The first issue of Spider-Gwen finally came out as part of its own new on going series this past Wednesday.  Now you might remember Spider-Gwen from her first appearance in Edge of Spider-verse 2.

Let’s back it up a little further.  Over the last couple of months there has been a spider-line wide crossover event at Marvel called Spider-verse.  The core series of Spider-verse takes place in Amazing Spider-man Issues 9-15, however it spans across every spider-man related book that is out right now in Marvel (Superior Spider-Man, Spider-man 2099, Scarlet Spiders, Spider-verse Team Up, Spider-woman, Spider-verse, Edge of Spider-verse).  I think

I’ll write a separate blog post just about the Spider-verse but the long and short of it is the Inheritors are killing Spider-men across every parallel universe and in order to stop them a team of Spider-men from across the multiverse team up.  So because this event involves many different versions of Spider-man Marvel released a five part series to re-introduce and in some cases introduce for the first time, some different versions of Spider-man.

Issue 2 of the Spider-verse introduced the world to Spider-Gwen.  It’s been the break out issue of the series.  As of right now it is entering it’s fifth print run and on Ebay 1st print run issues of Edge of Spider-verse 2 are going for as much as $150.  So it was no surprise that Marvel decided to spin out a on going series based on Spider-Gwen.  The series is written by Jason Latour with art by Robbi Rodriguez, who were the team that wrote and drew the Edge of Spider-verse issue 2.  So before we talk about Spider-Gwen let’s catch up, and they even provide us with a foundation of her on the first page of Edge of Spider-verse 2.

So in this universe our Spider-gwen is thought to be responsible for the death of Peter Parker.  She is actually thought of as a villain, all though she is actively helping people out.  Because of this Kingpin sent out a goon to help recruit Gwen to join his forces.  A fight ensued and Gwen was forced to reveal her Identity to her dad.

Not only does this world’s Gwen have spider powers but she is also in a rock band “The Mary Janes” which has a hit single “Face it Tiger”, which is the most adorable thing ever.  The first issue of Spider-Gwen picks up right where Edge of Spider-verse 2 left off.  Gwen is trying to prove to her New York that she is a hero not a villain while trying to balance life as a teenager.  The art is fantastic and makes a lot of use of the secondary color pallet.  The sound description words have a cool stylization and make the pages really pop.  We get a lot of interesting stories threads in this issue, we get the one going struggle with Gwen and her dad, the infighting between Gwen and the band, a new threat of the Vulture, and ongoing thread of the King Pin.  The first issue was really fantastic and keeps the spirit of what they started in Edge of Spider-verse 2 and the lightness and fun that makes Spider-man such an enjoyable character.  Spider-Gwen is on my pull list and I can’t wait to get the next issue.  If you would like to buy a copy go to your local comic book shop (soon it’ll sell out) or pick it up here at Comixology.

As a little added bonus I tracked down all the variant covers I could find.  I’m still finding variant issues as there were a lot of retailer specific ones out there I didn’t know about.  I’ll update this as I find them.