Gwen Stacy is officially a resident of Earth-616, for good. What does that mean for her, though? Find out in Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider #1, written by Stephanie Phillips, drawn by Federica Mancin, colored by Matt Milla and lettered by Ariana Maher.
After nearly a decade since her debut, Marvel Comics doesn’t seem to know what to do with Spider-Gwen. With multiverses being SO hot right now, a new creative team might have found the right balance.
We all know Gwen Stacy. On Earth-616, she was the love of young Peter Parker’s life before her tragic death. On Earth-65, she was bitten by the radioactive spider that gave her the abilities of a spider and became Spider-Woman. Now, Spider-Woman is on Earth-616, seemingly permanently, as part of some sort of multiversal witness protection program, and under strict orders to not put on the costume or use her powers.
Being a Spider-hero, you can imagine how well that goes.
I liked this issue quite a bit.
The art from Mancin is good, and much closer to the more energetic and stylized art in Gwen’s original stories. Even in the slower moments, she makes sure to use more out-of-the-ordinary points of view, and the action beats sing. Milla even uses a lot of the same pastel-ish palette Rico Renzi used in the original series, without fully embracing it in a way that would make it seem out of place in a Prime Earth series.
Even better, Phillips finds a way to put Gwen firmly on Earth-616. It feels like a plot device, for sure, but it’s a plot device with purpose and reason. If we HAVE to use the multiverse, using a unique take like “you’re in alternate universe witness protection” allows the story to get away from the other multiverse tropes, and use story trappings that are closer to fugitive crime stories versus convoluted sci-fi.
And finally, even though this is the element that probably was the weakest for me, we FINALLY get an origin for the Ghost-Spider name that makes sense. Marvel has been trying to make fetch happen with that alternate moniker for Gwen for years now, and this is the first time that I actually felt it worked, at least a little. Internally, Gwen feels like a ghost on an Earth where she’s been dead for years, and her superheroing made her appear and disappear as such.
THAT MAKES SENSE.
For the first time since the original Spider-Gwen run ended, I’m actually interested in Gwen Stacy’s ongoing adventures. The witness protection mystery is interesting — especially because this is a mystery box that’s actually a mystery to the main character and not just us readers. Her internal conflict is well developed. This is a unique book in the Spider-Man line that isn’t just trying to force Gwen into a corporate-mandated box.
Let’s see where it goes from here!
Buy Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #1 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
