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

 

 

Raimi-Verse References in the MC2

 

Following on from the recent Spider-Man: No Way Home villain posts, for no specific reason today’s post will be about the various Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie trilogy references, easter eggs and connections in the MC2, including those I consider too coincidental not to mention. For short, here’s Raimi-Verse References in the MC2.

 

First up, here’s one I’ve always thought was ahead of it’s time and almost certainly unintentional. In Spider-Girl #5 we first meet the MC2’s Venom symbiote. When the symbiote bonds to it’s former original host Peter Parker we get a variation on both the Spider-Man and Venom’s costumes combined dubbed ‘Spider-Venom’. Now, to me this looks way too similar to Spider-Man 3’s Venom costume design for it *not* to be an inspiration. Of course, it’s more than likely a huge coincidence but it’s amusing that this comic was published in 1999, a whole seven years before the film was released. On an unrelated note, as far as I’m aware this may also be the first example of the symbiote replacing a host’s lost limb using it’s own bio-mass over a decade before ‘Agent Venom’ was a concept.

 

When a mysterious new Spider-Man first showed up at the Daily Bugle in Spider-Girl #32, he was rocking a new costume design which included classic eye-pieces and a red and black colour scheme. Additionally, the stylized spider emblem on both the front and back of the costume bore a very familiar design. While the front is a larger, modified version of Peter Parker’s own, the back with the red colour is remarkable for it’s strikingly similarity to the one first seen on screen a year later in the first Spider-Man movie.

 

Another fun detail -again more than likely unintentional- is the fact that this new Spider-Man (actually Gerry Drew, the son of the original Spider-Woman) is capable of producing organic webbing much like the Raimi-Verse’s version of Peter Parker (Spider-Girl #37). Meanwhile Peter’s ability to produce organic webbing wouldn’t be introduced in the Main Marvel Universe until 2004’s Spectacular Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #20 in what was most likely an attempt at synergy between the comics and films.

 

This next one is probably my personal favourite. While attending an engagement party for Normie Osborn and Brenda Drago, Mary Jane points out to Peter a fellow partygoer’s uncanny resemblance to someone he should know all too well. Needless to say, Peter doesn’t see the resemblance and instead thinks he looks like Tobey Maguire (Spider-Girl #82). Of course, the man MJ points out is Reilly Tyne aka Darkdevil aka the son of Ben Reilly aka the clone brother of Peter Parker himself which makes this joke all the more amusing.

 

Okay, this one was so obvious I really have no idea how I nearly missed it when compiling this post! After hanging up her webs as Spider-Girl months prior, May ‘Mayday’ Parker suddenly finds herself in need of make-shift disguise. Thus, the short-lived adventures of the Red Hoodie Girl begin (Spider-Girl #1-#2, Avengers Next #1). Obviously, this look will seem very familiar to anyone who’s watched the original Spider-Man movie as it’s Peter’s ‘Human Spider’ wrestling costume.  

Calling back to the concept of producing organic webs, Peter’s second child, Benjy is shown to have developed just that ability, first in Amazing Spider-Girl #9 and later in Amazing Spider-Girl #30 when the infant manages to save himself and his mother from a deadly fall at the hands of a returned Norman Osborn. This is nicely foreshadowed in a scene where Peter and Mayday discuss organic webbing while producing a fresh batch of web-fluid together in Amazing Spider-Girl #20).

 

There’s also a nice little Raimi-Verse Spider-Man costume reference on the cover of Amazing Spider-Girl #11 featuring Peter Parker strung-up by Carnage’s tendrils, his Spider-Man costume adorned with the spider-design of his film counterpart.

 

That’s all I have for now, if you think I’ve forgotten or overlooked a reference to Sam Raimi trilogy, let me know! I thought this would be a nice little bit of fun to close things out for now.

 

Until I learn they’ve brought Tobey’s Spider-Man back… with a daughter in tow, I remain

 

frogoat

Sony VS Marvel: How it affects the MC2

Some of you may recall that back in November 2014, Sony Pictures were the target of hackers, resulting in a large amount of confidential data being leaked online. Amongst the documents released were several detailing the Amazing Spider-Man film series and correspondence with Marvel Studios. It's fairly well known the backlash to the concepts and opinions leaked resulted in Spider-Man appearing in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. 

Which brings me to today's post. I hadn't given much thought to the exact details of Sony's contracts and agreements to produce films based on Spider-Man, which characters they could and couldn't use or anything like that until I saw this recent video by the YouTube channel Midnight's Edge:

Spider-man: The uncertain future with either Marvel's MCU or Sony's Venom

It was while watching that I noticed a familiar name in one of the screenshots of the Sony documents: Meagyn Brady. I'd always figured May 'Mayday' Parker was included in the package of characters for the film rights to the Spider-Man franchise, but it never really occurred to me such minor characters would be mentioned. So I did some digging through the leaked documents.

