Spider-Gwen (Vol. 2) #26 Review

“Murdock’s the Kingpin now. He holds all the cards. Pulls all the strings. Anything or anyone who’s not in his pocket yet…it’s just a matter of time before they will be.”

Gwen struggles to control the monster within as she breaks into a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison, looking to get answers out of Cindy-65! What advice can she get from someone who’s taken on Matt Murdock…and lost?

WRITER: Jason Latour

INTERIOR & COVER ARTIST: Robbi Rodriguez

COLOR ARTIST: Rico Renzi

LETTERER: VC’s Clayton Cowles

TITLE PAGE: Rico Renzi, Robbi Rodriguez, & Anthony Gambino

PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Carlos Lao

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Kathleen Wisneski

EDITORS: Nick Lowe/Devin Lewis

STORY: Venom stops the Bodega Bandit’s latest crime, but doesn’t apprehend him. DeWolff continues to try to track her down. Gwen goes to her Reed Richards for help breaking in to S.H.I.E.L.D’s top-secret prison. Once inside, she confronts her Cindy Moon. Ben and May arrive at The Mary Janes’ door to offer their assistance. Leaving the prison, Venom spots Felicia Hardy in her cell, seeing the cost of failing to best Murdock. The Falcon recruits Captain America in the quest to help Gwen.

THOUGHTS: Taking a break from Spider-Gwen in front of a cityscape, we get a glimpse of Gwen being overcome by the symbiote. Not as creepy as the cover to #24, I like the way the suit is slowly possessing her, with the S.H.I.E.L.D. logo in her lens reflecting the story to come. It’s ominous, endowing a slightly sinister look to Gwen’s face.

After lamenting how The Bodega Bandit was one of the few recurring  characters missing from the big 25th issue extravaganza, he makes his hapless return. Latour throws in why he’s always getting away and turning up with the frequency of a bad penny. You’d think he’d really be in for it this time, with a ruthless Venom starving for food, starving for revenge. His pleas (or maybe his little animal sidekick’s imposing presence) get through to the Gwen underneath the Gwenom. Well, that, and seeing a missing persons flyer for herself. She sees her inability to stop being what she has become mirrored in the Bandit and lets him go. His appearance counted for more than just goofs this time, which was appreciated.

DeWolff and her current partner are tepidly on the trail of Gwen. Comparing to where she and her former partner stood on Spider-Woman during the beginning of this series, it’s cool to note the progression both she and Castle have undergone as characters. She is definitely more sympathetic towards George and Gwen now.

Also popping up is Earth-65’s resident Reed Richards. I love this take on the character. He may be a fantastic genius, but Gwen still has to meet the young prodigy at the local playground. Renzi colors the jungle gym a shocking color of pink and as they hang around inside it makes it feel like a web cage that is slowly trapping them in.

In last issue’s profile page it makes mention of Gwen’s Venom suit having “as-yet-unrevealed powers and abilities”. Not sure if this counts as one, but Gwen goes into “Predator” mode, with a nod to Miles Morales’ own camo mode. It’s cool, but not entirely a new idea. Long time classic Spidey readers will recall The Amazing Spider-Man #347, where Venom, stranding himself on a desert island with the Web-Slinger so they can have an uninterrupted battle, makes the symbiote take on the properties of a palm tree and other aspects of the environment to get the drop on the Wall-Crawler.

Em Jay continued her dedication to Gwen this issue, with the rest of the band feeling that they really needed a break from the search. I’m still a little surprised by her commitment to their friend. I’d love to see an issue when this story is over with Gwen and Em Jay building their relationship more. I had totally forgotten about Betty’s relationship with Falcon and got a kick out of seeing her call him in.

Making her first appearance this volume, Felicia Hardy offers some sobering advice. Both her and Cindy-65 seem to be taking the “let it go” route, although Felicia’s seems to be more nihilistic compared to Cindy’s more zen-like approach. Either way, Gwen doesn’t like what she hears. I liked how the shock of finding Felicia there stopped Venom in her tracks. She seemed honestly stunned and then later defeated as she made her escape.

Rounding out the cast are Director Carter and Captain America. Not only do we get a great list of problems that S.H.I.E.L.D. is dealing with (a plague of Thor frogs, a eugenics war on Mt. Wundagore, and a Celestial thumb wrestling match), but it adds to the sense that more is going on in the world than just what issues Gwen is dealing with. As this is an alternate Earth, we don’t have all the various windows as to what else is going on in it like we do a book set in the 616 and this quick little closing scene makes their universe seem more vast and complex.

Spider-Gwen #26 is a decent comic. While it didn’t have the impact on me of the last two issues, the art is stunning as always and the characterizations get some time to flourish. We get a few returning characters who are great to see, but with the feeling of nothing major happening compared to the events of the last few issues, it just didn’t rise to the top for me.

MY GRADE: B

JAVI’S HUH?: The phone number area code is only two digits? Two digits that happen to be the very same as their Earth designation? I see what you did there…