Spider-Gwen Ghost-Spider #4 Review

The consequences of Spider-Geddon take on whole new meaning in Ghost Spider #4.

Spider-Gwen Ghost-Spider #4 cover
Marvel Comics

Spider-Geddon may be over, but there’s always the Aftermath to digest. Spider-Geddon was the climactic sequel to the Spider-verse event, where every Spider-person from the multiverse got together to save the universe from the vampiric Inheritors. It led to a few surprising deaths, a destruction of the tech used to teleport around the multiverse, and the web of destiny was destroyed. It is definitely worth checking out on its own.

More importantly, Gwen Stacy, the Spider-Woman of Earth-65, or better known by readers as Spider-Gwen, is now the only Spider to be able to travel between worlds but the cost of saving the universe has broken her to her very core.

Spider-Gwen was, and is, a breakout character wherever she goes and this miniseries truly expresses why both old and new readers rally behind her. In a time when the 616 Spider-Man was, and is still, in a state of flux, Gwen was able to step into the place of a mostly positive Spidey, still able to have melodramatic moments, but not be stuck in it, but we see her fall from that in this issue because of previous events.

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Spider-Gwen Ghost-Spider #4 First Page
Marvel Comics

Seanan McGuire uses the fact that the Gwen Stacy on so many different Earths had died or went missing to drive home Spider-Gwen’s need to give the families and friends of those who had died in the Spider-Geddon event closure by giving out their death notifications - just the first page alone encompasses that heartache.

The art by Rosi Kämpe and Takeshi Miyazawa pairs with the tone of the piece well, allowing for a melancholic stillness to weigh down McGuire's script. Ian Hearing’s colors similarly keeps a sad, washed out feel to the comic's proceedings, while not overly going grim and dark. That isn’t to say it’s all gloom with the artwork since we get a couple of redesigns of Spider-Gwen for the Noir and Lady Spider universes respectively. They aren’t showcased heavily but they are nice to see on a fan-level to break up the maudlin context.

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The final issue of a four-part miniseries that takes a hard look at the pains of heroism without making anyone feel weaker for having deep emotion is just sensational. Five stars.

Spider-Gwen Ghost-Spider #4 Star Rating
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A.J. Carey is a child of pop culture, learning to read on comic books and raised like any true '90s child on films way above his age range and network television!