Spider-Woman #13 Review

A new story arc begins this week and it involves relationship issues…sorta. Spider-Woman already has a difficult enough time between a baby and stopping crime, so it’s only going to get more complicated from here. Is it good?

SPIDER-WOMAN #13 (Marvel Comics)

So what’s it about? For the full Marvel summary just read the preview!

Why does this book matter?

Quickly, name all the superheroes with a baby. Tough right? It makes this character’s situation unique and extra interesting, but then you add in her spunk and Dennis Hopeless’ ability to make her all kinds of fun and you can’t look away.

Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?

How Iceman of this guy eh?

As far as setup issues go, Hopeless does a good job introducing (and reintroducing) characters, creating a sense of mystery, raising the stakes and most importantly keeping the characters honest. Hopeless quickly establishes Spider-Woman’s life is complicated to the point where she’s not thinking about love, but Porcupine aka Roger very much wants their relationship to blossom. Leave it to Hopeless to wrap that delectably dramatic wrinkle up with the Hobgoblin and his goons mucking that up. There’s something afoot though; it’s not all cut and dry, and it’ll be interesting to see how this story moves forward after this issue.

Veronica Fish draws a very good and expressive issue (with great color from Rachelle Rosenberg) with a tight opening action scene that breaks down well. The amount of character in Spider-Woman, from punching a villain to trouncing around in a pink bathrobe, is at times shockingly good. The character is very alive and feels real right down to the smallest of motions. It makes the character that much more vivid and real and helps sell her firecracker personality. Hobgoblin looks great too and it’s unfortunate there isn’t more of the jerk here.

It can’t be perfect can it?

It’s hard to gather the purpose of things in the single issue format which can make it somewhat confusing as to why time is spent reminding us of characters as Hopeless does here. There are three pages that take Spider-Woman out of the city to catch up with friends and their purpose to the plot remains to be seen, especially given the events of the last few pages. All may be revealed, but it sticks out as a strange subplot to a story that all goes together otherwise.

Don’t mess with her dude.

Is It Good?

Scare Tactics opens with a boom, establishing the characters and deeply personal stakes for Spider-Woman well. Spider-Woman’s charm is infectious and you’ll root for her every step of the way.