Showing posts with label Battlebooks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Battlebooks. Show all posts

Thursday 27 July 2023

Mayday's Eyes

 

With Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse bringing more attention to our favourite MC2-alumni with the introduction of Peter B Parker and Mary Jane Watson-Parker’s adorable baby daughter Mayday Parker, I thought now would be the perfect time to discuss Mayday’s Eyes.

 


One of the most notable talking points in the lead-up to Across the Spider-Verse was baby Mayday’s unique eye colour choice; heterochromia. This was seen in the officially released concept art which coincided with the first trailer’s debut online. With one iris blue and the other brown the design was distinctive, but having viewed the film, it did not appear to have been retained for the character as she appeared on screen. Unless I am mistaken, baby Mayday on the big screen had two blue eyes. Presumably in both cases the intent was to show Mayday inherited her eye colour from her parents, with Peter B having brown eyes and this Mary Jane having blue eyes in her brief appearances.

 







Now, let’s take look at the eye colour of the MC2’s May ‘Mayday’ Parker. While the comics have often been inconsistent with varying eye colours between issues, there is one colour that Mayday appears to have more consistently: blue. This is supported by a rather obscure source for official character information: Spider-Girl Battlebook: Streets of Fire. As I mentioned a very long time ago, with a cover date of November 1998, this was the first published source to provide officially approved physical characteristics for May ‘Mayday’ Parker.

 



However, when the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Women of Marvel 2005 gave us a full profile for Spider-Girl, Mayday was instead listed as having brown eyes. This was corrected to blue once again when the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Hardcover Vol. 11 updated the profile information. It is worth noting that the Main Marvel Universe and MC2 Mary Jane is firmly established to have green eyes and similarly, Peter has hazel eyes.


 


Now, let us look at one other aspect of May ‘Mayday’ Parker’s eyes you may not have considered: poor vision. If we go all the way back to the beginning with What If #105, we do briefly glimpse May rocking glasses, presumably for some kind of vision impairment. Notably, this instance takes place shortly after Mayday’s powers first manifested during a basketball game and she does not continue to wear them in future appearances. As far as I can tell, the only other occasions of May donning eyewear are for the purposes of fashion, disguise, or safety such as Spider-Girl #42, #60, #65 and Amazing Spider-Girl #20.


 






What is interesting is May did not revert to using glasses when she lost her spider-powers following her battle with Killerwatt in Spider-Girl #25. Maybe Mayday only uses glasses in some circumstances or her spider-powers had already ‘healed’ any deficit in her eye-sight? It is not a certainty, though Peter has not returned to using his glasses on the occasions his own spider-powers have been lost.

 

Until I gain some perspective and take a long-sighted view on what I focus on, *eye* remain

 

frogoat

 

 



Thursday 20 June 2013

Collector-Mania

So, I've been away from the keyboard for a long while now, and it comes with great joy that return to this haunt of mine and slip back into the habit.  But let's take baby steps first, start easy, shall we?

I've mentioned a few times my quest to collect all things Spider-Girl and MC2. Guess what I found online? German Spider-Girl comics! Oh, yes. You heard me right! They are reprints of early Spider-Girl issues, including #10 and #11, the time travel two-parter. I love that story! And now I can enjoy it in TWO languages...if I could read German, that is. Oops.

My simply wonderful partner-in-life bought me the much-sought-after First Appearance Spider-Girl figure, completing the MC2 set of ladies. If you're curious, the others in the set are American Dream, Stinger and Wild Thing. Having the full set is wonderful, even if the...um...... proportions are a little impractical. I may cover these figures later.


Sorry, only have a stock image at the moment.


While I'm on figures I finally (FINALLY!!!) found a Famous Cover Series Spider-Girl figure for a somewhat reasonable price.Mint in the box to boot! It's interesting the amount of items that came out within the first year or so of the MC2's imprint's run. Speaking of which...



During my occasionally *cough*frequent*cough* eBay crawls, I've come across this particular item: Battlebooks: Spider-Girl. What is it? Um...I've almost entirely no idea. An examination of this 'comic' reveals page after page of static images of our hero Spider-Girl reacting to various 'actions' as dictated by a matrix of number codes indicated by a card included inside the comic. Confused? Me too. Also, you need a friend with another, different book. Nuts to that, I say.

Until I get ever last stinkin' one of these collectables, I remain

frogoat