Just finished reading the new Spider-Woman (#5) and it is so much better. She looks like a person now, and has lost the trout pout the other artist gave her. The new artist, Javier Rodriguez, has given her and everyone else a slightly stylized but expressive look.

And the new costume works – it could go from street wear to combat gear without any gear-grinding. The look does seem to have been inspired by Bat-girl, but Jess left the Docs alone. Best of all, of course, Jessica finally has a story of her own. No Spidey-verses, no other spider-females around. Just her, and an interesting twist (SPOILER ALERT!).

No disrespect to Spider-Gwen, Silk and all the rest, but when I started with Spider-Woman #1, it was confusing to a newcomer to have all these women in similarly themed costumes milling around. As if they were in a band or something.

Okay, for those of you still here: SW thwarts a robbery only to discover that someone is kidnapping villains’ families and forcing the villains to commit crimes. This follows on from a reporter’s attempt to interest her in a missing persons case, which Jessica dismisses. She assumes the wives and girlfriends of these villains don’t want to be found, but she soon finds out it wasn’t that simple.

Her mistake allows for character development, as she determines to do something to rectify the situation, leading into the next few issues, and a confrontation with whoever is behind it all.

In fact, the whole issue is about SW misreading things, as it opens with the (somewhat clichéd) trope of someone trying to help a victim, then finding out that it’s all staged. (Usually, it’s a movie being filmed, this time it’s a police training exercise.)

Finally, it’s nice to see that the new team have a sense of humour – Jess gets in a joke about how embarrassed she was about the old costume and the fact that she could Google “Spider-Woman’s butt”. Now, team her up with her old friend Captain Marvel, and I will be truly happy.

If you liked the image at the top, click here.

Save