Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #1 Review

“But where there’s a Peter, there’s almost always a Gwen. And she’s almost always long dead.”

Spider-Gwen is back…but not for long as she gets thrown to another earth, courtesy of Spider-Geddon! Will she figure out a way home or just work on her branding?

WRITER: Seanan McGuire

ARTIST: Rosi Kampe

COLOR ARTIST: Ian Herring

LETTERER: VC’s Clayton Cowles

COVER ARTIST: Bengal

VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Andrew C. Robinson, Paolo Rivera, and Jee-Hyung Lee

ASSISTANT EDITORS: Kathleen Wisneski and Lauren Amaro

EDITOR: Devin Lewis

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Nick Lowe

GWEN STACY created by STAN LEE & STEVE DITKO

STORY: On Earth-65, a recently released Spider-Gwen celebrates her freedom, swinging around town and stopping a mugging. She spots Harry Osborn down below and goes out to have dinner with him. The meal is interrupted when Gwen spots Spider-Ham on a nearby rooftop. He recruits her to fight The Inheritors on Earth-616. The story then cuts to some time later, with Gwen finding herself being tossed around between dimensions. She lands on an unrecognized earth, so she heads to someplace familiar-Oscorp. The building looks abandoned and as Gwen investigates she gets attacked by this world’s Goblin. The fight gets interrupted when this earth’s Peter Parker calls out for them to wait, which allows this gaudy Goblin to escape. Gwen steps out of the shadows and pulls her mask off in front of Peter, shocking him.

THOUGHTS: Here we are-the THIRD Spider-Gwen solo series since Latour and Rodriguez catapulted her into the hearts of fandom back in 2015. Bengal is the main cover artist, delivering a serviceable work of art, but it wouldn’t be my first choice of all the covers that were available for this issue. I’m actually surprised it doesn’t highlight the fact that it’s a new #1 more, too.

It’s an unenviable task, taking over for a creative team that has so defined a character. McGuire does a very good job making the transition as smooth as possible from a writing standpoint. Gwen’s voice feels right and her most recent exploits aren’t swept under the rug in this fresh start. Even the coloring by Herring, while not looking like the work of Renzi, still feels like it’s on Earth-65.

Where the book stumbles for me is the art and the forced crossover. Starting with the art, Kampe provides some flat out beautiful panels…that are few and far between amidst a rather simplified style that seems more suited for a different tone of book and not the rock and roll alternate Earth we are used to. Furthermore, Spider-Gwen’s head shape is often weird to me and her body proportions seem off. Regarding the simplified style, when Spider-Gwen fights this “Gaudy” Goblin, the art resorts to bigger panels with little to no background. As the figures themselves aren’t very detailed, it made those pages feel rushed to me.

While we are talking about the art, I don’t like the design of the Gaudy Goblin (yeah, that’s what I’m calling her) at all. At least Menace was freakish and disturbing looking in a threatening way. This is just an odd mishmash of influences-part Spider-Gwen, part Goblin, and part Black Canary.

I can’t think of many fans who get happy when the latest major crossover interferes with their book. This title has the misfortune of starting off with one and it’s only given any attention for five panels. While that may seem like it doesn’t affect the book then, it actually lays the groundwork for the second half of the issue and makes the read feel like a rather disjointed experience. I can’t fault McGuire for that as it’s most likely an editorial mandate. I think this debut issue would’ve been much stronger if it concluded with the tie-in using a cliffhanger fashion. Instead, we have a weird splicing of three different elements and as a launch book it fails to establish what this new book will be and how it is different from prior iterations. Will it be permanently on the new world Gwen finds herself on? I gotta say, I kinda was getting an animated Spider-Man Unlimited (1999) vibe at the thought of that scenario, which isn’t a good thing.

I did enjoy McGuire’s characterizations, particularly Gwen. I certainly understand her frustration in the second half of the issue, especially after seeing some of her friends murdered in the “crossover”. The brief panel of her with the symbiote tendrils emanating from her hoodie made me wonder if it was possibly taking over and making her rage. Food for thought and a nice reminder that her suit is alive, keeping continuity with the Gwenom arc from the last volume.

Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider is off to a rocky start, but it’s also one with promise. I think once we get the initial arc completed, we’ll have a better idea of where this relaunched title stands. The writing felt consistent, but the art was a step down for me compared to the defining pen of co-creator Robbi Rodriguez.

MY GRADE: C+

JAVI’S HUH?: Why does Gwen pull off her mask to reveal her face to Peter? She’s wearing a symbiote, so why not just have it reveal her face as she’s emerging from the shadows?