Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #10 // Review
A young web-slinger takes a hop over to a neighboring timeline in the final issue of Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider. She’s been having difficulty. The difficulty’s only getting worse. Naturally, she’s going to want to go on vacation...or at least get the advice from someone she can truly respect. The fact that doing so is going to involve skulking around a world that isn’t quite her own is going to be particularly interesting...particularly as it just happens to be written by the talented Seanan McGuire. Art comes courtesy of Takeshi Miyazawaa and Rosi Kampe.
Gwen Stacy decides that she needs help that can only be found in Earth-616. It’s an old place that goes back many decades on this side of the page. Things have gotten hopelessly complicated in 616, but not too complicated for Gwen to have a little consultation with Spider-Man...a consultation which ultimately involves a run-in with a swarm of Nazi bees that have taken over a giant dinosaur skeleton in a museum. It’s not exactly something that any board of tourism would feature prominently in any kind of ad, but it DOES get Gwen a new name. And it DOES get her thinking about possibly commuting to 616 for college with the beginning of her next series.
McGuire ends this particular Gwen series with wit and poise as Gwen and Spider-Man team-up to stop a villain from stealing valuables from a museum. McGuire has a deft grasp of the spider-wit that so often eludes most writers. With Peter Parker and Spider-Gwen, the witty dialogue plays fluidly throughout the issue. The resolution of the actual conflict is never in doubt, so McGuire wisely chooses to focus on the fun social angle of a couple of web-slingers hanging out together. There’s a subtle big brother/little sister thing going on between Parker and Stacy that makes for an intelligent dynamic that should be fun as Gwen moves on into her next series.
Miyazawa and Kampe bring several layers of detail into the panel that allow for depth. Gwen is a stranger in her own home town. The intricate relationship between Parker and Stacy feels well-developed as subtleties articulate in body language and those all-too expressive spider-eyes. Miyazawa and Kampe find smart angles and empathic rendering that give the big action sequence subtle nuance. A couple of web-slingers facts, a giant dinosaur skeleton animated by Nazi bees. It’s weird, weird fun that Miyazawa and Kampe fully embrace.
Gwen’s got a name now. The Ghost Spider will be returning next month in another number one as the Spider-Gwen name is dropped. The future of a character regularly living between timelines has great potential that should be a lot of fun for McGuire to explore in the months to come. She’s carefully constructed a very sophisticated angle on the Marvel web-slinger milieu. It will be interesting to see where she takes it.
