Spider-Woman #5
Writer: Dennis Hopeless
Artist: Javier Rodriguez
I’ll be candid, I was never excited for Jessica Drew’s latest solo series. I never knew much about the Spider-Woman character and the creative team didn’t appeal to me. So when I saw that the series wasn’t reaching much acclaim from critics or fans, I dismissed the book. Until I saw the preview for issue #5 in a few of my Marvel comics. It looked beautiful, surely I couldn’t resist such awesome art and the promise of a new direction for the series. And I’m glad Marvel had that preview in their comic because this issue did not disappoint. Spider-Woman is a strong small-scale book that fits right in to the great lineup of Spider-titles
Spider-Woman #5 was marketed as an all-new direction and change of pace for the series. Which made me wonder why Marvel even bothered starting this book with the Spider-Verse tie-in because this issue feels like a #1. There is barely any reference to the past four issues and Drew’s origin is even explained. But it doesn’t feel as though Hopeless is shoehorning exposition in for new readers.
He writes a very smooth inner monologue (that delves into the exposition) throughout this issue that has a great flow to it. I’m not the biggest fan of inner monologues because they distract from what’s happening on the page but Hopeless uses it effectively. He builds Jessica’s character through her thoughts and turns them off when she’s interacting with someone. This also added a sense of completion to this issue. It felt filled up and well worth 3.99$ because even when the page didn’t move the story forward, we got to know Jessica a little more.
Jessica Drew is brought to a street level with this issue as she’s tired of fighting with the Avengers. This grounding element feels just right for a character like Jessica and Hopeless can effectively create a fun She-Hulk-esque tone with this issue. Jessica is not all that great at being a street-crime fighter and her slight incompetence makes her instantly relatable. She just wants to help normal people like a normal person (well her idea of normal). This issue made me a fan of her character right away. Hopeless completely nails her voice and gets his readers invested in her story from the first few pages.
Though Jessica’s journey into a smaller scale of heroism isn’t the only story, here. Through an extremely unlucky night, Jessica is paired with Ben Urick for the investigation that will drive this book forward. Ben and Jessica worked very well as a pair and I’m glad to see the former back in a comic. He’s been sidelined in comics recently and now that Matt Murdock is in SF Jessica feels like the perfect new pairing for him. She’s extremely different from Matt and that gives a good change of pace for Ben’s character.
Character aside, Ben introduces the plot to this series where he and Jessica investigate the disappearance of Z-list villain’s relatives. This is extremely fitting for a book about a superhero who is a little rusty on the streets. It takes a lot of dialogue to get the story started but Hopeless’ writing is so smooth that nothing felt overdue.
Greg Land started this book’s art duties and I think people were delighted upon hearing of his departure. Many artist after Land would have seemed like a good idea but Javier Rodriguez is more than that. His art is what attracted me to this series in the first place. His Samnee inspired style is perfect for this book and his Spider-Woman looks fantastic. Though, the standout of his art are his colors. The story opens on a rainy-night and Rodriguez’s depicted of the dark night was sublime. He’s truly a fantastic artist and he’s at the top of his game with Spider-Woman.
Dennis Hopeless has done the biggest turnaround in recent memory with Spider-Woman #5. This is the real beginning of this series and this looks like it’ll be the Spider-Woman book that fans were hoping for. It’s fun, light-hearted and best of all character driven. If you haven’t checked out this book or dropped it during Spider-Verse, I would recommend you come back to check it out, it’s awesome!
Artist: Javier Rodriguez
I’ll be candid, I was never excited for Jessica Drew’s latest solo series. I never knew much about the Spider-Woman character and the creative team didn’t appeal to me. So when I saw that the series wasn’t reaching much acclaim from critics or fans, I dismissed the book. Until I saw the preview for issue #5 in a few of my Marvel comics. It looked beautiful, surely I couldn’t resist such awesome art and the promise of a new direction for the series. And I’m glad Marvel had that preview in their comic because this issue did not disappoint. Spider-Woman is a strong small-scale book that fits right in to the great lineup of Spider-titles
Spider-Woman #5 was marketed as an all-new direction and change of pace for the series. Which made me wonder why Marvel even bothered starting this book with the Spider-Verse tie-in because this issue feels like a #1. There is barely any reference to the past four issues and Drew’s origin is even explained. But it doesn’t feel as though Hopeless is shoehorning exposition in for new readers.
He writes a very smooth inner monologue (that delves into the exposition) throughout this issue that has a great flow to it. I’m not the biggest fan of inner monologues because they distract from what’s happening on the page but Hopeless uses it effectively. He builds Jessica’s character through her thoughts and turns them off when she’s interacting with someone. This also added a sense of completion to this issue. It felt filled up and well worth 3.99$ because even when the page didn’t move the story forward, we got to know Jessica a little more.
Jessica Drew is brought to a street level with this issue as she’s tired of fighting with the Avengers. This grounding element feels just right for a character like Jessica and Hopeless can effectively create a fun She-Hulk-esque tone with this issue. Jessica is not all that great at being a street-crime fighter and her slight incompetence makes her instantly relatable. She just wants to help normal people like a normal person (well her idea of normal). This issue made me a fan of her character right away. Hopeless completely nails her voice and gets his readers invested in her story from the first few pages.
Though Jessica’s journey into a smaller scale of heroism isn’t the only story, here. Through an extremely unlucky night, Jessica is paired with Ben Urick for the investigation that will drive this book forward. Ben and Jessica worked very well as a pair and I’m glad to see the former back in a comic. He’s been sidelined in comics recently and now that Matt Murdock is in SF Jessica feels like the perfect new pairing for him. She’s extremely different from Matt and that gives a good change of pace for Ben’s character.
Character aside, Ben introduces the plot to this series where he and Jessica investigate the disappearance of Z-list villain’s relatives. This is extremely fitting for a book about a superhero who is a little rusty on the streets. It takes a lot of dialogue to get the story started but Hopeless’ writing is so smooth that nothing felt overdue.
Greg Land started this book’s art duties and I think people were delighted upon hearing of his departure. Many artist after Land would have seemed like a good idea but Javier Rodriguez is more than that. His art is what attracted me to this series in the first place. His Samnee inspired style is perfect for this book and his Spider-Woman looks fantastic. Though, the standout of his art are his colors. The story opens on a rainy-night and Rodriguez’s depicted of the dark night was sublime. He’s truly a fantastic artist and he’s at the top of his game with Spider-Woman.
Dennis Hopeless has done the biggest turnaround in recent memory with Spider-Woman #5. This is the real beginning of this series and this looks like it’ll be the Spider-Woman book that fans were hoping for. It’s fun, light-hearted and best of all character driven. If you haven’t checked out this book or dropped it during Spider-Verse, I would recommend you come back to check it out, it’s awesome!
A Look Inside
