Saturday Splash Page #151

 

"Down the Barrel of a Gun," in Spectacular Spider-Girl #2, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/penciler), Sal Buscema (finished art), Bruno Hang (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

A 4-issue mini-series from 2010, where New York City is in the middle of a gang war between Black Tarantula and an old-school Maggia guy enhanced with cybernetics. No, not Silvermane. This guy calls himself Silverback. I guess DeFalco and Frenz thought Silvermane would have to be dead by now or something.

Mayday promised her parents she'd stay out of it, but it's not sitting well with her. But she's got enough problems as it is. There's a horribly-dressed weirdo named Wild Card who keeps kicking her ass and telling her to stay out of the conflict. I mean, the outfit is bad. Like he's trying to fight her by making her go blind. Her clone/sister April is really getting into her Mayhem identity, and is actually working for Silverback.

Oh, and Frank Castle came out of retirement (that he spent in South America, where he still periodically fucked drug lords up) because Silverback was a guy he left crippled as a message before ending his war on the mob. Years of reading Garth Ennis' Punisher leave me unable to see Frank doing either of those things. Not ending his war on the mob, and certainly not leaving a guy alive as a message. "People scare better when they're dying," is definitely a philosophy the Punisher subscribes to.

The story has a feel of DeFalco and Frenz clearing the decks. They probably know this is one of the last Spider-Girl stories they're going to write, and they try to definitively move the old guard off the board, both characters that existed before Spider-Girl, and ones that didn't, but are supposed to pre-date her. Silverback and the Punisher bite the dust. Black Tarantula opts to leave New York with Arana, basically removing him as an issue. Peter (once again) accepts that he needs to trust his daughter can handle things. Even the two goons of Silverback's that are based on DeFalco and Frenz (I guess they didn't de in the wilds of Jersey) end up turning state's evidence in the hopes of being able to start new lives in witness protection elsewhere.

Silverback turns out to be a puppet of another villain, and that villain gets killed by Mayhem. Which sets up April's continuing descent into a "lethal protector" type as Mayday's biggest issue. Especially combined with her desire to assert her individuality as the true, only daughter of Peter and Mary Jane, which would come to a head in Spider-Girl: The End.

And with that, Summer (and Fall) of Spiders draws to a close.

Saturday Splash Page #147

 

"Spiders Unite," in Spider-Girls #1, by Jody Houser (writer), Andres Genolet (penciler/inker), Triona Farrell (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

Spider-Geddon was, as best I can tell from reading the credits page, the second time a bunch of Spider-people from across the multiverse teamed up to fight JMS and Romita Jr. creation Morlun and his extended family of 19th-Century-finery wearing energy-vampires. This mini-series is the one and only thing I bought from that event. Why did I do that?

Probably in part because 2018 was the year the amount of stuff Marvel published I was interested dropped off sharply. They'd been solidly in the low-70s each of the previous three years, but in 2018 dropped into the 50s. Which is where they've languished ever since. So I likely hadn't adjusted and was taking chances on things I normally wouldn't.

Beyond that, this mini-series promised to focus on a small cast. Mayday Parker (going by Spider-Woman now), Anya Corazon (formerly Arana, now Spider-Girl, with predictive visions), and Annie Parker, the daughter of Peter and Mary Jane in the Renew Your Vows universe. Free of the literal armies that made up the main storyline, Mayday might get some actual focus. One of Morlun's family killed her parents in the previous event, leaving Mayday an orphan responsible for her infant brother. 

Which wasn't an isolated thing; Slott killed a lot of Spider-characters in that event. Not even in ways that really upped the stakes. Just to make numbers. Here's a one-page comic of Hostess-Fruit-Pie-Ads Spidey trying to stop Morlun with mass-produced pastries! And he's dead. Wasn't that great? Now let's spend more time on Octavius running around in Peter's stolen body!

(I have seen arguments online that's a different Mayday because the eye color is wrong. As though Marvel's paying attention to that. They can't even remember big events from a given character's past consistently.)

I thought maybe there'd be something to Mayday interacting with a younger version of both her parents (she met a high-school-aged version of her dad in a time travel adventure early in her solo series), but Peter and MJ are quickly drafted into the larger fight. Outside of a brief scene of MJ thinking about how they lost another daughter in childbirth years before Annie, nothing comes of it. Most of the mini-series is Mayday, Anya and Annie trying to figure out what Annie's powers are telling her while surviving against two of Morlun's siblings. There is a bit where Anya and Mayday try to use some sort of Green Goblin-themed battle armor to fight, but the goths completely no-sell it, so it's kind of a dud.

Saturday Splash Page #146

 

"A Happy Sendoff", in Spider-Girl: The End, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/penciler), Sal Buscema (finished art), Bruno Hang and Sotocolor (colorists), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

"The End" was a loose group of comics Marvel did that were essentially the "final" story for a given character or group. The ones in the early 2000s were mini-series. One for the FF, one for Wolverine, 3 for the X-Men, one for the entire Marvel Universe (written by Starlin, so of course Thanos was responsible.) There were some one-shots in the mid-to-late 2000s. Marvel apparently revived it for 4 or 5 books in 2020, but I only learned that researching this post. 

To my knowledge, the best-regarded is Garth Ennis and Richard Corben's Punisher: The End, which basically says Frank Castle would never stop killing criminals, even if said criminals are the last humans left.

Spider-Girl: The End is 180 degrees from that book. Unsurprising, given the respective creative teams. Set after the strips in Amazing Spider-Man Family, Web of Spider-Man (vol. 3), and the 4-issue Spectacular Spider-Girl mini-series (which we'll see next month), we're told the story of how Spider-Girl died by a kindly old woman talking to a bunch of kids in what looks like an idyllic paradise.

The clone/symbiote hybrid, April Reilly, is still after Mayday to admit April's the original, as well as the better hero. They fight, a fire starts, May pushes her sister clear of falling debris, then is able to launch her clear of the explosion via impact webbing. As it turns out, the old lady is April, and we learn (though the kids don't), she tried to take May's place, but their little brother Benjy immediately knew she wasn't May, which tipped of MJ. April flipped, went full "lethal protector", to the point the government combined mercs with Carnage symbiotes, and civilization went down the crapper.

April gets a chance to go back and change things, and does, in the process tying off her own storyline. May returns home, unaware of the near miss, Wes, who had been circling as a possible love interest for a while, drops by and reveals he knows she's Spider-Girl, and that's where the issue ends. An actual happy ending!

Obviously, that wasn't going to last. . .

Saturday Splash Page #145

 

"Desperation Flurry," in Spider-Girl #87, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/penciler), Sal Buscema (finishes), Gotham (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

Olliffe leaves the book midway through a storyline involving Seth, the Serpent God of Death, handing the art duties to Ron Frenz (who had penciled a few fill-in issues previously) and Sal Buscema, who remain the art team for the remaining 40 or so issues.

I said last week DeFalco and Olliffe mostly avoided bringing back Peter Parker's rogue's gallery to challenge Mayday. That is not really the case for the DeFalco/Frenz run, where the Venom symbiote plays a major role, as well as the Black Tarantula's emergence as a major player in the organized crime world. DeFalco dusts off Carolyn Trainer, the second Dr. Octopus, and finally, near the end of the book, the original Hobgoblin, Roderick Kingsley.

Some of these work better than others. DeFalco has no issue letting the Hobgoblin smack around characters he's established as big deals or competent heroes previously, helping emphasize that this guy is dangerous. Likewise, the symbiote ends up connected to Normie Osborn, which creates a situation where Mayday trusts her friend, but worries the symbiote could be affecting him, and it becomes another secret between her and her parents. Mostly Peter, since he's far less trusting of Normie than Mayday is to begin with.

