#and not expect me to be familiar with the spider-verse storyline in the comics

[flyingthesky]

you can tell i have a degree in comics bc i was like "no, that's not right" about miquel o'hara's reasoning bc he was like "EVERY spider has these events bc they're CANON" (literally untrue. there are at least three peter parkers off the top of my head who do not have the uncle ben event to say nothing of the fact that many of the non-peter spiders ALSO do not have a similar event.) and then he starts explaining his backstory and something about the phrasing "at least a version of me was [happy]" rattled in my brain for the rest of the movie anyway the moral of the story is that i'm pretty sure miguel is the mfer who disrupted the canon since he apparently didn't do what he was supposed to in the events of the spider-verse (2015 as opposed to 2019 or 2022) storyline and go find the 616 peter parker

[traincat]

What to read for peterxfelicia(i'm not sure if there's a ship name?) goodness for someone who's getting into it because of the current hunted storyline?

I never know what the ship names for anything are; I think PeterFelicia goes by PeterFel and SpiderCat, but don’t quote me on that one. For Peter and Felicia content, I’d go way back to Felicia’s first appearance to start with, and then follow along from there.

Amazing Spider-Man #194-195: At the tail end of his affair with married Betty Brant, Peter runs into the Black Cat, an enigmatic thief with whom he has an instant romantic connection, but the Black Cat has her own agenda.

Amazing Spider-Man #204-205: Felicia makes her reappearance in Peter’s life. Don’t pay too much attention to the ending of this one; it quickly gets overwritten.

Amazing Spider-Man #226-227: Felicia’s scheme from the previous story pays off, and she and Peter attend a costume party. Felicia attempts to quit her criminal ways to further her romance with Spider-Man, but it’s harder than she expects.

Spectacular Spider-Man #74-79: Peter tries to help his colleague, friend, and beleaguered love interest, Deb Whitman, only to end up surprised when Felicia crashes into his life once again. The two battle Doc Ock with disastrous results.

Spectacular Spider-Man #84-90: Felicia is released from the hospital and she and Peter continue their romance. In Spectacular Spider-Man #87, Peter unmasks to Felicia. Felicia, wanting to be Spider-Man’s partner in more ways than one, strikes a deal to get herself superpowers. 

Spectacular Spider-Man #91: Felicia runs into Peter in his alien black suit for the first time.

Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #4: The B-Story, Cat and Mouse. Felicia goes on a wild goose chase when a carafe Peter gave her goes missing, and a friend expresses doubts about whether the relationship is good for her, which I think is an important bit of nuance – fans who don’t like PeterFel love to label Felicia as “bad” for Peter, and there is dysfunction in the early days, but I think it’s important to realize it more than goes both ways. (I love a complicated relationship.)

Amazing Spider-Man #256-258: Mary Jane reveals a secret to Peter, while Felicia has apprehensions about both Peter’s black suit and his civilian identity. 

(It’s not a Felicia issue but I highly recommend reading Amazing Spider-Man #259 if you haven’t already – it’s the issue that reveals Mary Jane’s backstory and it’s perfect, completely throwing all of her previous actions into a new light.)

Spectacular Spider-Man #95-100: Cracks develop in the relationship as Felicia worries her new bad luck powers are harming Spider-Man, and as Peter begins to question Felicia’s morality. They break up at the end of #100. (Peter and Felicia also have a brief and tense conversation about Felicia’s new powers in Amazing Spider-Man #263 and a frosty interaction in ASM #266, which takes place before Spectacular Spider-Man #100.)

Spectacular Spider-Man #112: My very favorite Christmas issue. While a Santa-themed robber strikes around the city, Peter, Felicia, and Mary Jane ruminate on the holidays.

Spectacular Spider-Man #115-117: Peter’s attempts to get rid of Felicia’s bad luck power’s influence over him leads to her powers cutting out at the worst moment possible. Felicia’s new costume debuts in #117.

Spectacular Spider-Man #119: Felicia has a moment of introspection on her relationship with Peter.

Spectacular Spider-Man #123: Peter and Felicia seemingly reunite after Peter saves her after an explosion in her apartment.

Felicia has appearances in Amazing Spider-Man #288-289, which are part of the larger Gang War storyline, which takes place from Amazing Spider-Man #284-288. In ASM #289, which takes place after Spider-Man vs Wolverine (highly recommended), she presents Peter with some new costumes.

Spectacular Spider-Man #128-129: Felicia’s revealed to have double-crossed Peter up – or has she?

