Spider-Girl's First Web-Shooters

I haven’t done a May ‘Mayday’ Parker focused post in a while and thanks to some recent difficulties with other projects I’ve been trying to complete, I figured I should try and shine some light on everyone’s favourite arachnid hero of the MC2, the Stunning Spider-Girl. So, for this post I wanted to start with something from May’s first appearance: Spider-Girl’s First Web-shooters.

 

The MC2’s primary protagonist Spider-Girl makes her debut in the pages of What If #105, where we first witness May suit up in a familiar webbed costume which is stated to belong to her ‘Uncle Ben’ aka Ben Reilly, the Sensational Spider-Man. It’s this costume’s web-shooters I want to focus on, as presumably they are a pair of Ben’s own design.

 

Here’s Mayday as Spider-Girl swinging into action for the first time against Normie Osborn’s Green Goblin, where she uses a double-tap to first a web-line. In fact, the web-shooters play a key part in the battle’s climax. However, at the story’s conclusion, the Parker family have an impromptu ceremony in their backyard, seemingly burning both Ben’s Spider-Man costume and web-shooters. Or did they?

In Spider-Girl #1 -which takes place shortly after the events of What If #105- we learn May secretly stashed a pair of web-shooters and a handful of web-cartridges. So, are these Ben’s web-shooters? Initially I was going to rely on visual design or details to discern the truth. We have a ton of information about how both Ben and Peter’s web-shooters are designed, look and work thanks to the wonderful technical art of Eliot R. Brown from both the Jackal Files and the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol. 9.

 

 Unfortunately, there was absolutely no artistic design consistency during the Clone Saga and nor should there be, really. So, do May’s original web-shooters look the same as Ben’s own web-shooter design from that era? Sure, sometimes, sometimes not, it really depends on who was drawing them back then and if that’s consistent with how Pat Olliffe draws them in the Spider-Girl series. With that option gone, what else can we use to determine if May is wearing a set of Peter’s or Ben’s web-shooters?

 

Jumping ahead to Spider-Girl #17, we have the now-classic return of Spider-Man when Peter confiscates the web-shooters Mayday has been using in an attempt to prevent her from confronting Kaine. Peter explicitly states ‘Taking your costume away doesn’t work, but those web-shooters belong to me. And I want them back!’

 

Let’s jump back a bit now for some more context: Peter took May’s costume away in Spider-Girl #5 and though she briefly retrieves it to stop Spider-Venom she remains without her costume and web-shooters until Mary Jane returns them to her in Spider-Girl #7. All evidence seems to strongly indicate that Peter not only confiscated the only existing web-shooters in the Parker home, but also uses these same web-shooters when he suits up in the aforementioned Spider-Girl #17, during which he symbolically and literally hands them down to May.

 

That was the long answer, here’s the short version: it appears that if May was indeed originally using Ben Reilly’s own web-shooters they were really destroyed in What If #105. Curious about if I had this straight, I reached out to Ron Frenz for his thoughts on the matter and he had this to say:

‘Honest answer: I never knew there was any difference between Pete and Ben’s web-shooters. Having said that, Mayday used Ben’s web-shooters as Pete’s were always available to him whenever he decided to climb into the monkey suit.’

 

With all this in mind, my personal interpretation is that after What If #105 Mayday can only have gained her own set of web-shooters after the events of Spider-Girl #17. Prior to this, she only had access to the one pair which Peter identified as his own. After this Peter either made May a new set based on Ben’s or modified his own design to reflect his brother’s additions. It’s also possible Peter had a set of Ben’s web-shooters stashed someplace May was unaware of, but this doesn’t seem likely without supporting evidence.

A huge thank you to Ron Frenz for his input and to arias-98105 for always throwing me a helping hand when I need it. Don’t dispose of pressurized metallic objects in fires, kids.

 

Until I figure out what the composition of artificial web-fluid actually is and retire a billionaire, I remain

 

frogoat

 

 

Phil Urich: Secret Villain? (MC2 Theory)

 

 

Phil Urich is something of an anomaly in the generations-long line of Green Goblin’s. Despite his alias, he strived to be heroic and help others. But what if I told you, that may not have always been the case in the history of the MC2? Today I want to discuss a theory that I am sure some readers have had. This theory might have even proved true at some point in the Main Marvel Universe’s own history, if not for editorial interference: Was Phil Urich secretly a villain?

 

First, a brief history lesson! Phil Urich was the fourth character to take up the mantle of the Green Goblin, but the first to primarily use his abilities for good. First appearing in Web of Spider-Man #125, we don’t learn Phil’s origin until his solo title in the pages of Green Goblin #1. While helping his uncle reporter Ben Urich investigate an old hideout of Harry Osborn’s during his latter stint as the Green Goblin, Phil inadvertently uncovers a hidden cache containing new Goblin equipment, costumes and designs. One such design of Harry’s included a Goblin mask which directly stimulating their brain to activate the wearers Goblin Formula-derived powers. Phil is accidentally drenched in the Goblin Formula and shortly after uses the high-tech Goblin mask to save his Uncle Ben by scaring the gang members and Phil makes the decision to use these powers for good. One of these new abilities includes his distinctive ‘Lunatic Laugh’.

