Edge of Spider-Verse #2 takes place in a world where Gwen Stacy was bitten by a radioactive spider and became Spider-Woman and Peter Parker died.
EDGE OF SPIDER-VERSE #2
Writer: Jason Latour
Artist: Robbi Rodriguez
Colourist: Rico Renzi
Letterer: VC’s Calyton Clowes
Editor: Nick Lowe
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
A FANTASTIC ALTERNATE REALITY
I’ve always wanted more Gwen Stacy in my life. She’s an interesting character who gets almost a single story retold ad nauseum. In Edge of Spider-Verse #2 writer Jason Latour presents us with the same beautiful, articulate blonde girl, but here she received the radioactive bite and has taken up the mantle. In a mirror-plot point, Peter is the one who died, leaving Gwen to be chased by her father and come to terms with the adage Spider-Man fans are very familiar with: with great power comes great responsibility in a really fantastic issue.
Edge of Spider-Verse #2 opens with The Mary Janes rehearsing for their biggest gig yet. As one would expect, MJ Watson is the front woman and Gwen is on drums (carrying on the theme of Gwen being something of a wallflower). Our heroine is distracted, lost in the memory of her horrific legacy to date as Spider-Woman.
Latour has written a Peter-Parker-mopes-around-New-York-feeling-guilty story, but covered it up with Gwen Stacy and while that may not, at first, seem like the most compelling story, it really, really is. The little details (Captain Stacy’s fixation on capturing Spider-Woman, Jameson’s celebration of Peter Parker’s life and legacy), are certain to delight long-term Spider-Man fans. Even the quip-y scene where Spider-Woman is confronted by a bumbling cop and forced to disarm him brought a smile to my face. Yes, perhaps that is me viewing a female character through the lens of a young, female reader seeking out representation, but I truly believe it speaks to Gwen’s strength as a compelling character and Latour’s ability to tap into the details of a Spider-Man story and incorporate them into Edge of Spider-Verse #2.
The issue has some fun cameos from other popular Marvel characters as well, notably Matt Murdock as the King Pin. (yeah, read that sentence again) It ends with on a nice emotional note, bringing to mind an analogue relationship for Peter and Uncle Ben.
Overall, it’s a solid Spider-Man issue except it stars Gwen Stacy as Spider-Woman. That details brings freshness to Edge of Spider-Verse #2 and is certainly something that makes it amazing.
GREAT ART
Artist Robbi Rodriguez and colourist Rico Renzi have put the best Spider-Man costume on the page since Miles Morales’ Ultimate Spider-Man debut and they’ve slapped it on a girl! The hood is a neat choice instead of baring Gwen’s legendary blonde locks and despite the fact that the webbing design in the hood lining is utterly impractical, it looks way cool.
Perhaps the idea of dressing Spider-Woman up in white is supposed to suggest a level of purity in a young woman or perhaps it was conceived in stark opposition to the aforementioned Ultimate Spider-Man suit, but for whatever reason it veritably leaps off the page and really helps the reader to separate Gwen Stacy the 20-something musician from Gwen Stacy Spider-Woman, even as her two personas race closer and closer to each other in Edge of Spider-Verse #2.
Lastly, Rodriguez gets a lot of my respect for giving Spider-Woman sneakers. It’s nice to see a superheroine who is not only fully clothed, visually stunning and practically attired. Well done.
READ IT
Even if tie-ins and big event books are not your thing, it really is worth your while to pick up Edge of Spider-Verse #2. It is a refreshingly familiar look at Gwen Stacy and the Spider Mantle, it’s beautiful and it’s only 22 pages.
Edge of Spider-Verse #2
Writing
Art
Colouring
A great issue with a familiar character who breathes life into familiar Spider-Man tropes.
5 Comments
I’m having trouble coping with how fantastic this costume is.
I don’t know, I mean she isn’t over-sexuallized, naked, or in suggestive poses… How am I ever to know she is a female super hero. I think they need to triple her cup size and give her a ‘window’, yeah that will do it.
Seriously it is great she is a woman character, who seems to dress like a person. Tights, and a hoodie… you could see this outfit walking down the street at noon and not bat an eye. It’s perfect
I concur. My greatest fear right now is that they will kill her off because Gwen Stacey.
The other fear is that they will kill off Spider-Girl because they seem hell bent on removing all traces of evidence that Pete and MJ were ever married, and that pisses me the hell off.
My biggest fear is that they will use her after the Edge of Spiderverse event and ruin the magic.
You’d think that with a cross-gender take on an established hero, especially one where both the secret identity and the hero name were well known from the parent property, that there would be either boredom or the sense of trying too hard. You’d expect a schticky sort of story and maybe a groan or two. And you’d be wrong, like me. Yes, the teen garage band thing was a little unlike what we’ve seen of the same characters in the other Marvel universes and the three-panel fate of that universe’s Peter Parker seemed a bit forced, but that aside, I was really stunned (as it were) by the utter lack of cognitive dissonance I experienced when I saw Gwen/Spider-Woman living a thoroughly Parker-esque life as both hero and struggling teen, because she (or rather, the creative team) did it as naturally and authentically as the best Spider-Man stories. After a surprisingly few pages, seeing the White Spider (OK, that’s not what she calls herself) in action made me almost resent some of the other Spider-Man riffs that have been invented, not to mention had me looking forward to the meeting of Otto and Gwen which I fully expected to happen at the end of the issue. I’m gonna have to wait for that, but I had a steady stream of cartoon hearts floating up from my head while reading, so I’m well pleased that she’s coming back, even if I have to hold my enthusiasm for a bit.
Seriously, both Peter and Mayday Parker have some competition. Also, I would love to see a future version of a Spider-Girl who is this Gwen’s daughter.