Gwenpool #1
Written By: Christopher Hastings
Art By: Gurihiru, Danilo Beyruth
Colors By: Gurihiru, Tamra Beyruth
Letters By: Clayton Cowles
Release Date: 4/13/15
Price Tag: 4.99
Gwenpool is a character that span out of a Gwen Stacy variant cover and became popular because of fans cosplaying as her at cons. She first appeared in her own holiday special back in December, which I did a written review for on The Marvel Report so you can check that out here. She has recently appeared as a backup character in Howard the Duck. Now she has her own ongoing series.
Plot
The issue opens with a prologue, catching you up on Gwenpool’s story if you haven’t read her backup in Howard the Duck. Gwen wants to be a hero, but likes to do so with guns. So she ends up in a police car heading to jail, where she meets her new friend, a hacker who doesn’t play by the system. Out of the blue the police officer driving the car doesn’t want to be a cop anymore and lets Gwen and her friend go.
Now Gwenpool is working as a “hero”, and she’s not very good at it. After her last mission she meets up with M.O.D.O.K., who forces her to become a henchman.
Story
If you haven’t read the Howard the Duck back up, like me, this issue was pretty new reader friendly. You still don’t know much about her origins, but from this issue it doesn’t seem like Gwenpool wants you to know her origins. All you need to know is that she is from our world and she knows that the Marvel universe is all make believe.
Her name is Gwenpool. So I am guessing you thought this comic would just be like any other Deadpool book. Well you’re right! This book was a little bit too similar to Deadpool. They both break the fourth wall, but I guess the only difference is that Gwenpool is actually from our world, which is an interesting concept. This is why I wanted a bit more of her origin story in this issue because it would have been cool to explore why she wanted to be an anti-hero type character.
The prologue helped a little bit to catch you up with the character, but I thought the police officer letting Gwen and her friend go was way too convenient. Even for a book that calls most of their characters “extras”.
The rest of the issue was fun, and there were a lot of jokes that landed. But I still wanted a bit more from Gwen Poole as a character. There is a glimmer of a good character moment with the cliffhanger of the issue. Her friend dies by the hand of M.O.D.O.K. and her hero dreams are broken. Now she’s just a lackey. The cliffhanger is what made me want to give issue 2 a shot.
Art
The main artwork for the story was the best factor of the book. I love the cartoony clean style. It fits the personality of the character and the tone of the series. The action is gorgeous, bright, and to the point.
The artwork also helped some of the jokes land. Like when Gwen looks at her paycheck for finishing a job, she puts dollar signs on her eyelids to celebrate, that had me cracking up because it was so perfectly paneled.
My only negative towards the artwork was the different artist for the prologue. This art style was darker and had a bit too much line work for me.
Verdict
Gwenpool has some promise, but it takes awhile to find that promise because of the automatic comparison to Deadpool. The $4.99 price tag is a bit expensive. So Gwenpool may be a better trade wait.