The recently published Spider-Gwen: Into the Unknown trade, written by Seanan McGuire with art by Takeshi Miyazawa, Ig Guara, Rose Kämpe and Ian Herring, contains issues #1-10 of the Spider-Gwen runs from 2019. Spider-Gwen (who has now officially changed her name to Ghost-Spider) feels more comfortable on good old Earth-616. In these 10 issues, she shuttles back and forth between Earth-65 (her home, which letterer Clayton Cowles cleverly redesigns to look like “Earth-GS”) and Earth-616, taking advantage of a scholarship program set up by Tony Stark to allow young adults from other dimensions to study on Earth-616 at his expense.
The main villain of the book is the Jackal of Earth-616, whose obsession with Gwen Stacy has never ended. He is obsessed with possessing her body and soul, which is especially creepy considering he is an old man on Earth-616 while Gwen of Earth-65 is still in her late teens.
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Amidst the Jackal’s plans, there is a constant threat from Man-Wolf of Earth-65. On that Earth too, he is the son of J. Jonah Jameson, but while on Earth-616 he is a conflicted figure, on Earth-65 he is 100% evil, ruling a criminal empire that is up to its neck in every form of violence and vice.
So the book’s greatest strength is also one of its drawbacks. It’s always fascinating to see how things are different on alternate Earths, and we see a lot of that in the first 10 issues, but it also gets confusing at times because Gwen switches Earths so frequently and effortlessly that I sometimes had to go back a few pages to see where we were.
Aside from the occasional confusion, though, I enjoyed the book. I can barely remember the Gwen Stacy of Earth-616, but I find she was darker and more brooding than this version of Gwen Stacy, who is relentlessly optimistic no matter how bad things get, and I suppose she’s a lot like Peter Parker in that respect.
While her story isn’t quite as tragic as Peter’s, she has still experienced a lot of loss and heartache for her young age, but that never stops her from wanting to help the world and dropping everything to save someone. In a universe full of dark, brooding characters, she’s a refreshing change.
The book devotes equal time to Gwen’s everyday life and her superhero side, and I liked that. Many comics these days forgo character development and hurl the main character through one crisis after another, but here we spend a lot of time with Gwen at home with her father, as well as in her first few weeks at college, where she desperately wants to make friends. She does, although we don’t see much of them because Peter (who acts like a mentor to her) always seems to be there. She’s like a daughter to him, and he worries about her. The relationship between the two is sweet, and something that happens at the climax of the book promises that he’ll become even more of a fixture in her life.
The most fascinating part of the book is the second half, where the Earth-65 versions of Susan and Johnny Storm show up, and they are MUCH different than their heroic Earth-616 counterparts. I won’t give away any more, but get ready to see the Storms like you’ve never seen them before!
The illustrations by Takeshi Miyazawa and Ig Guara are quite different, but the transition from one to the other was still very smooth while reading the book. Miyazawa’s illustrations are dynamic and Ghost-Spider seemed to burst out of the frames. The fight scenes were particularly animated. Ig Guara’s work was more detailed and I liked how he portrayed Gwen’s facial expressions in the issues he drew. Both artists complemented their chapters of the story perfectly.
If you want to catch up on Gwen Stacy and Ghost-Spider, this is a good place to start. Dive into Earth-65, but try not to stay there too long because we need you back here!
TPB review of Spider-Gwen: Into the Unknown
Spider-Gwen: Into the Unknown
Spider-Gwen: Into the Unknown shows us Ghost-Spider in action on Earth-65 and Earth-616. It also features one of the most fascinating variations of Susan and Johnny Storm ever seen on Earth-65.
Gwen Stacy’s exuberance and optimism make her a fun character to read about.
I found the Earth-65 version of Susan and Johnny Storm fascinating and want to see more of them.
The art perfectly captures Ghost-Spider’s dynamic fighting style.
Ghost-Spider jumps back and forth between Earth-65 and Earth-616 so often that it becomes confusing at times.
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