Spider-Woman #10

 

Spider-Woman #10 "Things That Go Flit in the Night"

Writer: Mark Gruenwald

Penciler: Carmine Infantino

Plot: Spider-Woman tries to befriend who she thinks is another outsider like herself, the Gypsy Moth. 

Comments: The captions declare Spider-Woman and Jerry as two people in love. 

Jessica spots something in the sky. This page explicitly shows that Spider-Woman wears a wig as part of her disguise. 

This is a great debut of Gypsy Moth as she gets closer. Spider-Woman isn't able to catch up with her. 

Jerry isn't happy about Jessica leaving their date to chase after Gypsy Moth. It's somewhat jarring to see profanity here "hell", when Gruenwald would later choose to use euphemisms in the place of actual curse words. 

Jessca checks in with her landlady Mrs. Dolly and receives a dress from Magnus and an invitation to his magic show. Jessica shows up late and possibly due to her condition that makes people feel hostile towards her, the lady at the ticket booth refuses to cut her any slack. It's shown that Mrs. Dolly has a Brothers Grimm doll, the foe that Spider-Woman fought in issue #3. Here I think this could have been a good example of "show, don't tell" where Gruenwald didn't have to point it out and let the sharp-eyed readers notice it or possibly notice it later in re-reading after future issue developments. Arrows are pointed to where I think the captions should have been eliminated. 

Jessica catches up with Magnus and is invited to a Hollywood party. A character who seems coded as a gay does not seem repelled by her and strikes up a conversation with her, which puzzles Jessica since most people are repelled by her. Before she can figure it out, Gypsy Moth attacks the party and starts using her power to unravel the clothing of the partygoers. 

Spider-Woman flies up to Gypsy Moth and tries to befriend her, but Gypsy Moth isn't interested. I think there will be another case in a future issue where Spider-Woman makes a reference to "crack the whip." The idea of the hero trying to befriend a stranger who looks like them reminds me of a Gargoyles episode "Metamorphosis" where the gargoyle Brooklyn falls for and tries to befriend a human named Maggie who has been mutated into a gargoyle cat-like creature. Horrified about who she has been mutated into and terrified of Brooklyn, Maggie disabuses Brooklyn by zapping him with her lightning powers. 

Jerry shows up to the party and tries to help Jessica by shooting Gypsy Moth down. Since she's trying to get through to Gypsy Moth and also because she hasn't done anything meriting lethal force, Spider-Woman zaps Jerry with her venom blast to keep him out of the way. 

Even though it wasn't reciprocated, Spider-Woman still feels enough kinship with Gypsy Moth to let her go after they land safely on the ground. The closing caption is a contrast to open declarative statement, this time: Two people in love? 

Issue #14 had a letters column reacting to this issue. The response to the first letter shared how Spider-Woman was hastily created by Marvel to protect the copyright of the name when an animated series by another company was in the works. It also shows that writer Mark Gruenwald shared the letter writer's opinion that Magnus didn't belong as a supporting character and would take steps to write him out, starting with the following issue. The response to the second letter seems to promise an upcoming return for Gypsy Moth, but did not end up happening, presumably because Gruenwald was removed from the book at issue #20. 

Gypsy Moth will appear next in Contest of Champions #1, which was co-written by Mark Gruenwald. Her origin will be revealed in Spider-Woman #48, which was written by Ann Nocenti, but edited by Mark Gruenwald, so presumably his origin was the one published.