#fabigwen

[rappaccini]

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[rappaccini]

... anyway ten issues in i do think fabian/black tarantula is a great love interest for gwen.

aesthetically, the black-and-white costume compliments gwen's white-and-black costume and his grungy civilian look makes me believe this is someone gwen would be attracted to.

he's a new character unconnected to peter or miles.

he's an adult her age, so he keeps her from being scaled back to high school.

they're both vigilantes who are cynical of the authorities.

they're a good team in a fight.

gwen finally got a secret identity drama romance so we can check that one off. and she doesn't give him a pass for lying. she only comes around to him because he apologizes and shows her he's learned from his mistakes by turning on his dad and taking a bullet in the process.

gwen's reasoning for being so into him-- that she's distracting herself from her trauma-- is consistent with her behavior:

-> when in an uncomfortable situation, gwen keeps throwing herself into romances with people with power over that situation to belong. she went to prom with harry, she kissed miles under duress, she dated harry after she got out of jail and her boss mateo when she just returned to 65, she started getting mooney-eyed for em jay when she was nearly thrown out of the band. i totally believe gwen would do that again, especially in The World Where She Has To Be A Girlfriend.

-> when being pressed into spider-comphet, gwen will seek out a big, buff guy with problematic morals that her wannabe comphet partner would have issues with, possibly as a way to sabotage the comphet ship before it can begin. during clone conspiracy/petergwen hell she did whatever that was in the car with kaine. now that gwiles hell is upon us, gwen's going for fabian. it's a pattern now.

-> gwen's activism leads her towards her love interests. the latour run built up gwen's connection to black characters as she contended with police brutality and a corrupt justice and prison system (glory was the bandmate she liked most, she's mentored by sam wilson, she technically flirts with miles and hobie). when she girlbossed out her serious love interests were all white. now she's bonding with a latino man as she's learning firsthand how it feels to be undocumented. like. yeah. it follows.

and through him, gwen's starting to sort out what she wants from a partner, and that she needs her male partners to disown toxic masculinity before being with her.

she gets someone who challenges her to be a better hero by encouraging her to recognize the corruption in local government, and that vigilantism is necessary to look after vulnerable people and force powerful officials to change.

in turn, gwen motivates fabian to stand up to his dad, start to think for himself, be more pragmatic about their goals, look for nonlethal ways to fix their circumstances and break patriarchal cycles of violence.

and she has someone who intimately understands her struggle of having to live with no documentation, below the notice of the law. instead of ~saving her~ from her circumstances, like clinging to miles would do, fabian can work through them with her as a team.

the big spider-man romance meta question starts to be acknowledged through him: can gwen fall in love with a spider-man without being harmed by the relationship? (yes. but he has to be her equal and he has to disown the bad power dynamics first.)

literally the only issue is that he's showing up right as gwen was about to come out and resolve her tension with em jay. that's the only thing that pisses me off about him, that he’s being used for comphet.

don't get me wrong, i hate that gwen's on 616, but it's not his fault she's here and it makes sense that gwen would have a serious relationship while stuck in Girlfriend World. this is a love interest who can advance her character in some ways and be cleanly left behind when she goes home. a stepping-stone boyfriend. which is great, because gwen's had so few lasting romantic connections, let alone actual relationships, that she isn't ready for a serious True Love yet. she needs to date around and he fits the bill.

... he could even follow her to 65, because he'd be just as undocumented (meaning his purpose as a vigilante is preserved) and if he wants to get out from under his dad's thumb... well, that's another way to do it. if gwen comes out and gets a female love interest first, and then he moves to her world after her identity is canonized and made explicit, i wouldn't mind them ending up together.

[rappaccini]

phillips run arc i part 2 thoughts

ok going in... it very much felt like issues 1-5 were arc 1 and 6-10 were going to be arc 2. i don't know if i missed that haunted was a ten-issue series or that it was decided later.

regardless, knowing now that that was just the first half, i rescind all my issues with the lack of resolution, given that there wasn't meant to be any. i still stand by saying gwen's character felt mostly fine, but her total lack of a supporting cast, and the confusing discontinuity was a problem. it still is.

i will say that up until this point, gwen's arcs have lasted 3-5ish issues on average. so this is a big change. i'm not sure if a ten-issue arc is phillips' preference, or if the book was in such good standing that she felt she could afford to take time on it.

if its the latter, then the situation mcguire was in-- ten issues, then a relaunch, then ten more issues under a new name-- is not the case anymore, so its a sign that gwen's fandom has grown a lot since 2020, definitely thanks in part to atsv. that's a good thing.

