Quirky Cat
Written on Sep 18, 2018
The Spider-Man/Spider-Gwen crossover is something that was heavily discussed and shared around the time it came out. I’m only now getting to that part in the series (I was behind on both Spider-Gwen and the Miles Morales series), but I’m pretty happy to finally see what all the fuss is about.
Before we get started though, I just want to say how much I love the cover on this volume. Regardless of what happens between these two, or how I feel about it all, I’m really happy with this cover. It’s beautifully drawn and did a great job of keeping the stylistic preferences for both characters. I’ll call that a win.
If you’re reading this in single issue format, say through Marvel Unlimited or something like that, the reading order is a little back and forth. The reading order is as follows: Spider-Man #12, Spider-Gwen #16, Spider-Man #13, Spider-Gwen #17, Spider-Man #14, and finally Spider-Gwen #18.
Before I officially dig into my review, I should mention that I’m a huge fan of crossovers and team-ups, so I may be a bit biased at points.
I really enjoyed watching this pair work things out. At first I was confused when I saw the cover being advertised so heavily. I kept thinking that Gwen is so much older than Miles…so doesn’t that make it creepy? I forgot to take into account a couple of things though. One, this is a comic series, so characters don’t age as fast as we’d expect. Two, Gwen is from another universe, where it could be argued that they’re timeline is slightly different. So where I’d expect Gwen to be 25-30 in the main universe, in hers she’s really only 21 (or is it 22? I forget). So, still a big old for Miles, but not by as much as I expected.
I didn’t realize that the plot they’ve been building up to in Spider-Man, with his father being missing and everything would culminate in a crossover volume. But the two points end up being connected, with Miles’ father going missing explaining how Miles and Gwen end up meeting in the first place.
There were a couple other cameos I hadn’t been expecting, though I guess I should have. Maria Hill makes an appearance, though that was more of a blip on the radar than anything else. Ms. Marvel nearly stole the show though. I’m just going to say it – I wish Kamala and Gwen had more access to each other. I think Kamala could be exactly the type of friend that Gwen needs right now.
The volume has a lot of fun playing with the ‘will they? Won’t they?’ tension, but that’s really no surprise. While I won’t ruin what conclusion the relationship comes to, I will say that it was shockingly well thought out and backed up with a couple of events. So I really can’t complain about it. I’ll be curious to see what happens next…or further down the line.
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