Spider-Gwen, Spider-Gwen, does whatever a Spider-Man can. Up to, and including, having an annual with some of the best artistic talent working in comics today. With a veritable who’s who of some of the best artists currently working, the very first “Spider-Gwen Annual” is a romp through the life and times of Gwen Stacy, Spider-Woman that damn near anyone can enjoy.
Read on below for our full, spoiler free review of “Spider-Gwen Annual” #1!
Written by Jason Latour
Illustrated by Chris Brunner, Emi Lennox, Chris Visions, Olivia Margraf, Annapaola Martello, James Harren, Jason Latour, Michael Walsh, Javier Rodriguez and Veronica Fish
The first ever SPIDER-GWEN ANNUAL is here and it’s huge. Threads for the next year of SPIDER-GWEN are laid down here in these stories: SPIDER-GWEN and CAPTAIN AMERICA go on a secret mission! THE MARY JANES get loud! CAPTAIN STACY and GWEN meet SHE-HULK?! SPIDER-HAM!!!
Annuals are kind of a weird concept in comics. They essentially exist as one-shots outside of the main story threads being told in the series proper, allowing for more artistic experimentation or telling stories that wouldn’t quite fit in the main series. Teaming with a simply sublime rosters of artists, writer Jason Latour has embraced that idea whole-heartedly with an annual full of small, off-the-wall stories exploring the weird and wonderful corners of Gwen Stacy’s life. It’s weird, it’s all over the place and it’s way more experimental than you would expect from a comic from one of the Big Two comic publishers making it an incredibly fun and incredibly strange read.
Instead of telling one single story through the issue, the “Spider-Gwen Annual” #1 decides to go all over the place with a collection of short stories and single-page comics all written by Jason Latour and illustrated by a good number of different creative teams. This makes this annual one of the most dizzyingly gorgeous artistic feats to come out of Marvel in years. Every artist in this issue is a name and a visual style you should recognise because they are the future of this medium. You have folk like Chris Brunner, Emi Lenox, Chris Visions, James Harren, Michael Walsh, Javier Rodriguez and Veronica Fish contributing to this issue as well as Latour himself illustrating a couple of pages with colourists like Jordie Bellaire, Rico Renzi and Jim Campbell bringing that artwork to life. I’ll dive into the individual stories more in a second, but I want to talk a little bit about the overall artistic feel of this issue.
People talk a lot of art being the “punk rock version of X”. It’s about as prevalent as being the Dark Souls of something. It’s hard to gauge what that really means when it’s used so prevalently, through. Punk is a counter-culture movement. It’s not just leather jackets, combat boots and mohawks, nor is it simply bright dyed hair and eyeliner. I mean, it’s all of those things, but those things stem from the feeling of being unhappy with the status quo, being angry about the status quo and deciding you’re going to say “fuck you” to the world. That’s this annual. That’s entirely the feel of this annual. From the various artists, many who employ rather harsh and heavy linework styles, to the writing which takes every opportunity it can to spit in the face of injustices in the world, Spider-Gwen is a true counter-culture superhero.
Hell, there’s a story in this issue about a dimension-hopping black woman as Captain America punching an expy of a well known political tyrant in the face. It’s clearly Jason Latour, Chris Visions and Jim Campbell using this annual as a space to explore the world, our world, and all the fucked up, terrible things happening every day and trying to do something about it through their art. It’s not quite as blatant in the other stories, mind you, where there’s more of a focus on Spider-Gwen’s past in the first story with Chris Brunner and Rico Renzi or on rather absurdist comedy in a later story by Olivia Margraf and John Rauch, but it’s definitely a feeling that permeates the entire annual. It can be a fun superhero romp at times, sure, but it can also be a call to action through comic books to make the world into the better one they see in their dreams.
Continued belowAs mentioned, there are two other short stories in this issue, the first being a story looking back at Gwen’s earliest days as Spider-Woman with art by Chris Brunner and Rico Renzi. This story is a really neat twist on the wrestling aspect of Peter Parker’s origin story and reminded me a lot of how that was incorporated into Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. As the introductory story, it’s perhaps the most straightforward of the bunch and does a great job to ease the reader into the annual while bringing that grime-y feeling to the forefront with linework that’s scratchy, exaggerated and heavily inked and brought to life with vibrant, high-contrast, neon-soaked colours. The second of these stories is illustrated by Olivia Margraf and coloured by John Rauch and is a soft, pastel-coloured interlude of absurdist domestic comedy to a ludicrous degree. It’s perhaps my favourite of the three simply for how unique the art style is, even compared to the rest of the annual.
Sandwiched between the first two short stories is a single page illustrated by Emi Lenox and coloured by Jordie Bellaire that is just a delight. Honestly, it made me laugh so much I had to stop reading just to giggle to myself for a good five minutes. It’s that kind of thing that makes this annual worth reading.
The highlight of this issue, though, is the final series of pages, which takes the reader through a wildly fantastical week in the life of Spider-Woman with each day illustrated by a different creative team. They’re great, little one page stories from a variety of artists (including two pages drawn by Jason Latour) that show the strength of single-page stories in comics. In order, the creative teams are Annapaola Martello and Vero Gandini, James Harren and Jordie Bellaire, Jason Latour, Michael Walsh and Veronica Gandini, Javier Rodriguez and Alvaro Lopez, Jason Latour again and Veronica Fish and Jordie Bellaire. These stories are off-the-wall, largely unconnected to each other and show the fantastic world of Spider-Gwen while hinting at story threads to come if the solicit text is to be believed. It’s a strong cap-off to the annual and is a series of story beats that puts the artistic teams in the spotlight more than the writing, something that’s incredibly brave for a Big Two superhero comic these days. These pages are worth price of admission alone, honestly.
Overall, this annual is kind of a strange beast and I kind of love it for that. It doesn’t play anything safe, instead creating an environment where a group of varied and eclectic artists can play in a superhero sandbox. Writer Jason Latour curates a number of short stories where these can explore this sandbox in a way that best suits their own visual styles. This is the farthest from a superhero house style as you can get with artists like Chris Visions and Chris Brunner bringing a truly punk rock vibe to superhero stories, shaking apart the established status quo of superhero comics for something that’s vibrant, harsh and, most importantly, has something to say. It’s a middle finger from all involved to the stagnant production line of superhero comics and we’re honestly blessed to have it.
Final Verdict: 8.9 – It’s not your average superhero comic and there will be people who are not okay with that, but if you really love Spider-Gwen then you’re going to really love this too.