At this point in time, Felicia vanishes off the pages for a little bit. Peter and Mary Jane shortly get married, which Felicia only finds out when she returns to Peter’s old apartment, expecting to find him. In an attempt to get revenge on Peter, she starts dating his best friend, Flash Thompson – only to end up genuinely falling for him. I love Flash and Felicia’s relationship, and it’s genuinely really sweet, but some PeterFel highlights from this period: on the last page of Amazing Spider-Man #329, Flash shows up with Felicia at Peter and Mary Jane’s loft, and ASM #330 has a flashback to a double date dinner. In ASM #331, Felicia confronts Mary Jane about her marriage to Peter and reveals her plan to break Flash’s heart to hurt Peter. (I think it’s important to remember at this point in time that everyone here is in their early 20s and very dramatic.) In ASM #335, Flash tries to arrange a double date while Felicia canoodles with him in front of Peter. In ASM #341-343, Felicia twigs to the fact that Peter’s lost his powers, and the two team up again. In ASM #346, Felicia offers to help Peter with a supervillain, and in ASM #347, she says that even though she still has feelings for Peter, she’s now in love with Flash.

Web of Spider-Man #80: When Peter goes missing, Mary Jane asks Felicia to track him down.

Spectacular Spider-Man #204-206: Both Felicia and Peter attend the reading of Harry Osborn’s will following his death in Spectacular Spider-Man #200. When Flash is injured by Tombstone, Felicia becomes furious that Peter didn’t tell her. This isn’t a particularly romantic Peter and Felicia teamup, but I do feel it’s a good look at their dynamic post-romantic relationship.

Spider-Man Unlimited #11: The Spider-Man in this story is Peter’s clone, Ben, but on top of the Ben/Felicia flirting, there’s plenty of PeterFelicia background. A woman from Ben Reilly’s past has been murdered – and someone wants to put the blame on the Black Cat.

Peter Parker Annual 2000: The B Story (although the A Story features one of my favorite rare Marvel characters, Bounty). With Mary Jane currently presumed dead, Peter encounters Felicia one night.

Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do #1-6: Felicia Hardy’s asked to track down a missing friend, while Peter Parker hunts for the source of the mysterious drug-related death of one of his students. When these two events bring them back together, they team up to take down a threat who can give people a high – or kill them – without ever being in the same room. This one tends to be a “love it or hate it” series for people, especially considering it retcons Felicia’s backstory to include sexual assault as motivation for becoming the Black Cat, but there is an awful lot of Peter/Felicia content in it. Warning that rape is a major theme in the story. 

Marvel Knights Spider-Man #1-12: Aunt May is kidnapped, and Peter’s on a race around the clock to save her before time runs out. Felicia’s the first person he calls for help. Feilcia takes a few issues to become a major part of this story, but it’s all one big arc, and she has a huge part in it, especially in the ending. Also features Peter and Felicia both calling each other “baby” when they’re not in a romantic relationship.

Spider-Man Unlimited (2004) #14: A Story. Felicia enlists Peter help to break into the Latverian Embassy.

Amazing Spider-Man #606-607: Post-Brand New Day, the link between Peter Parker and Spider-Man has been erased from the minds of almost everyone, including the ones who knew him best – like Felicia Hardy. It doesn’t stop them from teaming up – or hooking up.

The Many Loves of Spider-Man: A oneshot collecting several different stories about the women in Peter’s life. The Black Cat one is very cute.

Web of Spider-Man (2009) #11-12: When Spider-Man goes missing, Mary Jane contacts Felicia Hardy to find him.

After this we hit Superior Spider-Man and things get not good for a while, which you’re probably familiar with if you’re getting into them through the current ASM run, where Peter’s finally re-unmasked to Felicia and restored her memories. But that should bring you up to date!

Some other continuity PeterFelicia recs:

Spider-Man Noir & Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without a Face: Four issues each, Spider-Man Noir takes place during the Great Depression. The nephew of socialist rabble rousers, Peter Parker is an angry young man taken under the wing of Ben Urich, Bugle Reporter, when he’s bitten by a mysterious spider. Felicia Hardy owns a speakeasy, the Black Cat, and knows all about the criminal underworld. Felicia first appears in Spider-Man Noir, but the romance doesn’t kick off until Eyes Without a Face. If you liked Noir Peter in Into the Spider-Verse, I recommend his comics.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: The Heist: While Felicia has a quest in the main game, she makes an appearance during The Heist, the first DLC from the PS4 Spider-Man game. When Felicia starts stealing drives belonging to a major crime family, she claims she needs to complete the heist to save her son -- leaving Peter to wonder if the child is his.  

If you don’t have the time/cash/inclination to play the game but still want to see the PeterFelicia scenes, this video has all the Black Cat stakeout missions from the main game, and this hour long video basically has the entirety of The Heist.

[sevi007]

Okay, a bit more eloquently this time around, because Sevi’s head has stopped spinning mostly and now I can write this out –

 Into the Spider-verse, guys. Look I went into this movie thinking: “Okay girl, you don’t understand, like, anything about Spider-Man, but you heard the plot is good, the music is awesome, and the animation is completely off this planet, so this is gonna be good anyway.”

