Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #15 Review

 

Writer: Stephanie Phillips

Artist: Von Randal & Paolo Villanelli

Colorist: Matt Milla

Letterer: Ariana Maher

Cover Artists: Mark Brooks & Kris Anka

Design & Production: Carlos Lao

Editors: Kaeden McGahey, Jordan D White & CB Cebulski

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $4.99

Release Date: July 2, 2025

 

When King Loki abandoned the world he created, Monster Loki saw an opportunity to help others. He took the throne but left the ruins to remind them of their past. Spider-Gwen used the Cosmic Cube's energy to travel to the world King Loki created. She watched as Monster Loki greeted King Loki as a brother. Monster Loki explained his belief that they have grown beyond the monsters King Loki created. Sadly, King Loki doesn’t take kindly to usurpers. And any monstrous variant who thinks they’re as good as King Loki deserves to die.

 

Spider-Gwen began her interstellar adventure with Loki in the New York subway. When Ouroborus traces Gwen’s cosmic cube energy to King Loki’s world, the Time Variance Authority field agent discovers her cradling not Fabian LaMuerto, but Hulk Loki’s dying body. Can Gwen use her Cosmic Cube energy to resurrect Fabian and the monster who dared call King Loki his brother? And will King Loki answer any more of Gwen’s 1,293 questions? Let’s put on our symbiote space suits, thwip into Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #15 and see!

 

Story

When Spider-Gwen saw King Loki pursuing the Cosmic Cube, she prevented him from capturing it. But when she touched the artifact, it bonded with her. Gwen couldn't control the immense energy she wielded. It ruined her low-key superhero life playing drums in the Mary Janes and foiling the Bodega Bandit.

 

Ouroborus rescued Gwen from the apocalypse devouring Earth-65 and hid her on Earth-616. He asked her to lie low, but that wasn’t going to happen. Every time she used her abilities to help others, Gwen drew villains into her web. Eventually, Fabian died protecting her. At her lowest ebb, King Loki offered to relieve Gwen of the power she never meant to wield.

 

In Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #15, the other monsters King Loki created find Spider-Gwen standing beside their fallen leader. Even though King Loki's scepter rests in Monster Loki's body, they can't blame their creator. So Theodore and the others seek vengeance on the unwanted visitor to their world. Even if King Loki killed Monster Loki, it must be the outsider’s fault.

 

Gwen opens this journey into vengeance by contemplating the merits of a great story. As Stephanie Phillips pits Gwen, OB, and superpowered guest stars against King Loki’s monstrous creations, she asks how we frame the story of our own lives. Do we regard ourselves as pawns or kings? Are we the masters of our fate, or do we let others dictate our paths?

 

Art

Von Randal opens this final issue by revisiting key moments from the series. Then Spider-Gwen thwips across the barren world, battling the enraged monsters that King Loki created. Directions lines accompany fraught action as doorways appear, and familiar heroes emerge in Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #15.

 

Matt Milla lavishes a loaded palette as intense conflict knocks fangs from jaws and kicks rocks into the air. A luminous glow surrounds King Loki as he ponders his next attack. The green magic banishes the blue star fields as King Loki unleashes the next volley in his psychological campaign. The energy strands and green waves he unleashes evoke Loki’s decision to bring order to chaos in the Disney+ TV series. Then blue replaces green, as Spider-Gwen realizes that she’s already fought this battle, in Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #15.

 

Ariana Maher thwips uppercase black letters into white and green dialogue balloons with long white arrows. She outlines narrative boxes with green and blue. The text grows bold for intonation, enlarges for raised voices, and shrinks for distant voices. Pink punctuation marks visualize Gwen’s conflicting thoughts. Sound effects enliven a fistfight, demonstrate the power of Vibranium, and awaken us to Gwen's fate in Paolo Villanelli’s detailed epilogue. Thanks to Marvel for providing a review copy.

 

Final Thoughts

Like gazing into a mirror as she dresses for a gig, Gwen Stacy studies her choices and contemplates a change. After saving the life of a corrupt judge, Gwen must decide how best to dispense judgment on a criminal, and where she belongs, in Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #15.

