Mattie Franklin in the MC2

Today’s post is all about Mattie Franklin aka Spider-Woman, the mysteries surrounding her place in the MC2 and maybe a few surprises along the way. Mattie presents us with a somewhat rare case of a character who was created after the clearest divergence point between the Main Marvel Universe and the Universe of the MC2, but still exists in some form within the MC2.

Martha ‘Mattie’ Franklin was the third character in the Main Marvel Universe to be granted the super heroic moniker of Spider-Woman. Her debut and solo title ran concurrently with May ‘Mayday’ Parker’s own Spider-Girl title. Mattie was given a pretty obvious push from editorial, appearing frequently in the early days of the Howard Mackie and John Byrne-led Spider-Man reboot era of the late 90’s leading into her aforementioned comic series.

 With her series ending after just 18 issues, Mattie languished in obscurity, only appearing in two stories before meeting her end in the the post-One More Day story ‘Grim Hunt’. The first appearance, a storyline in the ‘mature’ series Alias by Brian Michael Bendis where Mattie mostly appears in a drugged state as the victim of several indignities. The second story, the Loners mini-series written by C.B. Cebulski, depicted Mattie as a member of a support group for recovering former superheroes. Between both stories, details such as a familial relationship to the Jameson’s are erroneously depicted, because clearly no one was paying enough attention. Mattie would reach her unceremonious and meanspirited demise in the post-One More Day story ‘Grim Hunt.’

Let’s start by taking a look at her first appearances in the Main Marvel Universe. Mattie cameoed in the shadows in Spectacular Spider-Man #262 where she overhears her father being coerced into participating in the Gathering of Five ritual by Norman Osborn. Taking part in this ritual herself in Amazing Spider-Man #441 alongside Madame Web, Morris Maxwell, Gregory Herd and Norman Osborn, Mattie would (unbeknownst to everyone at the time) gain the gift of great power. Later, Mattie would use these powers to take on the mantle of Spider-Man during the original hero’s absence. Shortly after, Mattie would gain the spider-powers of the previous Spider-Women and a new, evil Spider-Woman (Charlotte Witter).

The most obvious issue with Mattie Franklin’s existence in the MC2 is the Gathering of Five and Final Chapter storylines, which saw Norman Osborn use the aforementioned ritual in an attempt to gain further power through mystical means, along with the ridiculous resurrection of Aunt May, despite following several hints that Peter and Mary Jane’s baby May was still alive. You see, in the MC2, these events not only don’t play out in this way, they also occur much later in the timeline.

The first appearance of Mattie Franklin in the MC2 is during a flashback in Spider-Girl #39 when Julia Carpenter (the second Spider-Woman) is discussing how ‘all the Spider-Women’ used to use Peter Parker to relay messages to Spider-Man. We get a glimpse of Mattie in her original Spider-Woman costume, alongside a youthful looking Madame Web.

We next glimpse Mattie Franklin’s Spider-Woman in another flashback, this time courtesy of Gerry Drew, the son of Jessica Drew, the original Spider-Woman. Here we see Mattie is still wearing her original costume and appears to be meeting with her two predecessors. Notably Jessica is in plain clothes and apparently depowered while Julia seems to retain her abilities, appearing in Spider-Woman costume (Spider-Girl #40).

Mattie Franklin makes her final MC2 appearance to date during a flashback in Spider-Girl #49, which coincidentally is also chronologically her earliest appearance. Taking place during the MC2 version of the Gathering of Five, the flashback depicts Mattie as a participant of the ceremony just as her Main Marvel Universe counterpart had done before her. And I mean ‘before’ in more than just publication order, because the MC2’s Gathering of Five ceremony takes place sometime later than the one seen in the Main Marvel Universe. This is Spider-Man’s last battle with Norman Osborn, with Peter losing his leg and the Goblin ultimately losing his life. As the ritual was interrupted before completion and we see Mattie fleeing with the Five pieces, we can assume she later successfully completed the ritual and thus gained the ‘gift’ of power.

It’s unknown who else participated in this new Gathering of Five ceremony, but as we see a youthful Madame Web in Spider-Girl #39 alongside Mattie, it’s logical to conclude that she was one of the five and gained the ‘gift’ of immortality just like her Main Marvel Universe counterpart. Even if all the remaining original participants had taken part in ritual again, that leaves the vacant spot once held by Norman Osborn that an unknown person must have filled.



