Creative Staff:
Story: Dennis Hopeless
Art: Javier Rodriguez, Alvaro Lopez
What They Say:
With Spider-Verse in the rear-view, Jessica strikes out to make a new life for herself. But she’s not going to do it alone; she’s joined by new Spider-Woman supporting cast-mate and classic Marvel character Ben Urich!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After the first couple of fun issues that were all Spider-Verse all the time, I was glad to see Jessica back on Earth and in the realm of “normal” for a superhero. Though I enjoyed the Spider-Verse material, this is where it felt like her story was beginning and I was all in to see where it would go, especially because she started by clearing house with all the big complications in her life. Exiting from the Avengers and SHIELD so she can get back down to the street level and help people is what defined the character for so long before she moved up in the ranks. Going back to it at the same time that we get a costume change, which is both good and bad as I have a long affection for the other one, helps to cement that this is the real launching point for the character and one that definitely hits a lot of good notes.
Taking place five weeks after giving notice and suffering all sorts of questions from people about how she could give it all up, Jessica is struggling with the fact that the bulk of her attempts at doing good at the street level have been failures for the most part. She’s causing more trouble than she’s actually doing good and she’s causing plenty of property damage and financial damage as well. The opening of the book has her dealing with a robot purse snatcher, but it turns out to be a new police training unit that she didn’t know about and that has her being thrown in jail for twelve hours without being charged just to make a point about how much the cops aren’t caring for her involvement. That, on top of her recent shame-googling about her butt as a reference to the variant cover hoopla last year just paints a picture of a woman who is just about done with everything.
So having Ben Urich show up looking to try and get some help from her with a problem is the last thing she needed. It’s interesting to watch the two of them interact since she’s so dismissive of what he’s discovered, which is that a lot of low level supervillains families are being disappeared, but he knows he just needs to seed things here with her to get her interest. Especially since way back in the day she really was a private investigator. Things naturally do change over the course of it, but the real enjoyment here is just listening to the inner monologue that Jessica runs about how she copes with being wrong, how she deals with others that are applying their values and ideas of what her life should be and just the troubles that come with being a superhero while she just wants to help people. It’s simple, but it’s well executed as we get into her head in a good way and get a solid handle on who she is at this point after the dimension spanning adventures and the infectious banter of Spider-Man.
In Summary:
As the launching point for the series proper, Spider-Woman has a very solid issue here all around. Though I’m not gaga over the goggles, the costume change is a welcome one that keeps elements of the original but a solid functionality that has me wondering how long until this is translated to film or TV in live action form. Javier Rodriguez does a great job of bringing it to life here while showing off her dynamic side and her more normal side. Well, normal for time spent in jail or doing a little home remodeling. Hopeless has set up a potentially interesting storyline here that adheres to her desire to deal with things in a smaller sense, but with a serious enough impact across a lot of people that could speak to something bigger. As much fun as I’ve had with the series so far, the previous issue and especially this one now really have me feeling like we’re seeing Jessica’s journey, which is what I really wanted out of this book. I’m feeling very optimistic after this issue to see what’s to come next.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: March 4th, 2015
MSRP: $3.99
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