Along those lines, they try to set Black Tarantula up as a morally ambiguous character Mayday can't decide whether to fully trust or not. He offers her help, even brings in Elektra to train Mayday when she's getting her butt kicked by Doc Ock the Sequel, but he's still a guy consolidating his hold on crime in New York City, and not to dismantle it. So it's a little different than Peter's past friendships or alliances with people straddling the line between good and bad.

(There's also a bit where he seems to be courting Mayday, which I presume is because he doesn't know she's a high-schooler, but is really damn creepy. Not sure if that was intentional.)

Frenz tried to update his style, but it's not an improvement. Mayday ends up looking way too skinny, or with her face oddly shaped or angled. The longer he and Buscema are on the book, the more the art shifts to a place between Frenz's earlier work and Buscema's. By the time we get to Amazing Spider-Girl, it's more Buscema. Which means it's solid, but nothing revolutionary or experimental. It keeps things clean and easy to follow, emotions are typically very easy to read, the action is big, full of haymakers and people getting punched through walls. It's an old-school book in the writing, still lots of subplots and page space for the supporting cast, and the art reflects that.

I'm pretty sure I was buying the book monthly before Frenz and Buscema joined the creative team, probably starting in Olliffe's last year as penciler. I stayed with it until it was finally, truly canceled at issue 100 (it survived at least one more near-cancellation during this tenure, and maybe two.) Of course, Marvel started Amazing Spider-Girl 3 months later, so it wasn't a cancellation so much as a rebranding. 

I don't know if Spider-Girl was ever my favorite book, but there was a reliable, "competence" feels too much like damning with faint praise, level of care maybe, that I appreciated. You know what you're going to get with DeFalco, Frenz, and Buscema. It's not flashy, but they do their best to make sure you get your money's worth of plot, character arcs and action every month.

Saturday Splash Page #144

 

"Lecture," in Spider-Girl #44, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Pat Olliffe (writer/penciler), Al Williamson (inker), Christie Scheele and Heroic Age (colorists), John E. Workman (letterer)

Summer (and Fall) of Spiders is taking this trip across the multiverse, to visit the little book that wouldn't die. Originally the product of a What If? based around the notion Norman Osborn had Peter and MJ's child kidnapped, rather than the child being stillborn, Spider-Girl followed May "Mayday" Parker as she tried to navigate high school, superheroics, boyfriends, and an at-time overprotective father.

The creative team behind that What If? story, DeFalco and Olliffe, would work on the series for most of the first 56 issues of the book. The book was nearly canceled at least twice during that span, but apparently did very well with younger readers (including young girl readers), and especially when Marvel put out digest-sized collections. I'd figure you'd get eyestrain trying to read all DeFalco's dialogue and caption boxes in a manga-sized package, but you can't say he wasn't giving the reader their money's worth on time. (Although he also writes all the caption boxes in second-person, which I know some people don't dig.)

DeFalco's a writer of a particular style, old-school style, and so the book sticks to that. I think he mostly avoids trying to write too hip, which would probably end badly, but characters do tend to make big speeches about not giving up or doing the right thing even when it's hard, especially during fights. It feels maybe better suited for a more mythic figure like Thor than Spider-Girl, who mostly sticks to street-level threats (though she does does tangle with Seth, the Serpent God of Death about the time Ron Frenz takes over as penciler), but if you figure DeFalco's thinking about younger readers, big, on-the-nose speeches might be appropriate for them.

For at least part of the book's run, it would have been contemporary with my high school years. The fashions for the teenagers don't seem off to me, so I figure Olliffe did fine on that score.

On the plus side, DeFalco and Olliffe introduce a broad supporting cast for Mayday, both in and out of school. Best friends (boy and girl), potential love interests (only boys, though I thikn this is the book that established Felicia Hardy as bisexual), rivals, villains, mentors, allies. Most of these characters get their own subplots at one point or the other (often several at the same time.) Those run in the background, often independent of whatever Mayday's doing, until advancing to the forefront. It helps flesh them out, giving them lives that continue on even when the star of the book's not around, and makes it easier to care about them.

There's a lot of focus on her relationship with her parents, as Peter swings between trying to trust and worrying she's in over her head, while Mary Jane, who has to struggle with seeing her daughter risk her neck, sometimes plays mediator and sometimes is the voice that actually gets through to May, who has heard certain spiels so often from her dad they just bounce off.

It's very much a book of its era. It spun out of events of the Clone Saga, and so it draws heavily from that era, plus some of DeFalco's other work (Seth showing up from the DeFalco/Frenz Thor run, but also Lyja, the Skrull who impersonated Alicia Masters, is still around and married to Johnny Storm.) Mayday wears a version of Ben Reilly's costume and webshooters, rather than her father's. Kaine plays a prominent role in the book, first as someone trying to deter Spider-Girl, then as sort of a gruff uncle figure. The Darkdevil character ends up being connected to the Parkers via Ben Reilly's five years on the road. Normie Osborn struggles to deal with the legacy of his father and grandfather, and Mayday struggles with wanting to help someone who was kind of an older brother to her in their early years.

DeFalco and Olliffe mostly avoid just pulling out Spider-Man's old enemies to bedevil Spider-Girl. Jonah Jameson's still around, but he thinks Spider-Girl is great, a wonderful respectful hero, not like that menace Spider-Man. Raptor (who ends up more of a friend than enemy) is the daughter of the second Vulture, but most of the villains have no apparent connection to any of her dad's Rogue's Gallery (minus things like the teleporting, intangible Mr. Nobody working for the Kingpin sometimes.) Their designs are usually unique and avoid feeling like a rehash of someone with similar abilities. Funny Face is sort of a Joker-type, but goes with the full jester look. Kilerwatt has the electricity powers, but doesn't resemble Electro or the Eel or anyone like that.

The back half of the book, however, would not continue that trend, as we'll get to next week.

Random Back Issues #111 - Spider-Girl #81

Is that what's happening? I thought you two whiffed the high five.

Spider-Girl's fighting Aftershock, who I think was introduced in the only issue of the original 100 issue run not written by Tom DeFalco (issue 51, written by Sean McKeever). Aftershock's not doing so hot here, as the armored car she attacked was empty at the time, which the driver tried to tell her.

What should therefore be a pretty easy win against an idiot goes sideways when Mayday's distracted by her cellphone. She dodges the next attack without thinking and aggravates some recently injured ribs, landing in a pile of garbage. Yep, she's Spider-Man's daughter, all right.

The security guard tries to grab Aftershock and gets electrocuted for his trouble. Spider-Girl manages to perform CPR to save his life before heading home. She also gets a call from her friend Brenda Drago (former legacy Vulture villain Raptor), that Brenda's now engaged to Normie Osborn. So in addition to getting chewed out by her dad for not coming home to look after her baby brother after school (because she was losing to an idiot), she also has to hear Peter bemoan the idea anyone would willingly marry an Osborn.

Mary Jane tried playing peacemaker, but the forecast is chilly at school the next day when Mayday gets a call from the Avengers. Electro showed up at the mansion, demanding to speak to Spider-Man. He initially dismisses Spider-Girl as a 'teen sidekick,' then revises it to 'secretary' when she explains no one gets to see Spider-Man without going through her.

Peter throws on the old costume to meet Electro (who, in a nice touch, recognizes Spidey's walking with a limp, because he's missing a leg from the knee down). Aftershock is Max Dillon's kid, but he's stayed away from her. Partially because the mom insisted, partially because his aura and his daughter's are on different frequencies, so it hurts them both to make physical contact. There's even a picture in the file Max is carrying that shows him and what is supposed to be a baby, but looks like Tiny Gerald Ford reacting badly.

