Comic Info
Comic Name: Spider-Girl
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Writer: Tom DeFalco
Artist: Ron Frenz
# of Issues: 6
Release Date: 2010
Spider-Girl #69
Reprints Spider-Girl #67-72 (February 2004-June 2004). May is up to her neck in trouble. Problems at school with Brad and Nancy’s recent outing as mutant have made it a hostile environment. With an uneasy alliance between herself and Black Tarantula, May finds herself in combat with the “new” Doctor Octopus as she tries to keep JJ out of trouble as the Buzz. It isn’t easy being Spider-Girl.
Written by Tom DeFalco, Spider-Girl Volume 12: The Games Villains Play is part of Marvel’s digest series. Following Spider-Girl Volume 11: Marked for Death, the collection features art by Ron Frenz. Spider-Girl 12: The Games Villains Play is the last digest collection made of the original Spider-Girl series.
Spider-Girl was just fun. Her character was in line with the original Peter Parker. It managed to capture a lot of what made the original Amazing Spider-Man series fun. Not only did it “modernize” the stories by following May “Mayday” Parker, but it also had plenty of throwbacks to the original series…this volume included.
Spider-Girl #70
Each volume of Spider-Girl is generally loaded with standard stand-alone issues but also continuous plotlines. The storytelling is a lot like the original Amazing Spider-Man in that it isn’t very “arc” inspired. This volume has stories that dovetail into the last volume, and it doesn’t really feel that this is a story as much as a collection of issues…which is a pleasant change in the current world of comics.
The stories have a lot of throwbacks to old Spider-Man with appearances by Man-Wolf and the new “old” Dr. Octopus. May also starts to get more involved with Black Tarantula who was a newer Spider-Man villain at the time. I like that there was an appearance by J2 and a cameo by the Avengers…I wish that the series had done a bit more of that since both the J2 and A-Next lines never really succeeded.
I was pretty upset that Spider-Girl 12: The Games Villains Play was the end of Marvel’s Spider-Girl digest series. Spider-Girl only went to Spider-Girl #100 and it felt like that Marvel could have at least tried to reach that to finish the series collection. Even more surprising is that issues #73-#100 haven’t been collected anywhere. Spider-Girl was always a series that limped along in sales, but I have to say it was a great series with a nice strong lead. I know that May will continue to pop-up, but I think this is her at her finest.
