Spider-Island: The Amazing Spider-Girl #1 Review

Straight-up Boring Tidbit: There seems to be some confusion about the actual title of this issue. The cover itself and checklists call it “Spider-Island: Spider-Girl”, yet solicitations and publishing info refer to it as “Spider-Island: The Amazing Spider-Girl.” I’m using the latter for the lulz.

Spider-Island: The Amazing Spider-Girl #1

“Class Warfare”

Writer: Paul Tobin
Artists: Pepe Larraz
Colorist: Andres Mossa
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Cover Artists: Patrick Zircher & Andy Troy

***WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD***

The Plot: Anya Corazon and Rocky Flint are leaving early from school, shut down for the day due to the bed bug infestation causing people to have Spider powers. As they walk home, they are assaulted by humanoid wasps, whom Anya recognizes as members of the Society of the Wasp. She grabs Rocky and swings away to safety, not too concerned for exposing her secret identity. Revealing that she was once Araña and her history with both the Society of the Wasp and the Spider Society, Anya suits up and has Rocky go home while she goes deal with the Wasps. As she swings to battle, Spider-Girl runs into The Hand (ninjas which are now under the Kingpin’s control) and eludes them only for the Wasps to get the jump on her. However, she is surprised to find that the Hand have sworn to protect her. As ninjas and wasps fight each other, Spider-Girl notices bystanders caught in the skirmish and saves them. Soon after, Hobgoblin shows up and stuns the Wasps and the ninjas with his sonic scream. He then drags Spider-Girl back to Wilson Fisk’s condo, where the Kingpin offers Anya to work for him. She refuses and tries to fight him, but he easily fends her off. He tells her that the Society of the Wasp is hunting spiders, and as he crawls up a wall, he claims they have too much in common and calls her by her name Anya.

The Good: The prompt announcement of a Spider-Island mini featuring Anya Corazon, soon after the cancelation of her ongoing series, leads me to believe that this issue could’ve easily been #9 of that series. There is a sense of continuity from where the last issue of that ongoing left off, with Anya having recently reacquired her powers but not fully familiar to the extent and limits of them. This means that the issue dives right into the story without getting too bogged down by bringing the reader up to speed. I liked this, because more likely than not the people who will be getting this issue are probably the ones who were getting the ongoing series to begin with (if the ongoing failed, I can’t see many new readers jumping at the opportunity to pick the mini now).

To thank for that sense of continuity is regular Spider-Girl writer Paul Tobin. He has her do exactly what she’s been doing from day one: save unwitting people from becoming collateral damage to the bigger threats (that whole “people person” thing). I picked up on that and thought it was a nice touch. Instead of the Henry/Cariello team from previous issues we have Pepe Larraz as artist. Taking Sotomayor’s place is Andres Mossa as colorist. I liked the art. Yeah, some of the facial expressions are weird but overall I liked his designs and how lively his panels are. Some artists strive for realism, and that’s cool and all, but I like it when artists strive more to be dynamic in their art. I liked Mossa’s coloring as well, though I wonder why it seems like orange is the most predominant color in the whole issue (especially when it’s supposed to be early in the day). Still, it was solid work.

Gone is Jelena Djurdjevic and in her place we have the team of Patrick Zircher and Andy Troy for the cover, which is beautifully done.

The Bad: Unfortunately, I felt the weakest part of this issue to be the actual plot. Tobin brings back the Society of the Wasp, which are antagonists from Anya’s time as Araña. They are far from interesting (though I do find the way they mutter single words hilarious) and are mainly canon fodder as Spider-Girl pummels wasp after wasp before arriving to the cliffhanger. You don’t feel it upon initial reading because the battle is far from boring, but in retrospect the issue is primarily one big battle with almost no characterization.

Speaking of characterization, I was sad that her Twitter feed no longer shows up in the story. It’s not a big deal, but it was a novel way to preset the character’s thoughts to the reader, though I do admit that novelty was wearing off. Still, I miss having some sort of interal narration.

The Ugly: This is the stupidest thing in the world, but I want to address it and am doing so in The Ugly. Anya’s former alias is Araña, not “Arana.” Where da heck is the ñ? Is it really that much of a hassle to bring up the Symbols menu? Why not use a shortcut key (I use Alt + 0241)? I mean, it just looks very half-hearted.

Verdict: Spider-Island: The Amazing Spider-Girl #1, being a tie-in book, doesn’t break any new ground in a narrative sense, but it does a good job with what’s allowed to do. I look forward to see the interaction among Anya, Kingpin, and Hobgoblin, as they team up to face a common threat. More importantly, it’s a fun, perfectly serviceable story, and if that’s what you looking for, you won’t be disappointed. 3.5 Ninjas out 5.

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~My Two Cents