Spider-Symmetry: The Sinister and Savage Six

 

Today’s post is part of a very occasional series where I like to highlight the visual or narrative symmetry between the Spider-Man and Spider-Girl comics. For this entry, I wanted to demonstrate a great example, this time from MC2 mainstay and Spider-Girl artist extraordinaire Pat Olliffe.

 

Presented for your consideration, Spider-Girl #25, the double-sized anniversary issue which is probably best known for parallelling and referencing the Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1, the first appearance of the villainous team, the Sinister Six. The references include the introduction of a new generation of six (or is it seven?!) super villains who come together as the Savage Six, the Spidey of the day losing their powers, the kidnapping of two supporting characters and the use of gorgeous splash pages to punctuate each battle. Certainly, credit must go to both writer Tom Defalco and artist Pat Olliffe for this loving tribute to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s original work.

 

What’s less a direct reference or parallel to the first Sinister Six story is the cover to Spider-Girl #25, which doesn’t homage Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1. Instead, it references the next Sinister Six story. The Return of the Sinister Six is, appropriately, a six-issue story arc spanning from Amazing Spider-Man #334 to Amazing Spider-Man #339. By now, it’s obvious that the cover of Spider-Girl #25 is an homage to Amazing Spider-Man #337.

 

There’s a lot more to breakdown when it comes to this issue, and it’s obviously just a single example of the literally hundreds of references, homages and continuations present throughout the MC2. But that’s it from me for today!

 

Until I lose my powers either before or after fighting a team of six villains whom I’ve faced separately in the past, I remain

 

frogoat

Speedball in the MC2

 

Now that I’ve started, I can’t stop. After covering Justice in the MC2 and Firestar beforehand, I’ve gotten a taste for covering the former members of the New Warriors, so today I wanted to show some love for everyone’s favourite heroic bouncing ball of energy, Robert ‘Robbie’ Baldwin aka Speedball in the MC2.

 

While he made his first published appearance in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22, Speedball’s origin is depicted in his solo title with Speedball #1 wherein Robbie is accidentally exposed to energy from an other-dimensional source while working at a science lab which gifts him his kinetic energy abilities. Eventually, Speedball teams up with other young heroes Marvel Boy (later known as Justice), Nova, Namorita, Firestar and Night Thrasher as the New Warriors beginning with their formation in Mighty Thor #411.

 

Now let’s jump ahead to the look at Speedball in the MC2. While Robbie’s first MC2 appearance is in What If #105 as a cameo which depicts Speedball as member of the new Avengers when Peter Parker comes seeking aid.

 

However, in terms of chronology this brief cameo of Robbie would seem to take place shortly after the events of A-Next #1, wherein we see the formation of this next generation of Avengers. Robbie is revealed to have been a former member of the Avengers, but now mostly prefers to be a solo act and so declines membership in this nascent team. While he’s not actually seen in the pages of A-Next #7, we learn that following the tragic final mission of the original Avengers (which claimed the lives of Robbie’s fellow former New Warriors Firestar and Justice) a new team formed and operated in their wake before eventually falling apart.

 

Next showing up in Spider-Girl #15, Robbie teams up with the titular web-head to battle the malleable villain (and avid DC Comics collector) known as Mr Abnormal. While we don’t learn a great deal about Robbie in this issue, we do get to see him in action solo and learn that he is a well-respected superhero by this point in his career.

 

Later, we learn from the Steel Spider (Ollie Osnick) that he had been a member of the team of Avengers who assembled after the aforementioned original team’s membership was nearly all killed. In addition to the Steel Spider, this ‘interim’ Avengers team included Jolt, Jubilee, fellow New Warrior Nova and, of course, Speedball (Spider-Girl #32).

 

We don’t see Robbie again on-panel in the MC2 until the events of Last Hero Standing, when Speedball is one of the many heroes who gather at Avengers Compound to investigate the disappearances of various other super heroes.  Here, he and former team mate Nova are briefly seen as they prepare to head out on a mission to rule out former New Warrior foe Terrax, joined by Bluestreak and Argo in the process (Last Hero Standing #2). Off-panel their mission is a dead end and at some point Nova is captured and ensnared by the dark magical influence of Loki, before being sent to stir up conflict between the assembled heroes. Despite this, no other members of this team appear to have been influenced by Loki, including Speedball (Last Hero Standing #3-#4).   

Speedball doesn’t actually appear on-panel for his final cameo appearance, instead his energy matrix duplicate created by the magic of Sylene makes an appearance in Avengers Next #4-#5, indicating that Robbie Baldwin fell victim to this spell before the Avengers managed to save the day.

 

 It’s nice to see that some of the younger heroes of the Marvel Universe like Speedball rose to prominence in their later careers within the MC2 even if others like Firestar and Justice met an untimely end. I like to think that Robbie joined the ‘interim’ Avengers team alongside Nova in honour of their fallen friends. It’s very interesting to me that Speedball generally shies away from working in a team in his adult life, almost certainly a reaction to this loss and perhaps additional unseen events which led to the collapse of this Avengers team.

 

Until I master the art of throwing myself violently at objects without doing any harm, I remain

 

frogoat

 

 

 

 

 

 

DC in the MC2

I had intended to do a more extensive write-up to celebrate the month of May, but work and family commitments have prevented me putting out anything. Instead, I present for your consideration this very brief offering.

 

In Spider-Girl #15 we first meet Mister Abnormal, a silly villain with a malleable body able to stretch and shift in comedic fashion much like the DC Comics character Patrick O’Brian aka Plastic Man. Mister Abnormal’s origin even bears some similarities with Plastic Man’s, with both comedy characters gaining their abilities after been doused with unknown chemicals during acts of theft.

 

It gets better: Mister Abnormal encounters the veteran super hero Speedball (and later Spider-Girl) following an attempted robbery of a comic book shop. We learn that Mr. Abnormal is an obsessive collector who has been stealing action figures, rare toys, trading cards, beanie babies and, of course, comics. What comic collection was he attempting to complete before being so rudely interrupted by Speedball? Police Comics.

 

If you didn’t know, Police Comics was a comic anthology series published by Quality Comics between 1941 and 1953. Police Comics #1 saw the first appearance of none other than Plastic Man, who became one of Quality Comics most popular characters. Eventually, Quality Comics’ characters and trademarks would be bought by National Comics Publications, now known as DC Comics, who publish comics featuring Plastic Man alongside other DC heroes such as Batman and Superman to this day.

 

So now the mind-bending question: Does this mean that within the MC2 Universe the entirety of the DC Comics’ pantheon is merely a collection of fictional characters published in comic books?!

 

Until I stop stretching jokes to illogical extremes to raise existential questions about a fictional universe within another fictional universe, I remain

 

frogoat

 

Quick Facts: MC2 Edition No. 4

This factoid will be the fast and furious fourth in the series of facts.

Did you know that the MC2 was the originator of both the Revengers (A-Next #12) and Savage Six (Spider-Girl #25) teams. A Revengers team led by Wonder Man would later be used in the regular Marvel Universe in  New Avengers Annual vol.2 #1. The Savage Six name would also be used in the MU by the Crime Master's team of villains starting with Venom vol. 2 #17.

The MC2 Revengers.

Until Tom Defalco gets the recognition he deserves, I remain

frogoat

Quick Facts: MC2 Edition No. 1
Quick Facts: MC2 Edition No. 2
Quick Facts: MC2 Edition No. 3