Marvel Gives Spider-Gwen a New Costume and Powers (But Is Loki to Blame?)

Spider-Gwen is teaming up with King Loki to head off to the cosmos with a new costume and strange powers she can’t control. The fan-favorite character from the animated Spider-Verse movies has been starring in an ongoing comic book series titled Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider by Stephanie Phillips and Paolo Villanelli. Gwen Stacy has relocated to Earth-616 and faced a new threat in an all-new Tarantula, but with that in the rearview mirror comes a new story arc that brings in King Loki and a new costume for the Ghost-Spider. A look at the upcoming issue shows off this costume and sends Spider-Gwen to an alien world.

Marvel released a preview for Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #11 by Stephanie Phillips, Paolo Villanelli, Matt Milla, and VC’s Ariana Maher. It begins on the planet Vyrrokis, 12.3 light-years from Earth. Two alien races are in the middle of a war when Spider-Gwen teleports smack dab in the middle sporting her new cosmic costume. It keeps the same color scheme as Gwen Stacy’s familiar Ghost-Spider suit, except now she has a space helmet and shoulder pads.

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Spider-Gwen thinks she’s figured out who the good guys and bad guys are in this war, but King Loki pops up to question her line of thinking. “Well, you’re the hero… you know best, I suppose,” Loki tells Gwen. The preview for Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #11 ends here, but it does a good job of teeing up the drama and interaction readers can expect out of Spider-Gwen and Loki.

Spider-Gwen’s space suit was designed by cover artist Mark Brooks, and a character design sheet provides a new look at how Brooks brought the costume to life.

“I envisioned a Gwen and Loki storyline from the beginning of my work on Gwen, so this arc feels like the culmination of everything we’ve been building toward,” Phillips shared. “Taking Gwen to space has allowed us to explore some unexpected elements of her character, especially as her optimism and hope clashes with King Loki’s nihilism. Paolo and I have worked hard to make this a unique sci-fi adventure—one that’s dark and very personal to Gwen.”

ComicBook previously spoke to Stephanie Phillips about Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider, where she gave more background on Gwen’s new powers and what’s she has planned for the series.

“I will say that the powers are related to her move to 616… and I will say nothing more than that! They WILL be explained… in time,” Phillips teased. “But as far as having them show up in moments of stress, I wanted to treat them like a panic attack. Everything Gwen is going through is incredibly stressful and there are a lot of threads (webs?) that she is trying to balance throughout the first two arcs. That all comes to a head as we move through arc two and Gwen has to realize that those threads all actually converge at one point… the end of Issue 10 – it all comes together. Any thread readers might think is disconnected or a side thread… they all connect. It’s a web! (Spider metaphors abound!).”

Phillips also hinted at Loki’s addition to Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider. “A really big, unexpected character makes an appearance and launches us into the next arc, something we’ve been building towards since issue 1 and I can’t tell you how excited I am that we’re about to reach this point in Gwen’s story,” she said. “This is a big character that I’m also excited we got permission to bring into Gwen’s story. It will tie the threads together and I think it will be interesting to give Gwen a story unlike any we’ve seen from her before. Did I say LAUNCH? Can I emphasize that word even more? *cough cough*”

Spider-Gwen: The Ghost-Spider #11 goes on sale Wednesday, March 5th. Let us know what you think of Gwen’s costume and team-up with Loki in the comments below!