Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Artists: Paolo Villanelli
Colorist: Matt Milla
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Cover Artists: Mark Brooks & Audrey Mok
Design & Production: Carlos Lao
Editors: MR Daniel, Jordan D White, Nick Lowe & C B Cebulski
Publisher: Marvel
Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 2, 2024
Gwen Stacy’s compassion for Chameleon won her a fan. But the way they hide their identities behind masks and aliases makes the relationship weird. At least Chameleon told Gwen who was gunning for her. Chameleon may have tarnished her hero image, but if Gwen takes out Black Tarantula, perhaps the police will stop hunting her. Can Gwen adopt a new strategy and get her life on Earth-616 back on track? Let's thwip into Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #6 and find out!
Story
Fabian finds Gwen enchanting. Black Tarantula's son plays her game while “bumping” into her in Bear Coffee. Perhaps she connects the dots between the man clad in black leather who wanted to buy her a coffee and the man before her who makes the same offer. Perhaps not. But a social life can wait. After she foiled his bank heist, Black Tarantula sent Chameleon to deal with New York's latest spider hero. Gwen needs to send Black Tarantula back to Rykers before he sends someone else after her. But villains lurk in the shadows. Perhaps she should take a leaf out of their book.
Gaining respect from the criminal fraternity gives Gwen the confidence to descend into the shadows in Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #6. But questioning people in a bar is a skill that doesn’t come naturally. Gwen can disguise her appearance. Still, she lacks the subtlety to get the answers she seeks. Jessica Jones intervenes when Gwen's questions in the Low Life bar raise the villains' threat level. While Jessica admires Gwen’s willingness to try new things, she encourages Gwen to play to her strengths. Their heart-to-heart over pizza helps Gwen relax and envision what life could bring once she gets over this bump in the road. But then, Ouroborus of the Time Variance Authority and Silk also know the soothing power of pizza.
Gwen has a lot on her plate (aside from a slice of pepperoni). She wields a strange power she is only learning to understand and control. Her superpowers should have made her a hero. Instead, they have made her hunted, feared, and hated on two worlds. Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #6 gives Gwen a moment to pause and reflect on the hero she wants to be. But she doesn't have long. Black Tarantula won't back down. And even as Gwen makes a new friend, she seems destined to lose another.
Art
Descend the stairs from the sidewalk and venture inside the Low Life, where a flatscreen nestles among the shelves of bottles behind the bar. More TVs hover at the periphery of the pipe-adorned ceiling, surrounding the patrons with the latest news, weather, and sports. Gwen ventures into the bar clad in a black trench coat. With her white hoodie pulled over her head and a green scarf further obscuring her face, Gwen pulls a wad of green notes from her pocket. The burly bartender in a white tank top appears less than impressed by a secretive, overdressed customer who doesn't order a drink. Shadows fall blue and purple on the patrons as they gather around Gwen in the dimly lit bar. Yet white flares behind Jessica as she steps through the orange door.
Gwen’s gray laptop blends with the window frame in the colorful Bear Coffee. The peach and gold sign on the street draws customers inside Bear Coffee’s grand reopening. Pink, purple, and peach balloons mingle among green potted plants and tan loveseats. More balloons cluster near the pink and purple pennants adorning the ceiling. In his gray clothes and trench coat, Fabian seems more attuned to Jessica Jones’ shadowy vibe than Gwen’s usual green, blue, and yellow casual attire. But even though Gwen seems better suited to a colorful, vibrant world, she is testing a new life in the shadows in Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #6.
As Paolo Villanelli and Matt Milla populate inviting settings with compelling characters, Ariana Maher thwips uppercase black letters into white dialogue balloons with long white arrows and places rouge words in white narrative boxes outlined with turquoise. The text grows bold for intonation and enlarges for raised voices. Sound effects accompany a colorful bar brawl and herald an emerging arachnid threat amid pages steeped in blue, purple, and pink. Thanks to Marvel for providing a copy for review.
Final Thoughts
When Gwen begins a new career in the shadows, she makes a new friend and discovers a web of protection in Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #6.
Rating 9.4/10
To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.
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