Uncanny Spider-Man #3: Women in the Workplace

This issue was better written than the previous installment, continuing an upward trend for Spurrier’s time with these characters. Better late than never, I suppose. But although the pacing was coherent and there was an equal ratio of character moments to action, there was a serious weakness woven into the warp and weft of the material: Spurrier’s treatment of women. 

If you want to see Mystique, a woman who has always been known for her independence, reduced to what is basically a walking, wailing womb, defining herself solely by her motherhood and utterly absent of any other personality, this is the book for you. If you want to see The Silver Sable shorn of any and every personality trait that isn’t either horniness or else desire to make herself subservient to a man, this is the book that you want to pick up. Dagger, the other female character who pops in (no spoilers) is completely and totally subsumed in her relationship with a man. The fact that the writing is, in general terms, more coherent than it has been only serves to throw the misogyny into harsh, brutal relief. 

If you aren’t the most unwoke male-identifying audience possible, this book will make you uncomfortable if you analyze it for more than five minutes. It’s almost painful to see Nightcrawler tied up in all of this. 

And you know what? Scratch the ‘almost’. It would be more than possible to tell this story without presenting women as beings who are solely defined by what either goes into or comes out of their various holes, but Spurrier hasn’t managed it. 

Aside from this unfortunate swerve into ickiness, the plot ticks along quite well. This new techno-organic take on the Hounds is incredibly interesting. Spurrier has a knack for writing pretentious jerks who think that they’re more intelligent than they are (people are best at writing what they know the most intimately, after all) so his Nimrod is particularly well done. 

Javier Pinna’s art really steals the show. His depictions of the wreckage of Warlock (not to mention his images of moonlit romance) add a lot of feeling and verve to story that could desperately use a little bit of joy and life. Matt Mila’s colors can only be described as silky and delicious. 

Despite some deeply uncomfortable misogynistic elements, this issue continued the recent upward trend in Spurrier’s work.