I love it when super-heroes, especially the fun ones, take a break from their stressful lives and have a goofy, holiday-themed adventure. It gives the side-characters time to shine and lets our heroes just have an easier time with them. I'm not looking for a ground-breaking, innovative story, I just want to see the characters hang out and see how they react to certain situations. Such is the case that we have here today. Spider-Gwen is probably one of Marvel's most inviting books to do a holiday story with not only because it's set in an alternate universe (I'll get into that in just a second), but the characters are also fun and relatable, so watching them go through strange experiences is pretty darn fun.
Some of you may be wondering who in the heck this Spider-Gwen is. Some of you may be wondering how others have never heard of Spider-Gwen, though that part is pretty easy to understand. Look, Deadpool may be one of the most popular characters in comics and overall entertainment right now, but for a while, he was just super popular within the pages of the comics. Spider-Gwen, Ms. Marvel, Miles Morales, and characters of that sort are still trapped within the popularity of the comics. It's no surprise that other people have never heard of Spider-Gwen, but it's s shame, as it's a concept finally coming to fruition.
Basically, Spider-Gwen is this: Imagine a world where Gwen Stacy had been bitten by the radioactive spider, and Peter Parker is, basically, her "Uncle Ben" character, where she becomes a super-hero with his morals and fights crime to honor his legacy. Only instead, Gwen is blamed as his murderer and everyone wants the infamous "Spider-Woman" gone. Not to mention a whole host of alternate universe characters that are flipped on their head, like Matt Murdock being the Kingpin, Peter Parker becoming the Lizard, and the Punisher being...well, okay, he's still basically the Punisher.
Spider-Gwen got her start in Edge of Spider-Verse #2 back in 2014 and her popularity sky-rocketed. People were cosplaying as her before she even had her own solo series, and that series took off pretty darn fast. It was subsequently cancelled in the wake of Secret Wars but was brought back to life after the event in the stories we have today. It has an alias of Radioactive Spider-Gwen but retailers still list it as Spider-Gwen so that's what I'm doing. Plus you know what book it is, the only reason they added the "radioactive" tag was because of the STUPID renumbering.
Gwen has had a bit of a rough patch leading into this book and I won't get into that because, honestly, Spider-Gwen is a book for everyone. If you read from the beginning, which isn't too many comics, you can catch up with the story fairly easily. She's only ever had one crossover with the other two female Spiders, Silk and Spider-Woman, and even then you don't need to read that because the events are pretty well-laid out in the wake of the crossover. I won't spoil any events of previous issues here, though they are mentioned, as this issue really does feel like a one-shot. It could've been re-labeled as Spider-Gwen: Halloween #1 and feel just the same, but I don't mind it either way.
I won't say much about the cover because, well, I'm not sure what to say. The subtext tells you what you need to know about who the villain is and it's just the Mary Janes trapped in Mysterio's orb. I was excited to pick it up because this is the first time we've seen Mysterio in any Spider- related business in a long while, and I had a feeling the Earth-65 (Spider-Gwen's Earth) version could be just as goofy as the regular one.
Right off the bat I should mention that this comic features no super-powers whatsoever. No abilities, no abnormal strength or speed. It's all just a pack of friends sort of making their misguided way through Mysterio's lair, which is actually an old theme-park attraction. It's a good concept for the villain. Mysterio is all about special-effects and where better a place to showcase them than as a major attraction to spook people, especially around Halloween?
This comic focuses on two group: 3 of the 4 Mary Jane members and then the fourth, Betty, going off to try and find Mysterio. She brings the comedy to the issue while the others, including Gwen, bring sort of the horror as well as the character to it all.
While Betty gets separated from the group, we really get to slow down and reflect on the last few issues with the girls and see them all just sort of hang out. A lot of the time the scenes involving the Mary Janes are rushed, with Gwen trying to get out of there as quick as possible to attend to her super-hero duties.
Oh, yeah, should probably explain the whole "Mary Janes" thing.
The Mary Janes are actually a garage-rock band, headlined by the always lovely red-head, Mary Jane. The girls are all pretty good friends, despite the rough patches they go through. They're teenagers, and thankfully Jason Latour, the writer, never seems to forget that. If there's drama it usually dissipates after a few spates because they're teens that are over-dramatic one moment and then just fine the next. This issue highlights the sisterhood within the band and how easily they can all just hang out for a night. Gwen is actually the one that's being over dramatic, and she's the one that sort of brings the book down a peg.
The Mary Janes themselves are actually a pretty funny group of kids. They have good quips and make decent jokes. Again, they just feel human, like you know these girls or you at least know people like them. They're the teenagers you want to hang out with at school because they just have a fun presence, and Latour showcases this while they're outside Mysterio's mansion waiting to hear his little spooky story. The treat of the whole group is Betty, who just goes nuts on her own adventure and really makes this a fun, easy read.
There is some strange melodrama that occurs that I think could have been substituted for humor. Gwen finds herself being gassed accidentally and she begins to experience the things she's most afraid of, and it's a bit dramatic for my taste. I think it would have been fine to get a little of that, but not three or four pages of it. Plus we didn't get to see what the other two girls saw, which could have been really funny. Plus there's a jarring shift from Gwen seeing spooky images to the girls being forced to dance or zombies will eat their soul. Wait...what?
But of course you can't have a Halloween story without a little bit of horror, right? Right! Except this is a bit of a horror parody. After all, zombies do appear, but they make the girls dance or they lose their souls. Not very scary. Even Mysterio himself isn't scary, he's actually a parody/ homage! The end of the book really piles on the horror homages, from Scooby-Doo to Stanley Kubrick's The Shining to even the lyrics from Michael Jackson's Thriller playing in the background! I'm sure there are more, but those are the most noticeable. Thankfully they're not all just wasted and all have great comedic elements to them that let the book go off on a high note.
Robbi Rodriguez's art has become a staple to the Spider-Gwen series and it's very much at home here. He draws all the characters perfectly, with each having their own distinct look and feel about them. Atmospheres are well drawn and he does have some pretty spooky/ uncomfortable images throughout, mostly through Gwen's nightmare sequence, that kind of get under your skin and make you go, "Oh...ew..."
If you're looking for either a good taste of the action and excitement that Spider-Gwen brings, or just a funny Halloween story, this is a good book to pick up. It has a lot of humor, a lot of heart, not a lot of super-heroing, but you'll walk away from this story with a nice smile on your face.
Next time, we continue our foray through Marvel as we see the return of a hero long thought lost to the reaches of space...and his son, who is less than happy about what father has done with him. And the Uncanny Avengers stand in his way....
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