Radioactive Spider-Gwen Vol 1: Greater Power by Jason Latour

Radioactive Spider-Gwen Vol 1: Greater Power written by Jason Latour and (mostly) illustrated by Robbi Rodriguez is the first volume of post-Secret Wars Spider-Gwen, and follows on from the pre-Secret Wars Vol 0 of (non-radioactive) Spider-Gwen. This new volume contains issues #1–6 and a single complete story arc.

Gwen Stacy is back in the webs and has an all-new, all-different mystery to solve: the reappearance of the Lizard! The Spider-Woman of Earth-65 was convinced that the Lizard died in her arms along with Peter Parker. But a new reptilian rampage leaves her with doubts not only about Peter's life, but his death as well. Troubles begin to mount as the Osborns of Gwen's world make their debut, and she finds herself on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most wanted list! Perhaps some wise words from a mentor figure could help - how about Jessica Drew, the Spider-Woman of Earth-616? What lessons about power and responsibility will Jess have to share, and what use will they be when Gwen battles the Goblins?

I have to admit, I was a bit sceptical of this volume going in. I liked but didn't love Vol 0 and the blurb for this one made it sound like it would be continuing to centre Peter Parker in what should be Gwen's story. I was pleasantly surprised. Although the spectre of Peter Parker does loom large in this volume, it mostly does so for people other than Gwen. Harry Osborne, and to a lesser extent SHIELD and the police, are the ones who have not moved on from Parker's death. Which doesn't mean they're making life easier for Gwen, since they blame her alter-ego for it.

My favourite thing about this volume was the new info we got on how SHIELD and other superheroes work in this alternate universe. We already knew from Vol 0 that Matt Murdock was not above board, but now we get to learn about Captain America and the director of SHIELD. Minor spoilers to follow...

The BEST THING about Gwen Stacey's universe is that Peggy Carter is the director of SHIELD — with an eye patch and everything! A close second best thing is that Captain America is not Steve Rogers, but a black woman called Sam. How did no one tell me about this before I read it??? The only slight downside about Cap is that Falcon, who is a teenager in this place and time, is still called Sam, which could get confusing. But he has an entertaining role to play too, even if it's less major than Cap's and Peggy's roles.

I also quite liked the plot of this volume. To loosely summarise, it ends with Gwen coming up against  the Green Goblin and doing a much better job of it than any versions of Spidey that I've seen (which is mainly the movie ones and not all of them by any stretch of the imagination). Gwen also finds herself at odds with Cap and elements of SHIELD, a situation that needs to be resolved before she can move on. Oh, and there's a cameo from pregnant Spider-Woman in one of the issues, which was amusing even if the corresponding Spider-Woman trade has yet to be released.

This was a great comic, much more interesting and enjoyable than the first Spider-Gwen trade. If you were feeling meh about the character or creative team after that volume, I recommend giving this trade a go anyway. Obviously, if you're already a fan of Spider-Gwen, why wouldn't you have already read this new volume? Go on! I am looking forward to grabbing the next trade when it becomes available.

5 / 5 stars

First published: May 2016, Marvel
Series: Spider-Gwen on-going series. The first volume of the second run (2015b), containing issues #1–6
Format read: Trade paperback
Source: Bought from All Star Comics, Melbourne

Spider-Gwen Vol 0: Most Wanted? by Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez

Spider-Gwen Vol 0: Most Wanted? by Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez is the first collected volume centring on the relatively new character of Spider-Gwen. It collects the first five issues of Spider-Gwen, which are neatly all one arc and come to a close before Secret Wars. (The series restarts after Secret Wars, although Spider-Gwen herself makes an appearance in A-Force.) It also includes Edge of Spider-Verse #2, which is the issue in which Spider-Gwen came into existence, more or less. I have previously reviewed it, so this review will mostly focus on the rest of the volume. There's a time jump between that issue and the rest, while Spider-Gwen is off doing Spider-Verse things, but only a few days pass on her Earth while she's gone (not the same Earth as most of the rest of the Marvel Universe). And I think we can thank Spider-Verse for the lack of Secret Wars nonsense; two events in such a short period of time would really have been too much.

The breakout hit of the biggest Spider-Event of the century is taking the comics world by storm with her own series! Gwen Stacy is Spider-Woman, but you knew that already. What you DON'T know is what friends and foes are waiting for her in the aftermath of Spider-Verse! From the fan-favorite creative team that brought you Spider-Gwen's origin story in EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE, Jason Latour and Robbie Rodriguez!

The plot of Most Wanted? mostly focuses on the fact that people are suspicious of Spider-Gwen and don't trust her to be a hero. The press goes so far as to call her a supervillain and she's wanted by the police. Gwen is particularly disheartened since she's just come back from being a proper superhero during the Spider-Verse event (and that's basically all you need to know about Spider-Verse to read this comic). She does the classic teenager thing of withdrawing and not talking to anyone, making her father and, to a lesser extent, her friends worried about her. Her friends being her all-girl band, The Mary Janes. (And separately, wow, MJ is a drama queen.)

Of course there are also real villains for her to fight and an intriguing back story involving the parallel universe manifestations of characters we know from the main Marvel Universe. I have to admit my main knowledge of Matt Murdock and Fisk/Kingpin is from the Netflix series, but seeing their very different parallel selves was fascinating. It suffices to say that Matt Murdock is even more morally questionable in this universe than he is as Dare Devil. (Whether or not he is also Dare Devil in the Spider-Gwen universe remains to be seen.)

I enjoyed reading about Spider-Gwen although I wouldn't have minded seeing her be a bit more confident, especially after all the Spider-Verse arse-kicking I know happened. Also, while I found the Matt Murdock side plot interesting, I am a little wary of the fact that this female-centred comic had two male-centred subplots (the other featuring Gwen's father) and zero female ones. The stuff with the band is more about Gwen than it is about the other girls so I wouldn't call it a subplot per se. But it all made for interesting reading and Spider-Gwen is pretty cool and has a good costume (and I have a hoodie of her costume, so whoo) so I will definitely keep reading. I believe the rebooted series is called Radioactive Spider-Gwen, although it comes up on the Marvel website as just Spider-Gwen despite what the covers say.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: December 2015, Marvel
Series: Spider-Gwen Vol 0 containing issues #1-5 and Edge of Spider-Verse #2
Format read: Trade paperback
Source: Purchased from a non-Amazon online book shop