Ghost-Spider gets her powers from her synthetic symbiote. Knull is the god of symbiotes. Knull came. This can’t end well for Gwen. Seanan McGuire, Flaviano, Rico Renzi, and Ariana Maher deliver King In Black: Gwenom Vs Carnage #1.
I don’t understand how we got here with Gwen. She was a freebie. A stroke of luck. An incredible design with an interesting hook. For a company like Marvel, one that prides itself on strong IP and merchandising potential, she is an absolute win. Films, toys, video games, wrapping paper, sweatshirts, halloween costumes; Gwen is all over them. So why in the world can’t comics get it right.
To give the uninitiated a brief history of Gwen Stacy of Earth-65, she was bitten by a radioactive spider and since 2014 she was her Earth’s Spider-Woman. She joined a band, saved her dad, couldn’t save her best friend, Peter Parker, so now she saves everyone else. Then she lost her powers, tried on an experimental alien suit to get her powers back, got outed as a superhero, did some time behind bars, decided to go by Spider-Gwen, decided to go by Ghost-Spider, enrolled in Empire State University on Earth-616, and was blackmailed out of her home dimension.
This has been over an entire 6 years.
Which brings us, finally, to King In Black: Gwenom Vs Carnage #1. This is the third #1 writer Seanan McGuire has had with Gwen since December of 2018 (Gwen’s 5th series since 2015), and the third time the character’s name has been changed on the cover. It’s part continuation of that run and part tie-in to the larger King In Black event. As a comic, it is as messy as it sounds.
The first two thirds of this book are one long, exposition heavy, action sequence. Gwen fights a Knull dragon. It’s a beat that has happened in each and every tie-in for this event thus far and it’s just as boring here. Regardless of having a symbiote, Gwen is unaffected by whatever nonsense Kull is pulling. The book ends on a beat that adds interesting layers, but might be enough of a swerve that readers who don’t religiously check solicits may be angry.
The work of Flaviano and Renzi helps elevate the book somewhat. Flaviano excels at action and his off model, exaggerated poses work well for a character as kinetic as Gwen. Renzi has been coloring her since day one, and when the neons come out, the title shines. However the art falls flat when there isn’t something to punch and the harsh, event demanded reds really bring down the book. Confusingly, Gwen switches between her classic and Gwenom looks at will, even mixing elements of one another. It’s a real head scratcher that adds very little to the story beyond giving it more mandated Venom content.
Marvel Comics doesn’t seem to know what to do with Gwen. Hell, they don’t even seem to know what to call her. They have a character so immediately iconic that my two-year-old knows her. And yet, they can’t figure out how to tell a compelling story with her. It’s a similar problem that plagues books like Amazing Spider-Man and Miles Morales: Spider-Man. It’s all telling stories about stories they already told. Peter’s book is obsessed with Harry Osborn going evil again while teasing that it too remembers controversial stories of the past. Miles’ book just announced his own “clone saga”, which promises to be more controversial than the 90s event. And Gwen’s? It wants to have her fight her own, slightly different Carnage. It’s hard not to feel like this is rooted in an editorial team that doesn’t care about doing anything except reminding you of another story someone else did better. Gwen is a breakout character in pop-culture. Spider-Man is the superhero. Marvel should be ashamed that this is the best they can do.
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
