Gwen Stacy #1: Into the Gwendiverse

The story is a retreading of familiar ground with a lot of easter eggs thrown in to entice the Marvel fan in all of us. To say that this comic is full of easter eggs might be an understatement. This comic was a Where’s Waldo Spidey references and at times it was more interesting to look for cameos and name drops than to read the story. The comic itself certainly doesn’t lack for content however. Not only do you get a fully formed 25-page comic, but there’s also a Peanuts style one-pager at the back, a stand-alone one-pager in the back in a post apoc style, and a three page cut out of paper dolls so you can dress your own Gwen Stacy in whatever you like. I like that the comic is trying something a little different, adding a different brand of content at the end, much like the old Spiderman comics used to offer in the early 90’s, but I’m afraid this is the only bit of praise I can really offer.

The comic was not bad, I enjoyed it, but the art style seemed a little wobbly. There are definitely parts that could have used a clean-up, Gwen’s face seems to be a point of contention with the artist at times, and the perspective of some pages just seems a little off. I found myself wishing there was more to the issue.  The story was enjoyable, the building of the origin story is always important, but it has the same problem that many first issue rehashes have. We have seen this story before, it’s nothing new, and if you’re going to retread old ground you’ve got to make it exciting. Some of the elements of the story were questionable as well, for a police department they certainly don’t think to run the usual tests on a cop who uses his gun in the field, but I look forward to seeing what issue 2 brings to the table. It’s going to need something special if it wants to compete with Marvel’s current list of titles.