Gwen Stacy #1 - Marvel Comics

GWEN STACY No. 1, April 2020

The fourth best-selling title of February 2020, at least according to “Diamond Comic Distributors, this “first of Gwen Stacy’s amazing adventures” definitely must have taken its 68,348 strong audience back to a far simpler, early Marvel Universe, where Stan Lee’s imaginative world tended to firmly focus upon the nefarious plans of those super-villains situated within the boundaries of New York City. Indeed, Christos Gage’s script, enthusiastically crammed full of everything from High School political election campaigns through to the deadly machinations of Norman Osborn’s glider-riding alter-ego, quickly manages to conjure up all the exuberant excitement and nostalgic naivety to danger experienced in the exploits of Edward Stratemeyer’s Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.

For starters, the Beauty Queen of Standard High isn’t simply penned by the American author as being “just a nice person” around whom interesting events occur, but rather a physically feisty principal protagonist, whose “nose for trouble and a no-quit attitude” is clearly “a recipe for disaster.” Coupled with the sinisterly secretive shenanigans her father is investigating as part of the police’s inquiry into the Lucky Lobo Gang’s leadership battle, as well as the subsequent suggestion that the incorruptible Captain was responsible for gunning down an informant in cold blood, and the ill-fated “science brain” is soon ensconced in as much murder, violence and evil doings as any bibliophile could arguably ever want from a single publication.

However, the G.A.N.G. Award-winner doesn’t stop there, as he also ‘fills this forty-seven year-old void’ with a plethora of Steve Dikto’s greatest co-creations, such as the Green Goblin, the Crime Master, Fancy Dan, Montana and the Ox. These classic Silver Age of Comics characters aren’t simply window-dressing either, as Gage cleverly interweaves the Enforcers throughout his highly intriguing narrative to the point where Raymond Bloch in particular appears to be about to bring young Stacy to an unglamorous end next to a hospital’s vending machine; ““Precious girl. Bright future up yonder. Be nice to keep it that way. I get it. Big decision. Take some time. Think about how you wanna handle it.”

Admirably imbuing all these events with plenty of pulse-pounding vivacity is Todd Nauck’s pencilling and Rachelle Rosenberg’s colours. Gwen has debatably never looked better on the printed page, and there’s a distinctly edgy feel to the dimly lit sequence concerning Captain Stacy’s clandestine meeting with Nick the Greek at Pappas Imports, which makes the nocturnal appointment all the more palpably apprehensive for both attendees and audience alike.

The regular cover art of "GWEN STACY" No. 1 by Adam Hughes