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Spider-Girl

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For the Legion of Super-Heroes character, see Spider Girl
Spider-Girl (May "Mayday" Parker) is a comic book superheroine, set in an alternate future of the Marvel Comics universe. She was created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz as a spin-off of the Spider-Man character, and first appeared in What If (Vol. 2) #105. She later acquired her own ongoing comic book, Spider-Girl, written by DeFalco and drawn by Frenz and Pat Olliffe, which has become the longest-running superhero book with a lead female character ever published by Marvel. The book's active fanbase has caused Marvel to revoke several cancellation announcements.

Due to robust sales of the "digest-sized" trade paperbacks, the book was thought to be "for the first time in its history... completely safe from cancellation." [link], but Marvel announced that Spider-Girl would cease publication with issue #100. [link]

At the Pittsburgh Comi-Con (at the end of April, 2006) Tom DeFalco speculated that there was a strong chance that Spider-Girl might in fact be placed on hiatus, and then relaunched. [link] Marvel has confirmed this, and issue #1 of the relaunched title, The Amazing Spider-Girl, will be published in October 2006. May will have a redesigned costume and webshooters.

Contents

Character history

May "Mayday" Parker is the child of Peter and Mary Jane Parker in a future, alternate universe continuity. In the MC2 continuity, they were reunited with their baby daughter by Kaine, who found the child living with Alison Mongraine, the con artist who had kidnapped the baby on instruction from the Green Goblin. After they were reunited, Peter lost a leg and was forced to retire following the horrific final conflict with the Green Goblin. (While it's implied that Peter was responsible for the Goblin's death, this has never been confirmed). For many years, the duo chose to keep their past from Mayday and hoped that she wouldn't develop powers of her own.

Despite her parents' hopes, May began developing versions of her father's Spider-powers when she was 15. At the same time, Normie Osborn (Green Goblin's grandson) set out to restore the family name (as he saw it). Mayday donned Ben Reilly's Spider-Man costume to stop him and soon took to crime fighting, at first hindered, then helped, by her worried parents.

Cover to Spider-Girl #75. Art by Ron Frenz. First appearance of Spider-Girl wearing the black costume.
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Cover to Spider-Girl #75. Art by Ron Frenz. First appearance of Spider-Girl wearing the black costume.

May shares traits of both of her parents. Like her mother, she is a good-looking and popular student, and she is intelligent and bright, just as her father was. She also inherited his love for in-fight bantering. In addition, she is a very good athlete and excels in her girls' basketball team. On the other hand, May seems to have inherited the "Parker luck," in which her dual identity wreaks havoc in her private life.

Powers and abilities

May Parker inherited many of the same abilities as her father, Peter Parker. She has enhanced strength, and is able to lift up to 5 tons. She can also leap several stories high, and can cover the width of a city block. She is also tougher and heals faster than a normal human.

Spider-Girl can adhere to almost any surface through a static-electric field her body generates, allowing her to scale the sides of a building, just like a spider. Wall-crawling doesn't come as naturally to May as Peter; she has to concentrate to keep herself from slipping off surfaces. In addition to adhering to surfaces, May can also repel herself like an opposing magnet, or she can repulse and adhere another object or person through a shared medium. For example, she can cause a person to stick to a wall they're touching just by touching that same wall and willing them to, or she can just as easily violently push them away.

Promotional cover art to Amazing Spider-Girl #1, by Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema.
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Promotional cover art to Amazing Spider-Girl #1, by Ron Frenz and Sal Buscema.

Finally, May Parker inherited her "spider-sense," a form of clairvoyance that warns her of danger. Spider-Girl's is somewhat more powerful and reliable than her father's, and tells her the direction a threat is coming from with a high level of precision. Through intensive training, she learned to fight blindfolded using only her spider-sense. She can use it to spot weaknesses in an opponent and use them to her advantage. She can also sense mundane threats or observation like her father, but unlike him she can use it to sense deception. By touching her father's clone, Kaine, she experienced a shared precognitive vision, but she does not normally have that ability.

