Gwenpool Strikes Back #5 // Review
At the end of the story, Gwen says, “This is the last time you’ll see me like this,” and that’s a relief. It’s unfortunate because Gwenpool is a great character, and the team behind this book—writer Leah Williams, artist David Baldeón, colorists Jesus Aburtov and Guru-eFX, and letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna— is talented. But Gwenpool Strikes Back #5 is an emotional rollercoaster but in the worst possible way.
There’s a serious moment between Kamala and Gwen as Kamala tries to help Gwen figure out where her superpowers come from. It’s sweet and heartwarming, but it feels so entirely out of place within the story. Seriously, in just a few short pages, Gwen goes from trapping The Punisher in a vortex of bees while wearing a comically oversized bee suit to crying on the beach as she tries to rationalize her true history with what she wants her story to be. It’s enough to give the reader emotional whiplash.
What’s confusing about the writing is that this run was always planned as a five-issue miniseries. So why did this ending feel rushed? It’s not as if the creative team was suddenly blindsided with a cancellation and needed to quickly wrap everything up. Yet this last issue ends up feeling like this is what happened. Gwen’s retconning of her own backstory doesn’t feel like something that was planned from issue 1. Rather it feels like something that was thought up last minute as a way to try and neatly wrap up this miniseries while keeping the character around for potential future use.
The art in this issue feels as inconsistent as the plot. Near the end, the art style shifts abruptly. This is probably to represent Gwen leaving her ‘Gwenpool Strikes Back’ story and entering another one, but it just feels off-putting when the art has been one of the only consistent elements all series.
Gwen’s entire goal in this series has been to create a way to actually stick around in the Marvel Universe. And unfortunately, that kind of made the character lose what felt fun and original about her in the first place. The series started strong, but as it continued, Gwen resorted to increasingly over-the-top antics, and it got to the point where too much was going on, and the humor felt forced. Gwen started to feel less like a fun and quirky take on what would happen if a real comic fan got to become a hero, and more like Deadpool— if all of his characterizations were stripped and he was just a fourth-wall-breaking, wisecracking smartass. Previous runs have shown that Gwenpool is her own unique, fun character, but unfortunately, this run missed the mark.
GRADE: D
