Spider-Woman #4
Marvel Comics
Written By: Dennis Hopeless
Penciller: Javier Rodriguez
Inker: Alvaro Lopez
Color Artist: Rochelle Rosenberg
Spider-Woman was a book I picked up immediately as soon as I realized that the heroine in the book was pregnant. Being a dad of an almost 2 year old, and my wife and I expecting baby number 2, I felt compelled. How would a super pregnant Super Hero be? Would writer Dennis Hopeless capture the little things that my wife would say and do while pregnant? What kind of story would be told with such an interesting, real twist on the classic tale of the hero? Spider-Woman has not disappointed me. From Issue #1 to #4, today’s topic, Spider-Woman has been on point in art, story, pregnancy tropes, and so much more.
In Spider-Woman #4, I continue to feel like Jessica, my wife and I all went to the same birth class and parenting school, “The School of Winging It.” Jessica just flies be the seat of her pants the whole time, coming up with solutions to her problems and everything else along the way. Dennis Hopeless has done an excellent job of keeping the reader, at least me, wondering what Jessica is going to do next and how the heck she is going to get out of every tricky situation she’s been stuck in. Add in the banter and friendship between her and Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel, and every aspect of Jess is exactly how I feel like my wife is in real life with her friends, minus the spidey senses and all.
Interestingly, we come to a level of resolution that’s been building since the first issue of Spider-Woman, and the first mini arc of the overall story comes to a very satisfying close, one which I didn’t expect to be so happy about so soon.
Between Javier Rodriguez, Alvaro Lopez and Rochelle Rosenberg, the trio have come together to create an art that fits the story and the character so well. It’s sharp but sometimes all over the place, it’s vivid and colorful, and does an excellent job of pushing the reader to fill in the gaps between pages and panels alike. The fights are amazing, going to the point that Jess is both all over the place and in control, and the pages show it well. Jess and Carol alike come alive in the book, as their body language and faces tell so much of the story, so much of the emotion of the moment, that it’s hard not to feel what they feel at times.
So the question, then, becomes this; where are we going from here? What’s next in the story arc? And should you pick up Spider-Woman? I don’t have a clue about the first two, but I can say that, without a doubt, as long as you’re okay with some of the pregnancy tropes, you should pick up Spider-Woman.