Major Issues: Spider-Gwen

Remember how big Spider-Gwen was when she first premiered in 2014? Cosplay of her was everyone; fan art of her was cropping up around the Internet like a weed that nobody minded, and everyone was abuzz about the storytelling potential of her character. But, it’s 2018, and now she seems like much more of an afterthought than anything else. Does this have something to do with the character herself, or the comic that she spawns from?

According to Diamond Comics Distribution, Spider-Gwen ranked 106th in 2017 in terms of the number of comics sold by an individual series. That’s actually not too bad when you think about the sheer number of comics that were released that year, with new series from Marvel, DC, BOOM Studios, and Image coming out in rapid succession every month. It’s a far-cry, no doubt, from her 2015 numbers, but still a pretty fair number.

Popularity for any character is bound to fade and plateau overtime. I’m sure there are plenty of people who will still go dressed up as Spider-Gwen to conventions and what not, and it’s for good reason. One of the easiest appeals of the character is her unique design compared to other Spider-Men, easily distinguishing herself from the likes of Peter Parker or Miles Morales.

I think people take a bit more issue with the character when it comes to her creation as a side-character in a comic building up to a major event. She was meant to be a one-off, and was arguably one of the first to prove that a gimmick like that can lead to massive success. However where I think Spider-Gwen succeeds and others fail, in that regard, is that she has a backstory laid out for her without having to give it much thought, and the story-telling potential therein is much easier to discover.

Some will critique her for taking up a slot in larger scale of Marvel comics that perhaps a more classic character could take. There have been some who think that she should just fold her stories into the main Marvel Universe and then be seen as a background or secondary character for a different book. However, this has been tried, and it has failed.

Recall Web Warriors, which spun out of Spider-Verse and featured a hodge-podge of various Spider- characters working to save the multiverse. Gwen was a part of that team, and that book basically tanked. Why? Low numbers. Not enough people really cared if they didn’t have a solid anchor to the book.

So, we find ourselves in an interesting conundrum. How is it that a character can go from being so popular and then so forgotten in such a short amount of time? In short: interruptions.

The major plague to the Spider-Gwen comic since mid-2015 is that it’s never been given a chance to have a fluid narrative. We’ve gotten 34 comics (35 if you count the #0 issue, which is just a re-skinned Edge of Spider-Verse #2) and yet it feels as if we’re just now, in late 2017/early 2018 getting the cohesive, flowing narrative that we saw in early 2015 when Gwen first fought the Vulture.

There have been three, possibly four, major interruptions that have given the book major reason to stall and sputter: Secret Wars, “Spider-Women,” and “Sitting in a Tree.” The first, Secret Wars, saw a major hiccup for several fresh Marvel series, like the then-new All-New Hawkeye that probably made people forget about the comic for a little while. That probably injured some of the momentum that Spider-Gwen could have gotten, but the problems didn’t stop there, as just a few issues later we got another crossover, but this one was across three books and a one-shot issue. Sure you could pick up the other comics for a couple months, but for those on a budget, it would be difficult to understand what was going on with the comic.

This proved mightily annoying as the results of that comic still have ramifications to this day regarding where the story has unfolded. Between “Spider-Women” and “Sitting in a Tree” we got a few more issues, but, unfortunately, those felt mostly as if they were filler (good filler, but filler nonetheless) until Gwen and Miles finally got to crossover, which was a six-part crossover, which meant that for two months we had to take a step away from the ever-pressing threat of Matt Murdock as the Kingpin promising a way to return Gwen’s powers to her.

Not to mention that this version of Gwen would be featured in Spider-Man: Clone Conspiracy in a major way that was often referenced in Spider-Gwen, and could give some readers the fear of missing out.

So, in about three years, a single comic has been featured in four crossovers. That doesn’t seem like the best of places to be, and, for a long time, I really considered dropping the comic because it seemed to just be spinning its wheels.

And that’s what has me perplexed now. I’m not entirely sure if this is a comic that’s pretty good or just average, because it’s been so long since I could judge what’s going on now compared to what was going on before, when it was exhilarating and new. It’s tough to say if these refreshing feelings and thoughts I have regarding the series are a result of a breath of fresh air actually settling in for the series or if it’s just nice to have more than five issues of a flowing character arc.

