On the Naughty List: Slaybelle, the No-Hit Wonder

 

♪Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening♪

♪A beautiful sight, we're happy tonight♪
♪Walking in a winter wonderland♪

-Winter Wonderland

 

 

It’s nearly that time again, merry people! With the holiday season upon us and with me recently having trawled back through my old notes on unused concepts in the MC2, I’ve got a gift for one and all: Slaybelle, the villainess who (almost) stole Christmas.

 

I enjoy the unused concepts conceived by the creative teams of the MC2, particularly Spider-Girl co-creator Ron Frenz, who has kindly shared a plethora of unpublished pitches through the years. Among these, we have this tantalizing titbit from Ron’s own facebook post:

 

“NOPE.

So The Legendary Tom DeFalco and I were working on an issue of Spider-Girl that would be on sale around Christmastime and needed a villain to give Mayday a warm-up battle at the beginning of the issue, you know, an opening bank robbery kinda thing. We put our heads together and came up with THIS young lady,

SLAYBELLE (Get it?)

Tom and I: Pretty cool, huh?

Editor: Nope.

Oh well.”

 

For those who don’t get it, Slaybelle is a punny bit of wordplay on ‘sleigh bell,’ which is another term for a ‘jingle bell’ which were often found on sleds or sleighs and are closely associated with the folk story of Santa Claus and his flying sleigh. Slay, meaning to violently kill is a homophone of sleigh. Belle is a term for a beautiful woman. Honestly, I’m probably overexplaining this. But it’s a clever joke!

 

On the podcast Make Mine Mayday Episode 43, Ron mentioned the situation:

 

‘The only thing I remember an editor saying we couldn’t do was Slaybelle. A young woman in a Santa suit with a big gun and we were going to use her for an opening sequence, like a bank robbery or something like that. I forget whether it was Nicole or Molly or who it was, whoever was our editor at the time said ‘No’. And we went ‘why?’ and they said ‘No. Just no.’

 

As for what issue of Spider-Girl this Miss missed, Ron notes Slaybelle was conceived for an issue published after Spider-Girl #54, which was of course pencilled by MC2 alumni Pat Olliffe. I’ll let you theorize!

Until I can come up with something for next this time next year, I remain a very merry

 

frogoat

 

 

 

 

 

 

Li'l Benjy in Christmas Crisis!

 

It’s that time of year once again; where we are supposed to be thinking of others, so I thought of you, faithful reader! Consider it a gift, because today I wanted to share an adorable aspect of the MC2 I don’t think I’ve ever covered before: Li’l Benjy! And because it’s Holiday Season, let’s kick things off with ‘Li’l Benjy the Spectacular Spider-Baby in “Christmas Crisis”

 

Created by Tom Defalco and Colleen Coover, Li’l Benjy was a series of short, silly and fun tales published as back-up stories starting in Amazing Spider-Girl #25. Are they canon? I see no reason why not! Shush! Anyway, in the pages of the following issue -Amazing Spider-Girl #26- we have “Christmas Crisis” wherein Benjy wonders why his mother Mary Jane appears so excited. His play date mate Shelly explains to the oblivious baby that it’s a special time of year called ‘Fat Day’ where some old Fat Man sneaks down chimneys to steal everyone’s money and leave clothes behind. Ever the courageous hero, Benjy uses his sister Mayday’s web-shooters to block off the Parker House’s chimney with webbing.

 

While this might keep your average Santa Claus from getting inside, we must remember that in the Marvel Universe, Santa is not only very much real, but also extremely powerful. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 10 tells us that among his abilities, Santa gains superhuman strength on Christmas Eve, can teleport, has a magical sack which is bigger on the inside and possesses the ability to fit through any chimney (or any alternative if a chimney is not available). Naturally, I’m now wishing we got more Li’l Benjy stories because I’d love to see him meet the real ‘Fat Man’.

 

Happy Holidays and I hope you all find yourselves surrounded by family because that’s truly magical and worth living to see in this scary world. Hug your loved ones, enjoy this time and stay safe everybody!

 

Until I manage to work the Elf with a Gun into a post, I remain

 

frogoat