Gwen Stacy Appreciation 2018

[Huntsman Spider]

Spider-Gwen #19 came out today, and although it was mostly all set-up and development, it was a lot of good and much needed information we needed

spoilers:

Em Jay pretty much proving to her friends that Gwen is Spider-Woman was a very amusing scene. Interesting to see when that confrontation will happen. Along with this trial they've been building up for a while, especially with the added emphasis of the media attention, wonder just how public Spider-Woman's gonna get Murdock continues to be a very creepy and effective villain, and wondering what his end goal is. They do love mentioning Cindy Moon a lot. And of course, we get introduced to the Venom symbiote, which they flat out say will give Gwen her powers back (along with heal Harry). So start the countdown till "Gwenom", I'm predicting that's #23, right after "Predators" finishes. Now there's just the question of what Wolverine-65 wants

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spoilers:

In a nutshell, the spiderlike alien parasites that infected Jesse Drew's blood were reverse-engineered into two different strains that granted spiderlike powers in one case and lizard-like powers (and appearance) in another case, and then the spider-strain was further reverse-engineered into a symbiotic/parasitic ooze that could bond with someone's biochemistry. And we have Elsa Brock instead of Eddie Brock in this universe. Am I about right?

end of spoilers

[Inversed]

spoilers:

In a nutshell, the spiderlike alien parasites that infected Jesse Drew's blood were reverse-engineered into two different strains that granted spiderlike powers in one case and lizard-like powers (and appearance) in another case, and then the spider-strain was further reverse-engineered into a symbiotic/parasitic ooze that could bond with someone's biochemistry. And we have Elsa Brock instead of Eddie Brock in this universe. Am I about right?

end of spoilers

spoilers:

Yep, that's basically right. They outright state the symbiote's main purpose is to heal Harry Osborn and completely return Gwen's powers. It's still really odd, because you'd think Murdock would want Gwen to be powerless so she can keep working for him to get power ups (which we haven't heard from in a while). We know he doesn't trust her, so what's his motive? I can tell clearly they're building up to Cindy's return, I just wonder what she will be doing. It could very well be a case of her, Murdock, Castle, etc. all teaming up to take her down (maybe creating a weird twisted Sinister Six), and Gwen could team up with Samantha Wilson to create their own Avengers team to fight them. At least that's an idea I would personally love to see, cause I'm so curious what an Avengers on Earth-65 would look like.

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Also, in perspective, it's still weird we will have gone over a full year with a powerless Spider-Gwen.

[Project37]

As thrilling as it was to see the

spoilers:

GWENOM thread finally come into play

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(and I genuinely found it unnerving)

spoilers:

I'm also sad as Robbi had previously said that he'd be retiring after that storyline due to his health issues. When we'd interviewed Jason last year, his take was that he wasn't quite ready to get to Gwenom for a while and that he really hoped that Robbi would stick around. Who can say? While I'm really excited to see this plotline develop (and I'm hoping that it'll be over a few arcs), I really hope that it doesn't mean that Robbi is winding down.

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[Inversed]

Yeah, that is the one disappointing thing, if Gwenom does end up being Robbi's final arc for the book, however that was well over a year ago, so maybe things have changed? Just gotta wait and hope, it's going to be really hard to see someone else take over, especially since other than the second half of the Thanksgiving issue and a few stories in the Annual, he has done all 26 Spider-Gwen issues, which is incredibly impressive.

[AngelJD]

I at first didn't release that Elsa was the token Eddie on Earth-65. Now I know most of the time when various universes have Eddie he usually a rage madman. However she seems to be very different. While Eddie seems to be linked with rage/hate Elsa was always smiling in the issue it seemed. It could be that unlike Eddie she constantly smug and smiling a counter to the norm of Eddie we usually see.
The Symbiotes has been either an alien creature or created in a lab for different worlds and this time it is a lab creation from a alien and mad science by Cindy and Elsa. I have a good feeling she who not only is the one who made the symbiote for Earth-65 she will eventually wear it/get consumed by it (purposely as part of her plan or a lab experiment she was smugly confident she could control with ease but then lost control of the situation and creature became too powerful for her).

Robbi helped bring Spider-Gwen to life and I thank him for his talents and hard work but I hope this isn't the end but if it is I hope the new torch bear will be spectacular and fitting for this series and character.

[ian0delond]

It's nice to see the book go back to the plot after months of not that.

[juan678]

[Miles To Go]

As always, good to see the usual Campbell trinity

[well, in this case, about two of them, poor Felicia got completely obstructed this time]

[AngelJD]

[juan678]

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/08...legacy-primer/

[The Whovian]

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/08...legacy-primer/

Sweet! That looks awesome!

[Miles To Go]

Getting proper USM throwback vibes from that, can't wait to see them coloured.

[Inversed]

Mark Bagley drawing Spider-Gwen (even for just a snippet), HELL YES!

[Huntsman Spider]

Not bad, but my one complaint is that like so many other artists that aren't Robbi Rodriguez, Bagley draws Spider-Gwen with long hair a la 616 Gwen.

[Digifiend]

Yeah, those primer pages are a redo of this from Edge of Spider-Verse #2, Spider-Gwen's debut.

She always had the shorter hair, she didn't just cut it after she got her powers to fit under the mask better or anything like that.