 And I was right. And also completely wrong.

Because it was not good, it was out of this freaking universe (yes, the pun is horrible, bear with me, head is still spinning a bit).

 This movie was pure enjoyment and amazingness and feels from the very start to finish, highlighted with on-point music and topped off with animation that left me gaping and going “What the F*CK” more than once. I was so extremely hooked on this, I didn’t even see it coming!

 Where do I start? I can’t do this chronologically, I think, just… it’s amazing from the first second on. I will just try to list up what I especially noticed and liked, because if I try to say everything I liked, I will just retell the entire movie, so I’m going for main topics and put it all under this neat thingy -

 The characters are so freaking amazing.  hat starts right up with the introduction of the characters, say, for example: Peter Parker and Miles – not only is it smooth and a nice overview, it’s also setting contrasts between the two, and very fitting for both of them (one getting a more “ordinary” introduction compared to the comic-book-hero introduction). Going over their design – gosh, the designs, people, I was not expecting to look at either Prowler or Doc Ock and be like “Oh wow, okay, those guys look cool”.

Then there’s how each character is unique, and that completely. The movie underlines how the Spider-People might have their similarities (the comic book introduction and the “let’s do this one more time”), but it also emphasizes how they are all different. Because what else? The movie is trying to teach us that everyone can wear the mask. So they feature how special and unique every last character is. That goes for the Spider-People – even both Peter Parkers – as well as Miles, who still needed to learn what makes him unique, and even the side characters or the villains. (I will have to point out the villains separately in a moment).

And each of them – aside from a few sidekicks – are fleshed out so well, in so little lines. You feel for them. You’re interested in them. You relate to them. And that with so many characters, wandering over the screen so quickly! Masterful work right there.

  The villains we gotta get out of the way here, because I was so flashed by that. You have, like, three main villains? For me, it felt like three – Kingpin, Doc Ock, and the Prowler. And each of them fulfills such a completely different villain trope, and that all in one movie!

Kingpin with the tragic backstory and actually morally white goals reached with completely wrong methods.

Doc Ock with the “crazy” scientist role who has no regards to humanity (she was fully aware what would happen to both Peter B. Parker and Kingpin’s family if they were transported into a different universe, and she didn’t give a damn).

And Prowler with little to no tragic backstory, who seems so cold and detached, until he isn’t – and makes a good choice in the last moment. (Redemption arc villain with tragic end, maybe? In any case, completely different from the first two)

   The story was just, so amazing. I’m not too familiar with Spider-Man so I couldn’t tell if it was orientating itself by any storyline that has been there before, in the comics, but I seriously loved every twist of it. Because twists there were, a lot of them. Killing the already “perfect” Spider-Man right at the start of the movie? Having the protagonist not suddenly learning from his – reluctant – teacher, but unlocking the potential that has always been there? Only to mention a few. Completely amazing. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, because I had no idea where it would go next. And that’s not even emphasizing the sheer feels or the slapstick moments, which were all amazing in their own right.  

Something I absolutely adored was that basically – literally? – no scene, no matter how seemingly small and insignificant, was there for a reason. Miles sticking to Gwen’s hair lead to her pointing out he needed to “relax”, which was later revealed to be the key to the sticking-ability and its release. Miles joking about a cape is later picked up again, and it’s used to show how Peter has come to appreciate the boy. Miles sticking to a train with the unconscious Peter in two is used again in the final fight, when he uses a train to escape Kingpin. And so on, and on. Every little detail is there for a reason, be it to reference Spider-Man and his appearance in other media, or because it’s important for the story later on.

   The music – I’m not even sure what’s better, the songs they chose (“Sunflower” and “What’s up danger” and “Scared of the Dark” are gonna stick in my head, you just know it) or the score. There was never a moment when the music felt out of place, or didn’t make my feels even stronger, or didn’t get me hyped up. Highlighting and emphasizing what was happening on screen, instead of simply filling the silence or even distracting. So well done.

   The animation. Guys. Guys, if anyone told me they used the multiverse to throw together the best of the best of animation tech for this one movie, then I wouldn’t even argue with it. I didn’t even know stuff like this was possible. These “switches” between, more like, mixes of almost-realistic style to clearly comic-book style? The Spider-People having all these different kind of animations all by itself, and all of them being on the same screen without making it look weird? Just, wow. Wow, and another wow, and I have to stop now else I never stop on that. This was, like, an entire love song (movie) to the art of animation, all by itself, and it was so fun to watch!

  Honestly, I loved every second and aspect of this movie. And I mean, honestly - They put so much work and love into this one, and it was so clear, too. How could I not love it, then? =D

[malarkiness]

I saw Into the Spider-Verse and it was GREAT and everyone should go see it.

Spoilers n’stuff under the cut.

