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?
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| 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?
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| 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.
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| 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