Spider Gwen: The Ghost Spider #14 // Review
Gwen is hanging out with a god of mischief. It’s not exactly a fun time for her. She’s going to have to put up with a hell of a lot. It might actually HELP to know that she can’t ever trust the guy she’s hanging out with. Things are bound to get complicated, though: alternate dimensions are involved and things are going to get confusing in Spider Gwen: The Ghost Spider #14. Writer Stephanie Phillips continues an enjoyably strange trip to other worlds with Gwen in an issue brouht topage and panel by artist Paolo Villanelli and colorist Matt Milla.
Loki and Gwen find themselves in a world that he DID create. So one would think that it would be perfectly comfortable for him. And since he wants to protect her, one might expect that it would be perfectly safe for her as well. There’s a problem, though: there are monsters. And it’s like...not weird at all or anything that they’re attacking and calling him “father.” He was a kid when he created them. It’s been a long time. So they’re understandably a little hostile. But do they really want to kill him? Maybe they just want...a hug. Is that so unlikely? Maybe they just want a little bit of love.
Phillips moves through some of the more time-honored cosmic action tropes in a story that manages to cast them in a fiercely clever light. Gwen feels suitably cool as the one true adult in the immediate vicinity trying to deal with some very, very weird and very, very dangerous things that are suddenly moving-in for some kind of showdown. Phillips’ sharp humor serves as a central focal point for the overall energy of the issue. It all seems to hit the page in just the right way with a pair of characters at the center who genuinely DO have an interesting interaction throughout.
Villanelli finds a clever mix between Gwen’s usual look and the powered armor that she’s in while she’s hanging out with Loki. She still looks quite distinctly Gwen, but there’s clearly a whole different level of energy animating the panel that feels like a fun departure from where she’s been before. The action flings itself across the page with a grand sense of percussion. There’s nothing too terribly intense, but it’s all quite entertaining in a story that has a few weird twists and turns around the edges of the central action.
Theoretically it SHOULD be easy to keep the current momentum going for at least a few more issues. The problem with this sort of cosmic adventure for Gwen is that it is taking her pretty solidly outside of her natural habitat. And though it IS interesting to see her expand herself in different directions, it’s not nearly as cool as seeing her swing around Marvel Manhattan chasing some weird costumed villain. Phillips and company could easily keep the momentum going for a few more issues, though. Time will tell.
