Spider-Girl is Dead, Long Live Amazing Spider-Girl!
October 16, 2006 | 2 Comments
![Amazing_spider-girl-1[1]](http://static.flickr.com/110/270710622_f382b7f396_m.jpg)
After 100 hugely successful issues, the Spider-Girl run was ended. However, this was ended to begin an all new line called Amazing Spider-Girl. I’m not entirely sure why, possibly marketing? Does this make for an easier jumping on point? It seems odd considering many of the other titles recently went back to some old numbering to clear up some of these odd on again off again renumberings. Amazing Spider-Man is the most recent having had put it’s numbers back with issue 500, which was previously numbered volume 2 number 59.
Anyway, back to Spider-Girl… If you love classic Spider-Man style action, Spider-Girl may be just what you are looking for. Mayday Parker is the daughter of Peter in an alternate future. She’s still in high school and dealing with many of the topics and conflicts which made the original Amazing Spider-Man stories classic and wonderful.
I highly recommend you pick up Amazing Spider-Girl #0 which gives a complete recap of what happened in the 100 issue run of Spider-Girl. This will put you in a good place to pickup and enjoy the new Amazing Spider-Girl!
Tags: amazing spider girl, amazing spidergirl, mayday, mayday parker, parker, peter parker, spider-girl, spider-man, spidergirl, spiderman
End of Spider-Girl
June 27, 2006 | 4 Comments
Spider-Girl originally started as a spin-off of What If #105 in 1998. This blossomed into the longest running series with a female protagonist in the Marvel universe. Unfortunately the title finally comes to an end with issue #100 in a couple weeks.
Spider-Girl was just one of several characters that made up the MC2 universe. Also of interest in MC2 is A-Next (a new Avengers team), J2 (a hero son of Juggernaut), Fantastic Five (an expanded Fantastic Four family), and Wild Thing (daughter of Wolverine and Elektra). All these other series ran as either short mini series or they were quickly cancelled.
The original Spider-Man formula worked well when Peter needed to balance the pressures of high school with being a super hero. Spider-Girl had the advantage of returning to this setting. The character development and classic Spidey back history tie ins made for a fun read. I intentionally included an image of Spider-Girl highlighting both her black and red suits which she tends to wear interchangeably later in the series. Having always loved the Spider-Man black suit this was fun for me as well as in character with May’s desire to have alternate choices of fashion.
This is not the first cancellation Spider-Girl has faced. When it was saved most recently, press and internet buzz led me to pick up the comic for the first time. Anything fans felt strongly enough to fight for was worth a look. It was this purchase that single handedly reinvigorated my faith in comic writing. After the events of the Spider-Man clone saga, I put down my books and never thought I’d be all that interested again. However, my weekly pull list has since expanded to insane quantities sometimes reaching double digits.
Spider-Girl, I will miss you.
Tags: marvel, mayday parker, parker, spider-girl, spidergirl
Rekindled Spider-Man Interest
November 19, 2004 | 5 Comments
As a kid I was a big comic book fan. I read a whole pile of random stuff, but I eventually found myself most intrigued by Spider-Man. Something about his balance of troubled real life and super powered hero life kept my attention, like many others. Anyway, I went on to subscribe to “Amazing Spider-Man” for a bunch of years, and additionally sprinkled in a few years subscription of “Spectacular Spider-Man”, “Web of Spider-Man”, and “Spider-Man” Amazing has historically always been the core title for the series. The basic accepted mythology all stems from this title (currently all the way up to #513. I possess #330 consecutively through to #441. At that point the numbering started back at #1 through to #10 or so. At this point I had stopped reading, but hadn’t cancelled my subscription. So, I’m not certain where my numbers stop since I wasn’t paying real close attention at this point. Anyway, when they reached #58 this year, they should really go back to the old numbering with what should be #500. All confusing I realize, but you’ll just have to trust me or go look it up yourself.
A few years ago, just before the new movie came out, I began to start thinking about ol’ spidey again. I dusted off my old comics, read through a bunch, and decided to reup my subscription to Amazing. I read a few issues, but realized two things. First, I was a bit out of it, times had changed, the story had progressed and I was lost. Second, I wasn’t hugely fond of the artwork currently being presented. Ahh, but there was a glimmer of hope!
While trying to search down some back story info I discovered a fantastic website all about Spidey, and extremely thorough, SpiderFan.org. On their site they had an article about another comic, Spider-Girl. I bought an issue and was immediately hooked. Here was the great story telling and art I remembered from Marvel! I then found a paperback that compiled #1-5, unfortunately it isn’t the best quality and is a bit small. Oh well, my main desire is to read the stories, so I guess it’ll have to do.
At this point I was sucked back into the Marvel Universe and wanted to know what other new series were Spider-Man associated and good to read. I picked up a Spectacular and read an online version of Ultimate Spider-Man. Spectacular has an art style I really dislike, and the storyline didn’t seem to fit into any reality I was familiar with. I just couldn’t get accustomed, so I put it aside. The Ultimate series suffered similar confusion for me, but I could see that they had entirely rebuilt the storyline from the ground up here. It was in fact a retelling of the entire mythology, but with a more modern take. This seemed interesting, and the online reviews were very positive. I was able to pick up a great anthology starting from #1 through to #### in Barnes and Noble. I tore through this in 2 days! The writing, artwork, and remastering of this classic series was amazing. Highly suggested to anyone at all interested in Spider-Man. Now I need to try to get caught up to the current issue by buying as many of the trades as possible.
I then found “Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, Volume 1″ which is a reprint of Amazing #1-10. It was a lot of fun to read these classics from the 60s. Of course I then had to buy Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 4, each containing 10 more issues in succession. This has me convinced that I need to somehow compile the entire Amazing series from #1 all the way up to modern day. Currently the Marvel Masterworks series for Amazing only brings me up through #60. That leaves a gap of 270 issues between there and where my consecutive issues begin. Additionally, there are another 65 or so after my collection ends. The short of it is I have a lot of collecting to do before I can complete this set. My main driving force is to be able to read the story, unabridged, from beginning to end.
The following are some additional compilations I have found that should help me along my way:
Amazing
—————-
MM Vol 5 (41-50)
MM Vol 6 (51-60)
More ASM that might prove useful:
88-92
BO v3 [HC] (2:46-58 & 500)
v2:57-58 & 500-502
503-508
Spider-Girl
—————–
6-11
Ultimate
—————–
ULT HC V4 (40-45 & 47-53)
ULT HC V5 (46 & ULT6 1-7) + V10
=================================================================
Others… But of WAY lower interest/priority…
PPSSM
—————–
2:1-5
2:6-10
2:11-14
Other Others
—————–
Blue
Tags: comics, marvel, marvel comics, spider-girl, spider-man, spidergirl, spiderman, superhero, ultimate spiderman