Recently I read all 7 volumes of Radioactive Spider-Gwen’s core run (Volumes 0 through 6). Written by Jason Latour and illustrated mostly by Robbi Rodriguez (there are a number of guest artists that take over individual issues). It is the story of Gwen Stacy, bitten by a radioactive spider and given incredible abilities with which she tries to do good while also managing her day to day life.
It’s a familiar story for a reason, as Gwen Stacy’s life is very much a reflection of Spider-Man’s long history of the same. Gwen’s life is so dripping in reflection of Spider-Man, that she cannot escape that she is an oddity, an aberration in the nigh-infinite multiverse that Marvel has established. In nearly every other universe, Gwen Stacy was just the normal romantic interest of Peter Parker (Spider-Man), before her untimely demise, more or less an accident of fate at Peter’s hands (usually). In nearly every other universe, Gwen Stacy is the dead motivation that Peter constantly mourns, which makes her interactions with Peter Parkers in other universes very awkward.
So, the question is whether or not a character that was more or less intended as a throwaway oddity character in a multiverse event that was supposed to feature Peter Parker (of course) can stand alone. Radioactive Spider-Gwen is one of the comics that tried to answer this, and for me it succeeds, but it has issues that people who must have a complete, continuous story will hate.
Enter your cut contents here.
I just want to review Radioactive Spider-Gwen as it stands alone, not her entire canon. This is partially because tracking down all the canon is annoyingly hard (thanks comics industry) but also because I could spend paragraphs rambling about what the metanarrative of Gwen Stacy means to me (and I will, in a future post).
I am not going to get into the detail and fandom controversy of her existence in the fandom here. There are better reviews and discussions regarding the whole existence of Spider-Gwen out there. If you want to know about the history and fandom reaction, I recommend this video overview by Movie Bob, which highlights much of the history.
Characterization:
In the core comics, Gwen Stacy is more or less your average down-on-her-luck superhero. She lives in an overcrowded apartment in New York City with her bandmates (she’s the drummer in the band “The Mary Janes”) trying to make ends meet with gigs and part-time jobs. She’s not hyper brilliant, but she’s relatively grounded, with friends and a supportive father. As Spider-Woman, she’s wanted as a fugitive, blamed for her part in killing Peter Parker, who’d turned himself into the Lizard in a fit of “bullied nerd and misunderstood genius” fervor. She’d been initially very cavalier about her powers, trending towards using them bombastically, and the Lizard was the first real super-powered villain she’d fought. Below is Gwen Stacy in her instantly recognizable Spider-hoodie, and her out of it:
Gwen’s personality and nature heavily reflect her literal awareness of her relative “luck” as far as being alive goes. She’s met a dozen different Peter Parkers, even by the time this comic’s timeline really gets going, and all of them are dramatically traumatized by seeing her alive. She’s consistently carries herself forward, in spite of how done with everything she always is. She loves the power and control over her own life that being Spider-Woman affords her, even as it attracts people around her that constantly wish to leash her agency. She’s excited to be Spider-Woman, even if that means being Gwen Stacy is harder.
Even as the comics progress and more people find out that Gwen Stacy is Spider-Woman (she isn’t exactly afraid to whip off the mask to defuse or take control of a situation), she struggles to retain her powers even as the universe seems desperate to take them from her, often literally.
As a writer of characters who consistently just want to be able to live their life in peace, as they want to live it, Spider-Gwen is exactly the kind of character that is my jam. I can feel how tired she is in every drawn line of her head - face down on the table of her favorite taco place.
Many of the other supporting characters are great as well, such as her father’s conflicted nature about her double life, bouyed by his absolute faith that she is doing the right thing, even if it makes his life difficult. Peter Parker’s aunt and uncle are also common and recurring characters, and play more of a role in her life than Peter Parker ever spared Gwen Stacy’s family in another life. Her bandmates are all distinct, but take backseat (much like Gwen Stacy’s normal life in general) to the numerous villains and other superheroes. The other super-folk are mostly interesting in their contrast to the usual canon, but its an extension of the artful rearrangement the world needed to have for such an oddity as a world without Peter Parker.
