Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider, Vol. 2: Impossible Year

Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider (2018)

by Seanan McGuire, Takeshi Miyazawa (Illustrator), Bengal (Cover Art)

Collects Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #5-10.

A break from the action?! In the aftermath of SPIDER-GEDDON, Gwen Stacy is ready for things to calm down — but when is life ever calm for a teenage super hero? Mary Jane’s perfectionist vision for their band is driving Gwen crazy, while her father is pressuring her to return to school. And something sinister is stalking the streets of New York. Can Gwen track down the thing that goes bump in the night — or will she become one more victim of the Man-Wolf?! Plus: Spider-Woman…hero for hire! A first date with…Norman Osborn! A battle of the bands! And a Marvel Universe team-up with Spider-Man and Spider-Woman!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Comic Book, Spider Man, Fiction

134 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 3, 2019

About the author

Hi! I'm Seanan McGuire, author of the Toby Daye series (Rosemary and Rue, A Local Habitation, An Artificial Night, Late Eclipses), as well as a lot of other things. I'm also Mira Grant (www.miragrant.com), author of Feed and Deadline.

Born and raised in Northern California, I fear weather and am remarkably laid-back about rattlesnakes. I watch too many horror movies, read too many comic books, and share my house with two monsters in feline form, Lilly and Alice (Siamese and Maine Coon).

I do not check this inbox. Please don't send me messages through Goodreads; they won't be answered. I don't want to have to delete this account. :(

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gwen is back home, where she feel she needs to be after Spider-Geddon... Just one thing, she forgot... She no longer has a secret identity! Some solid book building goes on here as we get more detail, feel and atmosphere of Gwen's home, Earth 65. And there's a new king of crime in town. 7 out of 12.

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn't bad per se, but it's sooooooooo decompressed. Six issues of Gwen having problems with her powers with no resolutions and very few bad guys other than street crime. So now I guess we have to go on to yet another new series to find a resolution to a story that should have ended after 2 issues.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun book, and extremely well written. There's no overwhelming goal or big bad to oppose, but a nice series of events that serve as a clever and engaging character study. Gwen is getting along as best she can, wondering if she should accept payment for non-superheroic engagements, and, if so, should she advertise? In the meantime, she's still drumming with the band, trying to figure out things with her father, and trying to get herself back in school. As always, Marvel should have included an introductory page explaining Gwen's place and context and situation. (Maybe they weren't sure themselves about the whole Spidergeden thing?) The art is pretty good, just a little more manga-flavored than my preference, but it it serves the story well. The dinosaur/bee swarm was cool... Excelsior!

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was easily my favourite volume of 'Spider-Gwen' (hate that name; glad they're dropping it) so far. Seanan McGuire seems to have a great handle on the character. Takeshi Miyazawa is really knocking out of the park on illustration duties, too.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fresh out of her Spider-Geddon adventures, Gwen has a new problem - everyone knows who she is. She can't be Gwen Stacy, and she can't be Spider-Woman. So what else is there?

With all the crossover-y stuff out of the way, Seanan Mcguire can really stretch her legs with Gwen, throwing her into a few situations that you'd never expect, like Spider-Gwen: Hero For Hire and a first date with Harry Osborn. Throw in some Man-Wolf action and the continued fretting of her father and her bandmates, and this is a brilliantly executed Spider-comic that feels exactly as you'd expect early Spider-Man to feel. That's not to say it's derivative though - everything Gwen comes up against is 100% a result of her past continuity and the circumstances that ended her previous series, so you couldn't just swap in another alternate Spider-Person and get the same book.

Takeshi Miyazawa seems to have taken over as the main artist for this book, which isn't a bad thing; his art has always had its own style, but he's well-versed in teen hero drama and Spider-Shenanigans. I'm glad he's sticking around for the relaunch.

Two volumes and 10 issues into a new series with a new creative team, and Spider-Gwen's never been better, honestly. More of this, please.