6

gwen going to a bar? we're beating the underage allegations.

the villain goon bar being called low life is fun wordplay.

i like gwen's internal monologue about being a visible hero. it may not be intentional, but it ties back in to why gwen's white hood design is so effective: you can see her easily in a crowd or a dark alley. gwen confirming that she made her vigilante costume like that for that reason closes that loop well.

it also ties in to the original motive of the character being that she became spider-woman for attention, and had to grow into standing for something. that was the end conclusion gwen reaches in the latour run. is it an intentional callback? doubt it. does it mean gwen's characterization is consistent? yes.

same for gwen mentioning how she tried to be a highly visible, optimistic hero and was rejected for it. that was the mcguire run. consistency.

and gwen deciding to return to working in the shadows? we're beating the girlboss allegations.

and we're returning to the space where spider-gwen works best: as a character who's a darker shade of gray than spider-man, who is disliked by law enforcement and distances herself from them.

if gwen's gonna be stuck in 616, having her separate herself from peter-miles-cindy and having the world refuse to embrace her is a good thing. it shoots the '~this is where she really belongs~' concept in the head and allows her to operate at a safe distance from them.

it also gives her name more meaning: yes, she's the 'ghost' of gwen stacy. she also maneuvers like a ghost.

gwen's cheapass laptop? love that she's back to being broke.

and using a coffee shop as her informal 'base' instead of some fancy lab? look they could have so easily had gwen join shield or the avengers or some bullshit. keeping her street level is Great.

gwen mentioning how she wants to find a way home? she's beating the 'voluntarily left' allegations.

and asking when she can leave instead of if? ok maybe 65 is still alive. or maybe she's in denial.

again you guys have to let go of gwen being a lesbian. it will never happen. she will have to date men and one who's clearly an adult and not peter, miles or one of their clones is a good way to show that gwen is an adult, not pining over them, and has agency. it's fine.

... and. this is the first time gwen's textually reciprocated attraction (the flirty moments she has with hobie and em jay aren't stated in-text, so they're open to interpretation). when peter was into her she was oblivious. when she kissed miles she was coerced and hated it. when harry asked her out she was underwhelmed. when em jay comes onto her as carnage, gwen isn't into it. when fabian approaches her as... a kind man who wants to get to know her and lets her decide to make the next move, surprise-surprise, she reciprocates.

(fine. technically it's the second, if you count mateo. which... hm. interesting that we're repeating the exact same scenario of gwen going uncharacteristically gaga over a latino guy she meets in a coffee shop, as she's trying to reacclimate to a world that's hostile to her. idk what this means, but i'm taking it as a sign that fabian would've worked in 65.)

yeah gwen's not asexual. that was never gonna happen anyway but now it's pretty much guaranteed that she's just jaded and uninterested in being with someone who doesn't respect her. it works just as well.

jessica jones teaming up with gwen is a great idea. they have a lot to bond over and their personalities would be a good fit. still wish it were on 65.

... also noticing that gwen's teaming up with an older woman named jessica. the spiderverse synergy's popping up, but in a way that suggests maybe the writer's using it carefully to squeak out with an original storyline: fine, gwen's on the run from the cops again, but it's to keep her from being embraced by 616. fine, gwen gets to learn from jess, but not that jess.

fabian's backstory is the familiar 'sad boy with evil dad' trope but you know what? cool. harry osborn 2.0 here we go except this time he's hot, not doomed to fail his redemption and i believe he and gwen would fuck. i miss this plot and i'll take it being resuscitated with a different character.

the symbolism of him taking the serum syncing up with him wanting to prove himself to his father, the black tarantulas having a long history of internalized hypermasculinity/machismo they pass down through the generations, fabian standing a chance at breaking this cycle if he goes against his father and sides with gwen... i like this. we're actually getting feminist themes back in our spider-gwen stories.

