Confirmation - Spider-Girl: The Complete Collection Vol. 3 Is Coming!

Thanks to arias-98105 for the heads up on this one! It's still very early days, but based on preliminary information posted on the Hachette Book Group website, we have the closest thing to confirmation that Spider-Girl: The Complete Collection Vol. 3 is on it's way next year. Here's a link to the page and the text from the solicitation:

Spider-Girl: The Complete Collection Vol. 3

By: Marvel Comics

• ISBN: 9781302923716
• Publisher: Marvel
• Imprint: Marvel
• On Sale: Aug. 11, 2020
• Format: TRADE PAPERBACK
• Edition: N/A
• Price: $44.99 ($57.00 in Canada)
• Category: COMICS & GRAPHIC NOVELS
• Territories:
• Size: 6-5/8" x 10-3/16"
• Pages: 448

• Unit Weight: 0
• Carton Weight: 0
• Carton Qty: 40
• Country of Origin: USA
• Substitute ISBN:
• EAN: 9781302923716

Description: Who will lead the New York underworld? Will the Green Goblin go good or give grief? What secret is Mary Jane keeping? And who is the mysterious new Spider-Man? There are plenty of questions to answer as the adventures of May "Mayday" Parker continue! As a vicious gang war heats up, Spider-Girl struggles to keep order - but when a longtime foe is killed in the crossfire, May finds herself targeted by his family! Can the newest New Warriors help Spider-Girl win the war and survive two vengeance-crazed villains? Wall-crawling gets crowded when a new Scarlet Spider swings into action - and Peter Parker mulls a return to the webs! But even with her dad as backup, can May defeat Apox the Omega Skrull? Plus, startling secrets of Mayday's past are revealed! Guest-starring the Fantastic Five!

COLLECTING: SPIDER-GIRL (1998) 33-50

While, as I mentioned, it's still very early and these sorts of things are often subject to change, I have to mention the apparent omission. While it collects Spider-Girl #33 through to #50, this chunk of issues has usually been reprinted together with Spider-Girl #51. You may remember Spider-Girl #51 was an inventory story written by guest writer Sean McKeever with art by Casey Jones which introduced the character Aftershock. As an inventory story, it does not fit seamlessly between the issues published immediately before and after it's publication. Spider-Girl #50 sees Mayday hang up her costume and quit only to seemingly have returned to her super heroic career without any explanation the following issue with this strange story order.

For reference, the Spider-Girl Digests, which were previously the closest we've gotten to a full reprinting of the original series, placed the story in Spider-Girl #51 between Spider-Girl #35 and #36 in Digest Vol. 7. I think this is a perfect place to put the story, as May had recently regained her powers in Spider-Girl #33, Mary Jane is not visibly pregnant at this point in the series (whereas she was around #50) and the ongoing plots at the time had a natural gap which allows for the addition of further unseen adventures.

Hopefully, the wonderful collection editors at Marvel will see this and make the change before the Volume goes to the printers. It's worth mentioning Spider-Girl: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 changed the placement of the Spider-Girl #1/2 story from the placement seen in the Digests. Whereas the Digests reprinted Spider-Girl #1/2 directly after Spider-Girl #21, the Complete Collection putting the story right after Spider-Girl #13. I'm curious about where future issues and side-stories that haven't been collected together will be ordered or placed.

Until I stop caring about such sill things, I remain

frogoat

Spider-Girl: The Complete Collection Vol. 2

It doesn't feel all that long ago that I reviewed Spider-Girl: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 and here I am again nearly exactly 365 days later, taking a look at Vol. 2. Collected in this trade paperback release we have Spider-Girl (1998) #16-#32 by Tom Defalco, Ron Frenz and Pat Olliffe.

While it's not my intention to review the issues within the collection, I have to admit, flipping through these stories I was transported back to my youth, to a time when I had nothing but wonder and joy for the medium of comics, when I first fell in love with the Spider-Girl character, her supporting cast and her world. There is so much to enjoy in these stories, with subplots and threads pulling together in surprising yet natural ways. There's a sense that any teething issues the creative team may have had are gone and now they are delving deeper into all the characters and giving us a richer and more fleshed out look at the established cast. 

