For a comic full of lighter tones and banter, Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones #1 gives us a pretty dark super-villain origin story to kick off the series when a scientist, ignoring all danger to herself and her significant other, remains in her lab with Ghost-Spider battling transplanted Spidey-villains the Sinister Six. Gwen is successful in leading the battle away and defeating the villains, but our scientist isn’t so lucky and blames Gwen, rather than her own stubbornness and stupidity, for what follows. Her plan for vengeance… is unique.
Her revenge, it seems, is to use the blood left at the scene to clone Gwen-ish versions of the Spidey-villains and send them after the heroine (I have no idea how she copies the villains’ powers and tech). Issue #1 gives us a Doc-Ock version of Gwen and teases a Sandman version coming next. Interesting idea mixing classic Spidey villains and cloning themes in a new way, with mixed results and that odd tonal shift which distracts from the narrative.
[Marvel, $4.99]