The point is to show that somebody cares. My current favorite romance in all of comics is the little relationship that could that is Spider-Woman and the Porcupine. A couple years ago, comics writer Dennis “Hopeless” Hallum put out a quirky little Spider-Woman comic that I adored with every fiber of my soul. I was rewarded for this love by getting blurbed on one of the tpb covers! That’s one of the highlights of my blogging career. I still need to go meet Hallum at a comic convention to get him to sign it.

Anyway, the heart and soul of that series was the off-kilter companionship between stalwart superhero Spider-Woman and ne’er-do-well supervillain the Porcoupine. It was cute, it was well-crafted and it made the whole series something special!

That’s a crazy baby!

Then, as all good things must come to an end, Spider-Woman was cancelled and the characters were cast off into comic book limbo. Spider-Woman has made random appearances here and there since then, and I have kept my eyes peeled for any signs that she was still together with the Porcupine, real name Roger Gocking. He’s typically seen taking care of Jess’ baby Gerry. It’s cute.

Well I have good news for anyone else out there who is a fan of the Spider-Woman/Porcupine relationship: they’re still together!

Awwwwwww!

Spider-Woman launched a new series this past week, written by Karla Pacheco. And sure enough, both Roger and Gerry show up in the comic, living a pretty happy (if stressful) life with Jess.

So yeah, that’s it. That alone is worthy of a blog post.

This is comics, people. At any moment, some new writer might come along and throw out my favorite character or status quo. I already wrote up a piece about how almost all of my favorite comic book characters have been killed in just the past couple of years. That’s bad luck. I’m a comic fan who likes his obscure favorites and hates to see them used as chopped liver!

So for the time being, I’m going to relish the idea that Jess and Roger are still a cute little couple having adventures, raising a baby and being in love. Allow me that little bit of happiness!

And I’ll keep doing my best to ignore what Pacheco said to Newsarama about the new series…

“yesss…we will see Roger and baby Gerry…though for how long…hmm.”

I am prepared to have my heart broken. These are trying times.

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There’s going to be a new Spider-Woman comic coming out! That’s good! She’s going to revert to her old costume. That’s bad. It’s going to be written by Karla Pacheco and drawn by Pere Perez! That’s good! There’s no word in the initial announcement on Newsarama about her relationship with Roger. That’s bad.

Can I go now?

So yeah, new Spider-Woman comic coming next year by some talented people and I’m sure I’ll check it out. The problem is that the last Spider-Woman comic was one of my favorite comics of the decade! So much so that Marvel used one of my reviews on the cover!

Once of the reasons I loved Dennis Hopeless’ Spider-Woman comic so much was the quality development of the relationship between Jessica Drew and Roger Gocking, the formerly villainous Procupine. This was one of the best-written comic book romances I’ve ever read.

Since the end of the series, I’ve been following the Spider-Woman character wherever I can to see if Marvel is going to keep the relationship going. I’m quite invested, you see. There’s no word on the relationship in the new comic announcement…so I’m just going to start worrying now.

But all good things must come to an end.

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In the world of comic books, any character or story can change at any time. New writers and creators come and go, putting characters into new and different circumstances. Happens all the time.

And it sucks when you’re a fan of a particular character or a particular status quo. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.

Fortunately, a new comic this week revealed that one of my current favorite comic book relationships is still in tact! Spider-Woman and the Porcupine are still a couple!

That’s Roger Gocking hanging out with Jessica Drew, helping her to raise her son. The Spider-Woman comic, written by Dennis Hopeless, ended in April 2017, and it was one of my favorite comics. The relationship between Jessica and Roger was adorable. But there was every reason to fear that a new writer or a new creative direction for Spider-Woman would ditch Roger in a heart beat. There’s absolutely no reason to keep them together, other than appreciation of what Hopeless wrote — and that’s not enough to keep characters together in today’s ruthless comic book world.

But the new issue of Spider-Force stars Jessica Drew, and we get that quick check-in with Roger. So awesome. I’m a happy comic book fan today.

Also, that panel features Kaine, who is also still alive. That’s fun too!

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