Ghost-Spider #4 // Review
Gwen Stacy struggles to keep things balanced between two different lives in two different dimensions as she is hunted by a Man-Wolf in the latest issue of Ghost-Spider. Writer Seanan McGuire carves out a little more uneasy narrative terrain for the young superhero in another issue drawn by Takeshi Miyazawa with inks by Rosi Kämpe. With her life between the dimensions settling-down, certain dangers begin to present themselves further in another engrossing chapter in the life of a woman who finds herself most at home hopping between two different worlds.
Gwen is stood-up. She'd been looking to work on some things with a classmate who's stood her up. It's a bit more complicated than a merely missed appointment between two university students, though. The complexity of things is about to amplify as things progress into Gwen's home world...where a certain man-wolf is stalking her. The action lashes out at her from the edges of things. In an issue that balances between action and drama. All the regular installments of work-life-mask balance that a wall-crawling web-slinger is complicated by living in two different dimensions.
Once again, McGuire takes a traditional Spider-Man formula and amplifies it into a world of complexity. Gwen is concerned that she might not be protecting her own world with enough dedication now that she's making friends and taking classes in a completely different dimension. (The chance to defuse a hospital hostage situation is a really refreshing take on traditional street-level super-heroing that serves to give Gwen a really solid grounding in her own world.) Add to that further concerns of an old nemesis that has taken a job as a professor at her school, and McGuire has woven a more complicated texture into the standard type of spider-story that has been brought to the page for over half a century. McGuire's characteristic wit adds a cunning edge to the issue that gives it a distinctive personality beyond the plot.
There's a lot of action and drama going on this issue, but it's the hero at the center of the story that gives this chapter its most compelling visuals. Miyazawa balances the two sides of Gwen's personality with different styles of expression, which give the hero some really charming elements of personality. As Gwen, Miyazawa allows the hero a very subtle body language this issue. So much of her inner struggle rests on her face. Once the costume comes out, she's much more expressive with the rest of her body, and those huge, iconic spider-eyes the Ditko never got anywhere near enough credit for designing.
Events seem to have begun to crash-in on Gwen from both universes now. Gwen's ability to balance things between two worlds is going to live in McGuire's ability to do the same with the scripts. If McGuire can keep it interesting, everything should continue to swirl appealingly around the page. Still, this style of story could easily lose its appeal if it starts to feel like a dull and formulaic variation on the sort of spider story that's been going on for decades.
