The Inheritors as a unified family were conceived by writer Dan Slott and artist Olivier Coipel for the 2014 mega-event, Spider-Verse. They made their official debut as a group in The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 3 #9 (November 2014). However, their most famous member, Morlun, was created much earlier by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist John Romita Jr., first appearing in The Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 #30 (June 2001). For over a decade, Morlun was presented as a singular, terrifyingly powerful entity with an unknown origin, relentlessly hunting Peter Parker. Straczynski's run established him as a “totem hunter,” a concept that laid the crucial groundwork for his later integration into a larger family. When Dan Slott began architecting the Spider-Verse storyline, he brilliantly retrofitted Morlun's mysterious background. This retcon transformed him from a lone monster into the favored son of a powerful clan, expanding a single villain's threat into a multiversal crisis. This expansion allowed Marvel to explore the “Spider-Totem” concept on an unprecedented scale, making the Inheritors the perfect antagonists for an event that would unite every conceivable version of Spider-Man.
The in-universe origin of the Inheritors is a tale of cosmic ambition, forbidden power, and eternal hunger, centered on the nexus of all realities: Earth-001, later known as Loomworld. Ages ago, the patriarch Solus and his children were mortal. Their home reality was a bleak, post-apocalyptic wasteland devastated by nuclear war. Solus, a man of immense will and scientific curiosity, sought to harness the fundamental forces of the multiverse to achieve immortality and power. He discovered the existence of the Master Weaver, a divine arachnid entity that spun the Great Web of Life and Destiny, the very fabric of the multiverse. Believing that totemic life forces were the universe's ultimate power source, Solus captured the Master Weaver. Through a brutal ritual, he and his family performed a reverse-symbiogenesis, siphoning the Weaver's power and essence into themselves. The ritual transformed them into the Inheritors. They gained superhuman strength, speed, and durability far exceeding that of most Spider-Totems, along with the ability to drain the life force of other beings. However, this power came at a terrible cost: they developed an insatiable hunger for totemic energy and could no longer survive without it. Their greatest prize and primary food source became the Spider-Totems, avatars of the Great Web itself. They conquered Earth-001, renaming it Loomworld and turning it into their personal throne world, a twisted palace built around the enslaved Master Weaver, whom they forced to open gateways to any reality they wished. For centuries, they feasted, conducting “The Great Hunt” whenever their hunger grew, traveling across dimensions to kill and consume Spider-People. A critical element of their survival was developed by the family's chief scientist, Jennix. He created a sophisticated cloning facility that could transfer an Inheritor's consciousness into a new body upon death, rendering them effectively immortal as long as the facility remained operational. This technology, combined with their raw power, made them the undisputed masters of the multiverse for eons. Their only fear was a prophecy that foretold their demise at the hands of three specific totems: The Scion, The Other, and The Bride.
To be unequivocally clear, the Inheritors have never appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They are not mentioned in any film or Disney+ series and have no known connection to the Sacred Timeline or the events depicted by the Time Variance Authority (TVA). However, their core concept—a multiversal force that hunts Spider-People across realities—has had a profound influence on other high-profile adaptations, most notably Sony's animated film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
In this film, the Spider-Society, led by Miguel O'Hara (Spider-Man 2099), fulfills a thematically similar, yet ideologically inverted, role.
* Hunting Anomalies: Like the Inheritors, the Spider-Society traverses the multiverse to target specific Spider-People. However, they hunt “anomalies”—beings in the wrong universe—to prevent the collapse of reality, not for sustenance.
* Preserving the “Canon”: The Inheritors sought to consume the threads of the Great Web, whereas the Spider-Society seeks to preserve them by enforcing “canon events.” They believe that deviations from this canon will unravel a universe's existence.
* Antagonistic Force: Both groups serve as the primary multiversal antagonists to a specific Spider-Man (Peter Parker in the comics, Miles Morales in the film), forcing them to question their place in the grand scheme of the Web of Life and Destiny.
This adaptation demonstrates how the Inheritors' legacy as the original “Spider-Verse predators” provides a powerful narrative template, even when the characters and their motivations are changed for a different story. In the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, the Inheritors do appear in the “Contest of Champions” storyline. This version is significantly simplified for the show's younger audience. They are depicted as servants of the Grandmaster and the Collector, and their vampiric nature is downplayed in favor of them being formidable physical threats.
The Inheritors' singular, driving purpose is survival through consumption. Their entire civilization and culture are built around “The Great Hunt.” They view themselves not as evil, but as the rightful rulers of the multiverse, entitled to feed on lesser totemic beings to sustain their own existence. Their mandate is to maintain their immortality and power by systematically culling the Spider-Totem population across all realities. They are also driven by fear of the prophecy that predicts their downfall. This fear motivates them to specifically target the three key totems—The Scion (a child Spider-Totem), The Other (a Spider-Totem hosting a primal spider-god), and The Bride (a Spider-Totem connected to the Web's creation)—believing that by eliminating them, they can secure their reign forever.