When I wrote my review for the first volume in this collection, I wasn't aware of  some of the complaints I've since encountered online. While I mentioned the flimsy cardstock, I didn't have as much of an issue with the paper quality, but in hindsight I can see why this would be frustrating. As a fan of the series, I really want to see these issues reprinted in the best possible quality. It's also worth mentioning that I received another copy of the first volume with several missing pages in the weeks following my review, which after my initial anger I decided was perhaps worth retaining as a misprinted edition, even if it never amounts to any monetary value. With all that out of the way, the card stock for Volume 2 appears to be ever-so-slightly thicker than it's predecessor. Meanwhile, the glossy pages of the interior seem to be much the same. I've not noticed any issues with the printing process, nor have I encountered any missing pages, crinkling along the spine or even dints and folds in the cover. 

The cover is, in my humble opinion, a much more appealing choice than the first volume. Vibrant colours, a great layout and design with mood and menace and atmosphere emanating from every corner and an honest to gosh great looking Spider-Girl and maniacal Goblin looming in the background really made me want to crack this thing open and dive into the story. 

I think the choices of which issue to start and end the volume are solid. Despite my personal preference to package Spider-Girl #17 as the final issue of volume 1 because I feel it's a good culmination of her early adventures, I can't deny it would have made for an odd second volume 2. If the second volume had started with Spider-Girl #18 and had to close out with #32, it would be smaller volume and the only alternate then would have been to collect a few further issues such as #33-#34, meaning chopping up a few of the next major ongoing story arcs. Plus, this way the volume ends on a great cliffhanger. All in all, I think this was the best option. 

As for additional material, there is far less on offer here than last time, with only three pages in the back reproducing inked covers to several relevant issues in the collection in addition to two pages reproducing various inked pages of art from the stories. While these are a nice inclusion, I think printing several covers and interiors per page is a mistake. I'd much prefer to view Pat Olliffe and Al Williamson's art one-per-page so they can be better appreciated.

With that all said it's still a great collection, and currently the best way to physically read these issues. If you have the spare money, I'd recommend picking it up. If you don't have the money, I believe these stories are now available digitally through Marvel at a high quality too. Here's hoping the other MC2 titles get similar treatment in years to come.

Until I stop buying, disavow the MC2 and get legally declared non compos mentis, I remain

frogoat

Spider-Girl: The Complete Collection Vol. 1

A few days ago I received my copy of Spider-Girl: The Complete Collection Vol. 1 and I'd like to talk about it! I won't be going into too much detail about the stories reprinted in this collection, but it comprises What If #105 (not Spider-Girl #0) and Spider-Girl #1-15 as well as Spider-Girl Annual '99 and Spider-Girl #½.

Read as a whole, the individual issues really flow well together and form an overarching narrative, without feeling like they need to be read one after the other like the standard made-for-trade six issue arcs made commonplace in modern comics. This is most evident in the supporting characters and subplots, which weave through several issues and resolve at their own pace instead of being shoved into a set number of issues. In sharp contrast, it has sadly become standard practice nowadays to simply remove supporting characters and their storylines in favour of superheroes talking to other superheroes.

While I am a big fan of the series and I am admittedly bias about the series quality, I was more than happy to purchase this collection. Why? Because even though I own the individual issues and tracked down all the digests that were released, this will be the first time any issues of the Spider-Girl series have been collected in trade paperback form beyond the initial 8 issues. I consider it a major misstep that Marvel didn't release the series in this format until now; 20 years after the series began publication.

Much of the appeal of this release lies in potentially having the entire series sitting on my bookshelf in all it's glossy-paged glory someday soon. In addition, the last 16 pages are dedicated to various 'extras' such as variant covers, concept art and contemporary promotional materials. The most interesting of these for me was an article from the Marvel Catalog: August 1998. I'd never seen this piece before and found it fascinating to read through the article, which includes an interview with Tom Defalco and mentions the creative teams early plans for the nascent trio of titles that birthed the MC2 imprint.

If I had to make a negative comment, it's that the cover's card stock is rather flimsy when compared to other similar recent Marvel collections. While this doesn't really bother me much, it did mean my copy arrived in the post a little worse for wear, complete with a few marks and bends on the front cover. However, the blame for that surely lies with Amazon's frankly abysmal packaging, which consisted of nothing more than a brown envelop without bubble-wrap. Cheers Amazon!


Until I can gleefully announce the next volume of Spider-Girl: The Complete Collection, I remain

frogoat