Spider-Woman #16 // Review
Jessica’s niece Rebecca has been dealing with kind of a lot. Her dad is the head of a major corporation. Her dad’s gotten ugly. He’s tried to kill her. He sent people out to kill Jessica. One of them threw a horse at her. (Seriously: Someone threw a horse at her.) Jessica and Rebecca deal with some rather complicated family issues in Spider-Woman #16. Writer Karla Pacheco’s unique blend of family drama and superhero weirdness hits a very appealing point in another issue brought to the page with heart and precision by artist Pere Pérez and colorist Frank D’Armata.
Rebecca wants to break into her dad’s place. It’s fine. She just needs to blow off some steam. It’s dangerous, but it’ll be fine. All they need to do is climb up a tower in midtown Manhattan and break into her old home. Granted, her father IS going to find out she’s in there, and there WILL be a fight. And since her father recently took a serum that made him kind of a badass indestructible vermin-like guy, this isn’t going to be some sort of a verbal fight. People are going to get hurt. A weird-looking mutant dog is going to shoot lasers. Things are going to change.
Pacheco has found the perfect space between drama and action and seriousness and comedy. She’s resting the narrative perfectly between quite a few different dichotomies on quite a few different levels without making the whole package feel needlessly complicated. On one level, it’s just a really fun, really witty action drama. On another level, it’s taking a deep look into complex family dynamics on a somewhat dazzlingly amplified level. Ridiculously complex family dynamics are kind of a hallmark of the Marvel Universe. Pacheco handles them in a way that makes them feel remarkably fresh.
The majority of the issue focuses itself pretty squarely on physical action that doesn’t allow Pérez a whole lot of space to render terribly complicated backgrounds. The establishing shot of Jessica and Rebecca climbing the apartment tower is gorgeous, but once the action gets going, everything tilts with the energy of the violence. Pérez is brilliant with action sequences, breaking up the action with lots of percussive, little panels that occasionally open up into widescreen boxes. Motion rushes across the page in a blur of movement that’s given increased intensity by the impressively nuanced D’Armata colorwork.
The pacing of the series. has been a lot of fun lately. Pacheco’s decision to allow Jessica some time between each issue is quite endearing. Jessica’s monthly adventures have lately been playing-out in brief, little episodes that don’t directly bleed over from issue to issue. A new Spider-Woman comic is a chance to check in on Jess and hang out with her for another half hour. She’s got a life, a baby, and a babysitter. She’s got a highly complex job. A lot going on. It’s cool that she’s got a little bit of time for an audience once a month. It’s fun. She’s cool.