[Dev · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting enough book and the artwork is cute and fun. McGuire's writing is A+ as usual but I feel like this series is never going to be more than 3 stars for me just because I'm not currently reading any other Marvel titles [and haven't in the past ...eh, 5 or 6 years?] so I'm not really sure what was going with Gwen before or what she might be doing in other titles. It still works well as a standalone title but I do also get the sense that there are probably things I'm missing that I would catch if I cared more about the over-arching Marvel universe.

[James DeSantis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Whoa I got SUPER bored of this half way through. I can't even remember much of the storyline. The art was solid enough though. But super skippable.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I started reading the first half of this and stopped because I got hungry. I was nervous too because so far the book wasn’t really grabbing me. It seemed just a little to light and fluffy for me. And the story was a little boring and mundane. Just basic day in the life stuff.
After I ate, I jumped back in for the second half and the book picked up steam. The story got a little more interesting and I then became drawn in. Definitely left some good plots open for the new series that’s coming next. My only gripe with the second half was the situation with Man-wolf seemed to be handled too easily.

[RG · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd read the first volume as part of the spiderverse event. Thought I'd jump on board thr spider gwen series where it sort of takes its own course. Where the art was solid the writing and plot is kinda boring. Just wasnt my thing.

[Brylliams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this was a short run of issues, I liked how it helped evolve the character of Spider-Gwen aka Ghost-Spider. I'm excited to get to the third run soon.

[Yolanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slay

[Alex Sarll]

Gwen Stacy is trying to get life back to normal after Spider-Geddon (and fair play, even those of us who only had to read rather than live Spider-Geddon are doing their best to forget it). But wouldn't you know, life has other ideas. There's plenty to like here, not least the backchat between Gwen and her fond yet irked dad, and as ever Miyazawa's art balances nicely on the line where the overall vibe is cute but the jeopardy still feels real. But compared to the crazy meta twists and lurid visuals of the Latour/Rodriguez run, this version of Earth-65 can't help feeling a little staid at times. Especially when the most awesome thing in here happens on a day-trip to the 616. It is pretty bloody awesome, though. What's the one villain idea better than a Nazi made of radioactive bees? Damn right it's a Nazi dinosaur made of radioactive bees.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

COLLECTS SPIDER-GWEN: GHOST-SPIDER ISSUES #5-10

I like this character, but the stories in this collection did not captivate me. Seeing the Earth-65 Jackal was a highlight for me, but that subplot seemed to be seed-planting for later stories, as there wasn't an exact payoff here. I have heard that Spider-Gwen is moving to Earth-616, and this collection sets that up. I'm not positive, but this may be the last issues of this particular run of "Spider-Gwen," before the title was relaunched.

SPOILERS:

I hope that Man-Wolf is actually Hank McCoy (The Beast). He looks exactly like him, but is using a different name. I have always liked Dark Beast from "The Age of Apocalypse," and I find it plausible that even the 616 Beast could turn bad someday.

[Dani Wladdimiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A diferencia de la saga de Spider-Gwen, este dibujo lo encontré demasiado atractivo para el estilo de Ghost Spider. La historia es entretenida y no me aburrí en ningún momento, no digamos que es extremadamente compleja, pero siento que apunta perfectamente al público objetivo. De hecho, cada día que le leía un capítulo a mi hija, estaba más y más metida en la historia, lo cual es una virtud a veces en los cómics americanos, donde a veces sin querer se abusa de sobre-explicar demasiado. Totalmente recomendado, para disfrutarlo en familia, comentarlo y también para quedar intrigado sobre qué ocurrirá en este multi-verso, donde la Tierra 616 está cada vez más cercana a otras tierras, entre ellas la Tierra-65 donde habita esta extraordinaria Gwen Stacy.

