Gwen’s back on her Earth. The band’s back together. Her Earth’s Dazzler wants them as an opening act. What could possibly go wrong? Find out in Spider-Gwen: Smash #1, written by Melissa Flores, penciled by Enid Balám, inked by Elisabetta D’Amico, colored by Fer Sifuentes-Sujo and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Some superhero comics never let you know what’s coming; some reinvent the form. Some introduce new kinds of villains, new scenarios, new art styles, feelings and life situations new to superheroic plots, or at least new to Big Two storylines. Some look or feel like the creators rebuilt superhero comics from the ground up.
Spider-Gwen: Smash isn’t that. It’s the story of a good-looking but awkward blond teen with an ill-managed double identity, trying to be at once a cool kid in a rock band and a do-gooder, with an entirely compassionate but only somewhat understanding dad. It’s the story of how that rock band gets a big break, and how that rock band’s big break gets interrupted, and then derailed, by a supervillain attack. Twice! The first time it’s an introduction to the recurring, sitcom-like situation, and the second time it’s more serious. Hints abound as to what comes next. Honestly, it could easily be a Masks scenario: I’ve run a game that feels like it. And it is, as the Doubleclicks put it, exactly my jam.
In other words: I loved it. Gwen’s back from the multiversal adventures of her recent, guest-star laden miniseries, back to the dilemmas familiar from the too-short (Bring her back for something, please?) Seanan McGuire run. Gwen Stacy lives in the New York City of Earth-65 (aka Earth-GS) with her police captain dad. She gets her powers from miniature symbiotes who manifest as her costume, and generate her web, whenever she wants. She’s into her friendly neighborhood superhero role, but even more into playing drums with her band, the Mary Janes, led by her Earth’s Em Jay, with Glory Grant on keyboards and Betty Brant on bass.
She’s also drawn by Enid Balám with Elisabetta D’Amico, last seen together on New Mutants: Lethal Legion #5. Apparently Marvel likes to assign this team to the PG-13 adventures of plucky teenagers. They’re good at it, and D’Amico’s strong hand makes me trust these kids’ faces and bodies the way I never quite trusted the cartoonier people in Balám’s Hawkeye. I’m in this world with Gwen, flustered and hoping to prove my bona fides as a friend and a drummer right alongside her, and of course I can’t: I’ve got a lot going on at the moment.
That is, our Gwen has a lot going on. First her big indie show in a small club gets taken down by a social media influencer gone haywire, the delightfully conceived, Kaopectate-shaded, selfie-stick wielding Pink Velvet, who dresses like an evil bondage version of JoJo Siwa, and who threatens to sic her lawyers on Ghost-Spider after Gwen beats her up. Pink Velvet (not to be confused with P!nk or the Velvet Underground or the Velvet Monkeys) sought a nemesis to build up her clicks and pageviews, like the television version of Titania. If you liked TV She-Hulk, or Rainbow Rowell’s comics She-Hulk, and you like teen-focused stories, you’re gonna like this, though maybe not as much as I do (i.e. a lot).
What else do I like? The quiet moments between the concerts, between the action sequences, show Gwen trying to take a nap — on the roof of a building! In her Spider-costume! Dreaming of drumming. And the inter-band squabbling, afterward, when Em Jay complains (“Was there a way to keep me from getting stabbed without the webs and the Ghost-Spider?”), and Gwen thinks they’re gonna kick her out of the band, and then they don’t. Gwen’s moments of wondering (who hasn’t wondered) whether she really belongs on this Earth, and whether there’s someplace she would rather be, if not for her dad. Her dad, who supports her emotionally!
And also, and then: the Mary Janes prep for the Big Show, opening for Dazzler of Earth-65, whose band the Uncut Gems includes the Earth-65 versions of Rick Jones, Lila Cheney and, uh, let’s leave this last member as a not-very-surprising surprise? In what must be the biggest difference between Earth-65 and Earth-616, Lila Cheney doesn’t mind playing drums for a singer who’s bigger than she is. It’s the MJs’ second chance or maybe the fourth — who’s counting? — to make it big, their second time in Madison Square Garden, and at least the MJs make it through their own set! Props to them, and props to colorist Sifuentes-Sujo, who gets the spotlights, the stage lights, the half-lit crowd. (This Earth’s MSG looks smaller than ours, but so what?) Readers who want it can immerse ourselves in the show, and feel the crowd noise, and lose ourselves in the beat.
Then we can watch out for this Earth’s Hulk, or one of the Hulks, who wrecks the Dazzler show and endangers the audience until Alison Blaire and Gwen Stacy deploy a new set of team-up moves. It’s a fun fight, Balám’s the right artist for it — speedy, whimsical, fluid — and it turns out to constitute recruitment: Dazzler and her Special Guest in Disguise want Our Gwen to hang with them again, and maybe to take the MJs on tour, in order to catch a bad guy. A stalker. Someone who did something bad.
Melissa Flores (of Radiant Pink semi-fame) excels at writing dialogue and constructs a plot well enough, but not so much with plausible fake rock lyrics: Sometimes they don’t scan, or seem wordy, or otherwise hard to imagine set to a driving beat, or else they mix their metaphors awkwardly, without the excuse of rhyme: “Redemption is a two-way street but you gotta step in first.” Next time maybe outsource the songwriting?
Is this comic original? No, or not much. Is it fun, and well-executed, and worth my time? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes: It’s superb vanilla ice cream. It’s high-quality sugar cookies. And it’s an homage, I think, to … well, let’s just say that Alison Blaire is ready for it. She sings “I see you.” She’s an athlete in a spotlight with a silver bodysuit who announces her “snakelike stare.” She can fill stadiums. She thinks a lot about her reputation. And if I’ve got the plot twists figured out, she might just be the anti-hero. If you’re anything like me, you’ll head swiftly to your local comic shop, dear reader, and ask for it. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Bonus tracks
- MJ, subbing for the unwell Rick Jones, plays a double-necked guitar, one of many instances, going back decades, where Dazzler’s writers or artists treat her as if she played classic rock.
- Who’s the regular bassist for Dazzler and the Uncut Gems on Earth-65? It’s the Earth-65 version of Meghan Gwynn, Pixie! Let’s see more of her. And of Marvel Earths’ Welsh-language indie.
- All the women in this comic have the same body type. Do better, Marvel. Do better, Enid Balám. Especially in a comic that shows beefy guys. If you’re going to organize half your plot as an homage to the Eras tour, maybe pay more attention to the lessons of Miss Americana.
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Stephanie Burt is Professor of English at Harvard. Her podcast about superhero role playing games is Team-Up Moves, with Fiona Hopkins; her latest book of poems is We Are Mermaids. Her nose still hurts from that thing with the gate.
