Spyral

My last blog about MC2 and reality-jumping got me to thinking about one particular cause of  some of those trips across time and space: the time-traveling, dimension-hopping, grey haired fellow known as Spyral.

There's not much known about him, so let's go over what is known about Spyral:

• Spyral first appears in Spider-Girl #3 were he emerges from a portal in the Fantastic Five Building's museum area, attempting to steal a power cell originating from the Negative Zone. Hoping to harness the power cell to 'generate a warp spiral powerful enough to return home'
• Spyral claims to originate from another reality, one where the Fantastic Five are the Fantastic Four and the resident Spider-Person is male....hmmm sounds familiar.
• The Fantastic Five have encountered Spyral prior to these events. Thing even refers to him in jest as 'Charlie', something Spider-Girl will also do later on.
• Spyral uses 'warp fields' and generally attacks with spiral blasts that cause concussive damage or send things spinning and spiraling....well, I suppose that makes sense. Utilizing these powers (and boosted by outside sources and artifacts) Spyral can open portals to other dimensions and even across time.
• Spyral escapes prison in Spider-Girl #10 and again attempts to get home, harnessing another unknown power source. Spider-Girl arrives to late to stop Spyral and the two are accidentally sent back in time (possibly across alternate-realities?) 
• In Spider-Girl #11 he claims to have first met the Human Torch and Spider-Man (who are still teens when we see them here) in their future, when they are 'older, wiser and far more experienced'. Spyral blames the unplanned trip through time on Spider-Girl's weight, and receives a swift kick to the face for his troubles.

And that's it, we never encounter Spyral again in any of the MC2 series, apart from a dream sequence here and there. So, let's review: Spyral claims to be from another world, one with a Spider-Man and a Fantastic Four, travels dimensions and his only goal is to return home. I wonder if Tom Defalco created him with the regular 616 Marvel Universe in mind as his point of origin? I guess we'll never know for sure, unless he appears in a 616 Marvel title sometime in the future. Wouldn't that be cool?!

Spyral was my first MC2 villain, and so I've become quite attached to the old guy. Personally, I'd have loved to have seen more of him, especially considering he's supposed to be a regular F5 baddie.  But looking at his motivation, and the fact that both times he showed up he was little more than a plot device. Case in point: Spider-Girl met the F5 thanks to Spyral's arrival, and Spider-Girl meets her parents in the past thanks to Spyral, who doesn't even appear in the issue after doing so, only reemerging just in time to return Mayday home in the next issue!

What with Spyral and that portal to other worlds in the Avengers basement, it's a wonder we haven't had more crossovers with the 616 Marvel Universe! It practically writes it's self.

Until Spyral is revealed as Nathanial Richards -Reeds father- I remain

frogoat