Spider-Woman: Total Badass (Spider-Woman #1 Review)

SPIDER-WOMAN #1

Writer: Karla Pacheco

Artist: Pere Pérez

Penciler: Paulo Siqueira

Inker: Oren Junior

Colors: Frank D’Armata

Letters: VC’s Travis Lanham

Cover Art: Junggeun Yoon

Publisher: Marvel

Rating: 9/10 Venom Blasts

I don’t like spiders. They give me the willies with their crawling around and webbing up their food. I do love the Spider-People of Marvel though, most notably Spider-Woman. Before learning Jessica Drew’s colorful background from Hydra, to spy, to Avenger, I really just became a fan of the character for their cool powers. It’s been great seeing Jessica pop up in my reads and how much she has experienced with the lows of being impersonated by Skrulls to even the highs of becoming a new mom. Needless to say, I have been pretty excited for Spider-Woman’s new series to drop since it’s announcement and it was well worth the wait. Spoilers Ahead.

Spider-Woman is an all-new series, in an all-new costume, with an all-new attitude...that is grumpy, as Pacheco puts Jessica up to the Herculean task of tolerating a boat full of spoiled teens while on guard duty. The sour disposition surprisingly isn’t from the kids though as the boat is met with various goons out to kidnap the rich boat owner’s daughter. Jessica finds herself experiencing slightly more aggressive behavior during this encounter. I really enjoyed how Pacheco wasted no time diving into the action in this story as Pérez has Spider-Woman punching and kicking her way through goons, followed by some funny little breather moments for Jess to get mad at some annoying sexist teen. Pérez’s art for the action was excellent. The panels were minimal in what was in them which was nice as it really focused more on the action seeing Spider-Woman do some cool stuff which also was fun to see complimented by Lanham’s letters. Spider-Woman really puts the hurt on the hired goons and proves that not even a helicopter is a match for, but reveals to the reader that she is the one in need of medical attention more than anyone else.

The weird behavior followed by a not feeling so good Spider-Woman leaves a lot of anticipation and questions to be answered in the next issue but fortunately, the good read doesn’t stop there as Pacheco delivers a bonus prequel story that gives us the background to Jessica Drew’s new costume. The reasoning behind it felt a little odd to simply not want to make money while wearing her iconic suit but hey, the new one looks awesome. Plus, she’s got a spider-child to feed and it’s not like every Marvel team is being paid for by Tony Stark.

Spider-Woman #1 delivered fast-paced action with danger already at Jessica’s doorstep. For a character that has such a deep history in the Marvel Universe, I feel like Pacheco made this read very easy for someone who hasn’t fully experience Spider-Woman throughout the years. They get right to telling you who Jessica is, showing you parts of her current life, and what she can do that makes her super. There is also a great note from Pacheco in the back that really summarizes who Spider-Woman is as well! The art for this series overall was fantastic all around, with solid colors, cool action and just great detail in the characters. This is a series that’s sure to have you in its web after the first read so why wait any longer to step into it!