MARCO SPEAKS SPIDEY- Spider-Gwen: Smash (2023) #1 REVIEW

GWEN SMASH! Happy holidays, everybody! I am not quite sure if this will be my last review for the year, but just in case, I’d like to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in advance. As always, it has been a great honor and pleasure to read and write about all my favorite Spidey books. And this week, it is a privilege to give some of my thoughts on the new Spider-Gwen title. It’s promising already to be a fun, light, and colorful adventure for Gwen ahead. We all know that Gwen has had to deal with very serious events in recent memory. But now, we get to sit back, relax and enjoy her doing her “rock star” thing, while also still living out her superhero dream… or responsibility, should I say?

OFFICIAL MARVEL COMICS DETAILS:

Published:

December 13, 2023

Writer:

Melissa Flores

Penciler:

Enid Balam

Cover Artist:

David Nakayama

TIME TO FACE THE MUSIC! The Mary Janes are off on a four-city tour as the opening act to one of Earth-65’s biggest rock bands! Gwen has promised the band that this big break will be all about the music. No web-slinging, just drums. But when a mysterious assassin targets the headliner, Gwen begins to wonder how she got this gig in the first place. Featuring new versions of some of your favorite characters!

PROS:

• First of all, I am just glad that we get to see Gwen spend more quality time with her band. Sometimes we forget that she is still a teenager who has the aspirations to become a rock star. And she is well on her way to becoming one. Her band was chosen to go on tour with Dazzler and her crew. And although there immediately appears to be some ulterior motives involved, Gwen nonetheless will get to play, jam and dazzle on the grandest stages of them all. It’s also heartwarming to see the more personal moments that Gwen is sharing with her friends and her father. Her life has been crazy lately, and she has literally and figuratively been distant from the closest people in her life. It brings some peace of mind to witness her actually living out a “real” life.
• In the first issue, we get not one, but two superhero clashes, where Gwen obviously comes out as the winner. While she is trying to focus her attention and energy to living an almost-normal life, things naturally get in the way and the villains always end up interfering with her plans to just chill out and have some fun. But the action was tight, wild, crazy, especially when there was a Hulk involved.
• The art of this book is very rock and roll, and that is really the best way I can put it. It’s a perfect fit for all the emotions and all the action that is squeezed into the first issue.

CONS:

• Without spoiling some of the newer versions of familiar characters that we meet in this first salvo, I just want to say that I hope we get to see them more fleshed out in succeeding issues, just so that Marvel can say they did justice to these names.

FINAL GRADE: A

This is actually the perfect way to end the year. The new Spider-Gwen comic book is a bright sign of things to come, and is proof and testament that the Spider-Verse is not going anywhere in 2024. Spidey fans all around the world are eating well. Spider-Man and his family of wall-crawlers really made waves this 2023, and it certainly looks like they will be continuing their momentum as we begin the new year soon. Once again, I would like to thank everybody here for giving me the opportunity to discuss my opinions on anything and everything Spidey! I am really hoping that the holiday season gives me more time to play Spider-Man 2 on Playstation 5 intently, as I hope to get that elusive Platinum Trophy. I hear that it is relatively easy to get if I just put some hours into it. Moving forward, I am also quite interested in what the new Ultimate Spider-Man series has in store for us, so I am sure we will all be watching that one closely.