Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #2 // Review
Black Tarantula is a pretty awful figure. Gwen’s starting to think of him as a bit more of an anti-hero than an actual villain, though. He’s showing her a liminal space...one of many that have been discarded in the massive strcture that is Marvel Manhattan. He’s kidnapped a corrupt judge, so his heart IS in the right place. She’s going to find out a bit more about just how far she can trust him in Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #2. Writer Stephanie Phillips continues an exploration into the life of Gwen Stacy in an issue brought to the page by artist Von Randal and colorist Matt Milla.
He’s planning on killing the judge. That’s where things start to become more than a bit dark for Black Tarantula. Gwen doesn’t want to like him. She even tells him right out to stop making her do so, but it’s going to be a lot more. complicated than that for both of them as things progress...particularly as it turns out that there’s more than one Black Tarantula and his father was the original. And it’s only a matter of time before she discovers the man behind the mask in question.
Phillips also manages to add a little bit of Jessica Jones into the mix for some particularly cool comic relief around the edges of the story. So much of what the author is doing, is allowing the traditional web slinging Marvel hero to have a little bit more of a clever classiness about her. Spider-Man and various incarnations of similar heroes have been kicking around for over half a century now. Phillips isn’t necessarily bringing anything new to the page, she’s just bringing it to the page with wit, deft pacing and a whole lot of cool. It’s fun stuff.
Randel makes Ghost-Spider look cooler than Spider-Man. There. I’ve said it. I’d say it again if I had to. I mean...Ditko and Stanton’s original design for the hero is cool and everything and it’s remarkable that it still manages to make it onto so many t-shirts and jackets and backpacks and things, but the way Gwen shoots around on the page is just very, very cool under the pen of Randel. Milla’s colors add considerale atmosphere to the action and drama...and honestly...there are a whole bunch of pages in the early going that don’t have a whole lot of background...they’re just tight close-us of drama between a couple of masked figures...and that’s difficult for ANY artist to try to bring life to, but Milla does a remarkable job of adding just the right style and depth to the page to keep it every bit as engaging as it has to be.
Phillips really moves the action through the issue. The pacing is almost perfect. By the time the next big plot point hits at the big final splash page, it’s weird and kind of jaw-droppingly impressive to think about how much Phillips and company managed to cram onto a single issue. Phillips has taken a Marvel web-slinging issue an given it quite a bit of life.