First of all, WOW the colors. And the style!!!! I haven’t been this enamored with an animated movie’s artistic style since Song of the Sea (or any Cartoon Saloon movie, really), and it was such a nice experience. I kept waiting for maybe one scene to just not work or not amaze me as much as the last, but no, the entire movie was just gorgeous and so interesting to look at. I definitely want to download it once it’s out just so I can go through it frame by frame. And I really hope the dvd/blu-ray shows a lot of the storyboards because I’d love to see how this movie was mapped out. Color keys would be nice to see, too.

I cried more than I expected to, lmao. First when Peter B. met up with Aunt May (who’s voiced by Lily Tomlin by the way, that was a nice surprise), then when Miles’ father told him he loved him through the closed door, and then a little at the very end just because the overall message was so sweet.

I was kind of hoping Peter B. would recognize Gwen, or at least have a “holy shit, you’re alive???” moment with her, but I guess that would have pulled too much focus away from his subplot with MJ, so it’s fine. I did really like that it looked like he was going to patch things up with her at the end now that he’s confident about being a parent. Now that I think of it, though, did Peter B. even have the dead Gwen storyline in his dimension? I assumed Gwen dying would be part of any Spider-Man universe where he eventually ends up with MJ, but I’m not familiar with the comics, so idk.

Miles is adorable and really just a great character all-around. I haven’t seen the MCU Spider-Man movies, so this may be something that’s done well in those too, but this was the first Spider-Man movie where I actually believed Spidey was a kid. I mean, the Tobey Maguire movies came out when I was still a kid myself, so I never really saw him as someone around my age. And I always thought Andrew Garfield’s take was good, but he was also too confident for me to really see him as a typical teenager, so he seemed older than his character. But Miles is written very believably as a teenager, and I like that his inexperience as a hero (and just with life in general) is what really drives his character arc. He had this really organic coming-of-age storyline, and I loved it. There were also other little things that really made his age more apparent, like him going straight home to his parents because he was upset and afraid after watching Spider-Man die, or him deliberately trying to fail out of his new school because suddenly being surrounded by other smart kids made him insecure (holy fuck was that relatable as a former ~G&T kid), or him being hyper aware of all the other kids noticing every time he did something embarrassing. Not that adults never do any of those things, ofc, but all those details made him seem that much more vulnerable, so you really appreciate his growth and confidence by the end of the movie.

All the Spidey gang’s interactions were great. I especially liked Noir comforting Peni when her robot was destroyed, that was really sweet. And I loved the gang staying behind and listening to Peter B. tell Miles that he couldn’t come on their last mission. You could tell that none of them wanted to ditch him, and that they wanted to have faith in him, but they also couldn’t risk him not being able to follow through. I like that all of the Spideys genuinely care about each other, and that they can all empathize with one another’s struggles and losses.

I liked Kingpin as a villain. At first, I was a little thrown off by his design and thought it looked almost too out-of-place, but it wound up really working. He’s just this HUGE solid black square of a dude, and it makes for an interesting contrast when you compare him to the heroes (whose designs allow for quicker/more dynamic movement). Also, I appreciated that Aaron (forgot his villain name) wasn’t just needlessly evil and actually refused to kill Miles when he realized who he was. Initially, I thought he pulled the mask back on Miles so that he wouldn’t have to see his nephew’s face when he killed him, but no, he actually let him go. I’m... kind of lost on his motivation for siding with the bad guys in the first place, but idk, maybe I missed something.

It was funny! And in a really refreshing way for a superhero movie, too. I’m used to MCU’s annoying habit of building up a really tense scene and then killing it with some character’s dumb comment followed by what feels like 20 minutes of riffing, and Spider-Verse was just so wonderfully, mercifully not that. God bless.

I loved seeing a Spider-Man fight take place in somewhere other than NYC. I mean, that location makes sense because it’s probably the best place for a web-slinging hero to hang out, but it was an interesting change of scenery to throw all these Spider people into a forest or an inter-dimensional cataclysm. That was really cool.

I can’t believe this movie made me like a Post Malone song. The audacity!!!!!

This is dumb, but I liked that Peter Parker and I share a birth year. I guess he must be a sagittarius or a capricorn tho if he was still 26 when he died.

The memes, my god.

tl;dr: LOVED it, gonna try to see it in theaters at least one more time.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

20 Reasons you should love Spider-Girl!

Happy May Day one and all. Since this day shares a name with a certain daughter of our friendly neighbourhood wall-crawler (and because this year marked her 20th anniversary) we’re going to list of 20 reasons you should love Spider-Girl!

No deep dive analysis I am afraid and these are in no particular order.

Without further adieu...

Longest running female Marvel hero with her own series

In a day and age when much discussion is devoted to female characters in leading roles Spider-Girl was something of a trail blazer, though she gets far too little credit for it.