[FrontalNerdaty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Volume 2 of Ghost-Spider is improved when compared to volume 1, but much like a lot of modern Marvel it feels like it’s ‘treading water’. Little happens to move the plot from issue to issue and the overarching plot points are tied up within 4 issues.
Seanan McGuire attempts to give Gwen the narratively fun ‘trying to live two lives’ that often works well with stories regarding Peter Parker, and to an extent Miles Morales, but it never really gets any momentum.
Spider-Gwen was a character that sort of defied the odds in popularity but I’m still waiting for the ‘must read’ run the character deserves.

3/5.

[Renata · Rating 3 out of 5]

I accidentally read this after the wrong vol 1 of Spider-Gwen (but according to GR I already read the other vol 1 of Spider-Gwen? cannot stress enough: sometimes I rly hate comics). I love Seanan McGuire's writing but I'm too confused by all of this. I might be done with Spider-Gwen until she joins a team or something idk.

[J.A. Ironside · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great continuation of this rebooted series.

[Gerry Sacco · Rating 3 out of 5]

Art is outstanding for almost the entire book. Story is a bit meh, kind of mundane.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a bit ridiculous that it took ten issues for Gwen to decide the the Ghost-Spider code name that she was hiniting at before this series even started, and it's looking like Gwen is going to be moving to Eath-616 because it's too hard to even enroll in college without getting recognized and begged for selfies, and the cops won't leave her alone despite her having spent a year in prison. Gwen spends much of the volume dealing with headaches for which she still doesn't have an explanation at the end of the volume (she came to Earth-616 for help from Peter Parker when Dr. Elsa Brock, who created the symbiote, vanished seemingly without a trace). All the while she is being pursued by a mob with a crescent moon symbol. I was expecting this to be Earth-65's version of the Lobo Brothers from the 1990s, but it turned out to be a more classic foe, the Man-Wolf. Why not? Matt Murdock is a criminal there--it even has a subtle reference to his Stargod persona under David Anthony Kraft. She starts to develop her relationship with Harry Osborn a bit more, and tragedy strrikes during one of her concerts as she triers to continue her civilian life and offer her assistance to people through a website, rejecting unwholesome requests and a kid who wants her to be his date at the spring formal. She has apparently graduated high school while only 17 (Miyazawa's art makes her look older and sexier than in terms of face and figure, particularly when contrasted with Kämpe's art in the last chapter). I'm not even sure if she is thinking of the consequences of getting a degree on Earth-161 when it will be nothing but a piece of paper on Earth-65, and she expressly wants it for employment purposes. I imagine McGuire is less to blame for this than Marvel editorial wanting to bring her to the mainstream Marvel Earth. The inclusion of Swarm as a villain at the end seems to be played largely for laughs, being a ridiculous Bill Mantlo creation. One of my favorite moments is when Harry takes her to a fancy restaurant called The Capitol (pretty thinly veiled from The Capital Grille, although even fancier in looks--I was part of a group kicked out of the one in the Financial District on the first anniversary of Occupy Wall Street (September 17, 2012) for coming in and singing about money out of politics) and is asked to leave by staff because they don't want to serve a vigilante who thinks she is a super-hero, and she asks if they know how much white-collar crime their clientele commits. White-collar criminals were a favorite target of Jerry Siegel in the earliest Superman comics, especially before 1942, but it was rather surprising to see such a swipe in something more contemporary from a publisher now owned by a big media conglomerate that has been under corporate rule at least since it was sold to Kinney Parking in the 1970s simply because it's done so rarely.

[꒰ঌ ᵣyₛ ໒꒱ · Rating 3 out of 5]

✦ENCUÉNTRAME ↪️https://www.instagram.com/herbertbooks
La primera parte “Spidergedón” de hasta donde sé son estos dos volúmenes, me fascinó.
La trama te enganchaba, conectabas con el personaje y el dibujo era espectacular.
Podíamos ver a Gwen más allá de la máscara y sinceramente su historia podría haberse quedado ahí.

