Global Re-Read: Spider-Girl #13-15 and Annual '99

So, after completing the first year of May's tales, Miss A -as my pal shall, be referred to for now-has sat down and we've chewed through another chunk of MC-2 goodness. Enjoy.
 

First things first, May get's the idea to join the new Avengers team. Seems daddy dearest wasn't a joiner, only briefly working with the Avengers or the FF. Spider-Girl, on the other hand is not going down that road. So, she tries out-by way of capture the flag-and rapidly wipes the floor with nearly every member of the team, until beaten by Stinger, who's all kinds of cool. Miss A and I agree, however, that May's conversation with Jimmy (who's been acting all kinds of macho jerk butt-hole lately) about their friendship was the stand-out moment of the issue, both a satisfying conclusion to the plot thread and hilarious and real to boot. 

May never told anyone about Jimmy peeing in a girls sanfbox as a kid. A wonderful touch of honesty.

  
At this time, I'd better come clean: We read out of order. The Annual fits neatly between #12 and #13....oops. Anyway! The shock of Misery's Grief Machine-induced trauma was a big deal to Miss A, especially when *SPOILERS!* Peter and Mary Jane are apparently killed. The back-up tales are fun too, particularly the who's-better-at-what of Spidey versus Spidey powers. Very cool.

Issue #14 is brilliant. Miss A instantly took a liking to Kaine, and, having already latched onto Darkdevil, this issue was always going to be enjoyable. But then came the characterization, the dialog, the sheer gravity behind Kaine's debut- at least in this universe. Kaine has history-or at least knowledge of the Parker family and had something to do with Darkdevil's origins. Hmmm, interesting! The final page,  however, is a punch directly aimed at us, the reader. Take a look.

Finally, issue #15 begins with a shocked MJ discovering May's shiner. Miss A found this moving, powerful stuff with great page layouts. We get a nice, light adventure with Davida taking May shopping to cheer her up, encounter a newly almost-together Moose and Courtney and Moose defends Spider-Girl. Speaking of Moose, Jimmy and he are--what's the phrase I'm looking for, here--No! Friends?! Speedball and Spider-Girl battle the goofy-but-fun villain Mr Abnormal, and May realizes it's not always fun, but it's worth stinking with the hero biz. Meanwhile, Moose doesn't realize Courtney isn't Spider-Girl. Oh, Moose, Miss A is amused.

Until the next batch of issues get's read and discussed, I remain

frogoat

Global Re-Read: Spider-Girl #0-12

Over the past few months, I've introduced the Spider-Girl series to a friend of mine and we've been going through, issue by issue and reading (re-re-re-re-re-re-re-reading in my case) and talking about different elements. This has been a really enlightening experience.

So, first thoughts: She likes Mayday. Apparently May has that affect on people, who knew? Darkdevil is cool, a fast favorite amongst the heroes introduced in the series. She's very interested in the relationship dynamics, Moose thinking Courtney is our hero, Brad and Jimmy trying to date May, May and her parents. All entertaining stuff.

Oh, and Davida is clearly Ladyhawk...both of them(?!). The humor is appreciated, especially when Spyral accuses our webbed hero's weight for throwing them into the past...and her later 'retort', or, as mentioned before, Moose believing Courtney to be Spider-Girl.

Well, they do share the same hairstyle...

Interesting, to me at least, was my friend commenting about Brad becoming, rather quickly too much of a 'good guy,' being too nice, without much else to make him interesting. I'm looking forward to watching both the characters grow and her impressions on these changes. Should be fun.

Until I forget to update this blog, I remain

frogoat