Spider-Girl was (and still is to my understanding) the longest running female Marvel character to have her own solo-series; at least without any re-launches.

This feat is even more impressive considering Spider-Girl was an out-of-continuity series which usually do not sell as easily as titles within the mainstream 616 universe.

Her costume

When discussing Spider-Man’s costumes thought inevitably drifts to Spider-Man’s original red and blue outfit or his black and white one. However the third horse in the race is the 1996 costume created by Ben Reilly and thus lovingly nicknamed the ‘Spider-Ben’ outfit.

It is simply a brilliant and beautiful design succeeding in evoking something unique and yet distinctly ‘Spider-Man’.

Whilst anyone coming to the black costume completely cold and with no context could be forgiven for mistaking it for an entirely different character (as Ron Frenz did way back in the early 1980s), nobody could look at Mayday’s costume and not   realize it has something to do with Spider-Man.

Shifting around elements of the classic costume Mayday’s outfit succeeds in maintaining a balance of primary colours (as the best superhero costumes do) and making her distinct from any artistic angle.

The costume also (according to superstar artist Sal Buscema) in fact works more effectively on Mayday’s feminine form than on the typical male superhero body build.

Her other costumes

The beauty of Spider-Man’s black costume lies in its simplicity. However this doesn’t mean it is above being redesigned and around 20 years after its debut one of the key architects in its introduction (Ron Frenz) did just that when he created a black costume for Mayday.

Much like her red and blue outfit, her own black costume succeeds in being unique but retaining most of the strong visual elements that made her Dad’s counterpart outfit a hit. Sleek, simple and using white/silver in moderation to create a stark contrast this is probably Mayday’s most out and out badass look.

But Mr. Frenz had one more trick up his sleeve. In 2015 as part of the Secret Wars mega event Marvel was involved with Ron Frenz took to redesigning Mayday’s costume once again. Her previous appearance in Spider-Verse had controversially seen her hang up her original costume in favour of wearing one of her father’s old suits.

Quite apart from how the costume simply didn’t work as effectively on the Mayday’s female figure compared to Spider-Man’s, fans didn’t take kindly to the change. Apparently neither did Mayday’s co-creators Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz and so we wound up with yet another costume that combined elements of Peter Parker and Ben Reilly’s costumes together to create something once again familiar yet ultimately unique.

Whilst most Spider-Girl fans would’ve preferred a return to her classic look the costume unto itself has been acknowledged as a beautiful design.

A true all ages book

The majority of Spider-Girl’s run played out in a day and age when the content of comic books was going down an allegedly more ‘realistic and mature’ direction.

Titles such as the Ultimate Universe line, though paying lip service to being aimed at younger readers, were far from being for all ages. This was very much true of Marvel and DC as a whole throughout the 2000s and early 2010s.

Spider-Girl was a brave exception to this trend, actively engaging in sophisticated and at times challenging stories that nevertheless presented events in a way that tweens, teens and adults could enjoy.

Survival of cancellations

Infamously Spider-Girl lived under a near perennial threat of cancellation.

But Mayday’s fans were both too smart and too in love with her stories to let her go under.

Repeatedly they exploited their knowledge of the pre-ordering system LCSs use and saved Mayday’s series from cancellation.

No comic book has ever defied expectations and escaped cancellation more times than Spider-Girl.

Tackled tough and relevant subject matters in a frank, mature and realistic way without being grim dark

As I mentioned above, Spider-Girl was an all ages book but that didn’t mean it stayed away from tough subjects. 

More than once Spider-Girl used mutants to discuss bigotry and prejudice. 

Issue #26 of Mayday’s first series was a vital turning point for the narrative and it fundamentally hinged upon addressing issues related to suicide and the vicious cycle of abuse that can exist within families. 

Multiple subplots touched upon women being physically and emotionally abused, to the point where the topic was brought up in the very issue where Mayday celebrated being the longest running female Marvel character. This is best exemplified in Spider-Girl #89 which has one of the most uncomfortably realistic pages in a comic book I have ever read. 

Perhaps most audaciously one issue dedicated an entire scene to talking fairly frankly about the topic of abortion and making the characters’ stances on the issue very clear. What is perhaps even more impressive is that this was the second  time that writer Tom DeFalco had dared touch that subject within a Spider title. 

Regardless of what your personal views are on that or on any of the topics above, the sheer guts of the creative team to ‘go there’ must be admired and respected.

Consistent art that also has amazing action sequences!

Spider-Girl has been drawn by several artists across the years but the two most dominant ones are Pat Oliffe and Ron Frenz.

Whilst both artists evolved their styles across the run of the series there was enough relative consistency that the book rarely felt alienating to long time readers.

And it helped that both artists’ styles are just beautiful.

Oliffe leans more towards illustration and makes the characters seem realistic and yet fluid at the same time.