The Inheritors operate as a feudal, patriarchal clan under the absolute rule of their father, Solus. While they are a family, their internal dynamics are fraught with rivalry, jealousy, and a constant struggle for their father's favor.
| Member | Title / Role | Key Characteristics |
|---|---|---|
| Solus | The Patriarch | The oldest, most powerful, and cruelest of the Inheritors. He possesses a deep understanding of the Great Web and is the only one to have consumed the life force of a Captain Universe-empowered Spider-Man. He rules his family with an iron fist. |
| **Morlun** | The Favored Son | Solus's heir apparent. Morlun is the most relentless, focused, and persistent of the hunters. He was the first to be introduced and has the most extensive history with the Spider-Man of Earth-616. He is stoic, formal, and utterly merciless. |
| Daemos | The Eldest Son | A brutal glutton whose hunger is the most difficult to control. Daemos is often the first to charge into battle, driven by a savage need to feast. His lack of restraint makes him both a formidable and predictable opponent. |
| Jennix | The Scientist / The Brains | The intellectual of the family. Jennix is more interested in the science behind the Great Web and their own physiology than the thrill of the hunt. He is responsible for their cloning technology, making him arguably the most crucial member for their long-term survival. |
| Bora & Brix | The Twins | A pair of fiercely competitive siblings who always hunt together. They view the hunt as a game and often bicker over kills, using their coordinated attacks to overwhelm their prey. |
| Verna | The Hunter / Beastmaster | Verna prefers to use her “Hounds”—often captured and broken variants of Kraven the Hunter—to track and corner her prey before she moves in for the kill. She is cunning and enjoys the psychological terror she inflicts. |
| **Karn** | The Outcast / The Builder | The youngest son and the most reluctant of the hunters. Disfavored by his mother for being “imperfect,” he was forced to wear a forging helmet and create weapons for his family. His internal conflict and sense of honor eventually lead him to betray his family and join the Spider-Army. |
All members of the Inheritors share a core set of powers derived from their connection to the Master Weaver.
Despite their immense power, the Inheritors have several critical vulnerabilities.
Since the Inheritors do not exist in the MCU, there is no direct comparison of their powers or structure. In the Ultimate Spider-Man animated series, their powers are simplified. They are shown as powerful brawlers with enhanced strength and durability but their life-draining abilities are heavily de-emphasized. Their reliance on cloning and their weakness to radiation are not mentioned, streamlining them into more conventional “heavy-hitter” villains for the show's format.
The Inheritors do not form alliances; they enslave and subjugate. Their relationships are purely based on utility.
The Inheritors have only one affiliation: their own family clan. Their base of operations, Loomworld (Earth-001), serves as the capital of their multiversal empire. It is the Nexus of the Great Web, a reality from which all other universes can be accessed. Before its liberation, it was a grim, gothic fortress world, decorated with the spoils of their hunts and centered around the captive Master Weaver. After their defeat in Spider-Geddon, Loomworld became the headquarters for the Warriors of the Great Web, a multiversal team of Spider-Heroes dedicated to protecting realities.
This storyline introduced the world to the threat of the Inheritors through their most formidable champion, Morlun. Arriving on Earth-616, Morlun hunted Peter Parker with an unstoppable determination that pushed Spider-Man to his absolute physical and mental limits. The story established the core concepts of totems and the unique nature of Spider-Man as a pure avatar. Peter was brutally beaten in their first encounters, forced to recognize that brute force was useless. He ultimately defeated Morlun not by overpowering him, but by outsmarting him. Knowing Morlun needed to feed on “pure” spider essence, Peter injected himself with a dose of radiation, poisoning himself. When Morlun attempted to feed, the radiation overloaded and disintegrated him. This victory was temporary, but it established the critical weakness that would be exploited years later.
This was the main event that introduced the full Inheritor family and the scope of their threat. Led by Solus, the family begins “The Great Hunt” across the multiverse, aiming to exterminate all Spider-Totems to prevent the prophecy of their downfall. The storyline is a brutal tour of the multiverse, showing the Inheritors effortlessly killing dozens of alternate Spider-Men, including fan-favorites like the Spider-Man from the 1980s Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends cartoon. Peter Parker of Earth-616, having learned of the threat, becomes a key leader in the resistance, gathering a Spider-Army from across dimensions. The Inheritors' arc in the story saw them at the peak of their power, with Solus killing the cosmic-level Captain Universe Spider-Man to prove their dominance. The Spider-Army's victory was a hard-won, strategic effort. They discovered the Inheritors' cloning vats on Loomworld and realized killing them was only a temporary solution. The final plan involved luring the entire family to Earth-3145, a desolate, radioactive wasteland toxic to them, and stranding them there by destroying the teleporter they used to arrive. They were left trapped, starving, and unable to escape.
A direct sequel, Spider-Geddon sees the Inheritors find a way to escape their prison. Using a defunct Spider-Bot, they transmit a signal that allows the Superior Octopus (Otto Octavius in a new body) to unwittingly create new clone bodies for them on Earth-616. Reborn and free, the Inheritors begin their hunt anew, this time with the goal of making Earth-616 their new Loomworld. The story follows a new, more fractured Spider-Army trying to stop them. A key conflict among the heroes is whether to kill the Inheritors for good or find another way. The climax subverts expectations. Instead of killing them, the Spider-Army uses the same cloning technology to resurrect Solus in an infant body, and then uses a reverse-life-force drain to de-age the rest of the family into babies. Stripped of their powers and memories, the infant Inheritors are given a second chance, adopted by Spider-Ma'am (Aunt May from a different reality) to be raised with love and compassion, finally ending their reign of terror.
The Inheritors, as a singular family unit, are unique to the comics. However, their role as multiversal predators of the Great Web has been adapted and reinterpreted in other media.