Spider-Girls and Spider-Skrulls

You may recall a while back I made a couple of posts about the various MC2 collections and variants: Part 1: Singles and Variants and Part 2: Trades and Digests.

Well, guess what just arrived in the mail today? 

Skrull-y Goodness

That's right, faithful readers, the Amazing Spider-Girl #19  'Skrull' variant cover. Strangely enough, the regular cover of this issue was incorrectly printed as #17. Even more interesting, I've very recently learned that there is in fact a third version of Amazing Spider-Girl #19; A Newsstand release with correct numbering and the original cover coloring. Cool, right?

Newsstand Variant with correct number

Another interesting thing about this cover, both the Skrull-y version and the original is the clear intent (to my mind, anyway) behind it. Backstory: When Marvel first unveiled Araña back in '04 there was some speculation amongst fan and even hints from the company itself that Anya Corazon would take on the mantle of Spider-Girl.

You can imagine this didn't go down well with Mayday's supporters. There was backlash and angry postings and even some old fashioned letters written to Marvel. Tom Defalco, being the consummate professional he is, took to the comic boards and even took interviews to remind everybody that Mayday wasn't going anywhere...for the time being, anyway.  I've never heard Tom, Ron or anyone working on the book say anything but good things about Araña as a character.

The standard release with mis-numbering

Of course, fans being fans, we do like to worry and speculate ourselves into a frenzy. And so, animosity between the two fandoms has been palpable at times. What sort of editorial team wouldn't want to play the angle up? Here on the cover you've got the original versus the 'replacement' Add to that the Skrull motif at the time of paranoia and the fear of hidden usurpers and you've got the perfect recipe for an awesome alternate cover.

There is, of course more to tell about Araña in the MC2, but that can wait for another time...

Until that time comes, I remain,

frogoat

Comic Homages

Continuing on from my previous post about homages and all things lovingly referenced, I present to you, my loyal readers (if I have any) a further examination into not just cover homages, but also panels, stories and motifs. Read on.

You may remember a small little post a while back regarding the subtle and not-so-subtle connections between Amazing Spider-man #9 and Spider-Girl #9: Electrically-themed villain, cover parallels, heck, even the same number issue! I'll link it here so you can take a quick peak: http://frogoat.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/supanova-approaches.html

Well, let's go deeper down the rabbit hole, shall we?

A-Next #8 clearly borrows heavily from the classic Avengers #93 (from the absolutely sublime Kree/Skrull War saga) in which Ant-Man enters the body of the inert android Vision to re-activate him, battling his way through the synthetic man's strange immune system in the process. Meanwhile, in the MC2's Avengers Compound, Stinger enlists her father Scott Lang, the second Ant-Man as they venture inside the mechanical Mainframe (spoilers, by the way) to ensure his malfunctioning module broadcasts his intelligence into another body.

Avengers #93 art by Neal Adams and Tom Palmer

A-Next #8 art by Ron Frenz and Al Milgrom

While we are talking about A-Next, I can't go past the most obvious nod to the Avengers past: Avengers #16. The first and most daring Avenger's roster shake-up ever, throwing the established team of Giant-Man (formerly Ant-Man), the Wasp, Thor and Iron Man out in favor of relative unknown's (to say nothing of known criminals and possible terrorists) Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. The impact this had on the fledgeling team is probably the most significant, proving to the readers and the creative team that this little Avengers thing--this could work no matter who was in the book, so long as it was good.

Avengers #16

 Over in A-Next #4 we get American Dream and her Dream Team thrust upon the new fledgeling team of Avengers by the machinations of the mighty Mainframe. Suddenly, the team has to face the possibility of replacement by an already functional and well-trained team. This time we get American Dream (already glimpsed in A-Next #3 and sneakily hidden in A-Next #1. Look closely), Freebooter, Blue Streak and the mysterious Crimson Curse.

A-Next #4

Want more Avenger-y goodness? Avengers #25 features the newbie Avengers (Cap's Kooky Quartet as fan's have since dubbed them) in Latveria, doing battle with the good doctor himself, Doctor Doom (with a name like that, was he ever going to be a horse-whisperer?). A-Next #5 features (you guessed it!) the new members- teamed with Stinger- in Latveria investigating rumors of a returned Doctor Doom.

 This issue not only pays it's dues to the Avengers tale but also to Marvel history, utilizing Doom's ward Kristoff Vernard and building upon old Fantastic Four and Avengers characters and stories. Most of which I haven't read and don't need to to understand the situation. In short: Stinger aka Cassandra Lang and Kristoff Vernard were lovers. Beautiful.

What it adds is also impressive: We hear in A-Next #3 from the Defenders that the 'savage' Sub-Mariner, Namor did battle with Doom. In this tale we discover more tidbits. Scattered through-out the MC2 universe are hints of what happened: Doom wiped out Atlantis, killing Namor's people, and in return, Namor kill's Doom. Or so we are led to believe.....


Until I run out of homages to ramble about, I remain

frogoat