Para mí esta historia no ha sido más que puro relleno que a pesar de intentar mostrarnos sobre la vida de nuestra heroína solo meten situaciones poco lógicas.

Todo el cómic en sí me ha sido indiferente.
Ha estado bien ver más del personaje pero no era para nada lo que esperaba teniendo en cuenta lo mucho que me gustó el primero.

Aunque los “cameos” por decirlo de alguna manera han animado un poco todo.
—Rys.

[2'75/5🌟] ₀₄/₁₀/₂₀₂₀

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's like a slice of life superhero book as you watch Gwen try to deal with the consequences of the original Spider-Gwen run- like not having a secret identity, not having a lot of allies, and trying to gain back the trust of her friends. It's fun! There's some neat action! That's all you should expect, it gives hints to some bigger things but there's no real resolution other than a set-up for the relaunch. But boy do I still have a lot of fun with the art and humour.

[Shireen Hakim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ghost-Spider! <3

[Laina SpareTime]

Cross-posted from my blog where there's more information on where I got my copy and links and everything.

Gwen is great in this, she really is. There are some really excellent moments here where she shines and it’s interesting to see her in the aftermath of the previous series as her secret identity has been revealed to the world. She’s trying to figure out who she is and how to be a human being in this world.

I think this series is just kind of getting screwed over by the powers that be. It’s confusing to figure out what to read – this is the last volume in this run, and it’s also number eleven if you’re reading in chronological order from the beginning which you need to if you want to understand anything – and it’s still dealing with Spider-Geddon stuff. Which, obviously, that’s going to effect Gwen because she lost a lot of friends, but if you didn’t read that you’re going to be a little lost.

So after this, we move into the series Ghost-Spider, and there are 10 issues of that and then it’s done as it was just cancelled. I will totally be reading those, but I don’t understand how any character or creative team is supposed to thrive when everything is so broken up like this. I like this team, I like this character and I wish they would just get more time together and not have to constantly be starting and stopping.

But alright. Let’s do this one last time.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars
The life of Earth-65 Gwen Stacy has been very complicated for the last couple years. Her identity as Spider-Woman has been revealed, and with all the multiverse hopping she has done, Gwen needs some down time. BUT... the life of a super hero never slows down AND her symbiote is glitching...
Other things:
- The Mary Janes (the band in which she is a drummer) are close to getting discovered
- In order to make ends meet, she decides to charge for services, with the exception of "real superhero stuff"
- A new threat in town, Man-Wolf (think werewolf, but less feral) decides to send his goons to plant a bomb at the club where the Mary Janes have their performance. Needless to say, she shuts him down for good.
- When the scientist who had been giving her meds and helping her manage symbiote symptoms goes missing, Gwen decides to visit Earth-616 and consult with our Peter Parker who might be able to connect her with Eddie Brock. Pete ends up running a few tests on his own and say he will get back to her with her results (next Volume).
- While in 616, Gwen goes up against the Swarm with Peter. When she is asked at the end who she is, she decides on the name Ghost Spider (I like it!)

Seanan McGuire is doing a great job with this relaunch. It seems as if she establishing Gwen on her own, and not in preparation for keeping her in crossover events. Recommend.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 4 out of 5]

This second book for this volume of Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider was better than the first in the sense that it focused on where this character shines - dancing on the edge of her regular human life and her superhero life. This is the path of every Spider-Man iteration including Gwen, but something about this book really elevates things to a new level that is a lot more substantial and genuine for some reason.

Gwen's powers are on the fritz and she's being targeted by a new criminal organization now that she's trying to "professionally" offer her services as a superhero to the general public. It's not quite clear why her symbiote is acting strangely but this meta-plot material and we'll have to wait a while before they answer those questions. But erratic powers do not help anyone trying to be a superhero, but Gwen will do the best she can in order to continue to do what's right.

