Jessica Drew is a much loved, often sidelined character whose first solo series in years is being published in the middle of Marvel’s female hero renaissance. In other words, November’s new #1 was a perfect entry point for new readers, right? Unfortunately, this was not the case. This brand new series was introduced in the middle of one of Marvel’s overblown crossover ‘events’, Spider-Verse. This meant that Jessica was sidelined to a team-up right off the bat in her own solo title. After 4 issues of slogging along within Spider-Verse we finally get the issue of Spider-Woman we deserve.
This quasi-reboot might seem a bit odd after just four issues, but here we have a Jessica Drew who has handed in her Avengers resignation to Steve Rogers, ditched the spandex for the more pragmatic jacket and pants, and set out on her own for some self-discovery. This mode of storytelling is something Marvel has done a lot of lately. Using the self-reflective solo journey to give one of their less prominent female characters a sense of agency and development. This happened with Kate Bishop, who was introduced in Young Avengers but simply as part of the ensemble. Her story was continued in Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye where she got a five-issue solo story where she traveled to L.A. Carol Danvers set out on her own into space in Captain Marvel, and in Black Widow Natasha is set completely apart from the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D.
This plot device allows the writers to give more of an individual voice and sense of self to a character that might have been previously reduced to one-liners in team-up books. And Jessica has, unfortunately, over the years been reduced to a lot of one-liners. But writer Dennis Hopeless captures a perfect mix of the humorous and serious sides of Jess, and moves the story along with similar tonal fluidity. Going from fighting a robot in an alleyway, to a night in jail, to battling a human-porcupine and investigating the disappearance of a super-villain’s significant others. One of the panels is especially notable because it can be seen as representative of everything that Jessica is going through at the moment. After her night in the big-house reporter Ben Ulrich is trying to persuade Jess to look into some mysterious disappearances he has been investigating. While he’s laying out his ideas to her, she has taken a mallet and started knocking down the wall in her unoccupied office’s kitchen. He confusedly asked what she is doing, to which she simply, but poignantly, replies “Renovating”.
Jessica isn’t just renovating her office into something she can turn into a day job. She is renovating nearly her entire existence. From the huge upheaval of her identity no longer being tied to the Avengers, to the every day minutia of not getting the texts from Steve on NYPD activity and accidentally busting up a police training exercise. Spider-Woman #5 is a great beginning to a more introspective and relatable Jessica Drew. The book also feels like it’s going to slot in nicely with some of Marvel’s more “street level” books like Daredevil, She-Hulk, and Hawkeye. Book’s whose stakes are more of the everyday nature, and not dealing with an intergalactic alien takeover on a weekly basis.
One of the things that helps spark this life into Spider-Woman is the new artist, Javier Rodriguez. He ditches the stark realism that previous artist Greg Land utilized and for a much more fun version that’s reminiscent of Chris Samnee’s Daredevil art. Which is a huge compliment and makes sense as Rodriguez filled in on Daredevil for Samnee during the Original Sin tie-ins and was also the colorist for the first few issues. He also has rendered some of the single best choreographed fight scenes I’ve ever seen in a Marvel comic, the opening sequence in a New York alleyway in the rain is just a thing of beauty. Rodriquez has also moved away from the darker tones of Land’s work and pumped Spider-Woman full of bright neon colors, while also perfectly using them at times as a contrast the grittiness of the street-level New York. Jessica’s costume redesign, by Kristafer Anka, is very much in the vein of what Babs Tarr did in Batgirl, or anything by Jamie McKelvie, creating a fashion forward and completely practical outfit for a superhero, which is no small or common feat.
I’ve always really liked Jessica Drew, she seemed opinionated, snarky, and didn’t put up with anyone’s nonsense, and those are my favorite type of characters. It also always made me happy that she would show up in some of my favorite books like Hawkeye and Captain Marvel. Because of that I really wanted to like this series when it first started out. But I barely could make it through the first issue and didn’t even bother with the second, third, or fourth. I tempered my expectations with this new one, but that hesitation was completely unnecessary. Spider-Woman #5 is a master class in art and is what seems like the beginning of a fantastic story of a character that has long been deserving of one.