Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider #9 Review

“You want to know why this is my city? You want to know why I win and you lose?”

Finally! Spider-Gwen versus the Man-Wolf! Can an injured Gwen focus long enough to stay alive?

WRITER: Seanan McGuire

ARTIST: Takeshi Miyazawa

COLOR ARTIST: Ian Herring

LETTERER: VC’s Clayton Cowles

COVER ARTIST: Bengal

ASSISTANT EDITOR: Danny Khazem

EDITOR: Devin Lewis

GWEN STACY created by STAN LEE & STEVE DITKO

STORY: Gwen comes to in the rubble of her bombed concert. The Mary Janes are okay, but Harry is injured. Gwen helps the first responders tend to the wounded and then heads to the spot where she was ambushed the other night. She releases her spiders from that spot to locate her attackers and then heads to police headquarters to continue her sleuthing. An officer gives her the name “Man-Wolf”. Gwen then tracks down the thugs, who give her Man-Wolf’s location. They fight and she wins. Gwen visits Harry in the hospital and is later joined there by The Mary Janes.

THOUGHTS: At long last, Gwen comes face to face with Man-Wolf and it even makes the cover! I enjoyed the perspective Bengal chose. The feeling of height adds to the danger of the image, making the situation feel more precarious.

Miyazawa naturally continues his stylized manga look, giving the art a heightened, exaggerated feel. Despite this, the opening scene still felt very visceral and all too real for today’s world. It cleverly opens with Gwen’s own perspective, then opens up to the horrors around her. While she was able to protect the Mary Janes, the rest of the crowd wasn’t as lucky and Miyazawa’s splash page showing the devastation sells how awful the moment is. Equally as powerful to me is the panel where Gwen meekly asks someone, anyone, to please help Harry as she carries him out in her arms. She looks so small and diminutive in comparison to his limp body and her exhaustion and helplessness is palpable.

Herring does a fine job on coloring, continuing the mood established by Renzi on the original volume, but adding his own flavor. Night shifts from dark purple to deep blue as Gwen releases her spiders to gather intel. We also get some heavy uses of yellow as Gwen sneaks into PD Headquarters and also when she finally confronts the Man-Wolf. Herring makes this book feel firmly entrenched on Earth-65.

McGuire is on point with Gwen’s banter, be it with low-level thugs or the big, bad Man-Wolf himself. She is both mocking and heroically defiant against someone who out-classes her size wise. McGuire is perfectly able to capture all the elements of classic Spider-Man as Gwen is filled with angst over what happened, worried that the responsibility is hers.

Gwen’s battle with the Man-Wolf is both exciting and unfulfilling. Miyazawa certainly makes the fight look thrilling, with speed lines giving a tremendous sense of motion. The narration that McGuire provides makes it seem that Gwen is exhausted and barely holding on. However, when you break it down and actually look at it, Man-Wolf only lands two blows on her and Gwen does the same. Now, of course Gwen is feeling wiped out-she was in a club that exploded, she’s stretched her spiders thin, and I’m sure Man-Wolf is no featherweight. I was thrilled at first, but when I looked back, I didn’t find as much substance as I thought.

The issue ends with the gang gathered all together at Harry’s side. He’s probably wishing he still had some of that Lizard formula right about now. Well, if he was conscious. I was grateful to see that it appears everyone will be okay, even if Gwen is apparently jumping over to an alternate earth after the next issue. We still have Professor Warren skulking about, too, a plot thread presumably McGuire will continue with since she will also be on the “new” title.

All’s well that ends well, I guess. The threat of the Man-Wolf is over for now, but left me feeling we needed a rematch. Outside of his ruthlessness towards others, he didn’t seem to be that much of a challenge for Gwen. If she could take him out in her current state, she could really wipe the floor with him at full strength! McGuire knows these characters and Miyazawa feels like a good fit artistically, making the big moments count. With just one issue to go, no one still calls her “Ghost-Spider”! Guess we’ve still got one more chance!

MY GRADE: B

JAVI’S HUH?: Where did the rest of the Man-Wolf’s gang go? We only saw two henchmen earlier and their hideout was seemingly abandoned. I swear he had a lot more men!