Peter agrees to help, musing how awful it would be not to be able to hold your child. In the middle of that, all the younger Avengers show up, because they all want to meet Spider-Man. Which is cool, that he's considered one of the greats by the next generation, and lets his daughter see a different side of him.

Mayday finds Aftershock robbing a jewelry store. Hopefully she didn't grab costume jewelry. Spider-Girl's holding back, leaping about and just slapping Aftershock instead of full on punching her. All that really accomplishes is pissing the girl off, and she blasts Mayday from the street to a rooftop at least a couple of stories up. Aftershock vows to 'melt the flesh off your scrawny bones,' but the Avengers arrive, and electricity can't get through melt the Juggernaut's kid (or, unfortunately, the flannel shirt he wears around his waist.)

Aftershock's not exactly happy to see her dad, and he considers bailing, but Peter gives him the speech about how parents can't ever give up, and so Max hugs his daughter. This hurts, but it seems like it fades after a few panels. I guess their bio-electric auras adapted or merged with each other given time, it was just Max never stuck it out long enough for that to happen before. Which is understandable. If your kid screams in pain every time you so much as touch them, you would probably stop doing that.

At home that night, the Parker family discuss what'll happen to Aftershock (she's a minor, so a light sentence or paroled into Max's custody is Peter's guess). Peter and Mayday stay up to talk and Mary Jane finds them asleep on the couch at 3 a.m., having apparently buried the hatchet. Except the cover for the next issue reminds me that Normie's about to get bonded to the Venom symbiote, so that'll be another thing to make Peter wary. But haven't we all had a friend our parents distrusted because they were forcibly bonded to a brain-eating alien slime mold?

{10th longbox, 88th comic. Spider-Girl #81, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/art breakdowns), Sal Buscema (finished art), Gotham (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)}

Saturday Splash Page #43

 

"Fly-By-Night Operation," in Web of Spider-Man (vol. 2) #1, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/artist), Sal Buscema (inker/finisher), Bruno Hang (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

In the late 2000s, Marvel briefly brought back Web of Spider-Man, this time as an anthology title. There was a mixture of done-in-one stories focused on supporting characters, but it was also another place for folks like me to get their "Mayday" Parker Spider-Girl fix.

The Spider-Girl parts only lasted a few issues, and continued threads from earlier stories in Amazing Spider-Man Family, the previous attempt at a Spider-themed anthology book. At this point the big issue was Mayday had a clone of her own, who was actually part symbiote thanks to Osborn. Calling herself "April", the clone tried to integrate into the Parker family life, but tended to resent the fact she felt she was the original and May had stolen her life.

That's woven in with an ongoing gang war involving Tombstone and the Black Tarantula, and then Fury the Goblin Queen up there rushes onto the scene, trying to both destroy traitors and the Parkers once and for all. April has to decide which side she's going to be on (for now, at least), and Mayday's boyfriend maybe figures out her secret. It's pretty standard DeFalco/Frenz Spider-Girl stuff, with Sal Buscema providing the finishes on the art. Lots of melodrama and big speeches. Lot of Spider-Girl triumphing through hard challenges and throwing big haymaker punches.

Oh, and DeFalco and Frenz show up working for Tombstone, only to be killed by Batwing, the character Kurt Busiek and Pat Olliffe created in Untold Tales of Spider-Man (which we'll get to in a month or so.)

Random Back Issues #33 - Spider-Girl #87

'Doohickey'? Mayday, please, the appropriate technical term is "dingus" What would your father say?

We're looking at the middle chapter of a three-parter today, where Spider-Girl gets mixed up in a fight between the the Fantastic Four's kids and Apox, the Omega Skrull. Think "Super-Skrull, but with the Power Cosmic".

So you've got Franklin Richards (as Psi-Lord), plus Kristoff (wearing a Dr. Doom faceplate), Alyce and Jake (Ben and Alicia's kids), and Torus (Johnny and Lyja's son, but he's got Namor's eyebrows, although I guess they're supposed to take after his mom). Apox lost last time (about 40 issues ago) because there was a device at the base of his skull that fed him energy, but as Mayday finds out, that flaw's been corrected.

The kids aren't doing much more than annoying Apox, who is there to kill the originals, but it's enough for Apox to signal his Skrull warship to put a force field around the HQ. He thinks it's just to keep anyone from interfering, but the Skrulls aren't complete dopes. It's actually an extermi-field, which absorbs solar energy and will eventually blow up the entire city.

The team has a plan, but Torus gets cocky and gets taken hostage as Apox goes tearing through the building. Franklin and May give chase and pass by a bunch of inactive robots that Reed projects his consciousness into. That seems like the sort of thing you'd see in Earth X, but I picked up some of that last week and Reed's just moping around in Doom's pants. Lame.

Franklin explains Reed's body was damaged by radiation from a villain's doomsday weapon in the Negative Zone, and that Sue has been keeping the tear in reality the weapon formed closed with a force field ever since. The villain isn't named, only that he's a 'cosmically-powered warlord from another dimension'. I'm assuming some from DeFalco's generally derided FF run, but I don't know who it would be.

Apox gets the information from Torus (from telepathy or hypnosis I'm not sure) and reaches the Negative Zone portal. Jake and Alyce (whose powers remind me of X-Ray from the U-Foes) slow him down enough for Franklin and Mayday to catch up and Franklin has him pinned, but Jake makes the same mistake Torus did and distracts Franklin where he loses focus and Apox flattens the lot of them. Jake gets blasted through at least five floors, and Alyce gets knocked clear out of the building and bounces off the extermi-field. Ouch.

May pulls out the classic Spider-move of leaping around and hitting Apox from every angle really fast and. . . it doesn't work. Apox swats her (although he compliments her as the only one who attacked him like a warrior), and rips open the doorway to the portal while May barely keeps Franklin and Torus from being sucked in. Next issue, she charges in alone after Apox to try and stop him.

For a Tom DeFalco book, there is surprisingly only one subplot mentioned in the issue (if we ignore Mayday's long-established crush on Franklin Richards). Normie Osborn is running Oscorp and telling his designers to work on building some weapons. Glider-like weapons. He's being vaguely threatening about it, too. Normie had bonded with the Venom symbiote recently, and so the implication is the symbiote is influencing him. I think there ended up being a swerve there, that Normie's just trying to be focused and confident, but not evil.

[10th longbox, 90th comic. Spider-Girl #87, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/penciler), Sal Buscema (inker/finishes), Gotham (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)]

What I Bought 12/21/2018 - Part 1

Current plan is that the last two comics from 2018 I want will be here next week. Review those by the end of that week hopefully, then spend the following week on the Year In Review posts. We'll see if things go according to plan. I found basically all the new comics I wanted that came out this month last Friday. All six of them. Yeesh. Anyway, let's get started on those.

Spider-Girls #3, by Jody Houser (writer), Andres Genolet (penciler/inker), Cris Peter and Jim Campbell (colorists), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I have to wonder what Annie thinks that webline she's shooting is going to stick to.

While Mayday and Arana try briefly and futilely to delay Morlun's siblings with a goblin-mech suit, Annie somehow uses a scroll to open a portal and cure the mutated spider-people. The ones that hadn't been killed already. The ladies go through the portal, and maybe figure out that Annie can do something with some mystic web thing on the world they landed on that might save the day, in a different mini-series. I don't know. I have a vague idea of 40% of the shit they're talking about in this issue, but trying to explain it? No chance.

There is a nice moment between Annie and Mayday, near the end. Watching Mayday and Arana try to figure out the goblin-mech was kind of amusing, if they'd played it up a little more. But I guess these bad guys are supposed to be too serious to do a sequence where two people try to pilot a suit they're unfamiliar with, while not getting their asses completely kicked.

