Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider #10 Review

“It’s rude, the way you Spider-People keep increasing. You should honestly consider a registry.”

Unable to cure her symbiote headaches, Gwen Stacy is willing to go out of her world to find help! But will searching for a remedy lead to far more danger? Only if you consider a dinosaur made out of Nazi bees deadly!

WRITER: Seanan McGuire

ARTISTS: Takeshi Miyazawa & Rosi Kampe

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 uses tech she got from another Gwen (don’t ask) to travel to Earth-616, in hopes of finding a cure for her symbiote induced headaches. Her powers start to go out once she arrives, but she finds Peter Parker and asks for his help.  As they grab a bite to eat, a dinosaur version of Swarm is attacking a museum. Our heroes save the day and Gwen decides that she should go to school at this world’s ESU. In order to not step on anyone’s toes on this earth, she takes on the name…Ghost-Spider.

THOUGHTS: If I had a dollar for every review I’ve written for the final issue of Spider-Gwen’s series, I could almost buy this comic! And if I had a dollar for every time the “Spider-Man No More!!!” image was paid homage to, I could most likely buy the trade this issue will appear in! Since this isn’t the first time this iconic panel has gotten tribute in a Gwen title, Bengal at least puts a brighter spin on it, having Gwen happily run to her band mates as they are about to perform a concert. Certainly more cheery than walking away from your responsibility in the rain (or snow, as seen on the cover of Spider-Gwen vol. 2 #8)! It is a bit of a misnomer as Gwen isn’t quitting the hero life at all, just taking on a new name!

The issue opens strong with a beautiful splash page  of Spider-Woman mid-flip, taking down a few bad guys. McGuire, to her credit, succinctly recaps three volumes of Spider-Gwen continuity over the course of the opening two pages. It’s a perfect way to look back at where we’ve been as we are on the cusp of where we’re going.

Using dimension-hopping tech from another version of herself, Gwen decides to look off-world for answers to her symbiote problems. What I found interesting about that is she has to prick herself and actually bleed on the device to activate it. I guess face recognition or other biometrics just wouldn’t cut it? It’s not too different than a diabetic having to prick their finger to check their blood sugar, but Gwen has to draw her own blood to leave her world, making the matter no little thing.

More problems arise as Gwen arrives, namely the fact that her powers are now on the fritz. Gwen supposes this is due to the fact that the Web of Life and Destiny is damaged, but we aren’t given concrete answers. Might be time to wear web-shooters again in case her symbiote keeps cutting out! Speaking of symbiotes, I appreciated Peter’s line that he won’t help Gwen “get her brain eaten” by Eddie Brock. It was a fun wink to Venom’s ’90s days.

Once in the 616, Gwen uses the internet to track down what Peter’s up to, a completely useless move as unbeknownst to her, Peter has set up a detector to pick up on inter-dimensional portals opening. It made me happy to hear Gwen say she was seeking Peter out because he is one of the smartest people she knows. That she views Peter this way is particularly impressive given how her Reed Richards is a pre-teen genius who has saved her more times than she’s been rebooted.

As our web-slingers begin to catch up and start cracking on Gwen’s problems, that all gets interrupted by a Swarm attack. No, not a regular swarm, the Nazi-bees-who-can-animate-skeletons-that-used-to-be-an-evil-scientist kind. Swarm has taken over a dinosaur fossil at the museum and is wreaking havoc there, trying to abscond with several artifacts. It’s so weird and I can’t recall Swarm doing something like this before, but it feels right at home in a Spider-Gwen book. In fact, I’m surprised he hasn’t shown up sooner in her title!

It’s not just Gwen who finds the situation weird, as “Dinoswarm” finds it odd and unfair that there is more than one Spider-Person after him. He brings up a good point as we are on the cusp of transition-the Spiders’ numbers keep increasing. A few years ago, we had Peter, Miguel, and Miles swinging around New York and while Miguel may have gone home (but is apparently back in our present again), Gwen ups the number once more, taking on a new name to not cause confusion with Jessica “Spider-Woman” Drew.

I don’t want to criticize this too much (yet) as we haven’t seen the new series, Ghost-Spider, but I’m not seeing the obvious benefit of having Gwen being more of a fixture in the 616. She has a very rich world that will now get less “screen” time as she inhabits one that has plenty of people with spider powers. On Earth-65 she is unique, on Earth-616 she is not. Not to mention the fact that while she thinks she has a secret identity to protect on this world, she bears a remarkable resemblance to the well-publicized deceased daughter of deceased police captain George Stacy. Again, McGuire may have already taken this into account, so I don’t want to carp too much on this point, but it is something I’m thinking about.

I’m not terribly keen on the whole “Haunting Ghost-Spider” code name either. I don’t hate it and I understand the reasons why (both editorially and in story), but it leaves me wondering if she will manifest some new spectral powers of some kind. Having an upper torso that looks slightly reminiscent of a ghost doesn’t quite earn the “haunting” adjective she gets imbued with at story’s end. McGuire laid some of the groundwork for the name  last issue, so it doesn’t feel totally out of left field, despite even getting a mention in Spider-Geddon #5. However, for a title that bore its name on the masthead, it feels like it was forgotten and shoe-horned in at the last second to bring some sense to this volume’s name.

Miyazawa and Kampe share art chores and quite frankly, the issue looks a mess. While I appreciate having the two artists on this series collaborate on its final issue, I’ve yet to warm to Kampe’s style. Some of her panels on this title I flat out adore and others look out of proportion (in a bad way) and almost like they are from a different artist. Often the art feels sketchy and incomplete somehow. I particularly didn’t care for how Spider-Gwen and Spider-Man looked in costume either. Spidey’s eyes often looked too wonky and Gwen’s head was a weird shape, in part to the hoodie.

Props to whomever came up with the Justin Ponsor tribute. He’s done a lot of work across the Spider-Verse, with him contributing to several books I’ve reviewed over the years. His coloring brought so much art to life and I was happy to see that he got recognition not just in the print copies, but digital versions as well.

Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider #10 is definitely a mixed bag. It’s not so much an ending as it is a transition. Whether or not that transition is warranted is a topic for another time, but McGuire does her best to make it all work and be as smooth as possible. This issue was a fun story, but also feels like a placeholder until the new volume begins. The art fizzles more than pops for me, but the coloring keeps up the distinction of the two different earths this story takes place on. In the wake of the departure of Spider-Gwen’s creators, McGuire still made this title worthwhile, a trend I hope continues in the future.

MY GRADE: C-

JAVI’S HUH?: Can Spider-Sense allow you to punch bees without hitting their stingers?

At the end when DinoSwarm is all webbed up, what’s to stop him/them from escaping from the top of the webs? His “mouth” may be webbed up, but there’s plenty of still exposed Swarm that can just zoom off without a problem!