Given everything that Jessica Drew has been through, she could use a little time to unwind. But not on a boat. And not during a party for rich high schoolers. Good thing she’s on the job in the first issue of the new Spider-Woman series. Writer Karla Pacheco enters a new chapter in the life of Jessica with the aid of artists Pere Pérez, Paulo Siqueira, and colorist Frank D’Armata. Spider-Woman’s new series does more than enough to delineate her from the rest of the pack in a cleverly novel first issue that mixes time-worn elements in a fresh story.

Jessica Drew blends-in on the yacht. It’s a kid’s birthday party. Everyone, there is dressed as a superhero. Drew is dressed as Spider-Woman. She’s working. It’s a super sixteenth birthday party for the daughter of a wealthy pharmaceutical company executive who happens to use a wheelchair. He wouldn’t have hired her as security if he hadn’t expected danger. He gets it in the form of a couple of invaders in sailor outfits wielding semi-automatics. They might not have been expecting an actual hero among all the teenagers dressed as Avengers and X-Men. Naturally, though, things are considerably more complicated than they first appear. 

Pacheco’s writing has a brilliant economy to it. A profound amount of characterization and exposition filter through the first few pages of a story without breaking the rhythm of an action story. Spider-Woman springs to believable action while earning a paycheck from a very wealthy client. More than rendering a vivid personality for Jessica, Pacheco is introducing a very appealing take on a strong personality. Spider-Woman is a mom now. She needs to be savvy about making freelance money in precise and strategic ways. She may not know exactly what she’s up against, but Jessica knows what she’s doing. 

Pérez has a really strong sense of character as well. There’s subtle attention to detail in Jessica’s body language that brings across a vividly strong sense of who she is under the mask. Given her position in this issue, she would scarcely have reason to cover-up her inner emotions, which makes for a remarkably engaging personality delivered in her first issue. Pérez delivers the action to the page with a charming ferocity as well. The gritty impact of Spider-Woman against a pair of thugs hits the page with a heavy percussion. 

Spider-Woman has had a few series before. Though she’s had her moments, she’s never been wildly successful on her own. Pacheco and Pérez point Jessica in the right direction for a whole new series that gives Spider-Woman an appealing new direction as a rare mother/superhero combination that could prove to be interesting in the months to come. It’s tricky to set a hero off on a new series in a way that feels fresh, but Pacheco seems to have everything lined-up in the right way in the first issue of this new series. 

Grade: A