Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider, vol 1: Spider-Geddon (2019)
Written By: Seanan McGuire
Illustrated By: Rosi Kampe and Takeshi Miyazawa
Genre: Superhero
Pages: 112 pages
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Why I Chose It: Spider-Gwen is a character that I’ve been meaning to get back into, so a new writer seemed like a great place to start.
The premise:
Gwen Stacy makes her sensational return! The Spider-Woman of Earth-65 is picking up right where she left off, fighting crime in her home reality — unaware it sits on the precipice of interdimensional calamity! Spider-Geddon is about to rock Gwen’s world! Finding herself trapped in a parallel dimension as her friends and fellow Spiders are dying — with her teleporter watch destroyed and no way to get home — what can Gwen do to stop the Inheritors from wreaking havoc across the Web of Life and Destiny? And from out of the interdimensional chaos, she must face one of her deadliest enemies yet: the Gwen Goblin! With her life in jeopardy from all sides, is there a reason we’re calling her Ghost-Spider?!
No spoilers here!
Discussion: The concept behind Spider-Gwen fascinates me. She hails from an alternate universe, where Spider-Man’s first love, Gwen Stacey, did not die tragically at the hands of the Green Goblin, but became the hero instead. I feel like there’s a lot of interesting territory to cover there, but while I found Jason Latour’s initial run on the character to be perfectly serviceable, there just wasn’t enough to keep me going past the first few issues. So, when I heard Seanan McGuire was taking on the character, I found myself intrigued. This speculative author is known for her versatility, tackling everything from urban fantasy (The October Daye series and InCyptid series), to portal fantasy (The Wayward Children series), to sci-fi horror (under the pen name Mira Grant) and beyond. How would she handle this newly established Marvel character?
I’m happy to say she handles things quite well. I instantly liked this version of Spider-Gwen. She manages to be fun and quippy without being over the top, and there’s a depth to be found here as well. The early pages of Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider, vol 1: Spider-Geddon show her rescuing a grateful woman from would-be muggers, followed by a brief chat with her universe’s version of Harry Osborn, where she reflects on her recent time spent in prison. I was immediately intrigued by this version of Spider-Gwen and was on board to learn more. In addition, the artwork by Rosi Kampe was colorful and appealing.
And then the crossover jumps in. As you may have surmised from the title, this collection crosses over with the Spider-verse themed event, Spider-Geddon. Crossovers, where several titles come together for a large event, have been quite popular in comics for a while now, but if you’re a trade reader, like myself, they can often feel like you’re only getting part of the story. In all fairness, I feel like McGuire handles this pretty well, by choosing to tell a story that’s mostly stand alone. Over the course of three issues, Gwen finds herself trapped in another alternate universe, where she must help an alternate Peter Parker take down a very different version of the Green Goblin.
It’s an entertaining story, although it feels somewhat sparse. I found myself wishing that McGuire could have spent more than just three issues on it. Instead, the fourth issue of this collection deals with the fallout of the Spider-Geddon crossover, where the the surviving characters mourn their collective losses. And while I did like the different ways that Spider-Gwen’s costume changed as she jumped from universe to universe, delivering news to the family members of her fallen comrades, this issue ended up leaving me cold, thanks to my lack of existing emotional investment in the storyline. And then, confusingly enough, the book ends with a standalone issue that retreads some plot points and dialogue from the first issue in this collection. This inclusion felt like was there to extend the page count of this trade paperback, to perhaps better justify its $15.99 cost.
In conclusion: While the collection feels hampered by its ties to the crossover event (or at least it feels that way to someone like me, who has not read the Spider-Geddon comics), there is still plenty of good to be found in McGuire’s first outing with Spider-Gwen. As mentioned before, I do enjoy her take on this character, the artwork is solid, and the ending promises to have Gwen spend more time in her own universe, finding a new name, and telling her own stories. I look forward to seeing what those stories might be in Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider, vol 2: The Impossible Year, which comes out next month. I hope this can be a version of Spider-Gwen that I can stick with.
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