like... yes. if gwen's gonna date a guy, he has to conquer his internalized misogyny and toxic masculinity first to be a supportive partner. that's it. the story knows what it's doing with him. now it just has to stick the landing.

and fabian being a spider-man by technicality makes it juicier. one of the big questions surrounding gwen has long been is it possible for gwen to fall for a spider-(themed) man without it ending badly (read: without patriarchal bullshit swallowing her up). bendis tried to force it with gwiles (definitive no), end of spiderverse and web warriors took a baby step in the right direction with ghostpunk, but phillips is actually going for it with fabigwen. even if it doesn't work out, we're making progress.

"the shadows may feel like a comfort but they take more than they give." cool line. i'm wondering if this is the arc's theme.

jessica is sure gwen won't like it. gwen thinks she does. we'll see how this plays out.

jessica calling gwen a teenager. hm. well, miguel called her one too, and so does the editor's description, but she isn't acting like one and the world isn't treating her like one. technically, we can construe this as 'jessica, like miguel, is infantilizing gwen'.

okay confirmed that jessica saved her from drowning. cool. weird that it took this long to confirm it.

gwen being annoyed at peter matchmaking a supporting cast for her. yes!!! peter babying gwen? well, he's still on his bullshit from last remains.

... but i kinda hate that jessica is only looking after her as a favor to peter.

an acknowledgment that gwen is extremely risky with her fighting style and needs to learn to be more pragmatic. yes. she does. here's another avenue for character growth.

jessica acknowledging gwen needs her own supporting cast? good. you know where it is? earth 65. go there.

gwen getting flustered over fabian feels out of nowhere. especially since she barely knows him. getting a crush on a boy is fine! but getting one this intense on a stranger out of nowhere is what feels off.

but. since gwen confirms she wants to date fabian to distract herself from her situation, there's how we make this make sense. see, the context can make it work.

(... though it sure is telling that 3 issues in gwen can flirt with fabian and ten years in all gwen can tell em jay is 'maybe i like girls who knows' 🚬)

black tarantula leaving her a giant bouquet... ok i'm into it.

calling her "my" spider. hm.

good third issue in a row? okay???!!!

7 -

ok looks like tarantula's got issues with a judge.

new artist again. honestly i dig it. gwen's design inexplicably has longer hair again, but at least this style doesn't make her look like a fourteen year old. the way tarantula's cape is drawn is gorgeous. and the colors are moody and so well-suited to her (especially in comparison to the first three issues). von randal and matt milla killed it.

gwen staking out her meeting place: again, i like seeing her on her own, doing something simple and street-level. and that a writer's finally doing something with marvel's tendency to label gwen as a 'detective' in their character descriptions -- we're actually closing that gap now, in a way that expands on gwen's need to be a more analytical person instead of a brawler.

... and. the question of whether gwen will go 617 or 8 in terms of her future has always been hanging over her character. it's really nice to see gwen 65 take another step towards 617, the symbiotic multiverse-hopping detective, instead of 8, the spider-powered wife and mother.

alright they're addressing the age thing with the tarantulas. good. carlos being a well-intentioned antihero, and gwen being resistant to that idea is also good: gwen's done well in moral grays, and an enormous part of her latour run was learning about how justice isn't black and white. getting her back into that kind of story was a good move.

i like the dynamic of gwen being the field agent to jessica's researcher.

... the second you turn to the audience and say 'do you recognize this trope we're acting out' you break immersion.

also i don't believe jessica jones, given her history, would ever find a guy breaking into a girl's apartment to leave an unwanted gift juicy.

gwen commenting that nobody who likes enemies to lovers has ever had an enemy feels apt. it's interesting to see how she feels about her love interests being people who want to hurt her, and it follows that she'd have hard feelings about a villain flirting with her.

i'm unsure of what to make of the comic's take on fabian/gwen. is this going to be a takedown of the enemies to lovers trope, with gwen rejecting him when she learns the truth? is fabian going to prove himself to her by disowning his dad? or is this a case of gwen, sigh, protesting too much, and Secretly Wanting It.

