Catching up on reviews
7:51 pm 26 November 2016
Spider-Gwen (2015-) #14 - Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez
Starting with this. I'm sick: I'm cold, I'm shivery, my throat hurts, my nose is constantly running and I feel like shit if I'm not taking painkillers round the clock, sucking down cough drops all the time, and drinking tea. And Primus forbid I forget the VapoRub for my nose and my chest to a lesser degree because that's what hell feels like.

So with all this grumbling out the way, I apologize for my slight delay. That being said, this issue is a marvel, no pun intended. It deals with Gwen's Thanksgiving: her father in prison to protect her, and she's gone to the man who is now the kingpin of crime: he runs the crime syndicates on behalf of his boss, Wilson Fisk, who is in jail and truly the Kingpin. He's also apparently the only man Gwen trusts to protect her father, in a legal sense. After all, he is a shark of a lawyer working for an even larger shark of a man in general.

Gwen's father refuses the help, calling upon his own accountability. And yet, if he doesn't accept Matt Murdock's help, he leaves his only daughter - and Spider-Woman - at the mercy of Murdock. And while it's been pleasantly creepy seeing Matt as a typical lawyer, as per most popular culture, he's never reached the level of creepiness on display here. He shows a willingness to bend rules, and to ignore lawbreaking so long as he can get his client off, he talks down to Gwen and makes it clear that he's manipulating both her and her father to get his way with her. Somehow it's even creepier that it's not sexual: he wants her under his complete control without sexually harassing her at all. It also gives him free reign to call her out for her age - high school student - without making him look like a sexual predator.

What's so creepy about this is that there's some sense of relief. Well, at least he's not doing that. It almost edges on normalizing what he's doing in comparison. It was also chilling enough that I was blown away. It's completely different and while I'm thrilled to see Matt's path diverge so differently, it's not quite the calm thrill it was before. It has me sitting up, on the edge of my seat, and I'm paying very close attention to Murdock now.

Meanwhile, Gwen also spends Thanksgiving with Jessica Drew who schools her on life. On what's important.

At the same time, Gwen is dealing with the Parkers. For those who don't remember, or don't care, Peter Parker was a loner who had no friends. When Spider-Gwen came on the scene (although she was known as Spider-Girl then Spider-Woman in this universe), he wanted to be like her. Powerful and important. A hero.

He stole the Lizard serum and turned himself into the Lizard, a rampaging monster. Believing he was a villain, Spider-Gwen humiliated him and then beat him, ultimately killing him. It was more traumatic than a hero mistakenly killing a villain: Gwen was best friends with both Peter Parker and Harry Osborne.

She learned a valuable lesson about power, and how to use her power responsibly. But the cost was great, and no only because of her own personal turmoil. Harry went on a rogue vendetta against Spider-Woman and she has to face her longtime family friends and neighbors, May and Ben Parker, on a regular basis. More than a reminder of her own pain, she cares enough to want to relieve their pain.

Knowing that Captain Stacy, her father, protects Spider-Woman - the hero who publicly killed their nephew whom they were raising - Gwen is certain they won't want to spend time with her. When May hints that she may know Gwen's secret identity, she panics. More than that, it seems that Ben doesn't know that Gwen is Spider-Woman. May says herself that she trusts the Stacys, but Ben is too heartbroken to think rationally.

This seems like a recipe for the typical soap opera aspect of comics. I strongly suspect that Ben will find out and that he will react poorly, at least at first. Peter's story was tragic, as was Gwen's part in the tragedy. Neither one was completely innocent or guilty: both had good intentions, without the reason and experience to follow through properly. They were unlucky. Peter was lonely, desperate, and didn't feel he could confide the depth of his despair to anyone.

I suspect that Ben will eventually realize this, and while May is a trooper about this, I keep thinking in the back of my mind that this type of resignation will break Ben.

I also suspect this won't happen next month. Comics love dropping this in our laps then diverging to different stories, only for this to pop up when least expected. Still, this issue excited me more about this series than any other issue. Truly wonderful: full of pain and hope despite that pain.

The author seems to be evolving and I love him all the more for that. Love, love, love!
Marvel Graphic Novel AU favorite character read in 2016 ( )