“I was stupid to think my normal life would be waiting for me. There’s no normal for me. Not anymore.”
Gwen and Harry go out on a date! Will life let that happen, though? What is the deal with the spiders Gwen leaves behind and how are they tied to her headaches?
WRITER: Seanan McGuire
ARTIST: Takeshi Miyazawa
COLOR ARTIST: Ian Herring
LETTERER: VC’s Clayton Cowles
COVER ARTIST: Bengal
ASGARDIAN VARIANT COVER ARTIST: Jorge Molina
ASSISTANT EDITORS: Lauren Amaro & Danny Khazem
EDITOR: Devin Lewis
GWEN STACY created by STAN LEE & STEVE DITKO
STORY: Date night for Harry and Gwen ends abruptly when the waiter asks them to go elsewhere as they don’t want the patronage of a hero. Spider-Woman starts booking odd jobs for her to do and that keeps her busy throughout the week. Harry and Gwen meet for a casual dinner until Gwen gets pulled away to assist the police at the scene of a big accident. Gwen saves two people before a vehicle explodes and lets the police on scene know that she doesn’t charge for the super-hero stuff. Once she gets home, she decides that she’ll turn to Dr. Elsa Brock to consult about her chronic headaches.
THOUGHTS: Bengal’s cover didn’t wow me necessarily, but I did like it, particularly as it kind of relates to the story inside. The civilians in the webbing reminded me of Nate Stockman’s art.
I continue to like McGuire as writer on this book. She carries on the tone established by Latour well and her sense of humor and character fits right in with Earth-65. Gwen’s taking the second to pet the cat on the door stoop, Harry’s mention of braised pork shank being similar to corn dogs, and the fun little odd jobs Spider-Woman does bring a consistency of whimsy and fun to the title.
On the other side of that coin, McGuire is also deft with the Spider-Angst, with Gwen still dealing with her feelings of acceptance, or lack thereof. Being shown the door at the classy restaurant really hurt her after all she’s sacrificed and while the theme of her embracing her gifts and responsibilities has been covered a bunch, it’s a continual theme for Spider-Books and I’m enjoying this new perspective on it, with Gwen as an outed hero.
McGuire also struck a nice balance of showing Gwen’s “work” and “hero” jobs and the delineation between the two. I’m sure I’m not the only one who was reminded of the PS4 game when Luis hired Gwen to collect elevated air quality samples. It’s straight out of the research lab side missions!
Movie allusions weren’t left out, either. I got an Amazing Spider-Man vibe from Spider-Woman rescuing the child from the burning car. In fact, a severe headache occurred when Gwen approached the scene. Could that have been her symbiote reacting to the impending danger from the flames?
McGuire leaned in on Gwen’s altruism and intelligence in this scene, really capturing it in her internal dialogue. I particularly enjoyed her thinking how best to approach the situation and also try and rationalize what to do medically for the injured man. The fact that the cops thought to call her, but were worried of Captain Stacy’s reaction was a nice touch, too. Good thing Gwen refused any manner of payment from her friends in blue!
The spider sub-plot continued to chug along with Gwen finally resolving to go get some help, namely Dr. Brock! I was happy to see this development, continuing a thread from the prior volume and with a character I doubted we’d ever see more of. I’m curious to see how McGuire presents the not-so-good doctor as she wasn’t as fleshed out as Matt Murdock.
Miyazawa continues to turn in some fine work, with an explosive splash page of Spider-Gwen rescuing the two victims of the car accident and an homage to the cover of Action Comics #1. Character’s expressions tend to carry over the manga influence and make for a fun fit for this title. 
While there were no major earth-shaking developments this issue, it still made for an entertaining read with some nice character beats. My enjoyment of this title continues to keep pace in its post Spider-Geddon status and I’m looking forward to seeing what becomes of this life Gwen is trying to build for herself.
MY GRADE: B-
JAVI’S HUH?: What is the deal with the whole code name situation? I’m not complaining that she hasn’t been re-branded as Ghost-Spider, but it seems weird that we’re still talking about the fact that she might want a different name in the story itself. I wonder why the slow play?
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Pandora
Amazon Music
iHeartRadio
Podbean
Amazon Alexa
Player.fm
Listen Notes
Stitcher
No problem. Glad to help.
As to Gwen headaches(I haven’t read the latest issue when I’m typing this, so for all I know this has been answered already), I vaguely recall it being implied that the symbiote would fix Gwen’s powers and then not be needed anymore(or at least not be a permanent thing). Could her headaches be the symbiote becoming more of a parasite to her if it had restored her powers?
Thanks so much for letting me know of my oversight, @Interpreter! I really appreciate it and I’ve amended the review!
Good review. One thing I feel you may want to correct in the future though is that Seanan McGuire is a woman,(as you referred to her as a man). Otherwise, I enjoyed the issue as well.
And I also thought of the PS4 game when she was asked to get air samples.