because if it's the latter... well, both fabian and em jay have commented about gwen having a thing for being dominated by her love interests. it's a motif now.

so... does gwen have a thing for being submissive? i could see it. wanting to let down her guard and be vulnerable with someone could be an interesting wrinkle in her character.

or-- given that gwen hasn't reciprocated em jay's feelings and doesn't like black tarantula-- are they projecting their desire to dominate her and insisting that she's bringing it on herself?

i... do not know what to do with that. on the one hand, gwen feeling like she has to be the passive one in her relationships makes sense: look at how much time she's spent reflecting on being The Hero's Girlfriend (... and how she Can't Fight Her Nature). its believable that she'd draw that conclusion and it would be an interesting subject to explore, especially while she's in the world designed to turn her into that. but. man i hope she rises above that.

because on the other... i do not like the idea of What Gwen Secretly Needs Is To Admit She Wanted It All Along. no. do not do that. get that spiderverse bullshit out of here.

like... okay. what's happening here. is fabian supposed to be interpreted as in the wrong here? is the arc that he's going to stand up to his dad, disown his toxic masculinity and only get with gwen once he's handled his shit? and that gwen's going to learn to be vulnerable with someone once she learns to trust him and he proves worthy of it? are we going to watch gwen start to learn the difference between being manipulated and being flirted with and finally start to distinguish what she wants from an intimate relationship from all the unwanted attention she's dodged so far?

or are we about to watch gwen submit to a man who wants to control her because hey, at least he's hot.

it all comes down to the framing and it could go either way right now.

anyway. "you're not the gwen that belongs here" yes! she isn't!

... good point about how lots of people are told they don't belong in the societies they join. it being delivered by a character who, given that he was raised in argentina, is probably an immigrant, and maybe even undocumented, gives it added weight that also creates a shared experience for gwen and fabian to bond over.

(really hoping this won't lead to gwen deciding she'll stick around to prove she fits in after all.)

regardless, gwen getting exposed to the experience of being undocumented, and having a love interest from that world who wants to protect the people in it, who encourages her to help him do it, is great. i hate that gwen's here, but someone's finally going into the implications of gwen-in-616 and using them to help further radicalize her.

the question is: is gwen going to learn from this, or reject it and uh. sprint back into girlbossing, with the added unfortunate implication of 'i'm a Good illegal immigrant, unlike those others who are not coincidentally not white people'. we will see.

confirmation that fabian wants to help people in an extremely misguided way, and that gwen's going to be dealing with another story about a broken justice system. ok go on.

gwen insisting that the status quo has to be defended... hm yeah idk. on the one hand, it goes against what latour gwen learns. on the other, gwen spent 18 months being tortured in jail and was rejected for trying to do things differently. and she already showed she was willing to work with the cops to get her reputation back post-jail. backsliding is believable.

who's sara. fabian's mom?

... i'm getting a matt reeves riddler vibe from black tarantula. i don't know how well this fits with black tarantula's oeuvre, but i don't dislike the themes being played with. which is why if this were on earth 65, i'd be all in.

8 -

back to villanelli. the past two artists really feel right for gwen.

gwen protecting the mayor. hm. protecting the institution after all. really not digging that, but I See Why She Would: she's desperate to not get kicked out of another world, and she's understandably worried about mob violence being triggered by the app.

and to be fair it's luke cage, not jameson. of all the mayors to protect, at least it's a decent one.

a villain using an app to get a city's population to vote on the innocence or guilt of public officials is a cool idea in general and it fits in with gwen's kind of story. this thing would absolutely fuck on earth 65.

love seeing ordinary people weighing in on this and the class divide being highlighted. gwen's stories are best when they touch on real systems of inequality, and this arc's doing that so well.

