On The Rack: Spider-Woman #1
Sometimes comics have great concepts that build expectation, but they fall apart in reality. I am sad to say that Spider-Woman #1 fell into this trap. Jessica Drew is a great character with a dynamic past; she’s a former HYDRA agent, like many Marvel characters she’s died and been resurrected, and recently she’s been a member of Maria Hill’s Secret Avengers. All of this adds up to a solo series that I want to read; Drew is a strong female character with an exciting backstory and this series spins out of Spider-verse which is a great event so far, so her new series should reflect all of that awesomeness. Sadly, Spider-Woman #1 doesn’t meet expectations.
In her new series, Jessica is tasked with keeping Cindy Moon aka Silk safe. She and Spider-Man Noir take Cindy and begin to hop through the Marvel U to avoid the Inheritors who are the big bads of the Spider-verse story. This sounds like a good set up, right? It seems like it gives Jessica the opportunity to have thrilling adventures, play role model and hero. Unfortunately, it doesn’t play out that way. The story doesn’t follow through with its set up. It feels like a placeholder issue, it’s less about Spider-Woman’s thrilling heroics, and feels more like Adventures in Babysitting, but not in a good way. Cindy Moon has been a strong, kick-ass character since she was introduced; but here she comes off like a petulant teenager.
Silk has proven her hero status. She has amazing spider senses and speed, and she also showed great restraint when she resisted the spider pheromones that created an undeniable attraction to Peter Parker. She showed maturity by finding her own apartment, finding a job and putting some distance between them. With all that fresh in my mind, I was ready to see Silk and Spider-Woman working together, in fact I was really excited by the idea of these spider-characters working together, but they didn’t work together at all. Instead of being a proactive team of awesome, Spider-Woman was forced to keep reminding Silk that they were in danger and there was no time for sightseeing in this new universe. Cindy spends the entire issue carelessly complaining that she wants to explore and then making impulsive decisions that threaten her own safety. This characterization is out of line with Silk’s entire development up to this point. Not only that, but her behavior forces Spider-Woman to regress to nagging and babysitting her.
The entire story felt disjointed and out of character for both women. As I was reading it, I felt like the issue served no purpose. It dismantled the two strong and well established characters that I was looking forward to seeing team up and added a third character who served absolutely no purpose. Beyond that, the issue which should have laid the ground work for this new ongoing series didn’t seem to have any relevance to the Spider-verse event or the Marvel U at large. If issue two doesn’t establish Spider-Woman’s place in the Marvel U, this series could be over as quickly as it’s begun.