Frenz is more of a cartoonist and yet his art is not usually overly stylized and manages to retain the iconic features of each character he draws. His rendition of Mary Jane for example could never be mistaken for any given typically attractive redhead, it looks distinctly like Mary Jane evoking Romita Senior’s design for her.

Not only are each artist great in their character work but in their raw sequential storytelling craftsmanship. Nowhere is this more evident than in their well paced, cleverly choreographed and all round dynamic action sequences. At the time the stories were published (and even today) you’d have been hard pressed to find any action sequences in Marvel or DC that could rival those of Spider-Girl’s. 

Continuity porn and fan service done right

Dan Slott’s run on Spider-Man has in the past been criticised of indulging in ‘continuity porn’. That is to say utilizing or referencing past continuity excessively to the point where it either takes you out of a story or outright undermines a story itself.

 Spider-Girl demonstrates how continuity and fan service can be done well given the right context. There are in fact probably a million times more continuity references and examples of fan service within Spider-Girl’s whole run than in Slott’s collective Spider-Man bibliography.

The difference though is that the continuity Spider-Girl first and foremost concerns itself with involves organically building upon previously established events, whether it’s from its own series, Spider-Man’s wider history or Marvel lore in general.

Case in point Spider-Girl’s debut storyline hinges upon continuity surrounding the DeMatteis/Buscema run of Spectacular Spider-Man as it shows us Harry Osborn’s son following in his father and grandfather’s footsteps by becoming the new Green Goblin. He is even arrested in a scene that is framed near identically to a scene of Harry being arrested in Spectacular Spider-Man #189, whilst singing a variation of the 1960s Spider-Man theme song no less. Furthermore the climax of the issue takes place at the site of Gwen Stacy’s death, which happened in another Goblin story and Mayday’s first words as Spider-Girl are also her mother’s famous first words from ASM #42.

We are talking layers and layers of continuity here. But it never goes to the point of alienating readers, being obnoxious or hurting the stories.

The most significant and obvious ways in which the story (and any Spider-Girl story) utilizes continuity is the way continuity is supposed to function. That is to say it provides good world building and verisimilitude for the story and characters so that they can grow and react to events (and their repercussions) in much the same real people react to events in their lives day-to-day. 

And the other references found in the story are subtle enough to not alienate new or casual fans, but still provide a fun nod for those in the know. Critically though for those in the know such references never grow obnoxious because they serve legitimate story purposes as well.

Every time in a Spider-Girl story where Mayday or Normie say, do or are simply drawn in a way that references old stories starring their family members it is touching upon the fundamental themes of family and legacy that define the series. It creates a subtext that spells out how they are the inheritors of their families’ respective legacies and have their ancestors’ traits within them.

 And this is just me looking at one   story. 

You could make a whole series dedicated to just spotting various continuity Easter Eggs scattered throughout the series.

Revived the Hobgoblin

Remember back in 2010 when Dan Slott launched the Big Time era and there was a lot of chatter about the apparent return of the Hobgoblin?

The reason for the chatter was due to Hobgoblin being a major league bad guy during the iconic Roger Stern run of Amazing Spider-Man and his return marking the first time he’d be appearing in well over a decade.

Well guess what? Spider-Girl had Slott beat.

During the build up to her 100th issue the Hobgoblin was dusted off by DeFalco and Frenz (who used the character extensively during their own iconic run on ASM in the 1980s) and reintroduced in all his glory, proving to be one of Mayday’s most formidable foes.

For many Spider-Girl fans Hobgoblin was actually an even more effective villain for Mayday than he ever was for her father, owing much to the gap in their respective experience levels.

It might have happened outside the mainstream Marvel Universe but for many people at the time (and I’d bet many people who read through Big Time) this was the true return of the Hobgoblin.

And a more magnificent comeback you couldn’t have asked for.  

The best symbiote character ever!

Symbiotes have traditionally been divisive within Spider-Man fandom, with seemingly few readers neutral on them. More often than not you either love them or you passionately despise them with the rage of a thousand burning suns.

Much of the latter point of view is owed to a perception (right or wrong as it may be) that the symbiotes are shallow and one note characters that emphasise style over substance.

To such detractors I present for you April Parker, a.k.a. Mayhem!

She is a clone of Mayday (or is she?) who also has DNA from the Venom symbiote granting her both the spider powers of Peter Parker and the symbiotes metamorphic abilities.

Putting aside the clever word play going on with her names, Mayhem has genuine substance to her character. She struggles with issues of identity desperately wanting to legitimize herself as the ‘real’ Spider-Girl as opposed to a clone and also make good as a superhero in her own right, but much like Venom (albeit far more successfully) her approach to crime fighting involves a desire to use lethal force in direct opposition to Mayday’s philosophies.

