Spider-Woman #10 // Review
Jessica Drew has been attacking a whole lot of her mother. There's a small gang of them that are attacking her. It's weird, but it's not anything out of the ordinary of Jess as she heads into a final showdown with a twisted villain in Spider-Woman #10. Writer Karla Pacheco wraps-up an extended story that stretches back to the first issue of her current series with the aid of artist Pere Pérez. Pacheco has a lot of loose ends to wrap-up at installment's end, which results in a bit of a weird rhythm to the issue. Still, Pacheco and Pérez have rendered such an interesting character that the awkward plot construction feels satisfying in its own way.
They're clones. Lots and lots of clones of Jessica's mother have been attacking her, and she's not entirely comfortable with it. Octavia Vermis knows that Jessica knows what's wrong with everything, and she's not going to let her mess it up. She had been trying to raise the perfect daughter through genetic cloning, which went about as well as anyone could expect. Octavia's been a monster that Jessica is going to need to deal with. It's been a long journey for Spider-Woman. She's been lashing out at everyone. If Jessica can defeat Octavia, will she have any friends left?
Pacheco does an outstanding job of balancing Jessica's life between two covers. There is a firm dramatic foundation to the action that opens the issue and a clear psycho-emotional follow-through on the wrap-up. Pacheco's work with the tenth issue of the series is a multi-tiered walk with a fascinating character who really seems to have walked through hell and come out of it as a better person. It's been a hell of a journey for her, and Pacheco has made that journey quite an adventure.
Pérez's action is fun and explosive. Pacheco has the physical confrontations slam into high gear quite quickly. It can be difficult to get intermittent action to shoot across the page in a way that makes sense, but Pérez directs the percussive hand-to-hand with admirable precision. In the midst of it, a massless Spider-Woman is given the opportunity to deliver some very complicated emotion to the page. That emotion cleverly draws the emotional end of the violence to the page, provides a substantial footing for it all. This is particularly impressive at chapter's end while Pacheco is jumping around from subplot to subplot, wrapping-up loose ends. Pérez manages to keep the emotional drama vivid and intelligible throughout.
Pacheco leaves things in a very resolved state at issue's end. This actually comes across as kind of a daring move on her part as every conflict is in some state of finality. She's clearly writing with confidence here. She knows that she's brought fun and engaging character to the page. Jess has been a great deal of fun. She's more than enough to bring readers back next issue without introducing any cliffhanger to serve as narrative connective tissue to #11. With all Jess has been through, she deserves a bit of a rest.