...alright new masked villain using fear gas. i'm getting a real diet gotham city vibe from this arc but i don't hate it because that was the vibe of earth 65. spider-gwen was compared to barbara gordon when she was first created for a reason. these villains work REALLY well for her. it's just the location that's frustrating.

the extra legs on gwen's fear gas self look SO cool.

mister fear's the villain... okay i Really dig it now. yes he's filling the role of a diet mysterio but giving gwen villains that aren't peter's or miles's is essential so she has her own unique rogues gallery, it makes sure stories aren't disrupted by having them snatched up by a bigger character mid-arc (like the maker in the mcguire run), and it's a great way to repurpose villains that aren't being used anymore and give them new life. i'll take it. (and i'd rather him be a recurring villain of hers than mysterio)

add to that: he's usually a daredevil villain and honestly? daredevil's rogues are a great fit for her, being street-level and a bit darker than average.

gwen deciding to pretend to join black tarantula is a decent gimmick. i hope she unironically does.

okay we're acknowledging that gwen has a symbiote, and that it's capable of filtering out most chemical gases. we're finally getting expansion on her powerset.

and a new limitation on her powers: some compounds can affect her symbiote. is the fear gas effective against all symbiotes, or just hers, because it's from another world/has a different biology?

it also fixes a problem with smash: gwen, wearing her symbiote, was somehow hallucinating thanks to mysterio even though her mask should have protected her from that. now we know why. plot hole sewn up!

interesting distinction that gwen thinks her symbiote may have different fears than her. it's officially a sentient being again.

the nightmare sequence is gorgeous.

we keep seeing blackbirds following gwen and mister fear has black feathered wings in this apocalyptic cityscape. i don't think he's the bird villain gwen seems to be running from/pursued by. but the villain is in gwen's psyche even after leaving him.

... again. is the apocalypse world earth 65. has it been destroyed.

gwen's panic attack flashing to her falling from a bridge. i see. that's clever.

and being caught by a spider tarantula. that's clever too. a spider-man caught gwen as she was falling. fabigwen's gaining points in my book.

hard confirmation that fabian knows gwen and ghost-spider are the same person. he's not even trying to hide it.

another good issue. this arc's been great so far. or at least as great as it can be in the wrong setting.

... where'd her blue beam powers go. why haven't we discussed them in a while.

9 - caged gwen

oh this cover... the stripes on fabian's cape turning into prison bars is cool but we know why her legs are spread so wide and it's gross.

but the art remains beautiful. please keep paolo villanelli forever, he's the best artist gwen's ever had.

the big evil gwen bug hallucination is fun. gwen perceiving herself as a monster? love this.

.... aaalright. gwen hallucinating loved ones she failed in a fear gas vision isn't new. it happened in the latour run, then literally one arc ago in smash. its consistent, and at least it shows gwen is upset that she left them... but given that this is the second arc in a row where gwen's friends have appeared to her in a vision to guilt her for abandoning them, it's getting redundant.

especially given that gwen can't fix that problem because of this status quo. like. it's hard not to check out and say 'oh fuck off' when we KNOW she can't fix this for reasons that are out of her control. it's frustrating at best and cruel at worst to keep dicking her around like this.

anyway. we're pointing out that gwen leaving her world won't fix her problems and will make things worse. good. send. her. back.

liv the nurse seems to have a history with the lamuertos. i'd like to see more of her.

fabian getting a pov. neat! the disowning toxic masculinity theme continues with him discussing how his father wants him to have no fear because its a weakness, and his mother teaching him to treat it as a tool. and that he agrees with her perspective.

fabian backstory: mom fled the country with him to raise him. somehow, he ended up back in the fold. hmmm...

his father using the black tarantula mantle to help "those even the heroes of the city forgot about"... hm. nice to see him get some development too, from a d-list villain to a very gray antihero.

which begs the question. if carlos started redeeming the black tarantula name, then what's fabian talking about when he says he wants to 'create something better' and why does that something better start with gwen?

mr fear and fabian's fight is fun. good for him.

okay explanation for the black tarantula-gwen beef. carlos wants her dead, but couldn't kill her so he sent his son to distract her. and he caught feelings. hot. also them quickly discovering gwen's secret identity is a little hmm, but gwen's always been bad at hiding it, so sure.

gwen's hallucination taking her back to The Bridge and another fall, and merging it with those crows... ok who the fuck is crow guy.

well. em jay spotted and acknowledged. we're right back to her being the only person other than her dad that the writer acknowledges in gwen's supporting cast. but at least we're getting verbal confirmation that gwen wants to return to her.

gwen and fabian fighting mr fear together? hot.

