When it comes to comic books, no character is ever truly gone. A perfect example of that would be Gwen Stacy, also known as Spider-Gwen and more recently Ghost-Spider.
See, the Gwen Stacy from Earth-616, the one you know form the classic Spider-Man comics, is truly gone. However, Marvel Comics is spread across many Earths, and on Earth-65, Gwen Stacy is alive and well and is even the subject of her own brand new comic series titled “Ghost-Spider.”
The premise of this new series is fairly simple. Gwen can’t live a normal life in her own dimension because of her spider powers. So she uses interdimensional portals to travel to Earth-616 where she can just be Gwen Stacy and leave Ghost-Spider in Earth-65.
“Ghost-Spider #1” serves as a great introduction to the character. We see a bit of her background, with just the right amount of remnants from past comic series. We also get a good idea of her powers, like her symbiote suit made of spiders for example. And of course, we see her relationship with the Spider-Man of Earth-616 that we know and love.
Unfortunately, that’s just about all we see. So much time is spent in this issue establishing the groundwork for this series that we never really kick off any sort of story. In fact, the only action we really see in “Ghost-Spider #1” is in the panel above, in which the two Spider heroes web up a completely unexplained giant rat.*
*There’s not even one of those comic book asterisks that leads you to another block of text telling you to refer to a past issue. It’s really just an unexplained rat.
Sure, it’s understandable that this is a first issue and it’s not just going feature a bunch of actions scenes and not build a story, but the most exciting thing that happens in this issue is Gwen receiving a scholarship to attend college. I don’t know about you, but I need a little more than that to really get into a comic.
Of course, the issue ends with the introduction of a villain that will certainly play a role going forward, but the reveal still left me wanting more.
It’s not all bad though. The character is very likable and her relationship with Peter Parker is fun. Their interaction, both in their super suits and their civilian clothes, is definitely enjoyable.
The art, from artist Takeshi Miyazawa, is also fantastic. It walks a line between modern and classic comic book art, shifting between dark, shadowy panels and vibrant, colorful ones seamlessly.
Overall, I think “Ghost-Spider #1” is a very good introduction to the character and lays some good groundwork for the rest of the series. If you’ve never read and Spider-Gwen stories before, this may be a good place to start. If you are familiar with the character though, you may want to wait for a few more issues of this series to be released before you dive into it.
“Ghost-Spider #1” is available now.