Spider-Woman #5 Review: When Back To Basics Isn't A Bad Thing
Writer: Dennis Hopeless
Artist: Javier Rodriguez
Inker: Alvaro Lopez
Issue #5 of Spider-Woman sees Jessica trying to adapt to a new way of life, sans Avengers, Shield, and Skrulls. We also see the debut of her shiny new costume, which trades in the pure spandex for a more modern and stylish jacket, pants, and shades combination. This is a huge visual upgrade, and gives the character an edginess at a glance that she was missing before. Admittedly I am still a huge fan of the original outfit, but there is room for change, and I like the direction the costume and the book are heading.
Dennis Hopeless has crafted a great entry point into Spider-Woman’s world with this issue. It sums up what has been going on previously in just a few panels, and sets the stage of what is to come by issue's end quite nicely. Jessica Drew is having to shake off some rust when it comes to street level crime fighting, which is something you don’t think about a great deal, but when you are used to having the abundant resources of SHIELD at your disposal 24/7 and a pinch hit from Black Widow or Captain America is just a phone call away, it would make sense that life without those things would take some adjustment. The relationship she starts to build with Ben Urich is promising, and I hope that this really continues to grow into a, as she puts it, Sherlock Holmes and Watson type thing.
Speaking of dynamic, the word perfectly describes Javier Rodriguez's pencils and colors. He’s able to capture the wall to wall bounce of her movements effortlessly, and that sense of motion leaps off the page. Dialogue is only aided by his lovely work with facial expressions, and to say I hope the team stays together for a while is an understatement. Under all the super heroics is a good old fashioned Dateline style mystery, just involving villains that have names like Porcupine and Big Wheel.
Oh, by the way, seriously? Who originally named these people? Its funny and ironic now, but at one point someone actually named their characters things like Big Wheel and expected them to be taken seriously.
Moving on now. Overall I love the new direction, and can’t wait to see more from this creative team.
You can read Issue 5 now, and Issue 6 releases on April 8th.
