This new title has a lot going for it: a strong female lead, flashy artwork and youth appeal. The problem is that to get things going, the writer has opted for a rather generic and tired origin archetype, and that gets in the way of what sets the book apart from other super-hero titles. Fortunately, there are elements that set it apart. I would imagine a lot of potential readers are curious as to whether or not this new title, which features a new Spider-Girl, will make for confusion, given that Spider-Girl is still being published. Though the two books share a few elements -- chief among them, the high-school setting -- there's no confusing these two Spider-Girls. Avery grants this new one a slightly rougher edge, and the notion of a tomboy super-heroine is what has me curious about future issues.
An apparently supernaturally empowered agent for a mysterious organization known as WebCorps finds himself hunted as he makes his way across New York City. As he avoids the malevolent predators, he himself is a hunter as well, trying to find a young man destined to enter into his dangerous world. Meanwhile, a teenage girl named Anya finds trouble at school when she stands up to a bully who's giving her best friend a rough time. It seems Anya is as stubborn and foolish as she is brave, as she often finds herself in impossible situations because she refuses to back down... ever.
Brooks delivers some strong artwork here. In addition to the usual manga/anime riff one can find in his work, I also see the influences of such artists as J. Scott (Danger Girl) Campbell and Paul (Negation) Pelletier. The design for the title character -- even though we only see her in "civilian" guise here -- is a solid one. Brooks captures her youth nicely, and maintains a femininity in the character despite her proclivity for fighting. But there's a rougher edge to the character here. She's a tomboy, plain and simple, and her look exudes attitude when needed.
The script reinforces that atypical quality. One expects teenage female characters in comics to be more Britney Spears than anything else, but Anya bucks the trend. She's fiercely independent and far more knowledgeable about hands-on, blue-collar work than her beefy, apparently absent-minded dad. I like the heroine isn't just another white girl (though preview artwork had made it seem as though she was); the racial landscape of Brooklyn in this book is far more diverse than the Riverdale-esque visions we often see in other super-hero comics.
I like the main character. I just wish I liked the events that revolve around her in this book. The supernatural elements and typical wrong place-wrong time origin at play here are clunky and dar too familiar. This first issue -- and, I would imagine, the first story arc -- is about getting things set up. Hopefully, Avery will be able to cast off cliched and conventional genre storytelling approaches as the series progresses. I do like that Spider-Man doesn't seem to have any role to play with this new character, though; I just hope that continues to be the case.