 

Rating 9/10

 

To look inside see my review at Comic Book Dispatch. 

Amazing Spider-Man #36 Review

 

Writer: Zeb Wells

Penciler: Ed McGuinness

Inker: Mark Farmer

Colorist: Marcio Menyz

Letterer: Joe Caramagna

Cover Artists: Ed McGuinness & Marcio Menyz; Arthur Adams & Alejandro Sánchez; Kris Anka; John Romita Jr., John Romita Sr. & Marcio Menyz

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $4.99

Release Date: October 25, 2023

 

Rek-Rap’s back, and he’s causing problems in the Big Apple. Mayor Luke Cage wants to solve them, but will Madelyne Pryor help? And how does Rek-Rap’s idol “Parker Pete-Man” factor into the equation? Let’s fwip into Amazing Spider-Man #36 and find out!

 

Story

Rek-Rap wants to check out a man's attic. Then his nemesis arrives! As Madelyne Pryor says, Rek-Rap means well. The way the Insidious Six keep attacking him makes destruction inevitable. The voters have had enough, so Luke Cage visits the Limbo Embassy. If only the Goblin Queen would put the New York City’s Mayor at ease. Perhaps Luke shouldn't have brought Spidey along.

 

While Rek-Rap conducts his investigation, Peter’s friend Randy Robertson works to help Luke reverse Wilson Fisk’s anti-vigilante law and put pressure on organized crime. But after Spidey unplugged Randy’s future Father-In-Law in the ICU, will Tombstone pour water on gang violence or enflame it? 

 

In Amazing Spider-Man #36, Rek-Rap searches for answers, while Madelyne Pryor seeks to cement her power. Intrigued by Peter’s description of himself to Luke, I also wonder at the identity of Madelyne’s agent. But I worry about her. With Orchis itching for an excuse to invade her Limbo Embassy, should she be making Power Man squirm? Her actions remind me why people believed Orchis’ lies and welcomed the internment and exile of their mutant neighbors.

 

 

 

Art

Muscular Luke balances his big and tall torso on a child-sized office chair while the Goblin Queen reclines in a claw-shaped one. Spider-Man waits in Limbo's lobby, watching Luke leave in his limo before he shows his masked face in public. Sweat pours down Hammerhead’s forehead as he bows before his Maggia master. Madelyne digs in a garden surrounded by foliage-free trees that fail to grow straight. Rek-Rap’s confrontation with the Grave Goblin threatens to make readers turn Amazing Spider-Man #36 sideways. But don’t worry. You haven’t wandered into a ‘90s Image comic. Ed McGuinness and Mark Farmer's Dark Web reunion is all Marvel and 100% Excelsior in Amazing Spider-Man #36!

 

 

 

Gray skyscrapers pale before the reddish hue of Madelyne’s Limbo Embassy. Light streams through an office window, highlighting the grain in her wooden desk. Her golden crown and red tresses glow as her gloved, ringed fingers point down at Luke and Spidey. Light plays across the supplicants as shadows fall on the floor and walls of her office. Hammerhead’s skin contrasts with gleaming metal, while a robotic welder sends sparks flying. Yet nothing compares with the ruined attic's blue-and-purple ceiling. The colors streak and change, suggesting muted watercolor, while Spider-Man dominates in his bright red and blue. Don't worry about Rek-Rap looking his best! Marcio Menyz highlights and shades every muscular inch of the un-sinister symbiote in Amazing Spider-Man #36.

 

 

 

Joe Caramagna’s black letters in white dialogue balloons are easy to read. As Rek-Rap ponders his Spider-Brain Tingle, his white thoughts fill red narrative boxes. Sinister sounds slice through a rooftop battle. Yet Amazing Spider-Man #36 ends quietly with a cowering character fighting to recall another's identity.

 

Final Thoughts

Heroes and villains vie for power, while an aspiring hero seeks identity and purpose in Amazing Spider-Man #36.

 

Rating 9.4/10

 

To preview interior art see my review at Comic Book Dispatch.