Dr. Aaron Aikman made his debut in Edge of Spider-Verse #3 as a futuristic Spider-Man with rocket-jump boots. This was arguably my favourite Edge of Spider-Verse issue (sorry Spider-Gwen) as I really liked Aaron’s character, backstory and new villains RedEye and Naamurah.

However the issue ended in double-cliff-hanger of sorts with Aaron’s world, Earth-000, under threat from Naamurah and the people she’d kidnapped as well as Aaron himself being cut off from helping by the Inheritor Morlun. However you didn’t see Aaron Aikman die, and in comic books unless you can see the body nothing should be taken for granted or assumed.

Because of this I was expecting one of the various Spider-teams in the Spider-Verse to miraculously turn up and rescue Aaron Aikman just before Morlun could stop him. Of course this would mean he would be unable to help save his world from being overrun but at least he’d be alive.

Aaron’s creator and Edge of Spider-Verse #3 writer Dustin Weaver, who also illustrated the comic, quite clearly had more story to tell when he spoke to comicbookresources and told them that he’d love to explore more of Aaron and his universe’s ‘Green Goblin’ RedEye’s origins.

Yeah! Sure I would. If I could, I’d like to tell the first Aaron Spider-Man story which would include the villain RedEye, whom you saw in one of those trading cards. I barely touch on Aaron’s and RedEye’s origin stories in Edge of Spider-Verse. In my mind there is a lot more to that story.

However the Spider-Verse came and went and no-one rescued Aaron Aikman, so did Morlun kill the Spider and doom his world to the fate of Naamurah or did Aaron Aikman survive? No-one really knows for sure. However in his blog Dustin Weaver does say “As far as I’m concerned Aaron Aikman is killed at the end of this story.”

On that basis I think we have to assume that Aikman is dead, and didn’t get enough of a reaction to continue being a character like Spider-Gwen did. This makes me more than a little sad! However there’s something that could make up for the potential demise of Aaron Aikman!

And that’s the villains in Edge of Spider-Verse #3. Out of all of the Spider-Verse and Edge of Spider-Verse titles, and all of the different universes involved Weaver’s Edge of Spider-Verse #3 was the only one to bother establishing its own specific villains in RedEye and Naamurah, both characters that are considered to still be alive!

Naamurah has to be one of the most interesting new villains to be introduced in the last couple of years. Her tragic backstory, with her mother being involved in inadvertantly transforming her into a villain, and her dark actions, in kidnapping people and transforming them into robot-monster things like her were very intriguing.

If we assume that Aaron Aikman met his demise at the hands of Morlun then we also have to assume that Naamurah succeeded in taking over Earth-000. So what I’m suggesting is that the door in the dark could return and Naamurah could find herself in Earth-616 and become a fully fledged Spider-Man villain. That way Aaron Aikman could appear in flash-backs as well!