TITLE: Spider-Girl vol. 1, Issue #1
YEAR: October 1998
COMPANY: Marvel Comics
Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciler: Pat Oliffe
Inker: Al Williamson
Colorist: Christie Scheele
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Chief: Bob Harras
The year 1998 and Marvel Comics debuted MC2 (Marvel Comics 2), featuring an alternative future timeline for the Marvel Universe.
Conceived by Tom DeFalco, the storyline takes place 15 years later and among the titles released were “A-Next” (a new team of Avengers after the original Avengers disbanded), J2 (Juggernaut’s son), Fantastic Five and Wild Thing (featuring Wolverine and Elektra’s daughter) and the most popular of the MC2 titles, “Spider-Girl”.
And I say “popular” because it had a following but not a major seller for Marvel as the comic book has been threatened to be canceled many times and no matter how many campaigns popped up to keep the comic going, Marvel would ultimately cancel the series at issue #100. The series would be continued in 2006 with “The Amazing Spider-Girl” which lasted for 30 issues and then a 12-issue series with “The Spectacular Spider-Girl” in 2009. Until creating a new “Spider-Girl” series not connected to the MC2 universe and actually featuring a new character and taking place on Earth 616 but only lasted for eight issues.
“Spider-Girl” is set in the MC2 universe and May “Mayday” Parker is the teenage daughter of Peter and Mary Jane Parker.
Spider-Man has no longer been around and Peter Parker, he works for the police lab and has not been Spider-Man since losing his leg. But what mom and dad don’t know is that their daughter has the same powers as her father.
As May talks to her Uncle Phil Urich about what made Spider-Man become Spider-Man, she learns that he ignored a call for help and allowed a fleeing burglar to escape capture and that burglar murdered someone very close to him. He had a purpose.
One day, while walking with her father, both of their spider-sense goes off and when May goes to check, she sees a mysterious guy following her father.
She follows him and disrupts his plans but when she decks out in a disguise and follows where the man was taken, she sees the man being beaten buy a group of thugs and when one of them spots her, she goes into fighting mode. But she runs into a man who has the ability to teleport.
Who is this mysterious man working for? And what happens when police look through evidence and discover webbing reminiscent to Spider-Man’s webbing?
Overall, a wonderful first issue to kick-off the MC2 Universe and Spider-Girl. Unfortunately, this comic book was released during a time when the industry was still in a crappy situation and where female superheroes having their own comic book series were not as prominent. Now you have Ms. Marvel, Hellcat, Squirrel Girl, Silk with their own issues but you can’t help but give fans major props for keeping this title relevant longer than any of the MC2 comics which last for a year or less. The fact the comic lasted for 100 issues is a testament of how loyal of a fanbase the series had.
And while there is another Spider-Girl featured in the Earth 616 comics, you can’t help but have appreciation for the success the original Spider-Girl had back then. And it’s even more surprising that it has been nearly 20-years when the original issue was released.
But I can’t help but hope May Parker as Spider-Girl makes her return in the near future.