Review: Spider-Gwen #2

Previously in Spider-Gwen #1

Spider-Ham from Spider-Verse returns to act as a sort of spiritual guide (in her head) for Gwen as she finds her life spiraling out of control.

She awakens in a pile of garbage having fashioned wings out of webbing, and skimming the water to land on the trash barge. That’s when she sees Spider-Ham, who tries lighting a fire under her ass. Gwen doesn’t have time to argue when she discovers her cell phone is missing - probably dropped at the crime scene…

… the same crime scene her father is investigating. When a rookie cops finds the phone (and the backpack with a sticker for The Mary Janes), Captain Stacy quickly snatches it up and says he’ll take care of it. Under the watchful eye of Detective DeWolff, Stacy has to do his job while worrying about 1) whether Gwen is alive or dead and 2) whether his co-workers will discover his daughter is Spider-Woman.

At home, things aren’t much better for Gwen as her presence causes more friction between her friends/bandmates.

Meanwhile, Castle interrogates Fisk, and comes thisclose to questioning him with his gun when Fisk’s lawyer calls and puts a stop to it. Unless they’re going to charge his client, Matt Murdock suggests the cops back the hell off.

Then Murduck questions Toomes (The Vulture) as to why he thought it would be a good idea to go after Spider-Woman when her life was Kingpin’s to take. To make it up to Murdock, Toomes is tasked with bringing proof of Spider-Woman’s demise.

Spider-Ham finally gets through to Gwen, telling her nothing is going to work out while she’s running from her guilt and her fears. She finds her father leaving a bar where he’d tried to connect with Castle… and she’s not there for her phone.

Overall Thoughts: 

• I’m not completely sold on this series, but I’ll be sticking with it through the first arc. The appearance of Spider-Ham (even in Gwen’s mind) would have been welcomed had I heard about it just after finishing Spider-Verse, but the execution was lacking. It felt like more a distraction than anything else.
• Clearly, I’m missing something when it comes to Matt Murdock. He appears to be a villain.
• I’m not really here for The Mary Janes, either. Especially MJ, who seems to be a bit of a twat.
• Still digging the art, though.