They Seem To Be In The Wrong Mind For This

Last week, in the first half of my reviews, I was a tad dismissive of the fact that Amazing Spider-Girl appears to be wrapping up with Mayday battling Norman Osborn inside Peter Parker's subconscious. I have to say, that last sentence looks very strange actually typed out, and I've been thinking a bit about the whys of that.

At first, I thought it was because combat in the realm of the mind is outside Spider-Girl's usual ballpark. Well, that is true, but it's not like it was in Spider-Man's wheelhouse either, but I could see him having a battle like that. Still, I could see Spider-Man in a struggle like that. Maybe that's because of all those stories DeMatteis wrote that dealt with the inner workings of Peter's mind* that I read as a kid. Or it could be due to the character himself. I can't remember where I read it (probably multiple places), but someone said that Spider-Man is such a well-defined character that as long as you portray him "properly", he can be in that story and it's not so odd. So he can find himself face-to-face with Thanos, and if you show Spidey being freaked out, feeling totally outclassed, but still trying to do something to stop Thanos, or at least louse up his plans, then it can work.

She hasn't had anywhere the publishing history her dad has, but for me at least, Spider-Girl is a similarly well-defined character**, to the point I haven't batted an eye when she's gone into the Negative Zone to try and help the Fantastic Five against a Skrull bent on revenge, or if she follows that up with getting mixed up in another gang war. So I don't think it's that.

Some months ago, when I was reviewing some issue of Amazing Spider-Girl back when the Other May first showed up, and I wasn't too enthused with the issue, the Fortress Keeper suggested something to the effect that meeting this Other May, and the doubts it would raise about her own origins would ultimately lead to Mayday emerging from this with a stronger sense of herself, and an idea of how to balance the different parts of her lives (I would be in complete support of that result). This seems like the time for that, with the Other May exposed as some weird Parker/symbiont hybrid that's helping Osborn, but the fight's happening in Peter's mind?

Granted, Mayday's already had a run through her mind, dealing with some of her own doubts about being Spider-Girl, but there's still this other version of herself to deal with. Yet the focus seems to be on helping her father finally get past the specter of Norman {Expletive Deleted} Osborn. Which doesn't feel like an issue Mayday has to work through. Yeah, Norman had her abducted from the hospital as a baby, but she doesn't recall any of that. The most influence Norman's had on Mayday is how royally her screwed up his grandson. Maybe I'm just on Norman Osborn overload, but it feels like this is really going to come down to Peter against Norman, again, which would sort of push Mayday to the side in the final issue of her own title. I'm sure she'll play some important role, but it's going to come down to Peter getting on his fight and booting Norman out of his mind, you know?

* The Child Within, as one example.

** Probably it really helps to have had essentially just one writer for the character's entire existence. Has to make a consistent vision of the character more attainable.