Spider-Gwen - The Ghost Spider #12 // Review
Spider-Gwen has just dealt with the Bodega Bandit when she first encountered the Cosmic Cube. It’s one of the more powerful artifact in the whole of the Marvel Universe. More of an Avengers-level threat, really. Something for the Fantastic Four. Not exactly Bodega Bandit-level stuff. The Cosmic Cube isn’t going to check her resume before it enters her life. And now she also has King Loki to deal with in Spider-Gwen - The Ghost Spider #12. Writer Stephanie Phillips continues the saga of Gwen in another issue brought to page and panel by artist Von Randal and colorist Matt Milla.
There’s no reason why Gwen shouldn’t trust Loki. Of course...he IS a god of mischief, but that’s no reason to trust him explicitly. He hasn’t given her any specific reason...lately. And so when he’s telling her to tap into the power of the Cosmic Cube, she might not necessarily have reason to doubt his wisdom. He’s a king now and everything. Doesn’t that mean that he’s responsible now or something? And he’s being so nice to her too. He just took her to a literal utopia called Solara Prime. And it’s not like he would do something like that without being a nice guy, right?
Phillips thrusts Gwen into a fish-out-of-water adventure. It’s not the sort of place where she HASN’T been before. After all...she’s been on one Earth while going to school on an Earth in a parallel dimension. She’s had a lot of time dealing with all the weird, little quirks of a place that’s not her home, but with the current storyline, Philips is definitely casting Gwen in a totally different sort of an alien world. It’s a fun change of pace for her even if it’s not terribly original.
Randall keeps it all looking very, very familiar. It’s a pulpy alien world that Gwen finds herself in with humanoid extra-terrestrials that live in a culture that Gwen doesn’t have a whole lot of time to figure out before it all starts crashing-in on her in a big way. Randall amplifies the visuals with a stylish sense of framing and exaggeration that never quite overcomes the intensity of the drama. It’s all remarkably well-rendered with heavy shadow that Milla is able to accentuate and add depth to. It all fits together quite well in a largely satisfying issue.
Spider-Man had his cosmic adventures as well...but Philips casts them in a way that feels fresh and original while maintaining a sense of realism in Gwen’s emotional state that serves the current storyline quite well. It’s nice to see it all put together so well with such a thoughtful approach from beginning to end. There’s a lot going on in and amidst everything that feels like it’s all reaching for a kind of character development rarely found in mainstream superhero comics. Gwen is learning a lot on her current adventure and it’s fun to see that learning work its way into her emotional state thanks to a very cleverly-written rendering by Phillips.