Genolet normally draws Annie with the blank white eyeballs, except for one panel, because I guess it was necessary to show she was rolling her eyes. So I suppose it was for a good reason, but it was kind of a surprise. Also, several instances of two of the characters discussing one thing, and the third abruptly cutting in with some other statement. Usually Mayday and Arana talking to each other, and Annie wants to get their attention about something. It's not quite a recurring gag, since they aren't funny, but it feels a little like that's what was being aimed for.

Smooth Criminals #2, by Kurt Lustgarten and Kirsten Smith (writers), Leisha Riddel (artist), Brittany Peer (colorist), Ed Dukeshire (letterer) - That guy is a little too smug about his hair. Needs to have an accident with a weed-whacker.

We find out a little about how Mia wound up frozen, which involves trying to steal diamonds from a so-called "Ice Man", who may be the blonde guy on the cover, who is also having a building at Ospina's university dedicated to him. And his daughter is engaged to the guy who was Mia's top rival, who does not look nearly old enough when he shows up at the end of the issue. Oh, and the special diamond thing Mia wanted to steal will be on exhibit in town next week, so our protagonists are going to try and steal it. What can go wrong?

So we have a mystery of why Mia was frozen, rather than just killed. I'm also guessing Hatch (the rival) was frozen, but by choice or because he got caught as well? And whether Mia can teach Ospina how to pull a heist, or whether Mia can even still pull one, given technological advances in security. So that's a fair amount of plates spinning, which is nice.

Ospina tries to get Mia caught up on late '90s culture with magazines and man, I didn't know what a "riot grrl" was then, and I still don't know now, so Mia might officially be more in the loop than I ever was. Low bar to clear there, but we have to grade on a curve since her brain might have freezer burn.

I'm a little concerned about the art, because around halfway through, things start to get a lot sketchier and rough-looking. The linework is looser, the backgrounds and other characters get less detailed. You can still follow what's going on, distinguish the important characters, but it's like Riddel didn't have time to finish inking everything. It's worrying, considering this is only issue 2. The bit in the middle of the book where Mia has an abrupt, nightmarish flashback (as seen above), is kind of nifty. The distorted perspective, the swirling colors, any spoken dialogue is in big, red letters. It's distinct from the rest of the book, even the other dreams and flashbacks Mia has during the issue.

What I Bought 12/6/2018 - Part 1

I haven't been able to track down all the books from last month I wanted. November's issue of Coda being the one I'm still on the hunt for. In the meantime, let's look at the books that I did find, starting with two from Marvel.

Spider-Girls #2, by Jody Houser (writer), Andres Genolet (penciler/inker), Jim Charalampidis and Triona Farrell (colorists), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I don't think you need a spider-sense to warn you of a knife one inch from your nose.

Pete and MJ head off to join the fight against the Inheritors, while the Spider-Girls go to warn the only other spider-person in that universe, which is Normie Osborn, thanks to mad science, I think. Then Normie turns into a full-on giant spider, and while the girls try to deal with that, two of Morlun's siblings show up. That's it, that's the issue.

So, no real progress whatsoever on whatever Annie is supposed to figure out from the scroll things. Which, you know, were the whole reason Mayday and Anya came their in the first place, to find a solution to the problem. So either the solution is going to be rapidly crammed into the third issue along with the big fight, or it's being saved for the main mini-series. Which is really what I should expect.

There are a couple of moments of humor, mostly involving Anya being sarcastic about things, but the levity is nice. That one relative of Morlun's thinking the world is primitive because they poofed into the Cloisters or something when New York City is right there if he turns his head two inches to the left was a good chuckle. I appreciate that Houser didn't even bother naming the two villains. We don't care, not really, they're just something to punch and have act menacing. They barely have one dimension to their characters, forget about two.

Genolet does a good job conveying tone with body language, kind of important since most of the cast are wearing masks for the entire issue. There's a scene where they're heading to warn Normie, and their postures and positions while web-swinging are all different. But Mayday and Annie's are much more similar to each other than Anya's. Which makes sense if you figure they were raised by Pete and MJ, and their versions of their dad were probably fairly similar (except for Mayday's being a bit older and having one artificial leg). It's a little detail, but a nice touch.

Ms. Marvel #36, by G. Willow Wilson (writer), Nico Leon (artist), Ian Herring (artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Uh-oh, Kamala's doing the "grim avenger" posing bit. Everybody watch out.

The entire issue is about why that one guy Kamala and Singularity met a couple of issues ago thought he recognized Kamala. The answer being, he met an ancestor of hers who looked just like her 800 years ago while he was sword-fighting a damn Skrull. Or it's just a hypothesis, since there are also people who look just like Bruno, Zoey, and Josh there. You know, I had almost forgotten about good ol' Josh, the guy who was arrested because they thought he was gonna blow up the school, then decided to become a fascist tool. He just kind of wandered off without facing consequences for that.

Where's the Punisher when you need him?

Breather issues are fine before the next big disaster, but maybe use them as an opportunity to set up or advance subplots with the supporting cast? Maybe it's just that my eyes cross when the Inhumans get brought up.

The swordfight wasn't bad, although you'd think a skrull would be a little more creative about incorporating shapeshifting into his technique. Watch One Piece or something. There's like 500 swordsmen with weird powers in that series, and they use their powers in ways that compliment their styles. No wonder the Skrulls could never finish off the Kree. What a bunch of putzes.

What I Bought 11/13/2018 - Part 2

I am enjoying taking a little time off from work for the holidays, even if I've mostly been using that time to run errands I put off for several weeks. Today we have the first issue of a mini-series tying into an event I'm otherwise ignoring, and another mini-series reaches its midpoint.

Spider-Girls #3, by Jody Houser (writer), Andres Genolet (penciler/inker), Triona Farrell (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I wish there was some kind of background, but it's nice drawing anyway.

This ties into Spider-Geddon, which I otherwise don't give a crap about. If it killed off Octavius for a few years, I might care, but we know that isn't happening. Mayday and Anya are looking for something to turn the tide against Morlun and his family (still disappointed he's the JMS villain that hung around, but whatever). This leads them to the Renew Your Vows universe, where Pete and MJ fight crime together with their daughter Annie. Who has been having visions of some threat lately. Pete and Mary Jane opt to go help in the larger fight, while the Spider-Girls stay and try to figure out what Annie's visions are trying to tell her.

I keep wanting to type "April" instead of "Annie", but April was that combo clone/symbiote DeFalco, Frenz, and Buscema introduced late in Amazing Spider-Girl.

Apparently Mayday is "Spider-Woman" now, going by what Anya said. She seems much more serious. Understandable under the circumstances (her baby brother has powers and he'll get killed too if they don't stop this), but Grim n' Gritty Spider-Girl isn't my jam. I was curious to see Mayday interact with a version of her parents who are together, since her dad was killed in the last of these big Spider-Event things, but we only get that briefly. It's interesting though, because in this reality, Annie is their second daughter, the first would have been May, but she died during birth, like she did at the end of the Clone Saga back in the '90s. Annie and May get a chance to meet a sister they maybe could have had, if things worked out a little different. Given that, I'm curious to see what role Anya winds up with in this trio.

I like Genolet's artwork. At different times it reminds me of either Stuart Immonen's or a little of Colleen Coover's, neither of those are a bad thing. It's expressive, the brief action scenes are well-drawn, and she lets the mask be expressive. I'm always in favor of letting the eyes squint and change shape, regardless of how improbable it may be. I like that Peter starts walking up a wall and onto the ceiling as he's thinking out loud. No reason his version of pacing would be confined to the floor. Triona Farrell's colors are what I'd describe as soft and light. They aren't extremely bright, and they don't weigh things down with a lot gloom or heavy shadows. But this is a mellow chapter, nothing has started going wrong yet. We'll see if the colors get heavier or more intense as the action ramps up.