So, let’s revisit the timeline of events with a bit more overall context from other events in the MC2, shall we? It goes a little something like this:

• Norman Osborn, for unknown reasons does not enact the Gathering of Five ritual until much later in the MC2, likely as a result of setting up other schemes and masterplans in the meantime.

• Eventually, Kaine rescues and returns Peter and Mary Jane Parker’s baby May to them.

• Spider-Man has several adventures while raising May including those seen in the Mr and Mrs Spider-Man stories.

• Mattie Franklin steals her father’s piece and joins willingly in the Gathering of Five ritual alongside Norman Osborn, Greg Herd, Madame Web (Cassandra Webb) and Morris Maxwell. The ritual is interrupted Spider-Man before it’s completion.

• Mattie flees, taking the pieces for the ritual with her. Spider-Man loses his leg and Norman Osborn dies in their final battle.

• At some point afterwards, Mattie, Madame Web and others successfully complete the ritual.  This ritual gifts Mattie with power and restores Madame Web’s youth.

• Mattie uses her powers to become a superhero, taking on the mantle of Spider-Woman.

• Jessica Drew, having apparently never regained her spider-powers, encounters Julia Carpenter and Mattie Franklin under unrevealed circumstances.

• At some point, Mattie made contact with Peter Parker, in an apparent attempt to get messages to Spider-Man.

• According to Anya Corazon, Madame Web died at some point, despite her apparent immortality (Amazing Spider-Girl #14).

Though Anya isn’t the best source of reliable information, I think it’s safe to assume that Madame Web did in fact pass away. Given that the various ‘gifts’ from the Gathering of Five began to fade over time in the Main Marvel Universe, it’s likely Madame Web succumbed to her disease or of old age in the MC2. I mention this because it might help to explain Mattie Franklin’s absence in the present day MC2 if her powers simply faded away and forced her to retire.



Going by the established timeline of events, Anya Corazon aka Araña was active as a superheroine before Mattie Franklin gained powers in the MC2, having encountered a still-active Spider-Man during a flashback seen in the Spider-Man Family One-Shot.

There are a few more points to briefly discuss, such as Charlotte Witter aka the villainous fourth Spider-Woman who drained the powers of her heroic predecessors. Created by Doctor Octavius aka Doctor Octopus, this Spider-Woman not only didn’t debut in the Main Marvel Universe until after the aforementioned point where the MC2 takes a drastically different path, it’s possible Charlotte Witter was never kidnapped, tortured and experimented upon at all. Assuming this is to be true, Mattie would never have obtained the various spider-powers of her predecessors, nor the ability to manifest psychic spider legs from Witter. Well, at least Mattie had a spider-themed costume, right?!

While not appearing in the issue itself, we do see Mattie Franklin amongst an assortment of other superheroines on the cover to Spider-Girl #60, again sporting her original Spider-Woman costume. You might have to take a close look as she’s only partially visible at the very top of the image.

It’s also worth mentioning that the boutique Spider Shoppe -which produces clothing based on the designs of various Spider-Women- stocks a full-mask cosplay variation of Mattie Franklin’s last Spider-Woman costume, which we see Davida Kirby wear in Spider-Girl #91 as part of a diversion to defeat La Fantome. This could be an indication that Mattie did in fact wear this costume at some point in her super hero career in the MC2.

Unfortunately, I think that’s everything, all that we know about the short-run Mattie Franklin in the MC2. While she was never a particularly well written character, I do think Martha had a great deal of untapped potential that was undercut by her introduction in such a poorly-conceived and poorly-received era for the Spider-Man mythos. It’s ironic that Mattie would be written into the history of the MC2, given that the character was seen by fans at the time as a rival to May’s own title. In fact, Mattie’s creator John Byrne is quoted as remarking ‘The Spider-GIRL series is dead. SPIDER-WOMAN continues to do quite nicely, thank you.’ in an AOL chat room in December 1999, just a year before his book’s cancellation. Later when discussing another cancelled book, X-Men: The Hidden Years, Byrne claimed the book was selling ‘better than SPIDER-GIRL, for instance, which has been “saved” from cancellation.’



Despite this apparent animosity on Byrne’s part, Defalco’s inclusion of Mattie into the Spider-Girl series demonstrates a remarkable level of professionalism. This type of decorum from Defalco is also seen later with the integration of the aforementioned Anya Corazon aka Araña, another short-lived rival to Mayday’s title, into the history of the MC2.



