Spider-Girl's fighting Aftershock, who I think was introduced in the only issue of the original 100 issue run not written by Tom DeFalco (issue 51, written by Sean McKeever). Aftershock's not doing so hot here, as the armored car she attacked was empty at the time, which the driver tried to tell her.
What should therefore be a pretty easy win against an idiot goes sideways when Mayday's distracted by her cellphone. She dodges the next attack without thinking and aggravates some recently injured ribs, landing in a pile of garbage. Yep, she's Spider-Man's daughter, all right.
Mary Jane tried playing peacemaker, but the forecast is chilly at school the next day when Mayday gets a call from the Avengers. Electro showed up at the mansion, demanding to speak to Spider-Man. He initially dismisses Spider-Girl as a 'teen sidekick,' then revises it to 'secretary' when she explains no one gets to see Spider-Man without going through her.
Peter throws on the old costume to meet Electro (who, in a nice touch, recognizes Spidey's walking with a limp, because he's missing a leg from the knee down). Aftershock is Max Dillon's kid, but he's stayed away from her. Partially because the mom insisted, partially because his aura and his daughter's are on different frequencies, so it hurts them both to make physical contact. There's even a picture in the file Max is carrying that shows him and what is supposed to be a baby, but looks like Tiny Gerald Ford reacting badly.
Peter agrees to help, musing how awful it would be not to be able to hold your child. In the middle of that, all the younger Avengers show up, because they all want to meet Spider-Man. Which is cool, that he's considered one of the greats by the next generation, and lets his daughter see a different side of him.
Mayday finds Aftershock robbing a jewelry store. Hopefully she didn't grab costume jewelry. Spider-Girl's holding back, leaping about and just slapping Aftershock instead of full on punching her. All that really accomplishes is pissing the girl off, and she blasts Mayday from the street to a rooftop at least a couple of stories up. Aftershock vows to 'melt the flesh off your scrawny bones,' but the Avengers arrive, and electricity can't get through melt the Juggernaut's kid (or, unfortunately, the flannel shirt he wears around his waist.)
Aftershock's not exactly happy to see her dad, and he considers bailing, but Peter gives him the speech about how parents can't ever give up, and so Max hugs his daughter. This hurts, but it seems like it fades after a few panels. I guess their bio-electric auras adapted or merged with each other given time, it was just Max never stuck it out long enough for that to happen before. Which is understandable. If your kid screams in pain every time you so much as touch them, you would probably stop doing that.
At home that night, the Parker family discuss what'll happen to Aftershock (she's a minor, so a light sentence or paroled into Max's custody is Peter's guess). Peter and Mayday stay up to talk and Mary Jane finds them asleep on the couch at 3 a.m., having apparently buried the hatchet. Except the cover for the next issue reminds me that Normie's about to get bonded to the Venom symbiote, so that'll be another thing to make Peter wary. But haven't we all had a friend our parents distrusted because they were forcibly bonded to a brain-eating alien slime mold?
{10th longbox, 88th comic. Spider-Girl #81, by Tom DeFalco (writer), Ron Frenz (writer/art breakdowns), Sal Buscema (finished art), Gotham (colorist), Dave Sharpe (letterer)}
2 comments:
I remember Spider-Girl was somewhat popular around the time I was getting back into comics around 1998 or so, but by that point it was well into its run so I never picked it up.
Is it good? Because your summary makes it seem quite fun.
It's very much a Tom DeFalco-written comic, so your mileage may vary on that. He was writing Amazing Spider-Man when I first started reading comics, so his style on a Spider-character feels normal to me, but it's a very particular style, I know. Lots of dramatic monologues about not giving up, and the dialogue is stuff that pretty much no high-schooler would use. And since Mayday's existence spun out of the Clone Saga-era, there are a lot of elements from that time involved. Kaine is the most prominent example.
On the other hand, DeFalco actually builds a supporting cast for Mayday, in costume and out. He fleshes them out and gives them subplots of their own that eventually take center stage. There's usually a lot going on in any given issue so you feel like you get your money's worth. He uses some pre-existing villains, and some new ones that are either legacy villains or entirely new characters, which is nice.
If you can track down one of the early trades or manga-sized digests they did, I'd recommend it. That'd probably give you a good idea of whether it worked for you enough to want to keep going.
Post a Comment