Coda #6, by Simon Spurrier (writer), Matias Bergara (artist), Michael Doig (color assists), Jim Campbell (letterer) - Man, I remember playing "Keep the screaming head away from everyone" back in college. Good times.

The angry fellow from the end of last issue tries to kill Hum, but is killed by Notch, the bandit lady who is also the daughter of that crazy wizard. She doesn't know if that's really a Whitlord controlling their city, either. But she won't rat Hum out, yet. Which is good, as Hum's got his hands full trying to keep Serka from charging up to attack right off. That they're sent out to find more sources of magic with a guy who admits to joyfully killing the innocent doesn't help. He ends up dead, but his steed is a pretty great source of magic. And that reveals to Serka a path to the Whitlord, and Hum a path to the akker he needs.

What I'll be curious to see is, when Serka goes to kill the Whitlord, will Hum be willing to abandon the shot at the akker, to watch her back? The spell to lift this blood curse she has won't do much good if she's dead because it really is a Whitlord. Will she even want him along? She's seen through his plans to try and distract her from her goal, will she doubt whether she can trust him? Or will she want him to have their steeds ready so they can get the hell out of Dodge once she's done? Assuming it is a Whitlord, of course.

Really like the effect for the death stare or whatever it is the cockatrice has. The eyes look like a roulette wheel, and then a mixture of purple and white around them, with the white sparking out in jagged lightning bolts. Very cool. The whole nighttime raid is colored very well, but it's mostly this sickly dark green for all the backgrounds, and then everyone is done up in dull colors. Until you get to the death stare, or the living firebombs, or blood as Serka beheads someone. All of that gets to pop that much more in contrast to the surroundings.

Sunday Splash Page #21

"Asking the Wrong Question", in Amazing Spider-Man Family #6, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (plotter, penciler), Sal Buscema (inks/finishes), Bruno Hang, Andrew Crossley, John Kalisz, Antonio Fabela (colorists), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

Last entry for stuff titled "Amazing Spider-(blank)". Unless I buy something else later.

After Amazing Spider-Girl was canceled, Marvel in its usual clear-headed and calm manner, let the character and setting go fallow for several years so that Mayday's eventual return was a big deal.

Just kidding. They almost immediately continued her adventures in this anthology series. When it ended at issue #8, they started up another anthology book using the Web of Spider-Man title, which ran for about a year. The Spider-Girl stories only went for a few of those issues, though. Marvel did helpfully collect all the Spider-Girl stuff in a trade, which is what I'm working from here.

It's DeFalco, Frenz, and Buscema on Spider-Girl, so it's basically what we got with Amazing Spider-Girl. A few different plots running simultaneously, taking turns in the spotlight. A lot of expository dialogue. Solid, straightforward art that gives you all the information you need and is easy to follow, if not particularly flashy. Callbacks and references to earlier stories, most of which at least one of those three creators were involved with. Not as much focus on supporting character subplots as you typically see, but they were more constrained on pages and issues than before, so that's not too surprising. Also, a complete lack of Norman Osborn, which was a big plus in my book.

But there's a momentum to it that's still appealing. Stuff happens at a decent clip. Even if some threads aren't resolved, they're still being added to and built up towards some conclusion. You may not end up impressed by how it ends, but you know they're at least going to try and give you some payoff. That's kind of meat-and-potatoes, but there's value to that.

Sunday Splash Page #10

 

"Friday Casual Spider-Angst", in Amazing Spider-Girl #2, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/penciler), Sal Buscema (inker), Gotham (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)

In summer of 2006, Marvel canceled Spider-Girl after 100 issues. It had narrowly avoided the ax several times before then, but not this time. But since this is Marvel we're talking about, the book was relaunched three months later with the same creative team, a slightly different title, and a brand-new first issue that boosted sales for, oh, two or three whole issues. The book did run 30 issues before being canceled again.

You pretty much know what you're getting with DeFalco. He has a very old-school style of writing; expository dialogue, big speeches about not giving up, the phrase "hoo-boy!". But he did at least try to not only build a supporting cast, but give them their own subplots that would eventually get the main stage. He and Frenz certainly tried to give the reader their money's worth. Whether a Clone Saga of her own, and the entirely unnecessary return of Norman Osborn (sorta) accomplished that is up to you. Wasn't what I was looking for.

Frenz had, in the previous series, been experimenting with what I think was meant to be a more modern style, maybe trying for a manga influence. It didn't go well. He moved back to something closer to his earlier style, especially with Buscema's inks. Late in the series, when Frenz was often credited with breakdowns while Buscema was credited with finishes, the art began to resemble Sal's art even more. The art was solid, clear, and easy to follow, not particularly flashy.

31 Days of Scans - Day 16

I’ve been thinking about this one (Favorite LGBTQ Character), and mostly drawing a blank. It seems like most of my favorite characters are established as being heterosexual. I know there’s a strong fan contingent that thinks Tim Drake could be gay and/or bisexual (mostly with regard to him and Superboy), but I don’t think DC’s ever officially gone that route with him. I like Shadowcat fairly well, and I’m pretty sure Claremont established that Kitty is at least bi at some point, but I’ve never read the story, and I don’t know if anyone else has ever paid it any mind. Harley Quinn is pretty clearly bisexual these days, between whatever is going on with her and Ivy, plus her interest in her tenant’s son who escaped from prison, plus her trying to cajole Power Girl into fooling around with her (although that may have just been teasing. Hard to say with Harley). Mystique is an interesting character, but hardly one I’d describe as a favorite. Cable/Deadpool had a lot of references to Wade having an interest in guys, but I’m not sure how seriously we were supposed to take his fantasies about him and Cable on a beach with suntan lotion. Also, I don’t think it’s been followed up on by anyone else.

I settled, such as it is, on Felicia Hardy, but even that’s perhaps shaky. Kevin Smith made one reference to Felicia being interested in women as well as men in his Spider-Man/Black Cat mini-series, but a) it was one caption in one panel, and b) that mini-series is generally better left forgotten. However, Tom DeFalco did establish very clearly in Spider-Girl that Felicia was bisexual. She’d been married to Flash Thompson, and they’d had two kids together. But at some point, they got divorced, and Felicia met Diana, and the two of them were together. I’ll confess, I’m pretty sure the implications of what Felicia was saying didn’t sink the first time I read that comic. You’d think them holding hands would have tipped me off, but I’m a little slow sometimes, and I think this was an interlude during some big fight scene at the Fantastic Five’s headquarters, so I was probably rushing through it.

I don’t think it got a lot of play. Felicia wasn’t in the book a whole lot, mostly during the stretch when her daughter, Felicity, was trying hard to convince Mayday they should be a crimefighting duo (with Felicity dressing as the Scarlet Spider), much to Felicia’s consternation. Mayday wasn’t terribly thrilled with it either. We did find out Felicity wasn’t entirely happy with her mother’s decisions, though I think DeFalco meant it as Felicity blamed Diana for breaking up her parents’ marriage, or blocking any chance of them getting back together, rather than Felicity being homophobic. We didn’t ever get to see mother and daughter sit down and clear the air the way Mayday did with both of her parents so often, and Felicia never showed up during the stretch when Mayday was dating Gene Thompson. I’d have been interested to learn what she thought of that pairing. Would she have seen enough of Peter’s sense of responsibility in Mayday to obliquely advise Gene to stay away?

Anyway, it never struck me as an out-of-character development for Felicia Hardy. It wasn’t difficult to see her and Flash drifting apart, or to see her meeting Diana, feeling a connection, and pursuing a relationship with her. She’s spent most of her life making her own choices, saying how she felt, doing what she liked, and dealing with the consequences as best she can. I can’t see her letting other people’s expectations of what they think is right deter her from being with someone she decides means something to her.