Art:
The art for the comic is bright and contrasting, with neons and blues and oranges and violets abound, with clean line work that avoids heavy shadowing for more monochrome shading. Its pleasant and flowing to the eyes, but I could see some people wanting slightly less bright coloring and more complicated shading work. It works for me personally. The art is not infinitely consistent, but I much prefer when an artists draws to the scene, rather than get the same carbon cutout appearance both in elated and despondent moments. It may turn off some readers though. Below’s a pretty good example:
Story:
Gwen’s story is kind of hard to tell without going into great detail in how its different than the usual stories with Peter Parker. Gwen Stacy deserves more than just being compared to Spider-Man constantly, so I’ll keep it reader agnostic.
The volumes more or less follow Gwen as she falls into the pattern of wanting to being Spider-Woman, often at the expense of those around her, in spite all her efforts to prevent it. Her father is a police officer and was the detective assigned to capture Spider-Woman. When he finds out her identity, he quits the force, realizing that he’d been caught up in the propaganda villainizing her. Following his departure from the force, she becomes stalked by a far more dangerous police officer with a blacked-out military history named Frank Castle, who’s willing to go to extreme ends to find her and punish her father for failing to do his duty. She finds herself crossing paths with the Kingpin of New York, Matt Murdock, a blind but superpowered Lawyer who’s also taken an unhealthy obsession with her. When the cure to her friend, Harry Osborn, who was exposed to The Lizard Serum and would also means she can get her powers back, she only hesitates momentarily, even if it means bonding with a dangerous symbiote named Venom in the process. As things become more and more involved and deadly, Gwen Stacy realizes that she must either make a deal with Kingpin or watch her father go to jail or worse for the crimes of aiding and abetting Spider-Woman.
There’s much more to the story, such as her increased detachment from her family and friends and her band, as she tries to keep her Superhero-ing from affecting their life. There are also several crossovers into other super-stories, as she finds herself flung to other dimensions even when she's trying to do a normal day, given her history with hopping between the multiverse.
Of particular note and as a small hint to the sort of multiverse-madness she is often involved in, there are a few issues dedicated to ‘this’ Gwen Stacy going back to the “Original” Gwen Stacy’s timeline and… saving her from her unending fate as Peter Parker’s Dead Girlfriend. It ties into that whole separate post I want to put together, but look at the art-structure as “modern Gwen” is transported to classic Spider-Man’s comics. I love the contrasting art styles as old meets new (and Spider-Gwen’s summarized feelings on Peter Parker):
Pacing:
As far as the story telling goes… it’s honestly pretty choppy as part of Spider-Gwen’s entire schtick is that she’s a significant part of the Spider-Man multiverse. There are a number of events that happen in other comics that aren’t included in these six volumes, many of them plot relevant. One key example is that she lost her powers during an encounter in between volumes 1 and 2, in the comics of “Spider-Women” a short seperate volume of six comics. I am okay with the choppiness, as someone who has often watched many different tv series while missing two- or three-episode chunks, but it does suck that there isn’t an easily available omnibus of all of Gwen Stacy’s adventures in chronological order.
There are a few dropped plot threads, that are clearly meant to be picked up later in the story, but for now, are just the sort of bread crumbs that need following later in the canon. One thing that is impossible to really get is true closure on most comics in a perpetual motion device like Marvel Comics, but the story does end on a good, solid beat where it feels like we got a complete story, if not the final, finished legacy of Spider-Gwen.
Overview:
In spite of the choppiness, I feel like I get a great closed arc and story, enjoyable in a way that I’ve not felt in forever with comics. Given that my enjoyment of most media is driven by the characters involved, mostly by Spider-Gwen’s exhausted reality constantly catching up with her joy at being able to save her little part of the world in her own way.
I’m not a good summarizer, so I will leave it at: I recommend the story for sure, but as a unique modernization of a story that is more than forty years old. You can find Volume 0 of Radioactive Spider-Gwen (Which contains issues 1-5 of the original run, and provides a lot of her backstory and sets up much of what discussed above) on just about anywhere comics are sold. It is free via the Amazon Kindle Unlimited/Comixology subscription, so if you still have a free trial to kick around, you might add it to the list of things to try out.
Thanks for reading and have a good day!
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