Writer: Steve Foxe
Artist: Ig Guara
Colorist: Arif Prianto
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Cover Artists: Leinil Francis Yu & Sunny Gho; Mark Bagley & Rachelle Rosenberg
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $3.99
Release Date: June 19, 2024
Jessica Drew discovered a worthy cause in preventing Echidna Capital Management from gobbling up low-income housing in San Francisco. She reconnected with an old flame, fought the livewire Zzzax, and met a team of young superheroes. Who is The Assembly, and can Jessica trust them? Let’s recharge our bioelectric batteries, leap into Spider-Woman #8, and see!
Story
David Ishima was once her landlord. He dated her until he discovered she was Spider-Woman. He has since sold his apartment building to fund the Relaunch Recovery Center and cares for his two daughters. David has enjoyed helping poor residents get back on their feet. Unfortunately, his property lies in the area Echidna wants for their corporate campus.
HYDRA brainwashed her son, Gerry, and turned him into the villain Green Mamba. Jessica wants to know more about these teen superheroes employed by a HYDRA shell company. She investigates online but can’t uncover personal information predating The Assembly's press launch. Jessica calls David and picks his brains over coffee. As a local, David discovered them when Quicksand hurled a sandstorm at San Francisco. The Assembly stopped her, but residents had to clean up the mess.
Maybe the kids weren't interested in social media before their powers manifested. Like David, perhaps their parents didn't allow them on social media. Still, Jessica can't shake the feeling that Echidna crafted the kids' backstories, and the group was in the works before Quicksand's attack. Then she learns of a disturbance at an Echidna construction site, bids David goodbye, and hurries off to help in Spider-Woman #8.
While politicians often promise to look after the economically challenged, they can find it difficult to turn down big-money redevelopment projects. In Steve Foxe’s story, Jessica discovers angry Angar arguing with Echidna security guards outside a construction project. The guards claim the corporation purchased the city park legally, and any people living inside the property are squatters. Thankfully, Jessica is immune to Angar’s powers because the Screamer can shatter eardrums and cause hallucinations. Jessica wants to defuse the situation, but like those at the protest where she met David, Angar and the guards are tired of talking. Thankfully, the Assembly is never far away when superpowered people threaten Echidna's property. The kids respect Spider-Woman's accomplishments. But they're young, on Echidna's payroll, and know the best way of tackling violent confrontations.
Art
As David opts for a soda over coffee in Spider-Woman #8, Jessica shows him news reports and photographs of The Assembly members as children. The press photos show the kids’ moment of activation or demonstrating their powers afterward. Echidna guards in black uniforms, armor, and stormtrooper helmets shake their batons. Red-haired Angar, displaying a blue vest, gold pants to match his armbands and amulet, and a handlebar mustache that won’t quit, projects orange rings of power when his mouth opens wide. Spider-Woman raises her hands as the guards point their rifles at her. Then she grabs the rifles by their barrels, and the guards tumble as she wrenches them from their hands.
Arif Prianto lavishes a loaded palette of attractive colors on Ig Guara’s art. The Assembly burst from a purple vortex, green-skinned Titan leading the charge with his gloved fist first. Jessica’s red and yellow uniform forges a connection with Angar’s red hair, gold adornments, and yellow pants. Cadet Marvel sends him somersaulting as a sunburst of yellow and orange rays fills the air in Spider-Woman #8. Angar’s blue boots stand out from the bowled-over gray fencing, gray-blue construction, and smoky blue sky. Liberty's red hair and blue suit connect her with Spider-Woman's red mask and her dark hair's blue sheen. But Titan crouching in his blue and gray armor beside a seated guard (whose uniform looks similarly colored from this perspective) and cupping the helmet with his giant green fingers reminds readers that HYDRA owns Echidna.
Yellow uppercase letters fill red narrative boxes as Joe Sabino shares Jessica’s thoughts. Large black uppercase letters in white dialogue balloons grow bold for inflection and shrink for lowered voices. A bing announces a news alert, a crunch follows a yellow boot pinning down a gray-gloved hand, and yellow-white letters help us hear electricity strike the ground in Spider-Woman #8. Thanks to Marvel Comics for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
Jessica Drew becomes a fish out of water on her return to San Francisco as she tackles corporate greed, homelessness, and the ethics of Heroes For Hire in Spider-Woman #8.
Rating 9/10
To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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