Spider-Gwen #1

by Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez & Rico Renzi

A lot of fun ideas and characters were spun out of the Spider-Verse event. None received more buzz than Spider-Gwen. Spider-Gwen is another universe’s Spider-Woman in which Gwen Stacey was bitten by the radioactive spider instead of Peter Parker. Now that Spider-Verse is over, Gwen is back in her world, but that doesn’t make things any easier for her.

Jason Latour who is primarily known for his art, handles the writing duties on Spider-Gwen. Latour seems to just enjoy exploring a newer character in a different version of the Marvel Universe. Readers who may have not paid attention to the Spider-Verse stories can still pick up pretty easily on Gwen’s predicament. Taking a one-off character from an event and giving her a solo series based purely off such a positive fan reaction doesn’t happen often. Latour was able to not only prove he has writing chops, but he delivered the goods for the much hyped Spider-Gwen.

Robbi Rodriguez got a lot of well deserved attention for his work on FBP for Vertigo Comics. So when he was announced as the artist for Spider-Gwen, that alone got people even more excited for this series. Rodriguez exceeds expectations in this first issue of Spider-Gwen. This whole issue had a loose quality while still having every panel look so finely detailed. This playful style from Rodriguez is pitch perfect for both this story and Gwen’s offbeat universe. The other half of the amazing visuals in Spider-Gwen is Rico Renzi’s color palette. Renzi uses so many different lively colors that sets the tone for Gwen’s world. The entire confrontation between Gwen and the Vulture looked fantastic and showed how well this art team can tell a story.

There was a lot of hype going into this character and series and this creative team delivers on those expectations. Even readers who may not enjoy reimagined characters will be pleasantly surprised by what Latour, Rodriguez and Renzi have done with Spider-Gwen. Fans usually complain about what either Marvel or DC do wrong, but Spider-Gwen is an example of what they do right. Marvel listened to fans, took them seriously, got great creators and gave readers a great story.