... i appreciate the acknowledgment that gwen is driven by fear. she's not in 616 because she likes it better, its because she's afraid. she isn't dodging her supporting cast because she doesn't like them, it's because she's scared of disappointing them (and of coming out). good! let's conquer those fears please!

gwen insisting that punishing the judge isn't just... again i get it. i don't like it. but i get it. hopefully fabian can help her out of this mindset. especially since the judge was stealing from the homeless fund. fuck him!

.... gwen deciding she misjudged black tarantula after all? juicy.

the lamuertos' secret shelters for homeless undocumented people is great. also i'm getting shades of hobie from him now: imposing vigilante whose civvie design has piercings, who is willing to kill, who attacks the government to protect the poor and homeless of his city. even a dash of sv synergy, with gwen having a flirtation with him while homeless and exiled from her homeworld. i'll take the ghostpunk crumb. he's still her type.

well, that judge is probably dead. cool! we got a murder in a gwen comic. welcome back latour run vibe.

another good issue. i like this streak.

10

love the cover.

ok so the tva suddenly matters again. i'm struggling to place when the miniseries fits into her chronology so... do we retroactively place it before the phillips run starts?

same goes for spider-society. miles is hanging around gwen and not mentioning that the spider-gang are giving her the cold shoulder or that gwen's a fugitive, so... does ss take place after this arc? idk man.

anyway. tva. ob and mobius are here. there's that mcu synergy at work. interesting that mobius doesn't want gwen to be helped but ob does.

fabian's train tunnel lair having a big ol' heart graffiti'd next to him and gwen. tunnel of love. i see. i'm into it.

his pad's cool. idk if it's intentional but if we're playing on how tarantulas live underground it's very clever.

yeah their chemistry's great. i'm genuinely mad he's probably not sticking around in the next arc.

carlos and fabians costumes' subtle differences are great too. the art in general is excellent.

ok confirmation: gwen hasn't dated fabian yet, she's just been planning to. glad that's clearer.

fabian's outed as black tarantula. nice that we finally got a secret identity romance, and that it's wrapped up without being drawn out.

and good that gwen isn't giving fabian a pass for lying.

"change doesn't come without sacrifice but the sacrifices are worth it when they lead to real change." this line is weird.

ok confirmation on the timeline: gwen's been chasing black tarantula for weeks.

gwen using jess for support. good.

jess immediately finding the solution for tarantula's data center.... nah that's a little dumb.

gwens internal monologue explaining why she'd need to do that when it's obvious... also dumb.

alright fabian's out seems to be that he thinks they're killing this one judge, while carlos wants to keep murdering. fair enough.

gwen's opposition to killing corrupt officials being that starting a new foundation via murder is bad... fair enough.

but saying "it's no different from the corruption of the people who built the system"... no. it's not. not loving this both-sidesing.

bringing it home with 'it'll fuck up the good you're doing for the people you're protecting' is a fair point though.

ohhhh. okay. so this takes place a few minutes BEFORE the ending of issue 9. well that was confusing.

fabian taking the bullet for the corrupt judge... nah actually i hate that.

... loki showed up.... to deus ex machina away everything? and apparently he's part of why gwen left her world? what? was he the guy with the crows?

so no explanation for why earth-65 is inaccessible, or confirmation if it even still exists. no resolution to black tarantula's judge killing, or carlos shooting his own son, or gwen deciding how she feels about fabian.

yeah this one went splat right at the end.

so.

is gwen's character being protected?

✅discuss how gwen loves 65 and belongs there: gwen left because she was forced out, aka she didn't want to go, and wants answers about when she can go home, aka she intends to return. and earth 65 as far as we know still exists for her to go back to. fabulous. book the flight.

➖discuss how she doesn't belong on 616 and isn't gwen-616: earth 616 continues to not appreciate her, she has no strong emotional ties to this world apart from fabian and she wants out. cool. can we leave now?

✅ don't pursue gwiles: gwen and fabian are romantic interests and gwen doesn't pine for or mention miles. fabulous.

