Edge of Spider-Verse #2 –

By: Jason Latour (Writer), Robbi Rodriquez (Artist), Rico Renzi (Color Artist), VC’s Clayton Cowles (Letterer & Production)

The Story: Spider-Woman, Spider-Woman! Doing whatever a spider doin’!

The Review: Teenage heroes coming into their own? All-girl rock bands? Classic “I-must-but-I-must-not” supporting cast members? Trying to do the right thing, getting hurt by it, and still doing it anyway? This is very nearly a perfect example of a comicbook, modeled, appropriately enough, on the winning formula started by Marvel’s original Spider-Man.

But this is a teenage Gwen Stacy, instead. Logically, her dilemmas set her up against her friends (MJ and the girls of the band “The Mary Janes”) as well as her father, police captain George Stacy, putting all the pieces of formula together in exactly the places we expect and presenting them through brilliant art and earnest pathos.

Several pages were simply beautiful. The art, colors, and letters/production all work together well, from the very first panel of The Mary Jane’s lyrics (and Gwen pounding on the drums on the next page) to the very quiet and poignant moment of Gwen on the rooftop– the music of her phone brilliantly represented by the colors of circles floating behind her. All the lettering, especially the sound effects, have wonderfully organic and natural quality about them. (Reinforcing the honesty and amateur-ity of the hero, perhaps?) Sure, I could complain about a few sequences that seemed awkward, usually when the artist tried to convey Spider-Woman moving through the space of the scene. Both on the platform with one cop and when facing her father, there was not a strong visual flow. And was she dancing/twirling over the body of Alexsei? Overall, though, the expression and dynamism of the characters were clear and strong. I really like Robbi Rodriguez’ style here.

The costume design for Spider-Woman, too, deserves special mention. The color choices are inspired, and the imbalance of the color actually works well. This is a wonderfully contemporary costume that takes advantage of modern-day color techniques and aesthetics. Also, the hoodie offers a visual clue about the momentum of the figure, making it feel like the figure’s in motion (which, you know, *capes* can do as well! Just sayin’.) I really hope this design (or its elements) catch on for a bit.

I also appreciate the expression of heroism by Gwen to her father. It’s not an unfamiliar twist to our expectations, but it’s put in a new way. “This mask is my badge now. If I don’t define what it means, monsters like [Alexsei] will.” It’s good to see our heroes motivated into doing heroic things.

I suppose my only real criticism is that it does stay so close to the familiar formula. At least Gwen Stacy here shows a new interest in music, distinguishing her from previous portrayals and making her seem like a genuine person in and of herself. The danger for any Spider-Verse story now will be to offer something new to say without feeling like it’s simply paint-by-numbers.   

The Bottom Line: OK, I get it now. The Edge of Spider-Verse series isn’t actually an “event,” then, right? It’s a comicbook showcase of done-in-one stories that feature alternative takes on the familiar spider-story. In this case, an original offer of Gwen Stacy as Spider-Woman isn’t, actually, all that original in its permutation, but it does what it does nearly perfectly. It’s so earnest and charming and slick-looking that you can’t help but want more.

Grade: A

-Danny Wall

Other Tidbits:
— Notice the new “bump” on Alexsei’s (a.k.a. our “Rhino”) forehead?
— If Matt Murdock is the villain here, does that mean that Karen Page will be Daredevil?