Spider-Woman #1 Review

Written by Dennis HopelessIllustrated by Greg Land The Inheritors are a family of villains stalking Spiders across dimensions, and now they are hunting one in particular – a newbie web-slinger by the name of Silk. Apparently the Inheritors feed off the life energy of our universe-friendly Spider-people, and Silk attracts them like moths to fire. I say “apparently” because nothing is clear enough to say with certainty in this issue. Who are the Inheritors? Why do they feed on Spiders? How does Silk attract them? Despite “#1” being in the title, readers are not given much insight into the characters or story plot to know anything that’s going on; a pretty significant downside of beginning Spider-Woman’s title in the middle of a crossover story-arc. Find yourself unclear on why Spider-Woman is protecting Silk, and riding around on lizard-donkeys with an Equalist from season 1 of Korra? Welp, you better trust it’ll be explained soon.

Only it isn’t. Instead you are probably left with more questions than answers, and not the type of compelling questions that make for an intriguing read, like Gotham Academy for example, but the kind that are frustrating because they are not part of any intended mystery. How are these people just walking across dimensions through portals? You’d probably be interested to know, except you were expected to have read the rest of the Spider-Verse before joining the party. The result is newcomers feeling like they are listening to a series of inside jokes…