Until I gamble everything on an occult ritual in an attempt to gain power, I remain



frogoat

                                                                                                                                           

The Venom Symbiote Family Tree

I thought since it’s nearly Halloween and I had some free time; I might offer up a creepy and gooey MC2 Family Tree for your approval. This time we’ll be looking at very different kind of family, one that’s not even human! Today, we’ll look into The Venom Symbiote Family Tree!

*Before we dive right in, the usual rules: For the purposes of these family trees, I accept that MC2 characters share their published history (up to a point) with their 616/Main Marvel Universe counterparts. I make exceptions for any retcons implemented after the point the MC2 diverges from the 616 and in cases where it's explicitly or implicitly different (Aunt May really died) or when a writer later introduces a previously unheard of relative (the Pym family) who is never mentioned, seen or heard of in the MC2. With the last exception, I would add them to the family tree in later updates should they be mentioned in MC2 material at any point. Got it? Excellent!*

The Alien Symbiote later known as one half of the villain-turned-anti-hero Venom first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #252. This story was published before the events which preceded it in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 where we see Spider-Man pick up the alien costume for the first time. I think we all know how things turn out. Peter finds out the costume is an alien symbiote trying to bond with him permanently, he rejects it before it comes back and he drives it off using a church bell. In Amazing Spider-Man #299 and #300 we learn that it later bonded with someone who hates Spider-Man and blames him for his problems: Eddie Brock. The two became Venom and the rest is history. You can find more about Venom in the MC2 here.

It turns out symbiotes produce asexually as we learn when the Venom Symbiote breaks Eddie Brock free from prison, leaving behind its spawned offspring. This offspring would join with Brock’s cellmate, serial killer Cletus Kasady to become Carnage. The Carnage symbiote first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #345 before being led on a rampage of random murders by its host. It’s worth noting that Eddie Brock was unaware of this spawn until alerted to the threat by Spider-Man. It’s also probably important to mention that upon consulting with his own symbiote, Brock is told the symbiote’s race reproduce once per generation and have no social structure or concept of family (Amazing Spider-Man #362). Keep that in mind. For more on Carnage in the MC2, see here and look forward to another post next year about Cletus Kasady. 

Venom would get his own series in the form of continual mini-series starting with Venom: Lethal Protector. It’s here that we learn the Life Foundation has forcibly removed five ‘seeds’ from the Venom Symbiote and accelerated their physical maturation. So, I guess Venom was incorrect or lying when it said they only produce once per generation? It is mentioned that the fifth ‘seed’ they take is the ‘final’ one, so maybe six spawn is the limit instead of one? The five spawn are bonded with volunteer security personnel from the Life Foundation to act as ‘Guardians’ of the organisations twisted plans (Venom: Lethal Protector #4-#5).

The first of these five ‘Guardians’ we see is a Yellow Symbiote with prehensile hair tendrils when bonded to its host, but we soon meet a Grey Symbiote, a Green Symbiote, a Lavender Symbiote and an Orange Symbiote. All five symbiotes are seemingly destroyed using the same device that accelerated their growth (Venom: Lethal Protector #5). A short time later, in the Venom: Separation Anxiety mini series we learn that the five symbiotes and their hosts survived and had rejected the Life Foundation and its world views. Seeking out Eddie Brock to help them, the ‘Guardians’ liberated him in hopes he would teach them how to communicate and control their symbiotes.

Things deteriorate when Leslie (host of the Lavender Symbiote) is murdered and the group blames Brock. Ramon, Trevor and Carl (hosts of the Green, Grey and Orange Symbiotes) would also be slain before Donna (host of the Yellow Symbiote) was revealed as the killer, driven by her schizophrenia to murder all who bond with symbiotes (Venom: Lethal Protector #1-4).

A bit of a detour now, as I want to talk about common misconceptions among fans regarding these five Life Foundation symbiotes. They are never given codenames on-panel in any of their appearances. While all five Life Foundation symbiotes appeared previously in the Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety video game from 1995, all five go unnamed throughout.  However two of the five were released as action figures for a line of toys called Venom: Planet of the Symbiotes where they were dubbed as follows: ‘Scream’ for Donna’s symbiote and ‘Lasher’ for Ramon’s symbiote. The names of two other unrelated action figures were also erroneously applied to Trevor and Carl’s symbiotes: ‘Riot’ and ‘Phage’ by some fans. Leslie’s codename of ‘Agony’ appears to come from nowhere official. Apart from Scream, these names would eventually be assigned to the various symbiote characters in 2011’s Carnage, U.S.A. #2 years after their initial hosts death’s.

