Spider-Woman: Shifting Gears

Spider-Woman: Shifting Gears
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Schedule	Monthly
Publication date	November 2015 – March 2017
No. of issues	17
Main character(s)	Jessica Drew / Spider-Woman Ben Urich Porcupine
Creative team
Written by	Dennis Hopeless
Artist(s)	Javier Rodríguez Joëlle Jones Robbi Rodriguez Tigh Walker Veronica Fish

Spider-Girl: Shifting Gears (originally known simply as Spider-Woman) is a 17-issue comic book series written by Dennis Hopeless as the sixth overall volume of Spider-Woman. Published by Marvel Comics, spinning out of the events of Spider-Woman: Spider-Verse and Secret Wars, the story revolves around a now-pregnant Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) as she returns to her roots as a private investigator. The series also features a joint crossover series with Spider-Gwen and Silk titled Spider-Women.

Jessica Drew's pregnancy storyline from Shifting Gears would be adapted to the composite character Jess Drew in the 2023 feature film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Publication history

In 2014, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) was a key player in the Spider-Verse event. Spinning out of that event, a new fifth volume of Spider-Woman was started, written by Dennis Hopeless; this series was interrupted by Marvel's 2015 Secret Wars event, and ended with issue #10, before Spider-Woman: Shifting Gears from the same creative team launched several months later with a new issue #1, still written by Hopeless and continues the story from the previous volume, with the narrative change of Jessica now being heavily pregnant (with Gerry Drew, her future son previously created for MC2). Spider-Woman, Gwen Stacy and Silk were then the protagonists of the Spider-Women crossover event, with Spider-Woman issues #6 and #7 having been the tie-ins to it. Spider-Woman: Shifting Gears was cancelled after 17 issues.

Reception

According to Diamond Comics Distributors, Spider-Woman #1 was the 37th best selling comic book in November 2015.

Chase Magnett of ComicBook.com gave Spider-Woman #1 a grade of B+, asserting, "A lot of people are going to get hung up on one aspect of Spider-Woman #1: Jessica Drew's pregnancy. It's the topic that has dominated the discussion leading up to the release of this comic and it is a significant part of the comics. Focusing purely, or even largely, on that one aspect does a disservice to the comic though. Spider-Woman #1 is a story about a woman handling her first pregnancy, but it is so much more. It is a story about friends helping one another, about altering one's career, about comedic party shenanigans, and about wild, space adventures. Spider-Woman #1 is one of the most colorful stories in the All-New, All-Different Marvel, a beautifully presented joy of a read. [...] Spider-Woman #1 is one of the absolute best debuts of the All-New, All-Different Marvel line. It is an example of what a team of excellent creators can do when collaborating on a story and craft they clearly care about. The pregnancy storyline is handled very well here, but it speaks volumes about the quality of this comic that it is far from the only thing with discussing. There's a lot of great things happening in Spider-Woman, and it would be a shame for superhero fans to miss out on any of them." Jesse Schedeen of IGN gave Spider-Woman #1 a grade of 8.6 out of 10, writing, "It's nice (if not terribly surprising) to see that Rodriguez is able to juggle the outlandish on down-to-earth elements so well. The story is laid back at times and outlandish at others, and Rodriguez brings a unified look to it all. Rodriguez's page layouts stand out thanks to their variety and strong sense of design. At times he relies on smaller, grid-like layouts, while at other times the page opens up and allows Rodriguez's elegant figure-work to breathe. Rodriguez also colors this issue, and his vibrant hues do a lot to enhance the story. Whether it's the moody glow of a fire in the early pages or the eclectic hues seen in the final sequence, Rodriguez's work leaves a strong impression. Granted, the cover is a little wonky in terms Jessica's posture and proportions, but generally the figure work is much stronger inside the comic. The only thing new about this series is the status quo. But considering how little time we got to savor Dennis Hopeless and Javier Rodriguez's Spider-Woman before Secret Wars cut things short, and changes to the creative team would be a disappointment. This first issue makes the most of the book's core character dynamics as Jessica grapples with her new life as a superhero mother-to-be. This issue even opens up her world to bigger and crazier conflicts again, promising an exciting road ahead for Spider-Woman."

Collected editions

Title	Material collected	Published date	ISBN
Shifting Gears Vol. 1: Baby Talk	Spider-Woman (vol. 6) #1–5, material from Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 4) #1	June 14, 2016	978-0785196228
Spider-Women	Spider-Woman (vol. 6) #6–7, Silk (vol. 2) #7–8, Spider-Gwen (vol. 2) #7–8	July 26, 2016	978-1302900939
Shifting Gears Vol. 2: Civil War II	Spider-Woman (vol. 6) #8–12	January 10, 2017	978-0785196235
Shifting Gears Vol. 3: Scare Tactics	Spider-Woman (vol. 6) #13–17	June 13, 2017	978-1302903305
Spider-Woman by Dennis Hopeless	Spider-Woman (vol. 5) #1–10, Spider-Woman (vol. 6) #1–5, 8–17, material from Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 4) #1	June 6, 2023	978-1302950040

In other media

The 2023 feature film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse introduces an "original creation" and "wholesale reinvention of the concept" of the comic book Spider-Woman in the form of Jess Drew (voiced by Issa Rae), a composite character of the Earth-616 Jessica Drew and the Earth-1610 Jessica Drew (Peter Parker), having the spider-powers and fingertip-webs of 1610-Jessica from Ultimate Spider-Man and the pregnancy of 616-Jessica from Spider-Woman: Shifting Gears.