By Miller C. Lashbrook
As part of my reading of Marvel Comics from the past decade, I read the mini-event Spider-Women by Dennis Hopeless, Jason Latour, and Robbie Thompson, which crosses over the writers’ series, Spider-Woman, Spider-Gwen, and Silk, respectively. This mini-event is consists of an Alpha and Omega issue by all three writers and two issues of each of the series. If you are in need of a reading order, check out this one from Comic Book Reading Orders.
This event was fun and really did a lot to build the friendships between Jessica Drew a.k.a. Spider-Woman, Cindy Moon a.k.a. Silk, and Gwen Stacy a.k.a. Spider-Gwen or Spider-Woman. I continue to really enjoy seeing Jessica work as a superhero and single mother at the same time; little moments like her needing to pump breast milk during the middle of the mission really make her feel like a real character. After their time meeting in the Spider-Verse event, it is also nice to see these ladies bonding without Peter around as girl friends.
SPOILERS AHEAD
This event juggles arcs for all three characters pretty well, the real emotional arc comes from Cindy, who is struggling with her identity as the newest hero of the three. Our primary antagonist turns out to be the version of Cindy from Gwen’s earth, Earth-65. This villainous, “bond villain” Cindy serves as a reflection of 616 Cindy. It helps her to see that even if she had her family, it may not make her any better off. Cindy realizes that she needs to do good and try her best to make the most of the life she has now, rather than dwell on her losses.
Jessica’s arc fits right in with her arc in her ongoing series of the time. She is learning to manage how to be a mother and a superhero. The resolution of her arc seems to say that she is going to simultaneously be more trusting of other heroes to pick up the slack, but also less trusting of people to watch her baby, Gerry.
Gwen gets her very own Spider-Man 2, loss of powers arc, in addition to discovering new information about the origins of her powers. She learns about herself, that even without powers, a hero is who she is at her core. She also learns that Earth-65 Cindy created the spider that bit her and gave her powers. This reveal doesn’t really change anything personally about Gwen, but it does add to the interesting world building that Latour has been doing with Earth-65.
Overall this was a fun quick crossover adventure that combines a girl’s trip with the Spider-Verse.
4/5 Radioactive Spiders 🕷️
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