Alex Segura is no stranger to speculative fiction. He’s gone to a galaxy far, far away and written about Poe Dameron for Lucasfilm, and is an expert on comic book superheroes. His next mystery is slated for March 15th, 2022, and is immersed in the comic book industry circa 1975. Secrets, murder, and taut action. I can’t wait.

As the evocative book cover art suggests, Secret Identity brings elements of noirish mystery to a particular setting—the 1970s comic book industry, to be precise. Author and veteran comics creator Alex Segura spins a story of cutthroat competition turned literal: Rookie writer Carmen Valdez gets tangled in a murder mystery when her pioneering female superhero—the Lethal Lynx!—becomes a surprise sensation. Secret Identity is recommended for those who appreciate old-school comics and hard-boiled crime fiction.