Comics drive plot in UI grad debut novel

Spider-Man fans might feel the tingle of their own “spider sense” when they spot “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 288 pages, $14.95). The debut novel by Sarah Bruni takes its name from a groundbreaking 1973 story arc in “The Amazing Spider-Man” comic book series. Comics' true believers might well be nervous about what Bruni is up to.

But Bruni, who is a graduate of the University of Iowa and will be participating in the Iowa City Book Festival in October, is up to something rather interesting. She introduces us to two characters who, for different reasons, choose to think of themselves as Peter Parker (Spider-Man's secret identity) and Gwen Stacy, Parker's first love. The two stage a kidnapping at a Coralville gas station - much of the early portion of the book is set in Coralville and Iowa City - and take off for Chicago, where “Peter” hopes to save a man he has seen in his dreams.

Like many a comic book, the novel is set in a world that looks just like our own, but with a few mysterious powers and situations driving the plot. The predictive power of Peter's dreams is essential to the story, and coyotes, both real and imagined as well as alive and dead, play key roles. In the context of a comics-driven tale, these pieces fit neatly into the book's overall puzzle.

In the end, “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” is a novel about identity and the way it is shaped by our circumstances and our choices. Bruni's Peter and Gwen must decide just who they want to be in the story of their own lives. That theme is likely to resonate with readers regardless of whether they are fans of the comic book webslinger.