 

After a brief stint as the good Green Goblin, including encounters with the likes of Angel Face, Phil’s Glider and Goblin mask was irreparably damaged during a battle with a Sentinel amid the events of Onslaught. Seemingly unable to access his Goblin powers without the mask to activate them, Phil soon after retired from heroics and returned to college after losing his intern job at the Daily Bugle (Green Goblin #12-#13, Amazing Spider-Man #422, #425).

 

The last time we see Phil Urich in the Main Marvel Universe prior to the major divergence of events we know occurred to lead into the MC2 is a small appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #433. Here’s where I pivot and discuss a mysterious new Green Goblin who debuts in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #88. This Goblin is next seen in Sensational Spider-Man #25; their face obscured as they are subjected to a ‘final treatment’ by Norman Osborn’s agent Dr Angst which will enable them ‘to become [The Green Goblin] again!’ Shortly after, Norman Osborn arranges for this Goblin to kidnap his own grandson Normie Osborn as part of a plot to distance himself from his villainous identity in the minds of the public. Notably, this new Goblin is a poor combatant and has difficulty on his glider.

This Green Goblin was also used by Norman Osborn during his conflict with the original Hobgoblin Roderick Kingsley in the fantastic ‘Goblin at the Gate’ story seen in Spectacular Spider-Man #259-#261. During this arc, we see more of this Green Goblin’s less than stellar ability in combat and while riding his glider but more importantly, he is apparently very much under the control of Norman Osborn. After performing poorly against Kingsley and being unmasked (though not identified) by Spider-Man, Norman threatens to ensure he ‘loses something far more valuable’.

 

This is the last time we see this incarnation of the Green Goblin prior the Spider-Man titles reboot where after going unmentioned for some time and despite the clues provided previously, the character is revealed to be literally no one at all; a genetic construct of Norman’s. Not only was this an unsatisfying resolution, it ignored the established information readers were given (Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker: Spider-Man (vol.2) #18).

 

Now let’s look at an alternative resolution to this mystery, one that could have played out in the Main Marvel Universe if not for editorial interference and one that just might have occurred in the MC2! A flashback in Spider-Girl #97 depicts a scene from Spectacular Spider-Man #261 confirming that at least the events established prior to this occurred in both the MC2 and the Main Marvel Universe. What’s interesting- though possibly unintentional -is that the Green Goblin’s glove is depicted as fingerless thanks to the colouring. This is curious because Phil was the only Green Goblin to use fingerless gloves.

 

In Part 33 of the brilliant Life of Reilly column (which can still be found online here and here) editor and writer Glenn Greenberg discussed with Andrew Goletz his brief mention of Phil’s Green Goblin in the one-shot Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal (I refuse to misspell it!) and his personal belief that Norman should have ‘taken action against Phil for daring to take on the Goblin identity’. Further to this, Greenberg adds he ‘had plans for this to happen in a later Spider-Man story line I wrote, called “Goblins at the Gate.” The story line saw print, but the Phil Urich element was dropped at the request of the editor.’ With this in mind, Norman’s new Green Goblin lackey makes far more sense, don’t you think? Due credit, this point was brought up by Minor Irritant in a profile for this fifth Green Goblin over on the Marvel Appendix.

 

So, I propose that Norman Osborn took his revenge on Phil Urich for taking on the mantel of the Green Goblin and stealing from his son Harry’s hideout by either coercion or brainwashing. This would not only provide Norman a method for distancing himself from his villainous identity in the public eye, but also allows him to psychologically target the reporter largely responsible for outing him to the public: Ben Urich, Phil’s own uncle. Obviously, this is just a theory that fits nicely with the ongoing stories being published at the time but I feel it does help to fill in the gaps for Phil’s own curiously undisclosed past in the MC2 between his tenure as the ‘good’ Goblin and his later attempt at heroism as the Blue Wail (Spider-Girl #3).

 

Considering we never learn how Phil regained his ability to use his ‘Lunatic Laugh’ without his Goblin mask (as seen in Spider-Girl #5), nor the details of how he obtained the distinctive scar upon his right cheek I feel there is a lot that could be explored here. If Phil were the fifth Green Goblin, it would stand to reason that he had some or all of his abilities reactivated following the treatments by Dr Angst and new gear provided by Norman Osborn. Supporting this, Norman’s grandson, Normie Osborn states ‘He [Norman Osborn] designed the special mask for us’ (Spider-Girl #93).

 

What doesn’t fit here is that the hideout containing the mask was Harry’s, not Norman’s. But Normie was a child at the time and wouldn’t know all the details, so why does he think Norman designed the mask at all? It would make sense for Norman to make his own version of the hi-tech mask so that the treatments Dr Angst used to re-empower Phil could be just as easily stripped away, allowing him more control over his lackey? I can certainly imagine a climactic battle wherein Phil’s mask is again damaged (and along with it his face scarred) in battle with Spider-Man. Wild speculation here but this could also help to strengthen the connection between Peter and Phil, explaining how they came to be such close friends and colleagues.

 

As I mentioned, I can’t take credit for this one because I’m certainly not the one who conceived of the idea but it is one I enjoyed expanding upon and working into an MC2 theory. It neatly ties up loose ends from a period in the Spider-Man books that were abruptly cut short. Furthermore, I like the way it deepens Phil’s connection to the Goblin legacy without him being outright evil and it would go some way toward explaining his overwhelming desire to do good afterwards under various monikers. Anyway, it’s just a theory, an MC2 Theory. Thanks for reading!

 

Until I find a crazier theory to outdo this one, I remain

 

frogoat