Both pages are from Spider-Girl. The first is probably issue 47, so DeFalco (script and co-plotting), Frenz (co-plotting and pencils), John Livesay (inks), Heroic Age and Christie Scheele (colors), and John Workman (lettering). The other would have been shortly after that, probably 48 or 49. So it's probably Defalco (script and co-plot), Pat Olliffe (co-plot and pencils), Al Williamson (inker), Angelo Tsang and Calvin Lo (colors), and Randy Gentile (lettering).

31 Days of Scans - Favorite Elseworld/Multiverse

I guess I could have picked GrimJack. It’s set in a pan-dimensional city where all realities phase in eventually, which sure sounds like a multiverse. But since I think they meant an alternate universe, there really is only one choice.

I know it isn’t really a Spider-Girl world, but it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. It’s a generally upbeat world, certainly by Marvel standards. Bigotry and crime haven’t been wiped out, but giant robots haven’t herded all mutants into death camps, there’s nary an Apocalypse in sight, no Badoon or Martians invading. A new generation of heroes stepped up, and things are doing pretty well. Peter Parker did not make a deal with Mephisto. He may have hung up the webs, but he still helps people as a forensic scientist. Which doesn’t mean he won’t still bust some heads.

Peter and Mary Jane are together, and each is the other’s rock. Whatever problems one is having, the other shares the burden. Astoundingly, being married hasn’t made their life perfect. I don’t know how that could be, as I was assured by many fine people at Marvel that once you get married, all your problems are over, and the drama departs from your existence. Mary Jane has a health scare, Peter struggles from time to time with not being Spider-Man anymore (mid-life crisis). They both worry about their teenage daughter, the risks she faces, the choices she makes. MJ is there to help blunt some of Peter’s bluster, and provide a supportive ear for Mayday when she needs that.

Peter is there to offer the benefit of his years of experience as a superhero, and maybe lend a hand once in awhile. That issue actually highlighted something else I liked about that universe: Spider-Man is liked and respected by the new generation of heroes. Mayday’s teammates on the Avengers were ecstatic at the chance to actually meet the Spider-Man, much to her surprise.

Mayday herself is a generally decent kid, trying to do the right thing in her way. Wanting to give people the benefit of the doubt, and getting frustrated when they take advantage of that. She questions her own judgment, but generally recognizes she can only do her best, and other people have to make their own choices and accept responsibility for them. By and large, she continues to believe she can make a difference, and she keeps trying. Because she enjoys it, and because she wants to help.

It also doesn’t hurt Defalco, Olliffee, and Frenz gave her a pretty wide cast of acquaintances, and actually spent time developing them as characters. Davida, Courtney, JJ, they have their own likes and dislikes, their own plot threads, and those don’t freeze in place waiting until Mayday is unoccupied with Normie Osborn’s latest breakdown. Things progress while she’s not around, and that feeds into the conflict between her civilian and superhero life. Which isn’t a new thing obviously, but Spider-Girl always did it well, I thought.

It’s a world where the heroes mostly work together rather than fighting each other, and they mostly beat the bad guys, protect the innocent, and save the day, though not always without cost. It’s an optimistic world, where redemption is possible if you make the effort, and the current generation learns from the mistakes and experiences of the one before it, rather than ignoring them. That makes it a nice place to turn to when either real life or the current approach of a lot of other comics wears me down.

Images from Spider-Girl #44 (MJ calls Pete on his nonsense), by Tom DeFalco and Pat Olliffe (script, plot, pencils), Al Williamson (inker), John E. Workman (letterer), Christie Scheele and Heroic Age (colorists). Spider-Girl #81 (MJ putting the blanket over the father/daughter pair), by Defalco and Ron Frenz (script, plot, breakdowns), Sal Buscema (finished art), Dave Sharpe (letters), Gotham (colors). Spider-Girl #8 (Pete showing he’s still got it), by DeFalco (writer), Olliffe (pencils), Williamson (inks), Janice Chang (letterer), Christie Scheele (colors). Spider-Girl #100 (the page I lead off with), by DeFalco and Frenz (plot, script, pencils), Buscema (art finishes), Sharpe (letters), Gotham (colors).

Dipped My Toe In Spider-Verse And Nearly Got It Bitten Off

'When your mind is a blank, and you've got nothing to post on, you can always trust. . . Dan Slott!'

(sing it to "Downtown")

Not sure how he became the comic writer most likely to do something that causes me to roll my eyes, but here we are. Probably because while Millar is off doing his creator-owned stuff, and Bendis and Hickman are mucking about in sections of the Marvel Universe I can ignore, Slott's got his hand around Spider-Man's throat.

This week, the Spider-Verse event paid a visit to the Spider-Girl universe. One of Morlun's, cronies, cousins, whatever, killed Peter and Mary Jane (and possibly also Mayday's boyfriend Wes, I'm not sure about that), while Mayday took her baby brother Ben and ran. Two Spider-Guys from other universes showed up just in time to tell her it was too late to save her parents, and they escaped. But not before Mayday swore to the trenchcoated murderer that she'd forget everything her parents taught her about being a good person and hero to get revenge on him.

So yeah, Spider-Girl's about the DARK VENGEANCE now. Because a young hero vowing to avenge their dead parents hasn't been done a thousand times before.

The issue before this, Morlun personally paid a visit to the universe for the Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends cartoon, and slaughtered the lot of them. Even had a nice chuckle about how that Spider-Man literally had no words for what was happening (since nobody ever got killed on the show, I guess, so murder didn't exist until Morlun arrived). I'm not sure what it was supposed to accomplish. I mean, I didn't know which Spider-Man it was until Morlun was leaving and we see Firestar and Iceman's corpses. This isn't even setting up cardboard cutouts just to immediately knock them down and hope for dramatic effect. It's just thrown in casually, after the fact. "Oh yeah, by the way. . ." At least Peter and MJ got to go down fighting together, albeit off-screen.

I don't see the percentage here. If you're someone who doesn't know anything about the characters, the couple of pages they get before their death probably aren't going to sway you. It's possible they could I suppose, I know Mightygodking once argued Marv Wolfman did a good job giving a minor hero (Sunburst) in Crisis on the Infinite Earths a little arc before his off-screen death, but I don't think Slott's putting in the effort to manage that here. If you're a fan of these versions of the characters, are you supposed to be happy about it? To want to keep reading, excited to see if Slott kills off some other alternate version of Spider-Man you like?

I've seen some suggestions among fans online Slott's doing it intentionally to piss people off, that he's said as much at conventions. I have to wonder if that's legit, or if he's just playing a heel. Get some talk going about his book, get people interested to see what everyone is yelling about. Or maybe he got tired of everyone yelling at him about Brand New Day/One More Day and decided, "Heck, if they're going to scream no matter what, I'll give 'em something to scream about." I'm not sure fostering a hate-filled and adversarial relationship with your audience is the best strategy, but history suggests that in the short-term, you can do worse than to write something that will piss everyone off, then count on the fans to buy the comic so they can rail on about how much they hate it. I don't think it's viable long-term, but maybe that's not his concern.

{Brief aside: I will admit I don't understand buying a book you expect to hate. I have bought a lot of comics I hated. If you've read my reviews for any length of time, you know this. But I'm not going into it wanting to hate it, I'm hoping it will be good. Even when I was buying Uncanny X-Men during the Austen run, because I was still very much a completionist and the idea of dropping a book just didn't register, I kept hoping the book would turn around. It never did, but I never stopped hoping. It's the same thing with Hawkeye now. For all I'm disappointed in it, I'm still hoping Fraction and Aja pull it out at the end. It's why I didn't buy Civil War, and why I dropped Amazing Spider-Man before One More Day started: I didn't see any way I'd enjoy either of them, so it was better to not spend money on them. Aside over.}

The funny thing is, as far as I go, Slott's strategy backfired. I had a certain curiosity about Spider-Verse, in no small part because Mayday was going to be involved. Except I had been expecting a couple of the Spider-Guys to show up and ask if she would accompany them to help with this threat. She agrees, hugs her parents, and off we go. She gets to meet 616-Parker, her dad at a younger age. She did this once before, early in her title, but it was during his high school days, so presumably this Parker would be a little more mature. And Parker could meet the daughter he could have had if he didn't reveal his identity to the world like a schmuck, setting a whole series of stupid events in motion that culminate in deals with Mephisto (where he even showed them the daughter they were losing for making the deal).

