Nothing like a little chaos.
Creative Staff:
Story: Jason Latour
Art: Robbi Rodriguez
What They Say:
Still haunted by the death of her world’s young Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy pays a visit to the two people who knew him best.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Spider-Gwen comes to a close here, according to the end page from the editorial side, due to that little Secret Wars event. That’s no surprise, but it’ll be interesting to see where things shake out with the series after this. We’re told to check out the Spider-Verse book to follow more of the character, but personally I’m not jumping in on another limited series spinoff at the moment, so I’ll catch that some other day. Which means there’s a few months without Spider-Gwen to read for me, since it’s hard to imagine there not being a new series or a continuation coming down the road after the big event. With the enthusiasm for this book, it’s certainly an odd choice to make, but I can understand them wanting to get the character established some before Secret Wars really got underway.
What we get with this issue is certainly interesting, as it nudges some of the overall story material forward while bringing in a familiar name. With Gwen now back with the Mary Janes, at least provisionally, they’ve gotten the invite to open for Felicia and The Black Cats. While the band is pretty much anti-Felicia for so many reasons due to past interactions with her, MJ at least makes it clear that she’s smartly agreeing to it all because it makes good business sense for the band to get out there and get exposed, no matter what Felicia may be planning. It’s certainly true, though they don’t expect there to be the potential for death along the way. But such is the way now that Spider-Woman is in the universe here. There’s some good band dynamics that plays into this as it moves forward in the first half of the book and while I’m still not connecting with most of the characters yet, since they’ve been light presences overall, it leaves me wanting more of this side.
What we get from Felicia is that she’s intent on a bit of revenge when it comes to Matt Murdock, since she knows he’s responsible for her father’s death – which we get a very well done old school flashback sequences. Using this performance as an opportunity to take him down, since he “took the bait” and came to the concert with the tickets she sent, it turns into a crazy bit of chaos with his ninja bodyguards and her costumed French style cat underlings going at it. That puts everyone in danger, but it reinforces the fact that she doesn’t care. It does let Gwen suit up and try and put an end to things, which is good, but it also puts her squarely in front of Murdock. The two have some solid dialogue where you definitely get that dynamic where he’s an experienced hand at how this should go and she’s got youthful bluster on her side, but it’s an area where you see her making a bigger enemy overall. Not that she could really work with him, but it’s going to make things more difficult.
In Summary:
While not on the list of cancelled titles, Spider-Gwen comes to a close here – for a few months at least. I suspect they’ll return it with a brand new first issue because that catches attention, but like the first issue of this series, it’ll pick up where it left off – which may be confusing for some. This issue has some fun with an old favorite of mine in Felicia Hardy, and I like the reimagined version of her here as a thief in the night that’s also a music star of some sort that has gained real success, even if those we know don’t particularly like her style or ability. The action is quickly chaotic here when it hits and things do feel a bit rushed in a way with what it wants to do, but it has a sense of fun about it. With some little teases early on with Murdock that I like and a bit more with Gwen’s dad and Jean at the end about the state of things considering what he’s had to deal with in the last few months, the connective tissue is there to really build on things. It’ll be curious to see how it all shakes out and I hope we continue to get a book wholly separate from the main universe, since I like the way it’s self contained for the most part.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: June 10th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
