Sunday, July 10, 2022

Sunday Splash Page #226

 
"Edge of the Gweniverse," in Gwenpool Strikes Back #4, by Leah Williams and Christopher Hastings (writers), David Baldeon (artist), Jesus Aburtov (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

Mid-2019, a year-and-a-half after her ongoing series ended, Gwenpool got one last mini-series to allegedly determine whether she would continue to exist or not. Gwen, being meta-aware, knows her head's on the chopping block and undertakes a series of absurd actions to try and prove she's relevant and important and deserves to stay.

When trying to get radiation-based powers from Spider-Man fails, and smooching Reed Richards also fails, Gwen tricks a bunch of heroes into having a big fight on a beach in swimsuits. She'll beat them all and prove she's relevant! Gwen clearly ignored how that kind of logic ultimately didn't help Red Hulk once Jeph Loeb stopped writing him.

Williams writes Gwen different from Hastings (who only wrote one page in just this issue, where he appears as a cloud to talk to Gwen while she's running from Immortal Hulk). Less knowledgeable and excited, more desperate and just plain crazy. Which fits the story, at least. There are some funny gags out of it. Gwen defeats Hulk by ducking into an issue of Thor to steal his severed arm from Malekith, so she can grab Mjolnir with it and then hit the Hulk in the nuts with an uru hammer. Points for thinking outside the panel.

The end result is that Ms. Marvel, via the power of misguided compassion, retcons Gwen's origin so she's a mutant with reality-warping abilities who probably had a tragic experience when her powers manifested and suppressed the memories behind this whole "I'm from a world where you're comic characters," thing. It takes, and Gwen goes to Krakoa, where I don't think anyone has used her since. Except Googum in his strips, where she's running a comic shop. Wait, Krakoa's been status quo for 3 years?! Ugh. At least she should be safe with the resurrection protocols for when someone gets a good idea what to do with her.

Baldeon's doing most of the heavy lifting here with the fourth wall breaking gags and other humor. One panel nearly being filled with Gwen's purple speech balloon, only for Gwen to burst through it like the Sensational Character of 2016 while fleeing Deadpool. Gwen escaping the FF by startling Baldeon so he spills his coffee into the panel he's drawing and douses Reed and Sue. The Gwens using a panel border to trip the Hulk and disorient him.

And with that, we are done with the Gs! That's like 3 letters we've gotten through in the last year. Don't expect that to happen again any time soon.

No comments: