Writer: Robbie Thompson
Artists: Vanesa Del Rey
Published by Marvel
Review by: Johnny Destructo
Silk (Cindy Moon): a gal spider-bitten by the same spider that bit ol’ Spidey. She was then trapped in a bunker for ten years, without any human interaction.
Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew): previously a super-spy, now a super-hero and recent mother, the eldest of the bunch.
Spider-Gwen (Gwen Stacy): a Gwen from another dimension who was bitten by the radioactive spider that chomped on the Peter from our dimension. Her Peter died in her arms, and she’s in a punk-band named The Mary Janes.
I’ve seen Spider-Gwen appearing in our Marvel Universe here and there, and was confused, thinking she was in her own Universe (The Gweniverse? I dunno). Turns out, she can travel back and forth thanks to a “Dimensional Travel Watch.” Think iWatch, but with +1 to Inter-dimensional Portal Apps. This is important, because most of the story hinges on this doo-hicky.
We start off in the Gweniverse, watching as Gwen is watched and plotted against by a fella in a Spidery outfit and an unknown higher-up. She zips over to our Universe (designated The 616) to get brunch with Silk and Spider-Jessy, but instead decide on heading back to Gwen’s place for alternate-dimension fooding. They fight a giant Super Adaptoid (see also: Giant Robot that can recreate your powers), and come back to get their stuff to go home only to find out that their Dimension hopper thingy is GONE.
Dun-dun-dunnn.
(Turns out the Super Adaptoid was there just to keep them busy while the aforementioned Spidery villain stole their thingy, preventing them from getting back home). Also revealed is the the Evil Mastermind behind this plan: THE—ahhhh, I won’t spoil it for you. But it was a pretty good cliff-hanger.
Now it might not seem like there’s all that much going on here, story-wise, but the delish is in the details. Each character feels fleshed out, have different mannerisms, different speech-patterns, etc. It’s really fun character work that deals with raising a new-born, adjusting to society after being away so long, and just general gossip. And they don’t all get along! I expected this book to be about 3 Spider-Friends, but not so much. Gwen and Silk both seem to be friends with Jessica, but Gwen can’t seem to stand Silk and is kind of a jerk to her. We’ve all been in this situation before, and it reads as fairly authentic.
The one negative I have about this issue though is the art. The brush work feels organic and the figures have movement, but when it comes to the faces, the work looks rushed. It’s a look more suited to a Vertigo title, or perhaps an Image book, but it seems a little out of place here.
Otherwise, this is a good beginning to a Marvel crossover event that I might actually care about!
JD can be found running his own comic shop in Manayunk, PA called Johnny Destructo’s HERO COMPLEX, hosting the PopTards Podcast, discussing movies, comics and other flimflam over at www.poptardsgo.com, and graphically designing/illustrating/inking and Booking his Face off at www.facebook.com/jaydotdeedot.
Follow his twitter: @poptardsgo.
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