✅keep gwen an adult: gwen's still out of school, living independently, and in a relationship with a grown man. jess and miguel called her a teen during this run, but she clearly isn't one.

➖continue to lay on the queercoding: the comphet vibe of fabigwen's whirlwind flirtation is off the charts ('hiding in plain sight in a world that hates who i am and wants me to be A Man's Girlfriend, and i'm trying to get a boyfriend to distract myself'), but it doesn't seem intentional. at least for now.

✅keep exploring her symbiotic powers: gwen's symbiote continues to be represented in art in interesting ways-- and getting an acknowledgment that she can filter out most toxic gases through it but not fear toxin solves a plot hole and creates story potential.

it's a tentative yes.

is gwen's story being advanced?

➖explore her powers. gwen's blue beam of death is not being mentioned for some reason. but her symbiote's ability to filter out toxic gas is given a concrete limitation with consequences for this story and others going forward.

❌explore her education. gwen's not in esu and never references attending, skipping, being on break or even dropping out.

✅ explore the implications of being on 616. gwen's experience is explicitly paralleled to the experience of being an undocumented immigrant/asylum seeker. it creates conflict for gwen as a civilian, a reason for her to bond with her love interest, and it helps shape ghost-spider's politics.

➖explore her trauma. mister fear forcing her to admit what she's scared of is a solid use of this villain. her tendency to isolate herself, martyr complex, punch-first philosophy, avoidant behavior and fear of romantic intimacy are being acknowledged, and her abandonment of her supporting cast is a guilt that's eating away at her. great. so are we gonna resolve any of that?

✅explore her politics. gwen's an enemy of the police, questioning the corruption in city government and learning firsthand how it feels to be part of a marginalized community for the first time since the latour run. not loving that she's both-sidesing the political issue but she does make a fair point about how murdering corrupt officials won't change the corrupt structure. solid b.

➖ let gwen come out as bi. ... she's romancing a man, with no hint of interest in women, but no confirmation that she ISN'T into them either. the added context that gwen is using fabian to distract herself does create plausible deniability.

✅give gwen other love interests. gwen flirts with fabian.

so. the second half of this arc was solid. four solid issues and an ending that was not great.

i thought this would be mcguire 2.0 and it seems like i'm right. a writer who's a good fit for the tone of the book is stuck with a bad status quo and has to write around it. i hate that we're not on 65 and i'm so tired of gwen being stuck on this hamster wheel of being blamed for leaving when editorial is why she can't stay... but that's out of the writer's hands at least for now.

the biggest flaws that are genuinely on the writer/editors are

the lack of continuity. we may not be able to discuss gwen's 65-based plotlines, but on 616... gwen already was exiled here, and is supposed to have been going to college here. she has a multiverse-jumper necklace. where did that shit go.

the poor grip on cindy and jess. cindy would not tell gwen to hide out and not use her powers. jessica would not tease gwen about how hot it is that a strange man broke into her home to flirt with her.

kicking the mystery box down the road. it's been ten issues. where's that new blue beam of death power and why haven't we used or talked about it in five or six issues. what's the deal with 65. is it dead or not. why'd gwen leave. i get that you're trying to build intrigue, but dude. come on.

the lack of closure. no answers about the Big Questions haunting gwen. no personal life resolution with gwen deciding to learn detective skills from jessica or date fabian. did chameleon ever get help? loki crashes in and that's it.

otherwise... a lot of good is here. it's worth discussing.

gwen needs unique rogues who she'll never have to compete for the attention of with bigger heroes. she gets them in black tarantula and mister fear. the gothamy vibe to them is a great fit to her character and i genuinely want to see mister fear replace her mysterio, because he can fill the same function without being zapped away for use in a more prominent character's story. i love the effect black tarantula has on gwen and the exploration of carlos and fabian's dynamic and ideology. reusing old z-list villains no one else cares about is a good solution to the problem of gwen needing her own rogues that could sidestep a potential sony rights issue. and chameleon isn't unique, but making him this run's first rogue is 1) a fun reference to him being spider-man's first villain, and 2) a way to efficiently make 616 hate ghost spider. it works.

