Spider-Gwen: An Alternate Better Than The Original?
The multiverse is not my cup of tea. I’ve just never been able to get behind it. True, it’s almost unavoidable in the world of comics, and I can understand it’s appeal, but it gives me a headache. Keeping track of everything going on in Earth-616 and Earth-Prime is hard enough, let alone factoring in an infinite number of universes all interacting. That being said, I’m a sucker for a good AU.
If you’re unfamiliar with the acronym, AU stands for “alternate universe,” which probably makes me sound hypocritical given that a multiverse is just a lot of alternate universes existing at once. I make a distinction though because I first encountered AUs in fanfiction, and in that context an AU really just means “what if?” What if Harry was raised by Sirius? What if everyone in Game of Thrones worked on Wall Street? As outlandish as this kind of stuff can get, it’s a brilliant way to explore what makes a story meaningful, to look at it’s themes and see how they are changed or enhanced by a new situation. Marvel Comics has dappled in this kind of speculation before with their periodic series of one-shots called What if?. Recently, however, they’ve taken one huge “what if” out of Earth-65 and given her her own series — and it’s making me completely rethink my stance on the multiverse.
Spider-Gwen is awesome. I can say that, right off the bat, with no disclaimer. The concept alone is winning. Instead of Peter Parker, it’s the spunky Gwen Stacy who gets chomped on by a radioactive spider and finds herself able to climb walls and shoot webs. Subsequently, Peter, wanting to feel “special” like Gwen, winds up turning himself into a lizard monster a-la Curt Connors and dies fighting “Spider-Woman” who is blamed for Parker’s death and labelled a criminal. Peter’s transformation is just one of several instances of heroes from standard Marvel canon being cast as villainous in this ‘verse, including Daredevil, which is unsettling in all the right ways. To top it off, Gwen is also the drummer in an all-girls rock group called The Mary-Janes led by, you guessed it, MJ herself. Their hit single? “Face It, Tiger” (and someone recorded it). Come on, how awesome is that?
The series itself picks up just after Gwen’s father finds out about her web-slinging hobby. In first three issues, Gwen has some impressive fight sequences and hallucinates Spider-Pig, but what takes up the bulk of the story is Gwen’s internal conflicts. She struggles to figure out how best to continue as Spider-Woman after Peter’s death and whether she can restore her reputation while maintaining her father’s safety. Ultimately, she grapples with many of the same things classic Spider-Man stories do and never once does it feel like they creative team are pandering to the fact that this character happens to be female. Additionally, there is a theme of what it means to be “special,” how worth it that kind of singularity really is, and what the consequences of being “special” ultimately are. It’s a nice way of saying “with great power comes great responsibility” without having Uncle Ben pop over from next door to hand Gwen that pearl of wisdom.
When talking about Spider-Gwen it’s impossible to ignore the fact that there’s been a lot of commotion in the geek community lately over characters being “turned into” something other than how they are traditionally portrayed; from the new Thor being female, to Sam Wilson taking over as Captain America, to the whole mess over the Ghostbusters reboot, there are a lot of strong feelings on all sides. Spider-Gwen, done brilliantly in her own fast-selling book, is a great testament to why this kind of reimagining is important and should not be written off as “forced” diversity. Gwen is not replacing Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, she doesn’t need to. She’s holding her own right along side him on comic store shelves, amazing in her own right, and proving that, maybe, comic readers can see a character they love from a new perspective, and embrace that ingenuity. Plus, I’m just going to say it, she’s got a cooler costume. Sorry, Pete.