May also has mechanical web-shooters based on Ben Reilly's web-shooter design, but longer and narrower. They do not fire impact webbing or stingers, but could be equipped to do so. Her mobile phone is modified to attach to one of her web-shooters, and looks like one of its cartridges. She occasionally uses spider-tracers, but as they are tuned to her father's spider-sense and not hers, she needs a receiver to detect them.

Spider-Girl once lost her powers due to being electrocuted. However, she borrowed the Green Goblin equipment from Normie Osborn until she regained them.

Note that all comparisons to Spider-Man's abilities do not apply to his power upgrade in , as that event never took place in MC2 continuity.

Cast

Main cast

Supporting cast

Spider-Girl's Uncle Ben

Like her father, May also has an Uncle Ben. However, unlike her dad, May never knew her Uncle Ben. May's Uncle Ben is Ben Reilly, the Spider-Man clone. However, when Mayday asked her dad about him, Peter left out the fact that Ben was really Peter's clone.

Also, if Spider-Girl had any children in the future, they too would have an Uncle Ben - May's baby brother, and Peter & MJ's second child. However, it is unknown after whom the young Ben was named - as Peter & MJ named May after Peter's Aunt May, Mayday asked which Uncle Ben the newborn was named after, her Uncle Ben, or his (Peter's) Uncle Ben. Peter then asked if it really mattered, which May responded to with "I guess not".

Alternate versions

Earth-616

May Parker also exists in the primary Earth-616 timeline in which most Marvel Comics are set. However, her status is unknown and she is believed to be dead.

Mary Jane became pregnant at the beginning of the Clone Saga. Impending fatherhood was one of the main reasons Peter retired as Spider-Man during that storyline, giving the name to Ben Reilly instead. However, at the end of the story, Mary Jane was poisoned by Alison Mongraine, an agent of the Green Goblin. Mary Jane's baby was stillborn (or seemed to be, as Mongraine apparently took the sedated infant away with her). Ben Reilly died at the Green Goblin's hands the same night, and Peter Parker became Spider-Man again.

Unlike in the MC2 continuity, baby May and her parents were never reunited. Editors have repeatedly stated that the baby died, or at the very least will not be seen again; the baby was considered a major factor in the "aging" of the characters. However, no proof of her death was ever shown, it was clearly implied that she was kidnapped, and Alison Mongraine and Kaine were never conclusively shown to have died either. As no proof has been shown and the baby's return is a frequent fan request, baby May is considered a prime candidate for eventual resurrection.

Earth X

There are two variant and alternate universe versions of Spider-Girl. One was raised by a Ben Reilly who survived after her father died during her childhood, as seen What If? vol. 2 #86, and later revealed in the Paradise X: Heralds mini-series. Another version of Spider-Girl is actually Venom, who is seen in the Earth X mini-series and its two sequels, Universe X and Paradise X.

The world of MC2 is designated as "Earth-982". The world where Spider-Girl was raised by Ben Reilly is known as "Earth-1122" and the world featuring Venom as Spider-Girl along with the other heroes of the Earth X saga is known as "Earth-9997".

Ultimate Marvel

An Ultimate version of Spider-Girl is set to debut during the upcoming Clone Saga storyline in Ultimate Spider-Man. Marvel has released a preview of her costume, from the cover of Ultimate Spider-Man #98, seen [here]. The costume is reminiscent of both Spider-Woman II and Venom. This Spider-Girl may in fact be Ultimate Shadowcat, who has become Ultimate Spider-Man's crime fighting partner and has in the past donned alternative costumes to fit in with the 'Spider-Man look' (such as a costume that incorporated his distinctive large eye-pieces).

Action Figures

See also

External links

Bibliography

Reprints

Trade paperback

Digests

 

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