I'm not sure why Marvel works so hard to make me not want to read Spider-Man comics.

Anyway, I was not expecting Mayday to go on the run as an orphan to keep her baby brother from being eaten by the Douchebag Goth Brigade, to have to leave her parents' (and possibly her boyfriend's) bodies to burn in the remains of her home. I was not expecting her to be out for revenge. Also, I am really concerned at the idea of Spider-Ock being anywhere near a baby with spider-powers. There's no part about that I like. I know he can't die there, because he has to go back and finish the last 10 issues of his title, but he needs to.

I'm not angry, more annoyed he couldn't think of anything better to do. But he's not the first to go for the cheap pop with a quick death he didn't build properly, he won't be the last. I've long ago decided to pretty much ignore anything I don't like. If the writers, editors, and artists can do it, so can I.

The end result is, my interest in Spider-Verse evaporated like water on the highway in Death Valley at noon in July. Not only that, I had been planning to add the various older She-Hulk series to my back issues searches, including Slott's run, but now I'm wondering if I want to bother. It's possible he wasn't always this kind of lazy writer; I picked up Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. earlier this fall, so I know Geoff Johns wasn't always about dismemberment and gratuitous double-page splashes. Writers can change over time, or certain assignments just aren't suited for them. I'm not sure any longer I want to waste the money to find out if that's the case with Dan Slott.

On the plus side, that whole mess did make me want to reread all my Spider-Girl comics, and maybe track down some of the ones I missed or let go of previously. So, uh, thanks, Dan Slott?

Struggling With My Bad Judgment

I'm posting from the library today. I needed to come to town anyway, so it works out nicely. The Internet did do a little better yesterday evening, but I think the unpleasant weather's been giving it trouble.

In the last round of solicits, Marvel listed the 'Complete Ben Reilly Epic, Volume 1', and I actually considered ordering it. I still am, though I could probably pick up all the issues pretty cheap in back issues bins (I'm not too picky about quality, as long as they're readable). In truth, the $40 price tag did more to dissuade me than the fact I bet a lot of the comics within aren't very good. Heck, I know some of them aren't good because I owned some of them back in the day.

But I've always had a soft spot for Ben Reilly, at least as the Scarlet Spider (I didn't read many of his adventures as Spider-Man, and I really didn't like his Spider-Man costume*). He kept meaning to leave New York, kept meaning to not get involved in crime-fighting, but he couldn't help himself. He had a connection to the people and places, but either they had no connection (the times when he was the clone), or he had a connection, but it had broken and someone else had taken it up (when they were telling us Ben was the original and Peter was the clone). His whole life had sort of an unrequited aspect to it. So he started to build another life, with new friends. Eventually, he and Peter even became friends, which admittedly isn't that strange for Spider-Man (we've discussed before his tendency to make friends out of former enemies, even if it doesn't always last), but considering their circumstances, it was fairly impressive. Especially with the tension about who is the real one, did Peter steal Ben's life, did Ben's presence bring Kaine into the mix, so and so on.

Plus, as far as ways to get a single Spider-Man go, having the married one retire to be a father and husband seems a little more in tune with the character than asking Mephisto to go back and slightly alter events so Pete misses his wedding and then he and MJ decide not to get hitched**.

And I liked the Scarlet Spider costume. I know people make fun of the sweatshirt over the spandex look, but I liked the makeshift feel of it. He did throw on whatever he had available when he first started being the Scarlet Spider, and he kept telling himself he wasn't going to keep it up (that Parker capacity for self-delusion), so he didn't need to bring Peter's fairly impressive ability to sew into the picture. Hey, at least it didn't have shoulder pads (though there was an unnecessary pouch around one ankle).

* Though it works for me as Spider-Girl's costume. Maybe because it's a nice tip of the cap to her Uncle Ben. I actually think of it as her costume now, not as Ben's. Or not as Spider-Man's, at least.

** I had to look that up on Wikipedia for this post, since I hadn't bothered to keep up on what One Moment in Time said when it came out. Very surprised they were able to convince Stark to help Petre reestablish the secret identity.

The Last Holdout Falls

I think I mentioned during last week's reviews that Amazing Spider-Girl #30 is going to be it for me and the life and times of Mayday Parker for awhile. If you count Amazing Spider-Girl as the continuation of Spider-Girl (and I do, so Amazing Spider-Girl #30 is basically Spider-Girl #130), I've been buying it for 90 issues (somewhere around Spider-Girl #40, geez, that's seven years ago).

I am a little curious about what's going to happen with the May that was in the tube, now that she's living with the Parkers. I'm guessing she's being passed off as a niece that's come to stay with the family*. How's she going to interact with the Parkers, looking like their daughter, and especially with Pete, who's openly stated he's not sure about letting her stay with them. Is she going to do any web-slinging? How is being part symbiont going to affect her? How much programming is left in her head from Norman Osborn? Can she lead a (relatively) normal life, like Mayday? Those are things I'd be interested in, but I can't shake the feeling that I'd like the ideas more than the execution**.

Anyway, the point of this post, to the extent there was one, was that I was feeling a bit nostalgic. See, (Amazing) Spider-Girl was the last book left on my pull list from when I started the blog. Go ahead, check it). One by one***, the titles fell by the wayside. Spider-Girl's been all alone since I bailed on The Punisher last fall. I suppose I could switch to Amazing Spider-Man Family, but that's 5 bucks. I know, it's 64 pages, but if I'm not interested in the other features, then its $5 for just the Spider-Girl stuff. Or maybe I'm just burned out on the character right now. It's been known to happen.

So I'm gonna raise a glass to the book****. The last year wasn't as much fun as some of the earlier times, but I did get a lot of enjoyment out of the title, with some of the goofy new villains, making the Hobgoblin back into a serious threat, making me care about the Venom symbiote, that story where DeFalco used some of the Avengers (Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Scott Lang) Bendis torched in Disassembled when DeFalco's Avengers needed some temporary support. Cheers.

* Which reminds me: The last time I checked, Peter told Mayday that Ben Reilly was his cousin through Aunt May's family, who wound up with spider-powers due to some crazy scientist. Apparently Pete deemed the clone thing too odd to get into. Now that Mayday's has a clone, or is one herself, is Pete going to revisit that and tell the whole truth?

** I think that was one of my problems with Amazing Spider-Girl the last year or so, that I might have liked the concepts, but not how they played out in the book.

*** Except for that week in June of '06, when I dropped Robin and New Avengers simultaneously. That was really cathartic, purging those two pains in my ass.

**** Hmm, I'm raising glasses pretty frequently these days. Could I be using comics as an excuse for my drinking problem? No, I just love soda, that's all. But I don't need it, no sir.

They Seem To Be In The Wrong Mind For This

Last week, in the first half of my reviews, I was a tad dismissive of the fact that Amazing Spider-Girl appears to be wrapping up with Mayday battling Norman Osborn inside Peter Parker's subconscious. I have to say, that last sentence looks very strange actually typed out, and I've been thinking a bit about the whys of that.