The book does seem to be heading full-steam ahead and there’s been little room for interruption of late, which is what the series needs. It needs to keep up this pace, this adrenaline, in order to keep readers interested. I think the turnaround came when Wolverine and Laura were brought into the story proper, introduced as hunters of Harry Osborn. That added a new thrill to the comic, and created a three-way struggle for the Green Goblin between Gwen, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Hand.  Characters were allowed to be stuck in new, complex situations that we hadn’t seen before.

Since the return of the Green Goblin into the story, this feels like a much more perilous comic, one that has real stakes. Having Gwen lose her powers was good for a time, but really only posed to create interesting situations for her to try and get out of, like when she had to save her and the band from Mysterio without the aid of Spider-Woman. We always knew she’d get her powers back though; however, since this is an alternate universe where it seems almost anything is possible, who’s to say if Frank Castle will live or die for real in this universe? The threat of death and finality for many characters is all too real, which means there are harsh consequences to be had.

The best things going for this comic are its unrelenting tone and execution. The villains of the series seem to be as dark and imposing as the ones in the main Marvel Universe, but with their traits dialed up to 11. In this just past issue, Issue 29, we got to see Matt Murdock finally get into some heated action against Frank Castle, Captain America, and Spider-Gwen, and he handled it as if he were just taking a walk in the park. He’s easily the best villain the book has to offer, and it all stems from the fact that he is the perfect foil for Gwen, and is the ultimate villain of the book.

Matt Murdock as the Kingpin isn’t a new concept; any dark Daredevil fan-fic will probably have him taking over Hell’s Kitchen. But where Latour and Rodriguez’s take differs is that it retains the personality not of the Kingpin, but a Matt Murdock all too aware of his abilities; it’s a man stripped of his Catholic guilt and instead granted the cockiness of any smarmy business CEO. He never takes a situation seriously because it’s been decades since he knows what it means to lose or be on the bottom.

While the sarcastic tone of the comic was established way before Murdock was properly introduced, it feels as if he is the perfect encapsulation of it, and, as such, proves a good foil for Gwen. We’re getting to see now that Gwen is on the path to eventually become this monster, this man who sees himself about the rest and is unstoppable. He’s what Gwen doesn’t want to become, but ultimately may be on an unstoppable train toward that destination.

This arc, “Gwenom” is easily the best of the comic so far, despite the ridiculous name. As goofy and eye-rolling as it is for some, this arc has proven itself to be emotionally gripping and incredibly suspenseful for almost every character involved. I’m not entirely sure if or how Spider-Gwen can continue after this, given where it looks like we’re headed.

Tying this all back to her original concept, too, the design of Gwenom is absolutely fantastic. Rodriguez’s art has been great tonally for the comic, but sometimes his characters and designs are a bit too wonky for my taste. His style is a perfect fit for this arc, though, showing a wild, monstrous, emotionally corrupt beast on the loose in the streets of New York. This is a Venom that has gone wild and it’s fantastic to see on panel.

This design and concept may be what the book and character need to step back into the limelight. It probably received a good facelift from the holo cover that paid homage to a famous Spider-Man cover featuring Black-Suit Spider-Man, but the quality of the book has been great of late to no doubt inspire more readers in it. My faith in the comic has been restored.

I don’t foresee Spider-Gwen reaching the heights of popularity that it had in 2014/2015, but she has definitely earned her place in the world of cosplay. In any group shot of Spider- folk, you’ll always see a few Spider-Gwens amongst the others. It’s fortunate that we’re finally back to a state where the comic and concept can line up in such synchronicity of quality, and I think Marvel and fans of the book are all the better for it. Even if readership is low, perhaps the people reading it will be able to convince others to hop on.

After all, one of the benefits of Marvel Legacy has been that we’re finally getting a hotly anticipated arc for this comic. It’s delivering, thank God, and readers that maybe gave up on it should check it out from Issue 24 to where we are now. It’s not the best Marvel book out there, but it’s back to what it was at the start. This has been a roller-coaster ride of reading, but I’m thankful to be back in the mindset of looking forward to the next issue, rather than contemplating if the next one would be my last. Patience truly is a virtue, friends.

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