Ghost-Spider #1 is published by Marvel Comics. It is written by Seanan McGuire with art by Takeshi Miyazawa and colors by Ian Herring.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t been the greatest at keeping up with Gwen Stacy’s adventures. I love her character, but I have a lot of comics to read and as you other comic fans may know, sometimes you just fall behind and after a certain point you’re just like, “I’ll read the trades later” and then you never get around to it because that list of trades to read later just keeps growing even when you mark stuff off. What I’m getting at is, I got really behind and then this reboot came around and I thought, “Perfect! Now I can jump on at the beginning again”, this was sadly incorrect thinking.
Despite wanting to leave Earth 65 strictly for attending college on Earth 616, Gwen still finds herself protecting the innocent alongside Spider-Man. She may want to be there as a civilian, but it doesn’t seem like her spidey senses, or the bad guys, will allow her that much peace. But, then the comic wouldn’t be very interesting, would it? This issue was about 90% set-up and 10% stuff actually happening.
While the comic was enjoyable, I was definitely lost. Despite it being a #1, and there being some new places and information as if to start a story, it still felt like I was in the middle of things. It didn’t feel like a new series, just the start of the next story.
There are a couple times where Gwen takes a second to explain the situation, but not enough that I actually felt like I could explain what was happening or why to another new reader. So, I can imagine this issue was probably perfect for consistent readers, but for someone like myself, it felt lacking. However, the art from Takeshi Miyazawa and Ian Herring’s colors were, as expected, wonderful – especially the action shots.
OVERALL SCORE: 7 / 10
It was by no means a bad issue, but it isn’t exactly a relaunch either, so I do recommend reading the previous issues first. All of which can be found at your local comic shop!
Happy reading!
