Hitting the shelves this week from Marvel Comics, Ghost-Spider #6 kicks off the newest adventure for our favorite inter-dimensional webhead.
We take a step back from The Jackal and all the oddities that follow him this issue. Ghost-Spider #6 starts five years back to show the Storm siblings, Susan and Johnny, are actually models in Earth-65, pompous, rich, models. We then jump one year ahead to see a younger Gwen watching the news showing the Storm siblings have gone missing since their tour in Latveria.
Previously, we have seen Earth-65’s Ben Grimm and Reed Richards already. Richards is a child genius who has developed tech for Gwen in the past, and Grimm being a police officer in the same precinct as Captain Stacy. Now that we have all four, and a name drop of “Victor Von Doom” in this issue, one can only imagine what’s in store for us in this next story arc.
Additionally, this issue has Gwen enjoying her life some more. We see her getting along well with her friends, including MJ, for once, and we even get a wholesome father-daughter interaction between the Stacys with a fun twist you won’t find elsewhere.
With the last issue ending on The Jackal’s escape and the death of Earth-65’s own Miles Warren, it’s a little awkward moving on from that arc right away. That being said, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of The Jackal or the weapon Earth-65 Warren created to potentially kill Gwen’s symbiote. All of that seems to be on the back burner for now.
Ig Guara and Rosi Kämpe handled the art for this issue; as such, it resembles the earlier issues of Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider before Takeshi Miyazawa started working on it. The style is very fresh, and the shading reminds me of a more pointillistic style with the shadows being dotted in.
The best part of Earth-65 is honestly Earth-65. The constant purple shading over everything and the neon-colored windows and lights that pop out add so much character to the setting and show just how different it is from Earth-616. Ian Herring continues to prove he has an understanding of these palettes with His spectacular coloring issue to issue.
As mentioned, there’s a good scene between Gwen and Captain Stacy in this issue, and the lettering for that scene takes it up a notch. Their conversation feels genuine, and the pacing between them feels natural for a father-daughter discussion. They don’t seem like they’re fighting, because they’re not. They’re disagreeing and not outright exploding at each other. This shows a lot of progression in their relationship, as Captain Stacy seems to be accepting that Gwen’s grown into her own person.
Overall, Ghost-Spider #6 is a fine start to what’s coming next for Gwen. We get to continue seeing the average day of a more grounded superhero with a unique situation where everyone knows exactly who she is. There’s a lot of charm in this character that you won’t find in other comics.
While it’s still very up in the air what direction this arc will take, it’s off to a fun start in its ambiguity. Writer Seanan McGuire has a passion for writing this character, and it clearly shows in each issue. McGuire’s run has been a more uplifting tale of Gwen’s redemption. Something very different from the original started by Jason Latour and Robbi Rodriguez. Ghost-Spider has been very different from what I expected it to be, but I am still excited to see what happens every time a new issue drops.
Are you keeping up with Earth-65? What other characters’ doppelgangers from this Earth would you like to see? Let us know in the comment section below!
