Launched in the middle of the Spider-Verse giant crossover event, the first few issues of Spider-Woman were tied up in universal madness and controversy about her backside. Now, Jessica Drew enters a new era, with her first new look in like 30 years, but what brings about such monumental change? Your Major Spoilers review of Spider-Woman #5 awaits!
SPIDER-WOMAN #5
Writer: Dennis Hopeless
Penciler: Javier Rodriguez
Inker: Alvaro Lopez
Colorist: Javier Rodriguez
Letterer: VC’s Travis Lanham
Editor: Nick Lowe
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Previously in Spider-Woman: “As a child, Jessica Drew fell ill with a fatal disease. To save her life, her scientist fatherm injected her with a serum of spider blood. The injection worked, but it also gave her unbelievable spider-like powers. With this power, Jessica became Spider-Woman! After teaming up with other Spider-Men and Wemone to take down the villainous Inheritors, Jessica returned to the Earth she knew, ready for a change. She quite the Avengers in order to reconnect with the normal world…”
SOME CHARACTER OF HER OWN
The weird thing about Spider-Woman’s 2005 return in the pages of New Avengers was how little they ever seemed to do with her. Aside from a couple of odd exchanges about her pheromonic powers, Jess was mostly there to look cool with her costume and big hair. During the Spider-Verse event, she took a key role, but the fact that her #1 issue was a continuation of the extant crossover story bothered me. With last’s issue’s revelations (and the super-charming interactions between Spider-Woman and Captain Marvel, reminding us that they have long been friends in-continuity), Spider-Woman is taking off on her own for the first time, making this issue feel like the real #1. (The alternate cover homaging the original Spider-Woman #1 helps with that, as well.) We open with Spider-Woman interrupting an attack by a some sort of monster-man on an unarmed civilian woman, with really great dialogue throughout, including Jessica’s revealing meta-statement that part of her costume changes was due to “shame-Googling Spider-Woman butt” for a week. It’s clever, it’s fun, and it reminds me of the Hawkeye relaunch a couple of years ago, especially when it’s revealed that she’s not fighting a super-villain, but interrupting an NYPD training exercise…
LAUNCHING WITH LAND WAS A MISSTEP
The art in this issue is flat-out wonderful, underlining hard what a mistake it was to start a new series with the glam-shiny tracing of Greg Land. Jessica’s new costume looks great in action and out, and Rodriguez & Lopez take her from back-alley to apartment to jail without any of it seeming awkward or sketchy. The all-important facial expressions are great here, and when Phil Urich arrives to officially start off Jessica’s new status quo, their interplay is visually and textually great. I will say that this issue doesn’t do much to undermine the comparisons to the new Batgirl in tone and visuals, but frankly, since I enjoy both books and find them to be refreshing antidotes to the grim world-shattering ARRRGH!, I’m really sort of fine with that. There is also the issue of relative power-levels to be dealt with, as well, as Spider-Woman spends most of the issue operating at a more street-level power profile than I’m used to, not using her flight powers or doing much in the way of the venom-blasting, making her feel less superhuman than I am used to thinking of her. Of course, given that (in-universe and out), that’s kind of the point of this series, it’s difficult to complain too hard about such adjustments…
THE BOTTOM LINE: THE RELAUNCH JESS DESERVES
In short, it’s a very likeable book, and part of me wishes that #1-4 were a “Spider-Woman: Spider-Verse” limited, and this were actually the first issue of the book, but I suspect that the sales bump as a crossover may have been a shrewd move on Marvel’s part. Spider-Woman #5 is a great-looking book that reads well, features excellent dialogue, intriguing plot points, and a really cool new costume, proving that there’s more to the character than her tight costume and hindquarters, earning a very impressive 4.5 out of 5 stars overall. I recommend getting in on this one, there’s a lot of potential here…
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