All-New Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider #5 // Review
Gwen’s got a plan. It’s simple: break-in to the prison infirmary and get all of their nitrous oxide. They’ll use the gas to pacify the people who are victims of the symbiote won’t be controlled by it anymore. That’s the plan anyway...but given the fact that it’s going to result in chaos by the second page of the issue, she’s open to any suggestions in All-New Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider #5. Writer Stephanie Phillips continues a fun new series with Gwen Stacy in an issue that is rendered for the page by artist Von Randall and colorist Matt Milla.
It’s not just Gwen. She’s accompanied into Ryker’s Island Maximum-Security Prison by Spider-Man, Silk and Agent Anti-Venom. So she’s not alone, but she and her team are completely outnumbered as they try to deal with the symbiote that Gwen is calling Tantrum. There’s no way that the infirmary of a maximum security prison would have enough nitrous to knock-out every single member of the prison population. In spite of this miscalculation, everyone’s still looking to Gwen like she’s a leader. That’s going to instill a bit of confidence in her. It’s going to be fine. Really. There’s still time before the army starts dropping bombs on the facility.
Phillips manages a very tight ensemble of characters. Gwen is perfectly centered there at the heart of it all. Everything seems to be coming together quite well with respect to the process of character development that Phillips is working with. One really gets the feeling that Gwen has, long way over the course of the past year in Phillips’ writing. That's not an easy thing to accomplish given the fact that she is doing as much as she is with respect to being true to the overall tone and pacing of a traditional Spider-Man style story.
Ryker’s doesn't necessarily feel as Visually cramped and claustrophobic as a prison should. This isn't a huge failing as most of the art seems to be focusing in the action and drama that's going on between the characters. The fact that it could be happening anywhere is perfectly fine given the fact that what is actually going on in the center of the frame is quite entertaining. It's just not quite as interesting as it could have been, if the setting was a little bit more visually present on the page.
There's a bit of a leap forward at the end of the issue. Clearly, Phillips wanted to get Gwen into a specific spot with respect to the story and it does feel as though the ending is kind of out of place with much of what takes place over much of the rest of the issue. Perhaps the pacing would've been served a little bit better by a little bit more time spent delivering the drama at Ryker. It's nice to get a full look at Gwen and her life, though. It's really important to have that balance in and out of a mask in any given issue of a series like this.
