Spider-Woman, Vol. 1: Bad Blood

Spider-Woman (2020) (Collected Editions)

by Karla Pacheco, Pere Pérez (Artist), Paulo Siqueira (Artist)

Spider-Woman is back, and she's pulling no punches! But Jessica Drew hasn't been feeling like herself lately. When the angry, irritable, and unwell Spider-Woman takes a simple security gig to help get back on her feet, she finds herself suddenly besieged by unknown forces out to destroy everything around her. What's wrong with Jessica? Just how did she get this job? Who are these violent lunatics who keep trying to blow her up? What does her illness have to do with the daughter of her old nemesis Otto Vermis? And how does a shipment of black-market spiders fit in? Jessica Drew is fighting for her life while someone pulls her strings, in an explosive new adventure that takes Spider-Woman to new heights!

COLLECTING: SPIDER-WOMAN (2020) 1-5

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Spider Man, Science Fiction, Ebooks

144 pages, Paperback

First published December 29, 2020

Reviews

[Baba · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty cool, that the first issue of this new in 2020 series was the best selling Marvel Comic in the month it was released, which I believe is a first for Jessica Drew. So here we are again, another creative team trying to put together a run that will generate enough sales to keep the book afloat after the last three failures for this by better known creators. New costume, who dis?

I like the actual writing, the art and the comedy, but once again the plotting is kind of uninspired as the creative team have Drew looking to make some money doing bodyguard work, that turns into something a lot more dangerous and more personal. Like many Marvel books at the moment, the pacing is poor, there is a lack of tension and mystique, as reveals come thick and furious with little foreshadowing and/or red herrings. Marvel needs to remember that many of it's greatest runs came from long form storytelling. 5 out of 12.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

YES! Jess is back and the book doesn’t suck! Whoo!

I’m a huge Spider-Woman fan and it’s clear writer Karla Pacheco is too; the Jess-love flows off every page. It helps that Pere Pérez’s artwork is pretty awesome, too. I am really looking forward to seeing where this goes. Don’t let me down, folks!

Three small(ish) quibbles stopped me giving this 5 stars:

1. The plot could have been more coherent, to be honest, as much fun as it was.

2. The prejudice against the French that came out of Jess’ mouth in #1. I know it was played for laughs but I’m not sure that makes it any better. Just really disappointing to see in 2021.

3. I don’t like the new costume. Let me be more specific: I like the predominantly black colour scheme but I really do not like the visual quote of Spider-Man’s webbing-on-red motif. It makes Jess seem like just a female version of Pete and she has never been that.

My next book: The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha, vol. 1

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

First two (maybe even 3) issues were fantastic. Funny, joyful, loved every moment of Jessica snappy comebacks and her being a badass.

The last two issues got so convoluted and weird about her past I actually was a bit at a loss for words on even what the fuck was happening. The very ending started fixing up and maybe we'll get more Jessica the supermom adventures cause I miss that adorable child.

For the first 3 issues - 4.5 out of 5. Last two - 2 out of 5. So about a 3.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jessica Drew isn't feeling herself. A mysterious illness threatens her and her child, and leads her on a wild chase across the globe where she will meet long lost relatives and revisit the place that shaped her into the woman she is today - Wundagore Mountain!

I'm a big fan of the previous Spider-Woman series, and I was skeptical about Marvel bringing her back again. I thought they'd sweep away everything that made Jess so compelling last time, and while new writer Karla Pacheco does shift baby Gerry and the Porcupine off to the side, they're still present in the book even when they're not physically there, a driving force to keep Jess focused on her mission, which I really appreciated.

The hook here is all about family - Jess' immediate, and the one that she thought she'd lost. You don't need to know a lot of Spider-Woman history to enjoy this book, but it certainly draws on a lot of it to inform its story. Pacheco ably balances lots of plot threads as she propels Jess further and further into the mystery of what's happening to her. It's possible to get a little lost at times, but it's clear that everyone involved in this book is having a good time.

Pere Perez hasn't had a regular Marvel gig in ages, so it's nice to see him here. Perez is one of those reliable middle ground artists, but this book seems to give him a chance to really spread his wings and fly; maybe it's colorist Frank D'Armata giving things a more solid feel to them, but this is a new look for Perez, and I really like it.

Spider-Woman's back, baby. She's not as she was, and she might not be like this again, but it'll be a wild ride while it lasts.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining as hell, Karla Pacheco is cheeky and curse-word-friendly enough to capture my attention from issue one, page one.

Her version of Jess makes so much sense, and is so fully formed and flawed that I want to hang out with her right freakin’ now.

The adventures, existential loop she throws Jess for, are plenty engaging to keep me reading every issue.

Somehow I just don’t entirely understand the overall plot, and the editor’s synopsis at the start of each issue ain’t helping. Did Jess take something or lose something? If she doesn’t get it back, what happens? And what exactly is the shit she’s taking in the meantime doing to her?

