Title: Spider-Woman #1 [AKA this Spider-quest brings all the Spider-Gals to the Spider-yard]
Writer: Dennis Hopeless
Artist: Greg Land
The Buzz: Mostly the buzz around this comic was the negative kind – because the awesomeness of having a Spider-Woman solo title was marred somewhat by a ridiculous, over-sexualised cover of epic butt-contortion proportions (not shown, no longer used as the default for this comic). Other than that, this is part of the current Spiderverse crossover-multiverse event which has mostly generated buzz because of the fabulous “Spider-Gwen” one-shot.
All You Need To Know: Spider-Woman, AKA Jessica Drew, is at times an Avenger, a SHIELD agent, or a private detective. She has nothing to do with Spider-Man except for the similar iconography – her origin is entirely unconnected to his. However, you would not know it from this comic, where there’s some serious universe-hopping going on between all the Spider peeps. Apparently they’re all one big family now. Jessica is awesome and snarky, as is only right and proper for a superhero veteran. Weary sarcasm is always a character hit for me, especially in a female lead character.
Story: Jessica is on the run through various universes with a teenage superhero fangirl/sidekick called Silk, and a dude she refers to as Prohibition Spider-Man who comes from an alternate 1930’s wolrd. It’s all pretty funny and awesome, even if I have no idea what’s going on. Also, at least four named female characters are active and talking to each other, including Spider-Gwen who is my favourite new character in the Marvel comicsverse. Even feeling like I’ve been dropped in the middle of a weird alt universe action epic (which I have, basically), the story works from here, giving me plenty to hang on to and enjoy. Like giant lizards and space bazaars.
Art: The original cover notwithstanding, I like the internal artwork for this issue a lot – bright and bold and traditional in a good way, just what I want from a superhero comic. The women look like different people, as much as you usually get in comics anyway, and the backgrounds are interesting.
But What Did I Miss?: Honestly, for an issue 1, this one feels like you need to know a LOT going in. I vaguely knew that there was a Spiderverse crossover going on, so I wasn’t overly surprised to see Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman) travelling around with a 1930’s version of Spider-Man and for the awesome Spider-Gwen to show up later in the issue, but this doesn’t feel like the beginning of a series. Maybe read the Edge of Spiderverse books first? I feel like I should have done that. I’m gonna go do that now.
Would Read Issue 2?: Hell yes. It has many of the things I like in a title, and that’s enough for me personally to get over the ‘not knowing what’s going on’ thing.
PREVIOUS ISSUE #1 POSTS
Thor #1 (2014)