Spider-Woman #2 // Review
Jessica Drew isn't feeling well. Typically when someone isn't feeling well, they'll go to a walk-in clinic or see a doctor of some sort. Jessica Drew isn't typical, though. And since she's a member of a particular population in the Marvel Universe, she's going to see the Night Nurse in Spider-Woman #2. Writer Karla Pacheco casts Jessica's adventures at interesting angles cleverly captured for the page by artist Pere Pérez. The darkness that Drew finds herself immersed in makes for an appealing second issue. The backstory is a bit heavy for an issue two, though, making the story feel a bit too beholden to the specifics of Jessica's history to feel all that impressive on its own.
Jessica Drew is dying. She needs to see a doctor, but since she's a superhero with a superhero's physiology, she needs to see a doctor who specializes in treating people like her: the Night Nurse. After a few quick tests, Jessica finds out that her physiology has changed a bit in a way that could prove to be life-threateningly problematic. The good news is that she knows who is responsible for her situation. It's a former employer. He's got a lot of explaining to do.
Pacheco launches Drew's story directly into danger. She has to help deal with a mad Rhino at the clinic before finding out what's happening to her. Once she DOES, Pacheco launches Drew into some intense drama involving experimentation and her body. Pacheco doesn't spend too much time dwelling on Jessica's internal conflicts, which is smart. The page gets just enough of a glimpse of the drama to lead the story through the action. Still, Pacheco's narrative is ultimately submerged in background details of a life lived before the current series's first issue, which makes this second outing feel a bit too weighted-down in the past.
Pérez is handed a lot of backstory to crunch through this issue. There's a lot of past weighing down, in a hell of a lot of text. That pulls the script away from the panels. Thankfully, dialogue-heavy moments punctuate some very cleverly-rendered action. Pérez's work shoots off the page with bewildering energy. A significant action sequence plays out in grids of panels skewed against the page. Pérez gives Drew a striking range of emotion that aids in maintaining the tension even when the action of the issue gets bogged-down in backstory.
Beyond the crazy crunch of the plot details flowing through this issue, Pacheco seems to be settling Jessica Drew into a whole new life phase. It looks like it could be interesting once the pace settles-down enough for Jessica to catch her breath. The trick will be for Pacheco to do this without losing the narrative momentum that she's established in the first couple of issues of the series. With a talent for modulated deftly between emotional drama a bone-crunching physical action, Pérez is a good pairing for her scripting.