Maybe it’s just an origin story too complicated for my testosterone-addled mind. Is it something like a Deadpoop (sic - gonna let autocorrect win that one) or Cable or Wolverine healing factor that compensates for some deadly disease/metal/virus that’ll kill them? Or is what was injected by her by her father the deadly thing, and her powers came after? I may never know.

*The name of this book is Spider-Woman, Vol 1: Bad Blood, not, as Goodreads insists, "Bad Blood." This is due to their questionable policy that a comic book with both a volume number and subtitle shall be listed here only by the subtitle. Every comic book reader with more than a passing interest knows this is fundamentally incorrect. Refer to this book as "Bad Blood," and next to no one will have a clue what you're talking about. Those miniscule few, who might, would naturally ask, "Oh, you mean Spider-Woman, Vol. 1?"

[Tiag⊗ the Mutant · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cool art but not a very good story.

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is great, the humor is pleasant, and the action is over-the-top. But Bad Blood doesn't make very much sense unless you know Spider-Woman's full backstory (which I do not).

Of course, even if it's not a read for newbies, Bad Blood is still pretty fun. Spider-Woman is trying to make ends meet, so she picks up a bodyguarding job for a rich dude and his daughter. Many, many surprises later and she's fighting alongside her long-thought-dead mother in the far distant land of her birth having discovered that the rich dude is her brother. It's outrageous! And nearly impossible to follow. But the action is crisp and the basic premise - "Spider-Woman needs to regain her healing abilities" - is fairly clear. It's fine!

[Diz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is uneven and quickly spirals into nonsense towards the end of the volume. Also, the villain is not very interesting.

[Lucas Savio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mas que grata surpresa esse encadernado bem no estilo massaveio... bem meu único contato com a mulher aranha foi na fase que estava grávida e aqui podemos ver a presença do seu filho oque me chamou atenção pela continuidade. Gostei dos acréscimos a origem delaa e também a arte magnífica do quadrinhoo. 4 estrelass pq no final fiquei com algumas dúvidas mas me divertiu muitoo

[bri 🧸 · Rating 4 out of 5]

lol this woman cured my depression

[Malola · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know what the h3ll was I thinking...
Oh, well, here we go.

The good:
The graphics are stunning. The style is just beautiful. The colour palette is amazing. 5/5

The bad:
The story is completely convoluted. All over the place. Some panels are incoherent. The art is not consistent throughout the novel. Why is the fifth issue drawn in a different style than the first four? (This does not not change the fact that the whole thing is visually stunning.)
The few time jumps are horribly set. The 'twists' (such as Drew's hidden family) were dumb and not shocking at all. (<= This should have had either foreshadowing or red herrings... It has neither.)
Her mood swings were not properly portrayed. She sounds like a hot-headed, rude b!tch... not as someone who is struggling with the nasty effects of a drug that changes her personality.

Yeah... The whole thing was quite mediocre.
I don't know what the h3ll I was expecting given the poor reviews/scores of other GR users and the fact that the storyline it's not particularly relevant in any Top Ten list.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Atentai! Essa é a primeira vez que Jessica Drew, a Mulher-Aranha ganha uma revista "regular" com o título de "Mulher-Aranha". Antes, somente a edição vermelha da Salvat havia cumprido esse papel com a fase de Bendis e Maleev no título. Contudo, na minha humilde opinião, minha fase favorita ainda é a aquela logo anterior a essa nova. Aquela em que descobrimos a Mulher-Aranha grávida e que ela ganha um novo uniforme devido à polêmica com Milo Manara. Mas falando da fase em questão, Karla Pacheco tem um estilo de roteiro ágil e sagaz, do tipo que pode encantar muitas pessoas. A mim, me deixou satisfeito com o que ela fez. Pacheco adiciona uma nova família para Jessica Drew e se eu disser mais sobre isso vai configurar spoiler. Os desenhos de Pére Perez me deixaram um pouco nhé, embora as cores da edição tenham mascarado bastantate alguns pontos que eu não gostei das ilustrações. Gosto muito da personagem da Jessica Drew e é bom saber que ela está em boas mãos. Ah e não se assuste, porque o uniforme "novo" faz parte da trama e tem toda uma explicação para sua existência. No fim das contas é uma HQ bem divertida.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each new Spiderwoman title heads in a different direction, and while I really enjoyed the mom/detective Jessica Drew from the last run this was pretty good for me. I like that we are getting more action again, even if the set up with "the family" was overdone and long.

[RG · Rating 2 out of 5]

Issue 1 was okbut when they started fighting and it involved a converation about pilates i knew this was going in a direction that I wouldn't like. Continued and didnt get better

[Rylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just love Jess so much

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

COLLECTS SPIDER-WOMAN (2020) ISSUES #1-5

I really enjoyed the start of this new run of "Spider-Woman." It reflects back on things that have happened in her recent history, and also sets up some intriguing things for future stories. There was a lot of buzz about the fact that Jess got a new suit in this latest run, and I was really appreciative that the writer gave an in-story reason for the suit change. I'm really looking forward to reading on in this series.

