Spider-Woman #8 Review

 

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.

Spider-Woman #7 Review

 

Writer: Steve Foxe

Artist: Ig Guara

Colorist: Arif Prianto

Letterer: Joe Sabino

Cover Artists: Leinil Francis Yu & Sunny Gho; Peach Momoko; Todd Nauck & Rachelle Rosenberg

Publisher: Marvel

Price: $3.99

Release Date: May 1, 2024

 

HYDRA turned her son Gerry against her. Like Skid Row, Spider-Woman can’t stand the heartache. She tried switching things up with Spider-Boy, but the team-up only reminded her what she’d lost. So, Jessica Drew hopped on her motorcycle and hit the road. The streets of San Francisco beckoned, but Star incinerated any attempt to center her being while cruising historic Route 66. Still, Jessica's reached The City By The Bay. Can Jessica find peace in new experiences and surroundings? Let’s recharge our bioelectric batteries, leap into Spider-Woman #7, and see!

 

Story

Jessica Drew may be starting anew, but she’s not reinventing herself. She’s still determined to win Gerry back. She can’t do that if HYDRA keeps brainwashing and controlling him. So, Jessica sets her sights on one of the terrorist organization’s wealthiest shell companies. Echidna Capital Management funds emerging technology companies. They’re also causing a stink in San Fran by devouring poor communities and using the high-priced land to build a gleaming corporate campus.

 

Unlike Carl Fredricksen, the locals don't limit their opposition to sitting on the front porch and protecting their mailboxes. They protest outside the fenced-off low-income housing they used to call home, and no one’s holding a balloon. Echidna Security personnel reward the protesters’ efforts with riot shields, truncheons, and tear gas. It’s a toxic environment primed to explode, and one Jessica Drew doesn’t want to confront on her first day. She’s happy to reschedule that joy for this evening when the protestors go home. Then, under cover of darkness, she can quietly slip into the corporate buildings in her bright red and yellow suit and see how many heads of HYDRA she can discover.

 

In Spider-Woman #7, Steve Foxe transplants Jessica Drew in a new city. She inhabits a barren apartment with few belongings except the clothes she brought, while others are losing their homes. As she fights to recapture her family, she also fights for those losing their heritage. She'll meet people she can help and who may be able to help her. She won’t have everything her way. Still, Jessica might find a new home and friends she can rely on.

 

 

 

Art

The sun shines through puffy clouds on The City By The Bay. As Jessica Drew walks along the street clutching her coffee, a cable car crests the hill and halts to take on passengers. Then yellow sparks appear above her head, and her blissful smile falters. Did lightning strike the cable car and transform passengers into superheroes? Sparks fly from the wheels as the driver applies the brakes. Jessica leans into the cable car's hood and digs her heels into the street. Concrete chunks fly into the air. Passengers lean outside the cable car, and the driver grips a handrail while pressing his other hand into the roof. Can this stranger stop them in time?

 

Ig Guara awakens Jessica from her dreams of smiling, happy people in Spider-Woman #7. While a cable car driver frowns, protestors shout, and Echidna Security personnel hide their expressions behind visors and masks. Yet, as bioelectric energy swirls around Jessica's fists, a familiar face emerges from the rising smoke. His smile diffuses her anger and lets her smile again, at least for a while.

 

Arif Prianto lavishes a full palette of attractive colors on fraught action scenes. Prianto imbues San Francisco with the bright, cheery hues that make the city so appealing. Yet readers will likely remember the latter half of Spider-Woman #7 when the familiar figure clad in red and yellow confronts another in yellow and orange. Then, a storm of colors will emerge from the blue night sky, surrounded by lines of crackling energy, as Jessica meets five Young Avengers outside the Echidna campus.

 

Yellow uppercase letters fill red narrative boxes as Joe Sabino shares Jessica’s thoughts in Spider-Woman #7. Large black uppercase letters fill white dialogue balloons as Jessica makes new contacts in her adoptive hometown. It's a cheery place where black music notes surround a bicycle rider wearing headphones, and green letters outlined in blue introduce a superhero team. Yet a villain will cast colored words into jagged white dialogue balloons with red borders while vibrant sound effects announce that the Echidnamania has begun.

 

Thanks to Marvel Comics for providing a copy for review.

 

 

 

Final Thoughts

Jessica Drew leaps to others' aid, reunites with an ex, trades venom shocks with a fiery foe, and meets a group of ultrapowered strangers in Spider-Woman #7.

 

Rating 9.6/10 

 

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