At first, I thought it was because combat in the realm of the mind is outside Spider-Girl's usual ballpark. Well, that is true, but it's not like it was in Spider-Man's wheelhouse either, but I could see him having a battle like that. Still, I could see Spider-Man in a struggle like that. Maybe that's because of all those stories DeMatteis wrote that dealt with the inner workings of Peter's mind* that I read as a kid. Or it could be due to the character himself. I can't remember where I read it (probably multiple places), but someone said that Spider-Man is such a well-defined character that as long as you portray him "properly", he can be in that story and it's not so odd. So he can find himself face-to-face with Thanos, and if you show Spidey being freaked out, feeling totally outclassed, but still trying to do something to stop Thanos, or at least louse up his plans, then it can work.

She hasn't had anywhere the publishing history her dad has, but for me at least, Spider-Girl is a similarly well-defined character**, to the point I haven't batted an eye when she's gone into the Negative Zone to try and help the Fantastic Five against a Skrull bent on revenge, or if she follows that up with getting mixed up in another gang war. So I don't think it's that.

Some months ago, when I was reviewing some issue of Amazing Spider-Girl back when the Other May first showed up, and I wasn't too enthused with the issue, the Fortress Keeper suggested something to the effect that meeting this Other May, and the doubts it would raise about her own origins would ultimately lead to Mayday emerging from this with a stronger sense of herself, and an idea of how to balance the different parts of her lives (I would be in complete support of that result). This seems like the time for that, with the Other May exposed as some weird Parker/symbiont hybrid that's helping Osborn, but the fight's happening in Peter's mind?

Granted, Mayday's already had a run through her mind, dealing with some of her own doubts about being Spider-Girl, but there's still this other version of herself to deal with. Yet the focus seems to be on helping her father finally get past the specter of Norman {Expletive Deleted} Osborn. Which doesn't feel like an issue Mayday has to work through. Yeah, Norman had her abducted from the hospital as a baby, but she doesn't recall any of that. The most influence Norman's had on Mayday is how royally her screwed up his grandson. Maybe I'm just on Norman Osborn overload, but it feels like this is really going to come down to Peter against Norman, again, which would sort of push Mayday to the side in the final issue of her own title. I'm sure she'll play some important role, but it's going to come down to Peter getting on his fight and booting Norman out of his mind, you know?

* The Child Within, as one example.

** Probably it really helps to have had essentially just one writer for the character's entire existence. Has to make a consistent vision of the character more attainable.

I Come Not To Eulogize, But To Insult The Assembled

*Note: This post is not particularly coherent. It is also mean, and downright condescending towards people at times. But it keeps me from taking a pickax to my car as a way to vent my fury at other things, so it's for the best.*

Spider-Girl is being canceled. Yes, again. This time, issue #30 seems to be the end of the line. I'm unperturbed about this. First, I'd seen rumors months ago that with its sales the book was only guaranteed up to #30, and I follow the sales figures online, and well, they hadn't gotten any better. They weren't getting much worse, but they weren't in a position where that was sufficient. Also, we've heard this spiel before, and then, surprise!, it's back again. So until I actually stop seeing new issues on the stands, and stop seeing solicitations for the title, I've adopted a believe it when I see it attitude. Third, the book hasn't been particularly wowing me lately. I haven't disliked it (I could have done without a Clone Saga), but I was enjoying it considerably more a year or so ago. At this point I found it a solid book that at least had enough going on each month I felt I got my money's worth. Fourth, 130 total issues is pretty good in this day and age, you know? There are a lot of people online that love Blue Beetle and Booster Gold; do you think either of those will make it to #100? Or Immortal Iron Fist and Nova, for that matter? The book had a nice run, and Mayday will apparently carry on in Amazing Spider-Man Family, so that's something I'll have to look into I guess.

I'm not going to jump on Quesada about this, if you're expecting that. I am curious about a sales decision. When they announced they would be restarting Spider-Girl as Amazing Spider-Girl, DeFalco said he'd been told the book was getting a second chance because it did well outside the direct market. I kind of figured Marvel was talking about those digests they release every so often, the ones that are the size of a manga volume, with six issues for about 8 dollars. To my knowledge, since they started Amazing Spider-Girl, they haven't released any of the stories in that format. I don't figure standard trades of Spider-Girl would do that great on the direct market where the book does not excel, or outside of it, so I wonder about the reasoning behind the lack of digests. But I don't know who made that decision or why, so there isn't really anyone specific to lambast. The online commentators, on the other hand. . .

I see people complaining that they found the book too tame and conservative. OK, I'm going to guess that they mean the book was very old style superhero comics, nothing new or innovative about it. If I were less charitable, I'd assume they meant the book wasn't "edgy" or "extreme" enough, with it's lack of sex and decapitations. either way, I think I would have to tell them *speaks very slowly, very loudly* YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT! I don't recall Spider-Girl or the MC2 Universe in general being marketed as some brand new style of storytelling, never before seen around these parts, that would be sure to kncock your socks off with how NEW it was. At most, it was going to establish a sense of legacy to the Marvel Universe, while telling classic style stories about some "new" heroes doing heroic things and overcoming villains, characters struggling with self-doubt, and the occasional redemptive arc for villains.

If you were looking for something never before seen, well, I'd suggest stepping outside Marvel & DC, and going into the creator-owned realm. I have basically zero experience with the material you'd find there, but I'd imagine the creators are (hopefully) doing things as they please, with regards to story structure, characterization, or whatever it is you felt was too tame or conservative about the MC2 line. If, on the other hand, you were hoping for "extreme" stories, then kindly lift your computer monitor directly over your head, and drop it. If you have a laptop computer, close it, hand it to someone nearby, and tell them to 1) strike you across the face with it, then 2) toss it callously atop your prone form. You want "Extreme"? There's the Ultimate Universe, have a blast. Jeph Loeb is doing extreme with the Ultimates. He's simultaneously doing "incomprehensible", but with the sex and Hawkeye's suicidal tendencies, it wasn't that noticeable. Or better yet, since the 616 co-opted the Ultimate universe's techniques in an attempt to copy their commercial succes, just read some of the 616 stuff. Try Wolverine. Millar had a spider-lady (a spider-girl you might say) knock a guy's head clean off by swinging a gun like a bat. That's certainly not tame or conservative.

That kind of storytelling is all over the place at Marvel and DC. Spider-Girl and the like probably stand out a bit just by not going to those wells so frequently. If you wanted that, you don't have to look hard for it, and not everything needs to be alike, because that would be boring, don't you agree?

Also, can I say I love the person I saw stating that because they hated everything of DeFalco's they've read, that they can't imagine anyone being engrossed by his writing style? What's that? I did just say it? Well, good. Let me further state, if you can't even imagine that, your mental capactity must be severely hampered in some way. We're not asking you to envision development of life on a planet in a binary star system, where one of the stars is a white dwarf putting out intense levels of gamma rays, and the other is a blue giant nearing supernova. All you have to do is picture other people having different tastes in writing than you. That's alright, take your time. I don't know why I'm surprised by that comment honestly, you see variations of it online all the time. I'm sure I did it at some point. "OH, I hate this, so it must be terrible, and no one else could possibly like it either!" It's astoundingly imbecilic. And yet, I can't look away. Does that make me a terrible person*?

That's all I have. I don't know quite where it leaves me, though. Stuck in the middle, you, say? Well, it could be worse. There's clowns to the left of me, jokers to right, so here I am. Stuck in the middle with you.

* This is the point where, if we were on House, Cameron would walk by and tell me that yes, it does make me a terrible person. Hopefully, I would be able to operate the crash cart and give her a nice jolt of electricity to the heart, to see if it would send her flying into the elevator like it did Chev Chelios. So it's for science, you see. Perfectly innocent, and not at all a reflection of my distaste for that particular fictional character.