her stories work best with a grittier tone and political theme, which she gets in the mob justice storyline. her latour-era radicalization is finally returning through gwen's experience as, for all intents and purposes, an undocumented immigrant/asylum seeker. it's SO in character for her to become aware of this problem after personally experiencing it. gwen's counterculture politics are finally back... even if her conclusion is still "well taking violent direct action is just as bad." it's progress.

being regarded coldly by her world is also good: it would do that, and it's going to be easy for her to leave someday if she has no personal ties and is fully aware that she's unwanted. and honestly? it's refreshing that a gwen writer is finally talking about how peter condescends to her and miles barely registers to her at all. can the next step be gwen beating them up?

fabian lamuerto is a fantastic love interest for gwen. he's everything she needs while she's trapped here, and he's easy to leave behind if/when she goes home. great stepping stone boyfriend. the next step is letting them actually be together instead of teasing it.

her team-up with jessica jones is a good idea. this is a mentor that shares a lot of gwen's experiences and traits who can help her develop those detective instincts that keep being advertised but never canonized.

like. please think about what this run could have been. gwen could've been inexplicably a high schooler again, never talking about her world or dismissing it as ~not where she really belongs~. she could've gotten rid of her symbiote. she could've been flirting with miles, playing nice with shield, the avengers or the cops, talking about how she's ~found her real family~ with the spider-gang and she's the worthy heir to this world's gwen stacy so she totally belongs here!

instead... earth 616 hates ghost spider. gwen is uncomfortable with this gwen's legacy, didn't leave her world or her supporting cast voluntarily and keeps asking when she can go home. the spider-gang ignore or distrust her and she holds them at arm's length. she's living on her own, is old enough to go to a bar and open a bank account, and is barely scraping by. this is the most her symbiote's been utilized since the mcguire run. she has a new age-appropriate love interest who has a positive effect on her and she's totally indifferent towards miles. this is a very good use of a very shitty status quo.

and instead of copying atsv's homework (staring at you spider-society comic), phillips is using synergy beats in creative ways to push the story forward:

gwen is mentored by a badass older woman named jess, but it's jessica jones, not jess drew again.

gwen is on the run from the cops, but it's in peter's world and not her own.

gwen is fleeing a situation from her homeworld and sheltered by an interdimensional cop organization that was not so coincidentally just in a major disney+ show but it makes sense that the tva would be involved in an interdimensional world transfer, and we're not pretending that organization doesn't treat her like shit or that gwen doesn't wish she could return.

gwen develops a romantic attraction with a vigilante of color who hates the government and uses violent force to protect the city's homeless, but it's fabian and not hobie (would've loved hobie ngl but i'll take it).

gwen's haunted by the concept of gwen-616 and we're teasing a solution to 'can gwen fall in love with spider-man without it ending badly' but fabian is the spider-man (or tarantula-themed vigilante) who rises to the occasion, not miles.

yes, it's frustrating that we're getting reduxes of prior plots... but they're being done better this time. sometimes it's necessary to tread on familiar ground for an arc or two to get a runaway train back on track or stitch up plot holes (remember smash's aside of nat telling her 'hey i cleared your name and took out the storms for you' in an unrelated story? it's awkward but it fixed the plot hole of how gwen's back in nyc after they framed her. or the repeat of gwenom vs carnage? well, we got the payoff mcguire couldn't do the first time: em jay's in love with gwen, and gwen's about to come out of the closet.)

"gwen's exiled in 616" again... but this time we admit that she'd hate it there, be unwanted by her peers, be broke, and her legal status would be in dire straits.

"gwen's hanging out with the spider-gang" again except we admit that they treat her bad, and that peter-miles-cindy are the real trio.

"gwen crushes on a latino guy in a coffee shop" again except there's chemistry this time, he has a complex character, and he challenges her to be a better hero.

"gwen gets a fear gas guilt complex" again but this time it makes sense because it's explained that her symbiote can't protect her from it.

in the long run, and in the event of future adaptations, this arc will probably blob together with the mcguire run and the mini era to smooth out their flaws. the canon's being repaired. just this once, the repetition gets a pass. the haunted arc's a solid c+.

going forward though? we can't repeat the same beats forever. the holes in the ship are patched. now can we sail somewhere?

... and why is it space?