Anonymous
I really, really want to read Spider-Gwen, but comic books are simply too expensive these days. However, I think I can swing it (ah-ah, get it?) if I don't have to read all of that Edge of the Spider-Verse stuff. Can I jump right into this new series, or would that be a mistake?
So… yes. You can just jump into Spider-Gwen #1 and be fine. Just know it takes place in a different world than the main Marvel stuff. There’s a recap at the beginning of the issue that kinda helps out. (spoliers here)
You don’t need to read ALL of Edge of Spider-Verse if all you care about is Gwen, but the Spider-Verse event was actually really rad.
However, Edge of Spider-Verse #2, where Spider-Gwen debuted, was SUCH A GOOD ISSUE and gives you a good sense of the world Spider-Gwen lives in.
Jonah Chuang recommends: Spider-Gwen #1
Spider-Gwen’s popularity has been steadily rising since her first appearance in Edge of Spider-Verse #2. I remember trying to find a physical copy of the book a week after it came out and was laughed out of several stores and nearly every booth at NYCC after being told that it was “beyond sold out”, so it’s no surprise that she’s now back in her own ongoing series.
Spider-Gwen #1 has all the elements you love about the original Spider-Man books– she’s a young misfit who struggles to juggle her personal life and her great Spider-responsibility and she swings around her neighborhood thumping costumed bad guys. It doesn’t hurt that she has probably the best designed costume ever to be in comics, ever.
In this issue, Gwen is newly returned from the Spider-Verse and finds that her city considers her just as big a menace as ever. With the Vulture, the Kingpin, and NYPD Captain Frank Castle all out to get her, can she find time for her friends/band that so desperately need her?
The character’s appeal goes way beyond the similarities to the original Amazing Spider-Man series, though. If you’re like me and you grew up in the post-Death of Gwen Stacy era, you really only know of her as the perfect woman/Peter Parker’s true love (this was pre-comiXology so back issues were harder to come by). Her absence from the early animated series and the original movies made her a mysterious character that was only ever talked about with a tone of reverence and affection. The character gained an edge and some more mystique in Bendis’s Ultimate Spider-Man series before hitting the mainstream in the Amazing Spider-Man movie as portrayed by Emma Stone. As far as I know, the character has never seen a bad incarnation and now that she is finally able to take lead in a series, this one promises to be the best yet.
[Read Spider-Gwen #1 on comiXology]
Jonah Chuang is a Production Coordinator Assistant at comiXology. He is preparing to be a male Spider-Gwen for next year’s NYCC.
Hazed character concept art by Robbi Rodriguez.
