Spider-Women Alpha #1
Story By: Dennis Hopeless, Jason Latour, Robbie Thompson
Script By: Robbie Thompson
Art By: Vanesa Del Rey
Colors By: Jordie Bellaire
Lettered By: VC’s Travis Lanham
Release Date: 4/6/16
Price Tag: $4.99
I am a big fan of all the current Spider Women related titles, and I was very excited to hear about the titles’ crossover during this year’s New York Comic Con. So let’s see if the first issue of this Spider-Women event met my expectations.
Plot
Cindy Moon (Silk), Jessica Drew (Spider Woman), and Gwen Stacy (also Spider Woman) meet up in the 616 universe to hang out. They hate going to the same restaurant in the 616. So Gwen offers to take them to Earth-65. The girls run into some trouble, causing them to be stuck in Earth-65.
Story
This issue was a pretty good introduction to Silk, Spider-Gwen, and Spider Woman if you never read their titles before. It catches you up on their status quo.
Going into this book the most important thing for me was seeing if the chemistry between Silk, Spider-Gwen, and Spider Woman would be on point. I am glad to say that these three women have a very interesting dynamic in the book. They aren’t all best friends, especially Silk and Spider-Gwen, but they work well off each other. I especially love how Jessica is maternal towards Cindy and Gwen. We have seen this maternal side during Spider-Verse, but we are seeing it even more now that she’s a mother.
My favorite thing about this issue is that it’s mostly a hang out issue. It’s the girls having coffee at Starkbucks and catching each other up on their lives. Then you also see the deep emotional story lines these characters have been going through, especially Cindy and Gwen.
It was interesting to see how Jessica broke down Cindy’s psychological situation. The strongest line is when Cindy overhears Jessica saying, “It’s even a miracle she even speaks in complete sentences.” I think this scene will play a major part in the issues to come for the event.
Art
The negative towards this issue is the artwork. This is the same artist who is currently working on Scarlet Witch, and this art style fits that dark and gritty storytelling. But it doesn’t work for Spider-Women Alpha. The tone felt off. The book is mostly upbeat, especially with Gwen’s one-liners throughout the issue. But even when the colors are bright the line work makes the tone gritty.
Another problem I had with the artwork was proportions. There are times where the characters’ eyes seem too far apart. It makes the facial expressions look awkward.
Verdict
It was fun to see these girls interact and it was a pretty good set up for the rest of the crossover. But the artwork really took me out of the issue.