Her relationship with Mayday is beautiful in its complexity and contradictions. She views May as a usurper of the life that rightfully belongs to her and competes to outdo her in and out of their costumed lives; hence naming herself April, because it comes before May. But she nevertheless cares for May as a sister and can become violent when believing her to be threatened or harmed.

The dynamic between the two also ties into themes and relationships from the Clone Saga, as Mayhem is a combination of all three of Peter’s clones (Spidercide, Kaine and Ben Reilly) and his relationships with each of them has commonalities with Mayday’s and April’s relationship.

 And on top of all that...she just looks drop dead cool. 

Organic continuation of canon stories

Spider-Man is fundamentally about responsibility and there is no greater responsibility than family. This has been a hallmark of the series since literally Peter Parker’s first appearance.

Whilst Spider-Man’s series (when done right) emphasises family as part of the broader theme of responsibility, Spider-Girl flips the script and instead makes family and the related theme of legacy the primary point of the character and her adventures.

Thematically this makes Spider-Girl an organic continuation of Spider-Man’s story but more than this the nuts and bolts of the series and the universe built around it honestly feel totally believable as a continuation of the Marvel universe, or at least as it existed circa 1998.

All the child and teen heroes of the regular Marvel universe grew up to become the main heroes of Spider-Girl’s day and the surviving old guard adopted mentorship and commander roles within the superhero community.

As for Peter Parker and Mary Jane, if you took them circa 1998, gave them a baby and cut to 15 years later they’d be near identical to their Spider-Girl counterparts.

Various subplots within Spider-Girl also follow through on being an organic continuation of the Marvel universe of the later 1990s. One of her villains, the Black Tarantula, was last seen in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man as a young boy fleeing the influence of his father who wished to make him the new Black Tarantula. John Jameson and Ashley Kafka who were seen dating in the 1990s are shown as married in the world of Spider-Girl. Johnny Storm is the leader of the Fantastic Five which includes a grown up Franklin Richards. Normie Osborn becomes consumed by his family’s legacy of evil and becomes the Green Goblin, etc.

A robust rogue’s gallery

I admit it. Spider-Girl has neither the best nor the most original villains out there.

But I will say this...she at least has  a rogue’s gallery.

In all honestly think about just how many superheroes out there honestly couldn’t say as much. Maybe they have 5 or so villains to call their own and be reliable sources of conflict but by and large try naming 6 villains Carol Danvers has consistently had personal one-on-one encounters with across the decades...besides Moonstone or Doctor Minerva.

Try doing the same for the Black Panther when you exclude Klaw and Killmonger.

You’d not run into such a problem with Mayday though

Super villains are vitally important  to a superhero series and having some to call your own that you can definitively say are your  rogue’s gallery is something to be proud and protective of. As Geoff Johns proved on his run on the Flash, villains are what you make of them. So even if Mayday doesn’t have the best rogue’s gallery she at least had the scope to never run out of opponents to challenge her and rivalries to explore.

Additionally, what made her rogue’s gallery special was it’s healthy mix of relatively original foes, her own spins on classic Spidey enemies and a handful of Spidey’s old foes (for example Hobgoblin).This created a robust villain pool from which to draw stories from as they allowed the creative team to explore similar power sets from a different point of view, pit a Spider character against a whole new type of opponent or explore Mayday and a villain’s identity via contrasting her battles with her fathers’.

It gave the Venom symbiote a character arc

In 1984 Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz introduced the world to what would later be revealed as the Venom symbiote. Though they weren’t involved in every step of its consequent development in their own little universe they gave the symbiote a poignant death scene that totally re-contextualized its older appearances, granting it emotional layers, sympathy and a beautiful character arc. Oh and it was also the first ever example I know of where the symbiote was referred to as female.

It inspired things in the 616 universe and MCU

Much like the return of the Hobgoblin the MC2 universe both pioneered ideas later repeated in the mainstream 616 Marvel universe and also directly inspired concepts later introduced within it as well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

These include: making Cassie Lang a superhero called Stinger, giving Jessica Drew a son called Gerald, giving Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne a daughter named Hope, introducing a villain team named the Savage Six, making the Venom symbiote female, granting the symbiote to a supporting cast member and making them a hero, introducing an A.I. Iron Man suit programmed with Tony Stark’s brain patterns, giving Wolverine a daughter, and other stuff I am sure I am forgetting.

It could make lemonade out of terrible lemons

Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz were nothing if not inventive problem solvers during their time on Spider-Girl. In particular they had a knack for making something worthwhile out of a bad situation.

In the 1990s a new female version of Doctor Octopus was introduced and roundly lambasted by the fan base faithful. Was this criticism unfair? Maybe...then again her plans did almost exclusively revolve around nonsense involving virtual reality.

Nevertheless the Spider-Girl creative team dusted off the character and introduced her afresh, doing away with her old schemes and playing her as a more straightforward and down to Earth villain who could easily overpower Mayday. Though she had but a few appearances it ultimately redeemed her character.

