by Christopher Hastings, Gurihiru, Irene Strychalski, and Rachelle Rosenberg
collects Gwenpool, The Unbelievable #5-10
original series: one | two | three | four | five [complete]
miniseries: Gwenpool Strikes Back
I’m already experiencing withdrawals from West Coast Avengers…so it’s time to catch up on Gwenpool!
Gwenpool is far more than a female Deadpool knockoff. She’s actually Gwen Poole, a member of our reality – and huge Marvel comics fan – who somehow plopped into the Marvel universe. Even though she’s also an amoral anti-hero vibe with more than her fair share of fourth-wall breaking, witty dialogue, her encyclopedic knowledge of the Marvel universe is what sets her apart from DP – and what makes her self-aware humor all the more funny. Gwen takes shots at diluted storylines, censorship, and narrative tropes like ensuring characters don’t die by asking their names, therefore making them more important to the story.
The funny gets funnier when Gwenpool teams up with Miles Morales – there is nothing funnier than an exasperated Miles Morales. It’s fun to see Gwen completely fangirl over Miles (and his mom) and try to explain the Secret Wars storyline, much to Miles’ bewilderment. (When Gwen tells characters they’re in comic books, mentions publishers, etc, it’s not too dissimilar from the holodeck characters in TNG who can’t really process the information.)
The main story picks up soon after the first volume, as Gwenpool and her cadre of D-list villains (headed by Baltroc the Leaper, another great casting choice by Hastings) try to continue on the MODOK operation without MODOK himself. The narrative is pretty forgettable with sea creature aliens and a reformed Doombot (not even close to the greatness of his ‘cousin’ on Runaways); but not unlike Squirrel Girl and other comedy books, the fun is in Gwen’s shenanigans – including dressing a pig up in a Gwenpool costume to throw off the aliens – rather than the story itself.
Gwenpool might be a blond Marvel fangirl in a comedy title, but she’s not afraid to translate her amoral philosophy into gleeful and often reckless violence. Gwen justifies her ‘actions’ saying that because comic characters (regardless of how young or innocent they are) aren’t real, their “lives” don’t matter. It makes her an unpredictable wildcard, not to mention completely nihilistic in a universe generally about justice and optimism – especially because she (rightly) understands that as the star of her own book, she can’t die, and as a Marvel character, there are some lines she probably can’t cross even if she tries. It makes the whole thing even more absurd from a meta standpoint, and within the pages, makes you wonder what exactly Gwen was like back in our world (though Hastings has made a point to not reveal that at all). Not unlike Deadpool, Gwen is an infinitely more interesting character with a foil (Miles, Baltroc, Cedric) and it will be interesting to see who she meets next, given her circumstances at the end of the book.
Gurihiru’s art is simply delightful and their* anime style makes Gwen deceptively cute and innocent. However, penciller Sasaki draws hands super tiny which I’m sorry you won’t ever be able to unsee, but it’s true! I wish they had also drawn the first issue with the Miles team up, Strychalski’s style isn’t necessarily bad but it felt a little too “children’s story book” for that particular issue.
Gwenpool is a great breather in between different books, and I’m thrilled that she has a new solo title, called Gwenpool Strikes Back, post WCA.
*I recently learned that Gurihuru is the name of an artist duo rather than a proper name: pencils and inks by Sasaki and coloring by Kawano. I therefore changed the pronouns to gender neutral plural. My apologies for the error. See their website for more!
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