Spider-Woman #1 // Review
The well-dressed gentleman has no color in his face. The one with think he was sick or possibly worse. Except that he's not. He's having a glass of red wine. There's a grim look on his white face. He's taking a meeting that wasn't planned. He's taking a meeting that he wasn't expecting. A guy like him doesn't necessarily like to be surprised. However, this particular meeting might be a bit more than he's used to in Spider-Woman #1. Writer Dan Waters Open a whole new series with artistAndrea Broccardo and colorist Mattia Iacono. It's a fun opening that lens itself to some interesting potential.
The gentleman's name is Tombstone. He might consider himself lucky. After all, so many of the rest of the crime, Lords of New York City have been falling to a vigilante known as the Hangman. That's not who is standing across his desk, though. It's a completely different vigilante. Spider-Woman. She was wondering if maybe he had sent the vigilante out on a series of assignments to wipe out the competition. However, as she so all the people who had been drawn to him and knew that he was scared. Honestly, under the circumstances Spider-Woman would be wise to be scared as well.
Waters plays the tortured hero in a way that feels reasonably fresh. Jessica Drew is dealing with a lot. And she's as driven as ever to deal with the criminal element. However, she's compromised. And there's a darkness growing within her. Period has been used before. And it's been used before in that I have been much more inspired than what Waters is executing in the first issue of a new series. But that doesn't mean it's not fun. That doesn't mean it can't get a lot better from where it is now.
Broccardo is executing the action quite well. It can be a bit difficult to manage in motion on the face of someone masked the way that Jessica is. The artist user is a clever combination of framing and body language and subtle facial inflections to bring across a very profound amount of emotional turmoil in and within the title character. The action itself is actually really well executed. The physicality of the actual pups isn't necessarily shown in great detail. However, that makes Jessica's power seemed that much more intense. It can't even be seen on the panel. It can't even be seen on the page. Not in a way that is as vivid orographic as it probably could be. And that makes her see all the more powerful.
Been through a lot over the years. Arguably she's never been as popular as she when she was introduced in her own series. There was a account. There was a cartoon. There was a lot of energy in momentum. However, she gently slid off the rack in the early 1980s and it took a while for her to return. Periodically she returns. Periodically she disappears. Hopefully she's got a little bit more staying power this time.