More significantly though when Dan Slott as part of Spider-Verse controversially killed off Mayday’s father and established her as now wearing his old costume DeFalco and Frenz decided to do a follow up story that believably and touchingly showcased Mayday’s grieving process and moving on.

Though most were unhappy with the situation that existed they nevertheless respected and appreciated the creative teams’ never flagging efforts to serve the character. 

Actually involved the parents instead of killing them off as would be the cliché

Many critics and readers have praised Kamala Khan and other recent superheroes for subverting the typical superhero clichés of having dead parents. 

However Spider-Girl is a precursor to many of these modern series. In fact as mentioned above her parents being recurring characters was essentially the wholesale point of the series.

And they weren’t just there as background characters either.

Through subplots such as their new baby and accepting April Parker into their family Peter and Mary Jane were given subplots of their own that were organically woven into the wider fabric of Mayday’s life.

Whilst Peter would on occasion suit up and go into action as Spider-Man, act as a mentor and dispense fatherly advice when necessary, MJ got to be a counterpoint to Peter and had two issues focussing almost exclusively upon her character.

Mayday was a brilliant fusion of her parents

 Speaking of her parents, one of the charms of Mayday’s character was how believable she was as the child of Peter and  Mary Jane.

This is evident from her very first appearance.

Like her mother Mayday is very popular and on the higher echelons of the high school social ladder. And yet she is scientifically inclined and friends with the ‘nerds’ as well as the ‘jocks’.

She has Peter’s hair and eye colour and sense of guilt, but her mother’s facial features and outgoing personality.

In a very real sense she is the embodiment of both of her parents’ best qualities.

The first ever digital Marvel series

Not much to say about this one.

Marvel Unlimited is huge now but once upon a time in the earliest days of its predecessor service Spider-Girl blazed the trail as the first and to y knowledge only digital Marvel series.

It was an all-ages female led comic book series at a time when none of those things were strong sellers 

In addition to being an all-ages female led book, Spider-Girl deserves major, major credit for existing as those things within a marketplace actively hostile to them.

These days as much as digital series or female led books might struggle it must be said the playing field is far kinder to such books than it was in the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s.

Outside of some big names like Batgirl or Wonder Woman making a female led book an ongoing success was a profound uphill struggle doomed to fail as Marvel and DC were far less open to the idea that there was an untapped market of female fans, let alone a notable segment of their existing fan bases that were female. In truth there is a case for neither company having figured how to exploit those facts in the near decade since. The point is that female led books were a rarity and expected to fail more often than not. And yet Spider-Girl tried and succeeded in spite of that.

The same was very much true of an all-ages book. Though these had arguably better success in the 2000s then female led books they were still books that lived on borrowed time and yet despite being able to ‘course correct’ this fact the creative team stuck to their principles and resolutely refused to fall in line with the sensibilities of most of other comics of the day which were almost outright rejecting the idea of younger audiences.

The ultimate Spider-Man legacy character

Take your Miles Morales and your Miguel O’Hara’s and go home kids, because Mayday is without a doubt the  greatest legacy character Peter Parker could ever ask for.

What makes Mayday so brilliant in this regard is that because she is Peter’s daughter isn’t just a legacy to Spider-Man but to Peter Parker too.

This provides a totally realistic justification for why she shares so many similarities with him and yet because she’s been raised differently and has her mother’s influence in her too she can zig where Peter zagged.

When she does act like her Dad (or her Mom for that matter) it is satisfying to the readers because we see her parent(s) in her. It’s a little bit like if you have an old friend and then see them in their children and how they act. Because we love Spider-Man, we love seeing Mayday honour his heroic legacy as well as just be like  our old friend in her general personality.

And when she does act differently to how we’d expect Peter to behave, it brilliantly helps shine a light upon who Peter himself is as a character because we are so intimately familiar with who he is. At the same time it subtly clues us into what Peter is like as a parent as he had a hand in shaping Mayday to be the kind of person who’d act in those different ways he would have in similar situations.

This is beautifully demonstrated in Mayday’s debut story where she doesn’t need tragedy to drill the old great power/great responsibility lesson into her head. In fact she doesn’t need to be taught that lesson at all. She intuitively knows it because her Dad made sure  she grasped it better than he did at her age. 

Then you have her costume. It is of course Ben Reilly’s old Spider-Man suit and as such was conveniently custom built to work as evoking Spider-Man’s look whilst being its own thing. Which is exactly  what you want out of a legacy character. Something unique that nevertheless honours and reminds you of the original.

The fact that it is also Ben’s design enables Mayday to serve as a dual legacy to both her father and her Uncle Ben.

And there you have it. 20 reasons you should love Mayday. Now head over to Marvel Unlimited and check out her adventures!