Spider-Woman: 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 entitled Spider-Women.
Jessica Drew's pregnancy storyline from Shifting Gears was adapted to the composite character Jess Drew in the 2023 feature film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and its 2027 sequel Spider-Man: Beyond 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, appearing in Too Many Spiders). Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Spider-Woman (Gwen Stacy) and Silk (Cindy Moon) 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 Comic 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, "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." Jesse Schedeen of IGN gave Spider-Woman #1 a grade of 8.6 out of 10, writing, "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... promising an exciting road ahead for Spider-Woman."
Collected editions Title 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 Spider-Woman (vol. 6) #6–7, Silk (vol. 2) #7–8, Spider-Gwen (vol. 2) #7–8 July 26, 2016 Shifting Gears Vol. 2: Civil War II Spider-Woman (vol. 6) #8–12 Shifting Gears Vol. 3: Scare Tactics Spider-Woman (vol. 6) #13–17 June 13, 2017 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
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.
References
External links Spider-Woman: Shifting Gears at Marvel.com