The MC2 Collection Part 2: Trades and Digests

For what seems like a lifetime, Spider-Girl and the rest of her MC2 compatriots went without being collected into trade paperbacks or digests. With the exception of a few early issues collected in two trades, there was no easy to pick-up-and-read story collections: Spider-Girl: A Fresh Start which contains #1 and #2, features a neat new piece by Pat Olliffe for the cover that I'd love to own, the other trade simply called 'Spider-Girl' reprints #0-8.

 It's wouldn't be until years later, when they began releasing Spider-Girl in manga-sized digest-format that a wider audience of children could find and, well, digest them....not literally, of course. The digests lasted through to Volume 12 (containing #67-72) as well as a single volume for each of the other MC2 titles at the time (A-Next, J2, Wild Thing, Fantastic Five and a 2-for-1 Darkdevil/Buzz digest) before behind the scenes goings-on ended the digest line abruptly. Luckily, Marvel's second show of faith in the MC2 line as a whole had yielded Last Hero Standing and the various mini's that followed. All of which saw trade paperback releases: Last Planet Standing, Avengers Next: Rebirth, Fantastic Five: The Final Doom and American Dream: Beyond Courage.

The relaunched Amazing Spider-Girl title received trade releases of it's entire run, encompassing five volumes. The various Spider-Girl tales (as well as the Mr and Mrs Spider-man stories) following Amazing's end are collected as Spectacular Spider-Girl: Who Killed Gwen Reilly and Spectacular Spider-Girl: The Last Stand.


If you're as obsessive as I clearly am (the doctors all say there's no hope) then you will want to grab the Captain America Corps trade as well, just because it features American Dream prominently and happens to be the only MC2 appearance in 2011. It's also written by the legendary Roger Stern, if you needed any other reason.

Getting back to the digests; I was very disappointed that they simply ceased production after volume #12, as up to that time they'd provided an inexpensive and easy to pick up method for casual readers to enjoy. Not to mention, the next volume would have covered the Black Costume Saga (erm...not to be confused with Peter Parker's Saga of the same name from the 80's) and the fallout from dealing with the Black Tarantula. *Sigh* Oh well. By my calculations, had the digests continued to Spider-Girl #100, it would run until volume 17, maybe an 18th volume if they integrated related material such as Amazing Spider-Man magazine (2007) and the Araña story from Spider-man Family? Now I'm just speculating and daydreaming.

While I like the digests, I'd still love to see a complete release of the Spider-Girl series from start to finish in trade format. Is that to much to ask? As a bonus, I recently came across this digest which collects the two stories I mentioned above.

Until nerdiness becomes inexpensive, I remain

frogoat

 Part 1: Singles and Variants



 

The MC2 Collection Part 1: Singles and Variants

Often times when a series I thoroughly enjoyed comes to an end via cancellation, I find my self a little lost, maybe angry, or sad. But then I move on to another series with a fresh take on things with a great team and a nice hook. This wasn't the case with Spider-Girl, oh no! I made it my goal to collect everything I could lay my grubby little protuberances on that featured May and her MC2 brethren. It wasn't enough to simply own Spider-girl #1-100. I had to have #0, which reprinted What if #105. Oh, but then I had to have What if #105. And the Wizard magazine #½ which featured Wild Thing and Sabreclaw (now his appearance in #25's Savage Six--sorry, Seven makes more sense!). There was the  '99 annual to obtain, also. That introduced Misery.Very important.

Hang on, what's this? A-next #1-12. That has a variant cover? #2a?! J2 #1-12. Okay, fine. J2 #2a as well? Thanks, but now I better stop. Wild Thing #1-5 and an alternate cover for #2. It's only a few issues, right? Wizard #0 issue?! Come on now, really! Fantastic Five is the same? Oh, that variant cover is gorgeous, who drew that? Okay, fine. So I've got all these, I've got Darkdevil #1-3, The Buzz #1-3, I've got Last Hero Standing #1-5, Last Planet Standing #1-5, Avengers Next #1-5, Fantastic Five (mini) #1-5 and American Dream #1-5 as well as Amazing Spider-Girl #0-30. Let me just add that Amazing has--by far--the most alternate covers. Ed McGuinness variant #1, Ron Frenz black-and-white #1, #13 Zombie cover, #25 Pat Olliffe Zombie cover, #25 Stephanie Buscema cover, #27 Peter-Goblin cover and also a Skrull Araña cover to #19 which I can't find anywhere....someday.

Turns out the regular cover is incorrectly numbered #17.

Things get really complicated now. See, May's adventures continue through Amazing Spider-man Family #5-8 (not to mention #1-4 feature the adventures of Mr and Mrs Spider-man set before the rest of the MC2). Then Spider-Girl appears in Web of Spider-man (2009?) #1-7 as well as being released online through Marvels site. Finally, I've gotta get Spectacular Spider-Girl #1-4 and Spider-Girl: The End.

Finished now, right? I mean, there aren't anymore adventures left, right. Wrong. Spider-girl appeared in a cameo in Amazing Spider-man #439 (Tom's last regular issue on the series, right before it was relaunched). Avengers Forever #10-12 has American Dream, Freebooter and Coal Tiger appear as part of a huge spread of 'Future Avengers' pulled through time to combat Kang. Sure it's a only a panel or two, but it counts, right? Brian Micheal Bendis even cameos the MC2 Avengers in the 2010 relaunch of Avengers in #2. Now this one is super cool, if only for the fact that I've now witnessed John Romita Jr pencil Spider-Girl. Hey, what can I say, it was on my bucket list.

Still not done yet, not by a long shot! Roger Stern was tapped to pen a mini series in 2011 called Captain America Corps in which various incarnations of Cap come together to save the multiverse. Amidst all the testosterone we have American Dream herself, hand picked by Stern to balance out the team a little. It's a great read, by the way, so check it out.

 Last couple now, I promise. Back in 2005 a Spider-man Family one-shot was put out to test the waters for a anthology book centered around Spidey's cast. Tom D and Ron Lim delivered a fun little story featuring May, Araña, Spidey and the ever-lovable Spider-Ham, not to mention the Spider-Mobile. Hoo-Ha! Obscure though this may be, the last is a doozy. Amazing Spider-Man Magazine (2007, strangely the cover only reads 'Spider-Man) has a prose story starring everyone's favorite web-stunner  going to the school dance.

*phew* Now, on to the trade collections and digests!

Part 2: Trades and Digests

Until I come to terms with the end of the series, I remain

frogoat