Spider-Woman #1 is a cool book, unfortunately being a cool book does not necessarily make it a good book. I know there is a big event going on throughout the Spider books at the moment, but the idea of launching a brand new, ongoing series in the midst of it only leaves any new readers lost.
Let me start off by saying that I love Jessica Drew. She has always played a large role, not only within the multitude of Spider books, but also in the Marvel world as a whole. We have seen her take part in many major story arcs throughout the Marvel Universe and show allegiance to many different groups/organizations over the years.
Giving her a solo book is a fantastic way to dive better into her character and her backstory; a backstory that is lost to many causal readers. You see, while Spider-Woman is a major player in the Marvel Universe, she has often been regulated as a support character. Giving her chance to shine in her own book is something that I am 100% behind, unfortunately Marvel seems to have screwed the pooch with this one.
Above all else an origin story, or in this case, a début number one issue should serve as a jumping on point for new readers. A book should either catch us up on the characters backstory, or at the very least start us off on an all new solo adventure. Regardless of either one of those things, a new book should be about the hero whose name graces the cover.
Spider-Woman #1 doesn’t fail because it’s a bad book, on the contrary. The writing is handled well and the art flows nicely from scene to scene, but as someone looking forward to learning more about Jessica Drew and what makes her tick, I was left wholly unimpressed. Spider-Woman #1 feels more like a filler episode within a larger Spider-Man story and even though this is her self titled book, Spider-Man is the one doing all the major setup. Jessica Drew is once agin relegated to a support role, even in her own book.
Yes, there is a lot of cool things going on and if you have been following along with the larger Spider event, then you’ll be able to follow along. Anybody new to this book , or it’s main character, will only feel at a complete loss for words. Think about it, what if when Stan Lee debuted the original Spider-Man we saw him on panel one riding a dinosaur along with a strange girl and a 1920s version of his character. But wait there’s more! What if the whole story centered around time travel and saw our hero chased by a weird pair of twins only to run into more version of himself? Yeah, nobody would have given it a second issue.
That’s the case here in Spider-Woman #1 as we don’t get anything Spider-Woman. Sure, she’s in the book of course, but most of what happens centers around auxiliary characters that a new reader would have no knowledge about. What makes things worse is that Spider-Man swoops in last second to change everything, having Jessica go on some brand new mission. So after investing all that time trying to make sense of whats going on the book just says, “Screw it” and pulls a 180 on us. Well, you know what Marvel, I’m not biting.
Spider-Woman #1 may be a cool looking book, but it did absolutely nothing in doing what a first issue is supposed to do and draw people in. Hell, the most interesting part of the book is literally ever single other character involved. I want to know what happens next to this new Spider-Girl; I want to see more of Spider-Man Noir; I want to learn everything on the Gwen Stacy Spider-Girl; I want to find out everything on every character except the one that this book is about.
Spider-Woman #1 is a book you’ll want to skip unless you are already invested in the larger Spider-Man arc and even then it does little to move things forward.
About Author
