Spider-Woman #3 // Review
Typically there are several options open to people who find out that they're working for a criminal enterprise. Alert the authorities and start working on your resume. Things aren't quite simple for Jessica Drew as she finds out a bit more about her employer's sinister nature in Spider-Woman #3. Writer Karla Pacheco deepens the complexity of Jessica's commitment to her employer in a fast-paced adventure with art by Pere Perez. Pacheco manages the right twists in action in an issue that glides gracefully through a couple of major plot points on its way to an exotic locale that reveals an even greater mystery.
Jessica Drew is understandably upset about her employer. She took work as his bodyguard to help pay the bills, but the Pharmaceutical CEO isn't telling her everything she needs to know to keep him safe. And that's not all he didn't tell her. Any employer who is going to fail to be totally upfront about his intentions is also going to have lousy management skills. He's probably not going to have a decent human resources department to properly vet all the people working for him. So it comes as little surprise when they all turn on him and start attacking him AND his teenage daughter. Naturally, Jessica Drew is going to have a hell of a time keeping them both safe.
Pacheco tells the kind of pulpy action serial story that has major revelations revealing themselves in the middle of heated combat. Things are moving very fast this issue, but Pacheco DOES manage a few moments of interpersonal drama as Jessica has a little conversation with the teenaged daughter of her employer. Those moments lend a bit of depth to the action that feels distinctly unique. Drew's flashbacks to her own life before her current predicament aren't quite as effective at drawing the reader closer to Jessica. Jessica's personal flashbacks might be effective in the long run, but they interrupt the action of an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable Spider-Woman #3.
Perez nails the action in this issue. Jessica tangles with armed guards, a trio of shadowy jets, and a few dinosaur-looking creatures. It's quite a range of different styles of action, and Perez makes it all work beautifully. The dogfight-style action is given a sweepingly kinetic motion. The battle with monsters feels suitably savage. In the midst of it all, there are a few moments of reasonably nuanced interpersonal drama between Jessica and the CEO's daughter that Perez manages quite well.
There are a lot of different directions that Spider-Woman could be taken in. Pacheco is framing her as an intrepid adventurer who is thrust into danger against her will. Pacheco's intrepid adventures with Jessica are a lot of fun for the time being. The character is very versatile, though. Given the right momentum, she would be right at home in almost any sub-genre of superhero fiction. Jessica's got the kind of appeal that could make for a long run with Pacheco.
