Spider-Woman #13 // Review
Jessica is waiting for the babysitter to show up when her apartment is invaded by a super-powered mercenary. The merc doesn’t know exactly what to expect; it’s bad enough that there’s a kid involved. The fact that the kid in question has somewhat dangerous superpowers has everything to do with her mother...who is very, VERY upset as things get rolling in the thirteenth issue of Spider-Woman. Writer Karla Pacheco enjoyably runs Jess through a breezy and witty issue-length chase that is cleverly brought to the page by artist Pere Pérez.
Jessica’s apartment has been broken into by a high-tech mercenary. The merc in question is searching for a 3.5-inch floppy disk, which is odd considering that the story in question takes place in the present day. That disk contains highly classified information from High Evolutionary. Jess is going to try to track her down to find out more, but she’s going to have to wait for her babysitter to show up first. Thankfully, she’s got superpowers that are going to make the job a hell of a lot less dangerous than it might have otherwise been. That isn’t to say that it’s going to be easy, though.
Once again, Pacheco perfectly hits the distinct humor and personality of a single-mother-superhero. Pacheco’s mix of family drama and breakneck action feels distinct and unique in an issue-long chase scene. It would be all too easy for Pacheco to simply allow an issue like the thirteenth in the current series to play out like a simple analog for a Spider-Man action sequence. Pacheco frames the action against the specific personality of Jess in a way that breathes new life into an old chase-the-villain-across-Manhattan sequence.
Pérez has a brilliant handle on the action. The opening splash, for instance, could have seemed quite silly. Jess is hitting a high-tech assassin with an expensive collapsed stroller while dinosaur and biplane toys scatter against a powerful background. Pérez finds a way to not only make it look good...but he also makes it look like it’s the type of thing that’s been used in superhero action for decades. Pérez has such a mastery of the action of an issue-length chase that every panel comes across with extreme fluidity. Pérez also grounds the action so firmly in the detail of Manhattan...then Hoboken and Newark. There’s an impressive eye for detail. It scarcely feels like the chase could have taken place anywhere else.
The challenge for Pacheco and Pérez moving forward is going to lie in maintaining the momentum that they’ve set this issue. The fantastic journey to Wundagore Mountain and an off-planet adventure has settled into a more domestic setting that Pacheco and Pérez have done an outstanding job of setting up. Hopefully, everything comes together for the issues to come. There’s been a genuine sense of character progression in story and art that has been really appealing as an ongoing series.
