Review by Frank Plowright

The final few pages of Dog Days Are Over led readers to believe that the Jackal would be a continuing problem in Party People, but instead Seanan McGuire leaves that for another time, and switches to a new concern. In Gwen Stacey’s homeworld celebrity twins and influencers Sue and Johnny Storm went missing in Latveria four years previously.

Disappointingly, Ghost-Spider is first seen in action rescuing yet another bunch of hostages. While the difference this time is the presence of Gwen’s police Captain father, this is a fourth volume for McGuire and greater imagination is needed if Gwen’s to continue operating as a superhero on her homeworld, as those scenes are going through the motions. Her homeworld, Earth 65 if you want the technicalities, differs, and despite the Storm name, there’s no Fantastic Four, and neither is there a Doctor Doom in Latveria, at least not one known to the wider world.

McGuire has gradually turned Gwen into a raging bundle of resentments, not without justification, and is interested in exploring the ramifications, but hasn’t yet mastered contracting what’s being said. The result is too many pages of large word balloons where issues are thrashed out, and too many pages of Spider-Ghost swinging around town considering matters. That might be acceptable if it just applied to this collection, but it’s a device McGuire resorts to frequently throughout her run.

Having stepped in for a few pages last time, Ig Guara draws this entire volume, and more satisfactorily than before. He uses a similar loose style to that established by Takeshi Miyazawa, and enjoys twisting Gwen around more in the action scenes, but when the inevitable happens and Johnny Storm becomes the Human Torch, Guara’s version lacks the visual dynamism usually associated with the character.

Party People eventually becomes a frustrating experience for the lack of closure. McGuire sets up a good plot, leaving Gwen manipulated into an unfortunate situation, but because Marvel cancelled the serialised comic that’s where she’s left hanging. It’s a shame, as McGuire could certainly have resolved what she set up in one further chapter, or the space might have been available with more compact storytelling earlier.

This material appears alongside the remainder of McGuire’s run and plenty more in the Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider Omnibus.