Comic Review: Spider-Gwen Ghost Spider #1

Spider-Gwen Ghost Spider #1

Marvel Comics

Writer: Seanan McGuire

Artist: Rosi Kampe

Going for 34 issues, the second volume of Spider-Gwen finished a couple of months ago. Now, to keep up that company synergy, Earth-65 Gwen Stacy is back as the Ghost Spider. Well, she will be, not yet though.

Picking up where we left her, Gwen Stacy is back to being Spider-Woman/Spider-Gwen. She’s served her time behind bars and is back to patrolling the streets and fighting muggers in alleyways. Her night is interrupted by Spider-Ham, who summons her to help with an Inheritor problem. From there, we cut to Gwen falling fast towards the ground on an unknown earth. She finds an Oscorp building and fights a Goblin (of course) before the issue ends.

I like Spider-Gwen. I don’t think she’s the most interesting character from the original Spider-Verse event (Spider Punk), but she’s a cool character. I’m not fond of the “Ghost Spider” name, at least not yet. I haven’t read Spider-Gwen since the final issue came out, but her personality here seems opposite from what I remember. Harry Osborn as well, seems perfectly normal, even though we last saw him fighting Gwen as the Lizard. But I guess he got better. Besides that, this is a good first issue. It is a tie into the current Spider-Geddon even. I read this before Spider-Geddon #2, and I got some spoilers for that, so reader beware. Other than that, it is a nice self-contained story, focusing on Gwen.

The art is good. It’s a definite change from the previous series, but it’s good. I think it’s softer and the characters are less stylized than before. It’s not bad though, I do enjoy it, it’s just… different. The colors reflect the change as well, but less so. There’s still a hint of that pastel/neon-ish color palette, but it’s not as pronounced. The action and movement are good. There are some panels where we see the jumping “in action” and other where she just goes from a roof to the ground without any motion lines or anything like that. On top of that, I like the design of the mysterious new girl Goblin on the new earth.

I like this issue. There’s some definite synergy rebranding to match Spider-Gwen to the version in the Marvel Rising stuff. But it’s not as much as I was thinking. Besides maybe a more upbeat Gwen, this is really a continuation of the previous series. It is a tie into the Spider-Geddon event, but if you’re not reading that, I wouldn’t really worry. Otherwise, this is a good start for the new series.