Ghost-Spider #2 // Review
She’s been accepted into college. She’s registered for classes. Now Gwen is attending her first day of classes. As it’s a college in a parallel universe, it’s kind of a weird commute, but the in-state-out-of-dimension journey is only part of Gwen’s worries in Ghost-Spider #2. Writer Seanan McGuire continues to tell one of the more reliably entertaining straight-ahead superhero stories on the comic book rack today with art by Takeshi Miyazawa and additional embellishment by Rosi Kämpe. McGuire and company maintain a remarkably balanced work/life/superhero balance in the issue which makes for another resoundingly enjoyable issue.
It would probably be a lot easier for Gwen to simply live on campus like any normal Freshman. Gwen isn’t exactly a normal freshman, though. She’s sort of a foreign exchange student from another dimension. It’s difficult enough navigating the complexities of making it from class to class in a strange an unfamiliar school without having to commute there from an entirely different dimension. Granted, she CAN avoid traffic by web-slinging to class, but other issues are weighing her down. She makes her first friend in the new reality while a villain known as The Jackal takes notice. Meanwhile, back in her home dimension, the Man-Wolf has been released from prison.
McGuire takes her time getting Gwen settled-in to her new life. There’s a kind of fearlessness in her approach to the full issue here. Practically a quarter of the entire issue concerns Gwen merely making it to class. In the old days of Peter Parker at Empire State, a similar sequence might have only taken a couple of pages. McGuire wields a bit of genius in allowing. That much time with Gwen between direct conflicts. There’s real bonding between reader and hero, in those off moments between battles that can make the action all the more intense. McGuire gives even the more idle moments of Gwen’s life the kind of charm that makes the Ghost-Spider so much fun to hang out with.
Running and rushing and perpetually late. Gwen’s had quite a lot of this over the past several months. Given that it’s been the same artist bringing all of this rush and bustle to the page for Gwen, one might expect the visuals to start to get a bit dull and repetitious. Miyazawa manages to make it work in a range of different action moments. That not only feel distinct from each other but also give Gwen a subtle sense of character development. The rushing around that Gwen’s doing this issue almost seem informed on by the rushing around she did the last installment. Miyazawa finds subtle ways to make her grow just a bit more mature each and every issue. Even as she accidentally crashes into someone in the halls on her way to Political Science class.
It’s way too easy for a hero’s personal life to come across as minor details in the background propping-up the next in a long line of conflicts with colorful villains. Here the personal experience that is so often treated as supporting filler detail becomes a vibrant part of the hero. As McGuire and Miyazawa manage an impressively-articulated progression in the life of Gwen Stacy one issue at a time.
