The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl: Squirrel Power, Ryan North, Erica Henderson

I haven’t come across Squirrel Girl before, but this comic is self-aware and fun; in some ways, the style reminded me of the recent run of Young Avengers. (Which is getting less and less recent all the time, but you know what I mean. The most recent, by McKelvie and Gillen.) Little snippets of facebook interaction between heroes, meta commentary below each page, and all kinds of dorkiness. Squirrel Girl is a lot of fun, and what’s also nice is that she doesn’t primarily set out to beat up villains — she also figures out how to talk things out and fix things in another way.

I’m not a huge fan of the art — it’s a bit too cartoony for my usual tastes — but does suit the style. And I love things like the Squirrel Suit and the Iron Squirrel and Doreen being tongue-tied around guys.

Not a favourite, but fun as a change.

Rating: 4/5

Spider-Woman: New Duds, Dennis Hopeless, Javier Rodriguez

I liked the redesign for Jessica Drew in this volume, and I do prefer Rodriguez’ art to Greg Land’s (even though I don’t quite get the antipathy some people had towards it). This volume feels a lot more fun than the first one, in line with Jessica’s decision to get away from the Avengers and be an ordinary person (ish) for a while. Ben Urich also has a key role, which is fun too. Unfortunately, it feels somewhat truncated because just as the first volume took Jessica Drew out of one Marvel event (Spider-verse), the last part of this volume pulls her off her detective agency job and back into the Avengers for Secret Wars. Yay.

I don’t know what Marvel thinks they’re doing, constantly crippling the solo comics with these ensemble events that a lot of people don’t even like. It’s alright when they’re a novelty, but when one TPB is bookended by two big universe-wide events, ugh, it’s far too much. Jessica Drew’s little detective story is fun enough but very light, and one could wish we get to see a bit more of her. It’s an interesting plotline, though perhaps somewhat predictable — or I dunno, I felt like I’d read something like it before, anyway.

Still not groundbreaking, but Jessica is still awesome.

Rating: 3/5

Spider-Gwen: Most Wanted?, Jason Latour, Robbi Rodriguez

In the Spider-verse event, it turned out there was a world in which Gwen Stacey was bitten by the radioactive spider, and in the end Peter Parker actually died. The origins are a little murky, because thankfully they don’t rehash the origin story, leaving it just sketched in and suggested. This book has Gwen back in her own universe, leading her normal life… and leading her cop father an awful dance while she’s caped up. Her costume design is really cool (love the hood), and Rodriguez’s art works well — and it was a relief reading this so soon after The Movement, which was typically DC-ian in its gloomy colour palettes.

The story itself doesn’t really get on its feet here, I think; we’re still trying to get used to who Gwen is here and how her world has changed. Like, it turns out Mary Jane Watson is… a bit of a diva. And she and Gwen are in a rock band together. Which Gwen has been kind of letting down and might quit? Maybe? But then she turns up and it’s all good.

At times, it’s a little bit goofy — it might be less so if you’ve read Spider-verse, but suddenly having Spider-Ham (a version of Peter Parker who is a pig, no I am not kidding) appear as Gwen’s conscience is a bit outta nowhere from my point of view.

It’s not groundbreaking, except that it’s another female character stepping up and taking on a big role, and dealing in different ways with the same problems. I loved that Gwen went to speak to Aunt May, for example, and the way they talked things over. It’s not the level of quality of, say, Ms Marvel, but it’s fun and I’m looking forward to the next TPB. (And wondering why my pull list on Comixology has disappeared…)

Rating: 3/5

Spider-Woman: Spider-Verse, Dennis Hopeless, Greg Land

It might be because I don’t know any of Greg Land’s other work, but I don’t have the problem with his art in this book that other people identify. It sounds like he uses fairly formulaic compositions? But I’m not the greatest at visual-anything anyway, so it probably wouldn’t bother me. To me Jessica looks badass and capable, and uses her skillset well for fighting and spying.

The Spider-verse in general… Eh. I like the plethora of female stars that have come out of it, or had a part to play — Anya Corazon, Cindy Moon, Jessica Drew, Gwen Stacey… and the idea of all the alternate Peter Parkers was pretty cool. Silk acts pretty spoilt in some ways; haring off on her own and getting other people into trouble. Jessica shares some aspects of her background, a thing I mentioned in my review of Silk’s solo volume, but she’s much further along the road to finding her place in the world.

I love her friendship with Carol and the other Avengers, and so it’s nice that this volume finishes with her taking her leave of the Avengers, choosing to go and figure out who Jessica Drew is. It’s a fun enough volume, though perhaps not memorable.

Rating: 3/5