Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider #8 Review

“I’m still Gwen to you. First, last, and always. Upgraded and awesome, but Gwen. That’s so rare nowadays.”

Gwen goes in search of Doctor Brock to see if she can help with her chronic headaches. Will she find a solution or is she on the road to tragedy for her friends?

WRITER: Seanan McGuire

ARTIST: Takeshi Miyazawa

COLOR ARTIST: Ian Herring

LETTERER: VC’s Clayton Cowles

COVER ARTIST: Bengal

MARVEL BATTLE LINES VARIANT COVER: Nexon

ASSISTANT EDITORS: Lauren Amaro & Danny Khazem

EDITOR: Devin Lewis

GWEN STACY created by STAN LEE & STEVE DITKO

STORY: Gwen meets Harry at Oscorp for an appointment with Dr. Brock, but there is no evidence she has ever been there. Later at band practice, one of the symbiote’s spiders goes after MJ. Gwen leaves practice and goes to fight crime, stopping a robbery and getting a little out of control. One of the would-be thieves has one of the symbiote’s spiders on him and it’s discovered by Professor Warren, who brings it to Man-Wolf’s attention. Concert night for The Mary Janes finds the band rocking, until Gwen’s Spider-Sense goes off. She changes to Spider-Woman and webs up a bomb, but then notices there are many, many more. The bombs explode.

THOUGHTS: A bit of an ominous cover this month, foreshadowing what lies within. I like the odd angle Bengal chose and how Spider-Woman’s hood drapes appropriately. I also noticed that the Legacy number on this is 48, meaning that this volume ends with what will be the 50th issue! Can’t believe we’re already at that milestone!

I continue to enjoy McGuire’s writing on this title. She not only throws in those weird variations on Earth-65, like “Victoria Mars” and “Zoogle”, but layers in characterization and the quirkiness I have come to expect from this book. Her scene of Gwen and Harry walking through Oscorp really stood out to me. Their relationship really shines through as they talk about nothing at all (ice-themed villains, or lack thereof) and how much Gwen appreciates that Harry is still one of the few people who treats her like they did before the bite. That winds up being a big theme this issue, as Gwen also notes how Mary Jane does the same thing. MJ, however, isn’t as kind as Harry, although I find it hard to fault her for riding Gwen so hard when being Spider-Woman has interfered time and again with the success of The Mary Janes. It’s about to interfere big time with the band by issue’s end, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

I’m also still enjoying the manga-esque stylings of Miyazawa’s pencils. It’s a vibe that works well for the tone of this title. He brought a twinge of menace to the panel where Spider-Woman half turned into Gwenom. It was well placed and served as a bit of a shock as you turned the page as Gwen went from playfully mocking, to deadly serious. I also liked his design choice for Gwen’s concert outfit, with the symbiote morphing into a black top with a white spider. Action scenes, in addition to Gwen’s drumming, always have a sense of speed and provide a feeling of energy.

If I could find a fault with the art, it would be in the scene where The Mary Janes are practicing and as Gwen focuses on keeping the beat, Mary Jane starts screaming “Get it off!” repeatedly. I’m not sure if it was the script direction, but not once do we see what MJ is reacting to. A panel or two showing a symbiote spider start to crawl towards and then on MJ would’ve been a great way to build tension and clarify the story. Instead, we just have to assume what happened. If anything, MJ just looks frustrated with how practice is going.

All that practicing finally leads to a show, one with deadly repercussions. It seems like we frequently hear about an attack happening at a public gathering somewhere in the world, so having a bombing at a concert felt shockingly real and I wasn’t expecting it. The scene definitely felt tense as Gwen stops ONE bomb, but her Spider-Sense goes off as she realizes she is surrounded by several others. Her panicked warning to Harry got abruptly cut off and added to the drama. The carnage in the last panel definitely got to me, especially with the “Next Issue: The Aftermath.” text. I definitely felt the impact of the cliffhanger, knowing that solicits have Gwen going to Earth-616 for her new series. Will Harry make it out alive or be a casualty?

This was another solid issue of Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider. We have some momentum going forward with the various plots and I am greatly looking forward to seeing Spider-Gwen FINALLY confront The Man Wolf. Given the destruction from this issue and how the symbiote has been starting to go out of control, it promises to be a real slobberknocker of a slugfest!

MY GRADE: B+

JAVI’S HUH?: What was with Gwen’s pants turning blue for a panel as she changed from Spider-Woman into her civvies? It’s almost like she was going to wear blue jeans and then decided she preferred black instead!