Spider-Gwen #18

By Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez & Rico Renzi

Along with Miles Morales’ Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen has been a really fun addition to Marvel’s lineup over its run and the recent crossover putting these two characters together has given us some great results. Here, the eighteenth issue of Spider-Gwen delivers the conclusion to the multiverse story, featuring a wide range of Spider-verse characters as it explores the potential of unlimited Spider-Men and Spider-Women to maximum effect, featuring the return of characters like Spider-Ham among others.

The comedy brought to the book with the addition of Spider-Ham was really the best part of this issue as it gave us some great humor from the character, with several pig-related jokes at the characters’ expense. Here we see Spider-Gwen, Spider-Ham and Spider-Man working together with fantastic results and it does provide more depth to the Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales relationship; fleshing out their characters nicely for an entertaining read against the backdrop of an action-packed issue. From what felt like an initial forced project to get these two characters together, the conclusion to the current arc really ended on a high, thanks in part to some great dialogue from Jason Latour that made the most out of the situation.

Robbi Rodriguez’s art is great, giving the book a cartoonish feel that really works, adopting a lighter tone to the storyline than what we’ve had had in the past. The added colors by Rico Renzi help flesh out the atmosphere in Spider-Gwen #18 and tonally the book looks right at home with the rest of the many other Spider-titles on Marvel’s shelves right now. It’s definitely got lots of things to recommend about the art, which feels like a welcome addition indeed.

The various cameos are instantly appealing for those who are not quite as invested in the Spider-Gwen and Miles Morales pairing as others. Seeing Spider-Ham in this book was a really welcome addition as well as exploring the many alternate characters in the multiverse such as one where Gwen and Miles were happily married. It all really explored the “What if?” scenario strongly.

The overall plot was unfortunately fairly by the numbers and ultimately the weakest part of the storyline, but for the most part Spider-Gwen #18 really shined when it focused on the characters and the dialogue. It will no doubt be interesting to see where both Miles and Gwen go from here after the event in their own respective series and how closely they’ll interact going forward, but for now the conclusion to this crossover was a positive one that made the most out of its characters.