Spring 2021 (April);

Color me shocked through and through (even writing this review a month later), but I actually found the first thing I actually liked written by McGuire. This was a delightful new start for a Gwen series, where she's popping between worlds, to go to college in the 616-Earth universe because her identity being public knowledge makes it harder for her to continue having an uninterrupted life at night.

Her relationship with Peter, and the one with the girls in her band, all make me pleased, because nothing is being replaced by something else, nor is either (including the boy to date!) becoming a "more important than you" setup. This was good. Not very deep, mind you, but it made me smile along the way. ( )

I'm not sure I've ever read a Seanan McGuire Hugo finalist that I've unreservedly liked, but this collection of comics about Ghost-Spider (the hero formerly known as Spider-Gwen) came the closest. This was pretty delightful superhero stuff: Gwen Stacy is trying to be in a band and fight crime in her own universe of Earth-65 while also trying to attend college and make a friendship with an older version of Peter Parker on Earth-616. It's pretty typical "young superhero" tropes with just enough novelty to make it enjoyable; in the Marvel multiverse, Deans of Admission just shrug off when new students are transfers from other timelines! I've been a fan of Takeshi Miyazawa ever since Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane, and he is as dependable here as always, a perfect match for what McGuire is doing on writing. Overall a cute package that made me want to go back and read all the Spider-Gwen comics.

My main reservation is that the story basically just stops; this collects the first five issues of a ten-issue series. Assuming McGuire sticks the landing in the last five issues, I would recommend this unreservedly, but until I read it, who knows.

Ghost Spider aka Gwen Stacy is starting college in another dimension, one that doesn't know her for who she is, but she has enemies in both worlds and her life has become more interesting with the travellig between it's varied and she's curious about how the differences and similarities work. ( )

https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3719366.html

I have not always got on with McGuire's work before, but I did enjoy this, a Buffy-esque story of teen superhero Spider-Gwen trying to keep a handle on both her crime-fighting life and her college education - in a parallel Earth, of course - which being hunted by a Baddie. Laugh-out-loud funny in places. ( )