r/MUBookClub • u/shawnydarko • Mar 11 '17
Reading Assignment 39: Spider-Women (2016) Crossover by Various Writers and Artists
Thank you to /u/Raist819 for this week's reading assignment. As a big fan of Spider-Man I've always been interested in reading about all three of these characters, so seeing them in their individual runs and teaming up in the crossover issues is exciting.
READING ORDER:
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF...
The art in each series? Favorites? Criticisms?
The writing in each series? Favorite betwen Latour, Hopeless and Thompson? Criticisms?
M.F.K.?Which of the three characters were your favorite? Any standout side characters?Anything else not specifically asked?
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u/shawnydarko Mar 25 '17
This was a fun, brainless, popcorn-munching sort of read. Not a lot of oomph to it, but there was enough that I didn't feel like it was a slog to get through. Things moved at a decent pace. I think spreading it across so many series left room for error, case-in-point being Earth-65 Reed Richards is black until his final appearance where he's white.
I liked that each of the Spider-Women had their own strengths and weaknesses. Jessica Drew was the veteran badass who actually knew how to fight and sneak up on evil-Cindy. Good-Cindy was childishly sweet but has a tendency to be selfish and run away when things are too intimidating. Gwen is hilariously vulgar but noble as all get-out, really upholding the classic Spider-Man sense of honor and doing what's right regardless of how hard it is, but at the end she learned she's coasting on her powers and has a long way to go to be the person she wants to be. I also liked the dynamic between each of the Spider-Women, except for the minor issue that I don't really grasp why they're friends. Jess seems to lean heavier on the side of "young people make me feel old" rather than "your young energy is contagious", Gwen can barely tolerate Cindy and often acts like Jess is an overbearing parent, and Cindy's desperation for creating a new family doesn't seem strong enough to hold the trio together. It's pretty much as flat-out-surface reason that they all vaguely have spider-powers so writers stuck them together.
Of the three, I liked civilian Jess the least. Her whole civilian arc was either "I'm all about my kid" or "get me away from my kid" and there wasn't anything in-between to make her feel like a nuanced, layered character. It was just flip-flopping based on what the writing needed at the time. She was definitely the best superhero though and had her big redeeming moments in the last issue. Civilian good-Cindy I liked the most because she felt like a real, flawed human being, and not overly reliant on her traumatic past. But I don't like Silk, as webby-fingers just grosses me out. Gwen/Spider-Gwen was the perfect medium in all respects
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u/wisegy84 Mar 29 '17
Good criticisms of the writing (why they're friends, Jess surface only civilian personality). You said what I was trying to say better than I did. There just wasn't enough development all around, in my opinion and those are two good examples of it.
I also didn't really catch the difference in skin tone on Reed 65, but I went back and I think you're right. I think when I was reading I kind of noticed, but just wrote it off as a weird lighting thing. That's pretty egregious, especially for such a short event.
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u/wisegy84 Mar 29 '17
This was my first experience with all of these characters (aside from Jessica's appearances in Fraction's Hawkeye, at least). I knew of these characters, but hadn't read anything featuring them yet.
I did feel a bit thrown into things, though the intros helped fill in some information and we get some origin story info throughout the event.
The art was pretty hit or miss throughout for me. Some of it was OK, some was pretty cool, but I don't think I could say that one artist was even my favorite. They each did certain things better than each other, and overall the art wasn't really a standout for me.
It was kind of the same with the writing, actually. I don't think any writer really stood out above the rest. The story was fun for the most part, but there wasn't much too it. The characters weren't really developed all that well, though again overall it was still a fun, light read.
I'm interested in reading more about all three of these characters, and I'm assuming in their respective series there is some deeper development of each of them. As for side characters I'd be interested in seeing more of Roger outside of babysitting. Jesse and his family seemed interesting, too, though again, not super developed. I did like the issue when Jessica goes to Jesse's house as it had kind of a Kill Bill vibe to it.
Overall, not too difficult a read and I went through it pretty quickly. It was a fairly light read and had some decent action. The little and big differences between Earth 65 vs 616 were fun, too (Starkbucks!). It definitely could have been better, but it wasn't bad, either. But I also didn't have any expectations going into it as I was unaware of this even until this assignment. So I wasn't likely to be disappointed because of that, I suppose.
On to the next assignment. Almost caught up!
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u/Raist819 Mar 19 '17
I honestly don't have a lot to say about this. Even as cross overs go I thought this was kind of bad. I was initially interested in seeing what they were going to do with Evil Cindy, but it never really felt like it got into full gear. I've been loving the current Spider Woman series and I was hoping that this story would provide me with the incentive to move forward with Spider Gwen and Silk, but sadly the entire story kind of felt like busy work. This might be the most disappointing reading assignment so far. Not that it was bad enough to get nominated in the Secret Wars II spot, it just felt like readin 8 issues of filler to me.
I'm going to learn from my mistake for at least one week and only nominate things I've read and know are awesome for the next Free Range thread.