As for Donna aka Scream, not only had she been given solo appearances in the Spider-Man titles seeking Venom’s aid prior to the events of Separation Anxiety, she would go onto appear in two further mini-series, Venom: The Hunted and Venom: Tooth and Claw as a more sympathetic character who helps children but also fluctuates between helping fellow symbiote-hosts and hunting them. While all five Life Foundation symbiotes appeared previously in the Venom/Spider-Man: Separation Anxiety video game from 1995, all five go unnamed. As mentioned above, her codename Scream appears to originate from an action figure produced in 1996, despite which she is simply called ‘Female Symbiote’ only in other merchandise such as collectable trading cards. 

Even more trivia: Scream appears in the Theme Park ride The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man opened in 1999 as a member of the Sinister Syndicate led by Doctor Octopus. It’s a lesser known fact that this ride has a tie-in comic which identifies the character as Scream, making it the earliest on-panel reference to the name, albeit likely not one from the Main Marvel Universe (Marvel Super Hero Island Adventure #1). The Civil War: Battle Damage Report handbook would finally identify her as Scream in 2007. What was the point of noting all of these naming-facts? To make it clear why I used quotation marks for all five symbiotes in in my Venom Symbiote Family Tree above. None of the Life Foundation Symbiote characters began using the codenames fans attributed to them until well after the MC2 diverged.

The four host-less Life Foundation Symbiotes found themselves tortured in through experiments during the events of Planet of the Symbiotes. When the entire invasion force of symbiotes were destroyed by a psychic shriek, the four symbiotes joined together into a hybrid to survive. Escaping with the aid of Guardsman Scott Washington, the composite symbiote would soon seek out and bond with the man becoming the heroic vigilante known as Hybrid (Venom: Along Came a Spider #1-#4, Venom: The Hunted #1-#3). 

That’s it for the 616 aka Main Marvel Universe before it diverges into the MC2 Universe, so let us now talk about Mayhem. After arranging the apparent death of Peter and Mary Jane Parker’s newborn daughter May Parker, Norman Osborn cloned her and genetically tinkered with both infants. Sending one baby away, Norman continued to enhance the other, going so far as hiring Eddie Brock and using cell samples from the symbiote to transform the baby into a unique hybrid. This hybrid child would lay forgotten in a secret lab for many years following Norman Osborn’s sudden death. Finally rediscovered and awakened, this ‘May’ would encounter her counterpart, briefly attempting to replace her before bonding with both her and Peter Parker (at the time controlled by the brainwaves of Norman Osborn) to become a monstrous ‘Goblin God’ as part of Osborn’s revenge (Amazing Spider-Girl #20-#30). 

Freed with the aid of Spider-Girl, the symbiotic-clone hybrid would move in with the Parker family and assume the name April Parker. Unfortunately, this wouldn’t last. As a result of a rising gang war and an encounter with Fury the Goblin Queen, April set about ending the violence by killing anyone involved. When Spider-Girl confronted her, she soundly beat the hero but found herself unable to kill her ‘sister’. When the gang war escalated, Mayhem wound up killing the Hobgoblin, definitively ending it (Amazing Spider-Man Family #5-#8, Web of Spider-Man (vol. 2) #1-#4, Spectacular Spider-Girl #1-#4).

May and April had a climactic battle in a warehouse which would lead to an explosive fire in which May died. The resulting fallout would send April into a spiral of destruction and trigger the creation of Bio-Preds (mercenaries bonded to pieces of the Carnage Symbiote) to stop her. However, these Bio-Preds turned on humanity instead, driving it to the brink of destruction. As humanity’s only hope, an elderly April would make a desperate trip into the past to change history. Unfortunately, the older April found herself materialized within the warehouse wall dying. Sending out her symbiote tendrils to her younger self, she relayed her story which convinced April to save May. This final act of heroism apparently cost April her own life as she was consumed by the fiery explosion (Spider-Girl: The End).

I had a great time deep-diving into this gooey pool of symbiote lore and I hope it shows. I’ve always had a great fondness for April Parker aka Mayhem but researching the other symbiotes has left me with a great appreciation for the blobby little aliens. For example, I think the original Scream and Hybrid were woefully underutilized. I huge thanks to arias-98105 for their help once again.

Until I spawn a whole batch of gooey symbiotes with a craving for brains, I remain

frogoat