Spider-Woman #1 Review

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Written by: Dennis Hopeless

Art By: Javier Rodriguez

Publisher: Marvel

Going back to his work on Avengers Arena, Dennis Hopeless has specialized in writing dialogue that creates meaningful relationships between a number of characters. It appears, based on this issue, that he retains the ability to do that successfully. The best parts of Spider-Woman #1 are the relationships that the characters have with one another. Considering that I didn’t get super deep into the the previous run on the character (which this is a continuation of), I don’t know how many of those are holdovers, though I can surmise that pretty much all of them are.

It says a lot about the quality of the dialogue, then, that by the end of this issue, I felt invested in those character dynamics. Within the first three-to-four pages, no less. This is in large part thanks to Jessica, Roger, and Ben (Urich)’s relationship, which I didn’t know much (anything) about going in. In spite of this, Hopeless sold me on it almost as soon as he (re)introduced it. There are, of course, more characters in this issue with whom Jessica interacts (though this review is supposed to be spoiler free, so I can’t really say who they are), and her dialogue with them is just as important. It makes her character interesting.

The character work, I think, is this book’s strongest point. Unfortunately, the rest of it is actually fairly weak. The plot thus far isn’t super interesting, and there’s not enough here (yet) to differentiate it from all the other “day-in-the-life” style books that seem to have become the norm for Marvel. Don’t get me wrong–this is something I rather enjoy, but in moderation. Regardless, that’s not necessarily a fair critique of the book, though I did want to put it out there. In terms of the plot, however, there’s not much here, and what is here feels disjointed.

There’s a lot of jumping around that goes on, timeline-wise. Everything that’s happening is tangentially related, but certain scenes feel like they’re out of place. As a result, they don’t do much to further either the character of Jessica Drew or the plot and end up being deadweight to an otherwise solid issue. It certainly doesn’t help that the plot doesn’t really kick into gear until literally the last page.

It also doesn’t help that I saw the cliffhanger coming a mile away. Of course, not the specifics of it (which could have some important ramifications, but I’m not sure), but the general concept seemed obvious from the first couple of pages. This would be fine if, in retrospect, I said “Oh, of course, I should have seen THAT coming!” The thing is, that’s not the case, and the result was a cliffhanger that wasn’t particularly interesting.

The last thing I want to touch on in this already probably too-long review is the art, provided by Javier Rodriguez. Subjectively, I’ve never been the biggest fan of his work, but a lot of what he does here is pretty good. There are spots where it looks almost unfinished and kind of flat, which pulled me out of the experience a couple of times. Plus, I wouldn’t say that the visual storytelling is super exceptional here. It’s present, and a necessary element of the book, but it’s little more than that, which is always a tad disappointing.

There’s definitely a lot to like about Spider-Woman #1. The thing is, it has its fair share of issues that detract from the overall quality, and that’s rather unfortunate. But if you don’t mind a somewhat sloppy plot, and are just interested in spending time with the characters, then this is definitely the type of book for you.