SPIDER-GIRLS #1 (of 3)
JODY HOUSER (W) • ANDRES GENOLET (A)
Cover by YASMINE PUTRI
A SPIDER-GEDDON TIE IN!
• MAY "MAYDAY" PARKER, the original SPIDER-GIRL, ANYA CORAZON, the Prime Universe SPIDER-GIRL, and ANNIE MAY PARKER, A.K.A. SPIDERLING — together for the first time!
• May will do anything to protect her brother from the Inheritors, and Anya's knowledge of the mystical Spider-Totems could save the day.
• But how does Annie fit in? And what chance do three girls have against ageless universal forces?!
As my regular readers (if any actually exist) will know, I'm less than enthused about the rehashing of the Spider-Verse story beats for Spider-Geddon. Especially given that the original event tore down 12 years of character development and world building by needlessly killing Mayday's father simply to temporarily (and honestly, artificially) motivate a 'tragic' story arc which never really paid off.
But I am determined to be positive about this particular mini-series as it is not being handled by Dan Slott or Christos Gage. Jody Houser is the current writer for the Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows ongoing series and has recently produced some solid work portraying a functioning Spider-Family, albeit eerily similar to some of the Spider-Girl series' own plot lines. Perhaps that's why I'm willing to be more open to her work on this mini-series? Unfortunately, the overarching plot of the event rests with Christos Gage and Dan Slott so we may see a repeat of the Mayday story from Spider-Verse; stuck between character beats without the emotional pay off.
I'll be interested to learn how the interactions between Annie May and Mayday Parker are handled. We've recently learned in the Renew Your Vows series, that baby May met the same fate as in the Main Marvel Universe. This provides fertile ground for some really great character moments. I have seen some Mayday fans declare they won't be checking out this mini-series simply because of the presence of Anya Corazon aka Araña because of the real-world reasons that led to Araña being rebranded as Spider-Girl. In my opinion, this is unfair. Anya has some great potential and I don't believe the character is responsible for editorially imposed decisions. It's also worth pointing out that Spider-Girl creators Tom Defalco and Ron Frenz embraced the character, even adding Anya to the MC2.
All in all, this mini-series won't change my mind about the event itself but I will be giving it a chance. With all that's happening in the Spider-Man books at the moment, it seems there's some big changes coming soon.
Until I fully commit to something instead of fence sitting, I remain
frogoat