By: Paul Tobin (writer), Clayton Henry (art pps 1-13), Ray Anthony Height, Walden Wong, John Livesay & Paris (?) (art pps 14-24), Chris Sotomayor (colors), Joe Caramanga (letters) & Tom Brennan (editor)
The Story: Red Hulk runs amok….what’s a Spider Girl to do?
What’s Good: This comic succeeds mostly at what (I think) it is trying to do: Show what it is like for a teenage girl with no powers to be a super-hero and deal with personal loss.
When we last left Spider-Girl, she was coming to her father’s rescue as the Red Hulk went rampaging through Manhattan. Mind you, her Dad knew she was Spider-Girl and encouraged that behavior giving her a very different vibe than a young Peter Parker or any number of young heroes/heroines in Gotham City (Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, etc.). What follows is a pretty big punch in the gut. I’m just going to SPOIL it and say that……….. her Dad dies as a result of Red Hulk’s rampage. To say that I was really surprised would be an understatement and I’m very intrigued to see what impact this has on young Anya and her desire to be a superhero. For starters, where will she even live?
I also thought that Tobin did a good job handling the central conflict between Red Hulk and Spider-Girl. Red Hulk’s obviously demented and not in his right mind and while it is unclear what he is after, it has something to do with Spider-Girl. Tobin handles this nicely because she needs to show some spunk (because even unpowered heroes cannot squeal, spoil their pants and run when chased by a Hulk), but you can’t have Spider-Girl taking down Red Hulk in issue #2. There is a story-arc for these sorts of heroes and they don’t get to take out Hulk-class opponents until around issue 20-30.
Even though Clayton Henry’s art on the first half of this issue looks little rushed, I like a lot of the things he does. The best thing is that he isn’t over sexualizing Spider-Girl: no heaving bosoms, no gratuitous panels of her butt, no glimpses down her shirt, no back-arched/chest out poses, etc. That’s gotta be tough because if you draw superhero comics, you’re gonna have to be able to do that stuff because it’s kinda what the market demands. I’m just happy to not see it on a teenage character. He also does some really nice work drawing Reed Richards in stretchy action.
What’s Not So Good: I know that the death of a father is a big, big deal for Spider-Girl’s character, but there was a little too much angst at the end of this issue. Let’s skip the angst because we know that the end result is not going to be Spider-Girl quitting being a superhero. She’ll find focus from her loss and harbor a grudge against Red Hulk.
Tobin is also overusing the Twitter-esque narrative boxes because the Twitter thing doesn’t work for the entire inner monologue of a character. We unfollow people who tweet all of their thoughts. It is a neat concept, but should be used for select thoughts and they should use standard narrative boxes for everything else.
Really? Red Hulk? There could be some good reason that a demented Red Hulk had to be the antagonist in this story-arc, but it drives me continuity crazy. Just this week we’ve seen Red Hulk on an island battling mega-monsters in Hulk #28 and seen him show up in Avengers #8 where he rationally explains to the Avengers how the Infinity Gems are being stolen. How does this fit with that? Why couldn’t, say, Rhino have gone on a rampage? And, while I’m doing continuity complaining, how is Reed Richard here fighting Red Hulk, hanging out the the Illuminati in Avengers #8 and saving Nu World in FF (and perhaps dying)? The Marvel editors just need to do a better job with allowing characters to cross over like this. We all accept that Wolverine shows up everywhere, but I’d rather not see other characters get in on the act.
Despite my kind words above, the art is a bit of a mess. I do like Clayton Henry’s art in the beginning, but it is a little rushed looking and I don’t think I’d ever want to draw any character the same week that Gabe Hardman draws him. The second half of the issue is completely different stylistically. I wonder if someone got sick because it seems odd that a title would already be behind schedule after just 2 issues. I also think that Marvel should just employ a “house style” for the art in a title like Spider-Girl. You’ll never see an big name artists on a title like this and if some newer artist blossoms on this title, he/she’ll be whisked away to draw something else. So, just have a house style and avoid these jarring artistic changes in the middle of the issue.
Conclusion: I really want to like this series and I like the central events of this issue’s story (perhaps with less angst), but it is getting held back by art problems and continuity issues. That just doesn’t need to happen. Swap Red Hulk for some generic done-in-one villain and get some house-style art on this title and you’ve got a solid B. But with those avoidable problems, it slips below average.
Grade: C-
-Dean Stell