Gwen is an amazing character and ends up acting as a reminder of why she was such a good match for Peter Parker in the 616 universe. Sure, this is a different Gwen, but this is truly a realization of how much potential Gwen has as a character - and giving her powers in this alternate reality was one of the best creative decisions that have been made in years.

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

☆☆ YouTube | Tumblr | Instagram | Storygraph ☆☆

Spicy, woo... -- May Wrap Up || 9 books!

While I really enjoy Maguire’s characterization of Gwen, I don’t think her writing style is great for a comic layout. It feels like she has a plot idea, but it takes too long for one issue, so they stretched it, but every issue has required events for the flow of the comic, which then takes away page time from the plot, so the plot has taken over 5 issues to be resolved when it probably could have been done in 2.

I do like that there are still crossing universes, especially after the events of Spider-geddon, but all action sequences in this are so short! They’re over in a page and a half, even the “big bad” of the story who should warrant a bigger threat than the thugs we watch Gwen fight for most of this volume.

This is the last of Spider-Gwen, before hoping into Ghost-Spider name, which I hope will have Maguire find her footing in writing for comics.

[Carrie (brightbeautifulthings) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hoping this volume would feel more complete than Spider-Geddon, plot-wise, and it doesn’t disappoint. There’s a much more complete story here, and Gwen grapples with a new threat to her city and her secret identity being public knowledge. It’s a good arc for her as she struggles with people recognizing her as Gwen Stacy everywhere she goes and the threats that brings down on her friends and family. Her relationships with her dad, her band, Spider-Man, and Harry Osborn all get decent page-time and development.

By comparison, the overall threat is a little lackluster, but I’m not really reading these for the knock-down, drag-out fight scenes. It’s a reasonable threat given Gwen’s age and power level, and not everything has to be apocalyptic. As always, I enjoy her sassy humor alongside her internal struggles, as well as the gorgeous color palette for these comics. I’ll be looking forward to reading more of McGuire’s take on the character, and I’ll probably go back and read the Latour run eventually.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

[Rachel Redhead · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting story, Gwen is balancing her band duties with a new boyfriend and super-heroing, while a new big bad emerges and Gwen's powers seem to be crapping out on her. It feels more like a placeholder, a way to keep the plates spinning while they work out what they really want to do with Gwen, then at the end they move her to a parallel reality where she meets Spider-Man and asks him for help, then she decides to call herself Ghost Spider while she's there. The werewolf big bad is an interesting character but after the epic nuances we've had to build up Matt Murdock this guy feels rushed and one-dimensional. Gwen's always had bad luck but this time it seems like its been dialled up a lot and that kind of makes the story feel more of a slog than perhaps it could be. If it's just downbeats all the time then it gets boring, a few upbeats should be added imho, to give those darker moments some real weight.

[Lissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I enjoy Spider-Gwen but I'm new to the comic scene. Something that really confuses me is when there's an * saying *see this book for this paragraph to make sense. Like really? Or in the first one *see these other books by these other people to understand what happens between these two pages. Like, really? That was much less annoying in this book because there was less of it but I still got confused when Gwen starts talking about her Symbiote, I didn't know she had one! Like I saw that her suit was made of spiders and I thought that was weird, neat but odd. I also hate how short the books are. So I enjoy the story, I like Gwen, MJ gets a little bothersome sometimes and I'm concerned about Gwen's dad, why was he lurking in those shadows? So I'l borrow the next Volume when it comes out.

[Monte Price · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much like the first volume, I don't really have a whole lot to say about this. I preferred the art in these issues to the art style of the first. Gwen's face definitely seemed to have gotten a makeover. These storylines were easier to follow, though they definitely seemed really disjointed from the first volume. Even with the disjointed feel, I felt that this was a much better place to jump in on this run of the character. I was definitely more interested in the happenings of this installment than I was of the last one, if only because this felt more welcoming as a first-time reader of this character. Definitely interested to see what happens from here and I'll be sure to circle back to see those developments.