[Seren · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is everything I want in a Spider-Woman series - humor, action, and heart. This series returns Jessica to her darker roots, so if you are fan of the Hallum run, you'll find this series very different. Karla Pacheco really understands Jessica Drew - however she's a slow burn writer and tends to peel back the layers of this mystery slowly, but still manages to keep a fast paced, action backed series. Pere Perez's artwork is fantastic - you'll find some of the best fight scenes in comics today in Spider-Woman. That said, it's not for the faint of heart as Pere's fight scenes are pretty brutal.

If you love Jessica's Classic Origin with the High Evolutionary or even the Bendis Version, this series is building on it all. I love it and I cannot recommend it enough.

[Juan Arcones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante nuevo ‘reboot’ de Jessica Drew. Con este primer tomo, con Karla Pacheco en el guion, nos muestran a una Jessica madre, que necesita sobrevivir más que nunca, pero algo desatada
Recordemos que aún pesa su paso por Hydra (y su doble skrull) y mucha gente aún no se la toma en serio. Y a lo largo del primer tomo ella lucha continuamente tratando de ser la más fuerte, la más lista... pero movidas familiares (un poco sacadas de la manga) no dejan de ponerle trabas

Y eso es lo que menos me ha gustado. Las revelaciones finales sobre su madre y su hermano no vienen mucho a cuento y tampoco aportan mucho al personaje, aunque luego eso sea el detonante para que decida investigar todo sobre lo que está pasando y, al fin, pedir ayuda (ole esa Carol Danvers).

No sé si veremos a Jessica aliada con SWORD o algo así, pero el inicio de esta nueva etapa empieza un poco a medio gas

[Jaye Berry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another restart for Jessica Drew but this is the worst one I've read. 💀 It starts off okay: Jess is trying to make money so she bodyguards for a rich girl's birthday party but then it quickly turned into the most convoluted mess ever. Lots of dumb reveals and some panels were incoherent?? I have no idea what the fuck was going on near the end.

What was the point of all these stupid reveals like it didn't even make any sense, none of it made sense. Maybe because it was talking about her random history that I don't know but the whole thing was just very weird. Gerry and Roger weren't even really in this and that was a big miss too.

I liked the color palette of the art but then I didn't like the actual art. The way Jess was drawn was just ridiculous.

She's going to space in the next one?? Yeah I'm not reading any more of this run lol.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

New series and new writer, Karla Pacheco, are here and its not bad at all but its missing one of the best things from the last series, the supporting cast. Here, Jess is basically solo. Pacheco handles her personality very well but there is some unwelcome and tedious tropes that come into play here. I didn't care for these "big" developments in Jess's life nor the antagonists. I really liked the art by Pere Perez but wished he got to do the covers and they didn't do a good job of showcasing what the art inside would be like. Its unsettling. Overall, a decent story with some cheap tricks.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ugh, it's hard to get past the atrocious premise of this volume: that a rogue billionaire would hand Jessica down a death sentence, and then she'd happily work with him to find a cure.

And then there's the horrible new costume.

And the decision to make a right turn from the fun detective premise of the previous volume, let alone almost entirely abandoning the cast.

And then things just turn into a retconny muddle that still doesn't make sense by the end.

Maybe a serious Spider-Woman reader could make sense of this: the regular audience, not so much.

[Terry Mcginnis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hoo boy am I torn on this one. As a huge Jess fan, this is far inferior to what has come before it. The pace is certainly slower, it's overly wordy, and it just isn't the witty, fun comic that Jess fans are used to. However, it's still very readable with decent art and some personal twists to Jessica's ongoing story. Hoping for better things in volume 2. Recommended for fans of Spider-Woman, not casual readers.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Jessica as a character, but this was too messy for me with the fake mom and the family reveals and every twist that felt more like a shocker than actual plot. I might keep up with this series, but this volume relied way too much on trying to wow the reader with what was going on.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was alright. First Spider-Woman comic I've read, so perhaps it would have been more enjoyable if I knew her backstory beforehand, but I think it was largely a problem with the story. The pacing was off, and all of the plot twists and reveals came way too fast. I liked the character, but she felt a bit inconsistent, even with the serum causing mood swings.

[Lucille]

Read as single issues

Oh no, I love Jessica Drew but I found this new story really not great. I kept reading because it's Jessica but mehhh. I found it over the top and trying too much to be shocking. Totally different than the previous series which I loved.

[Santiago · Rating 2 out of 5]

Aburrido y pesado, no me convencio.

[MoonKnight · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a long time fan of Spider-Woman - and this fresh story was definitely a lot of fun!

[Odo · Rating 3 out of 5]

6.5/10

[Tris · Rating 4 out of 5]

that wasnt half bad. just confusing. i think the main problem is they tried to do too many "plot twists" in a single issue. the art was good too. oh and i do NOT dig the new costume... 4 stars though cause i'm biased

[Ian Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great art, decent dialogue. But the story is all over the place and soon gets bogged down in it's own trappings - not great for relaunch!