As it turns out, I found a lot of original MC2 character's names mentioned under various categories. I may have missed a few within this document which appears to be a more finalized version of these prior documents but I've attempted to include even some which may not, just for the sake of completeness. Let me know what I've missed or omitted. Here's the list of the characters quoted as presented under the various sub-headings in the document:

Alternate Versions of Spider-Man include all of the following

Spider-Man (IV)/Gerry Drew

Schedule 6

Named Characters

Black Tarantula (II)/Fabian LaMuerto
Buzz, The/Jack Jameson
Crazy Eight
Daze
Goblin God/Peter Parker
Green Goblin, The (VI)/Norman "Normie" Harry Osborn
Killerwatt
Misery/Melissa Carsdale
Mr. Nobody
Scarlet Spider (VII)/Felicity Hardy
Spider-Girl (I)/ May "Mayday" Parker
Spider-Girl 2020/May Parker
Spider-Man (IV)/Gerry Drew
Spider-Venom
Spider-Woman/ May "Mayday" Parker
Venom/Spider-Girl, May "Mayday" Parker

Teams/Groups/Gangs

Team Spider

Supporting Characters

Aftershock
April (first appearing in Spider-Girl #75)
Babbit, Mr

Barney – agent of Hobgoblin (first appearing in Amazing Spider-Girl #2)
Bitter Frost
Brady, Meagyn
Canis
Carlo, Mona
Claw
Desantos, Simone
Diana - Black Cat's love interest in MC2 Universe
Dragon King/Carlton T. Hackmutter
Drasco, Det. Vinnie
Duran, Courtney-May "Mayday" Parker's friend
Funny Face
Fury the Goblin Queen/ Elan DeJunae
Golden Goblin
Grief Machine
Groote, Leonard
Hardy, Felicity (daughter of Felicia)
Healy, Gus
Healy, Joyce
Healy, Sandra
Hicks, Ralphie
Hingle, Duane
Hingle, Cindy
Hingle, Sarah
Impact
Jade, Dr. Sonja
Kirby, Davida - May "Mayday" Parker's friend
Kodiak
Kurkle, Charlie
La Fantome
Ladyhawk/Regina Morgan
Ladyhawk/Rosetta Morgan

Lieber, Caitlyn
Lu, Nancy - May "Mayday" Parker's friend
Mansfield, Billy
Mansfield, Katy
Mansfield, Moose
Mansfield, Mr. - father of Moose
Miller, Brad
Mr. Abnormal
Parker, April - clone of May Parker
Parker, Benjamin "Benjy" Richard Parker
Phillip, Charlie
Pirouette
Quickwire
Ragone, Theodore "Turtle"
Raptor/Brenda Drago

Reverb / Rudolf
Spyral
Thompson, Gene (son of Eugene "Flash" Thompson and Felicia Hardy)
Tyne, Reilly
Weadon, Arthur
Westin, Wes
Yama, Jimmy
Yi, Spike

Business and Other IP

Café Indigo
Deacon's Den
"EVERYBODY'S HAPPY" - program
Hotel Caprice
Humanity First
Kingsley International
Spider Shoppe
Spidera
St. Andrew's -women's shelter
Zebra Patrol

SCHEDULE 7A

Frozen Characters

Hero or Villain

Spider-Man appearing as a member of the Fantastic Four (e.g., as a member of the Fantastic Five or Fatal Force)
Reilly Tyne as an alias for Darkdevil

Anthropomorphic Variations

Mary Porker

Schedule 8

Marvel Reserved Characters

Hero or Villain

Bluestreak (III) (first appearing in A-Next)
Coal Tiger/T'Chaka
Darkdevil
Dragonfist
Freebooter/Brandon Cross
Mad Dog Rassitano
Magneta
Stinger/Cassandra "Cassie" Lang
Stormtrooper/Eric Masterson
Thunderstrike/Kevin Masterson
Wild Thing

Teams, Groups, and Gangs

Sons of Serpent/Soldiers of the Serpent

There were many, many other characters that appear in the MC2 who I didn't included in the above list because I only transcribed characters who hadn't appeared anywhere prior to their MC2 appearances. So Phil Urich isn't listed above because he debuted beforehand, meanwhile Normie is listed only as a version of the Green Goblin. Make sense? Good. You'll have noticed a few odd spellings and the occasional character that might not be from the MC2, but I've listed some (such as 'Mary Porker') because I believe they may be typos, misreading or similar mistakes.

The most fascinating discovery was that a character named Reilly Tyne could be used by Sony, so long as he wasn't linked to Darkdevil, and Marvel Studios appears to be able to use the design and name of Darkdevil so long as his secret identity isn't Reilly Tyne. This is attributed to the Daredevil-related elements of the character's super hero identity. Being the son of Ben Reilly -a literal clone of Peter Parker- means he's a Spider-Man character while his super hero moniker, appearance and origin link him to Daredevil as well as Ghost Rider who's film rights were previously held by Sony.  In early versions, Sony Pictures recommended 'Darkdevil' be frozen, likely due to the aforementioned conflict of rights. The use of 'Reilly Tyne as an alias for Darkdevil' appears on the list of 'frozen' characters while 'Darkdevil' appears under 'Marvel Reserved Characters'. Poor Reilly, even in the real world he gets a raw deal, split between so many 'fathers'.

(This might also explain why The Buzz was licenced for the Spider-Man Unlimited mobile game but Darkdevil never appeared, despite actually having spider-powers and being directly related. Not strictly relevant, but I did often wonder!)

It's also worth noting that in earlier versions mentioned above, Meagyn Brady, Magneta and Dragonfist were among the list of characters Sony Pictures wished to have included in their licence agreement, in addition to requesting the spelling of 'Mona Carlo' be corrected. Sony Pictures also felt 'Bluestreak' had 'clear associations with Spider-Man and/or a subsidiary character' enough to request a rationale for exclusion. Regardless, other than Meagyn, all these characters appear on the Schedule 8 list for 'Marvel Reserved Characters'.

It's simple enough to see how and why Stinger, Thunderstrike, Coal Tiger and even Magneta and Dragonfist and other aren't considered a part of the film right for Spider-Man, and are listed as 'Marvel Reserved Characters'. With characters like Hope Van Dyne in the MC2 based on Hope Pym, it's safe to assume the MC2 characters are on the radar for Marvel Studios to mine for future films. My money is on Stinger being the next MC2 character!

I do wonder where a character like Bluestreak falls in the eyes of a legal team. Blue is a former member of the mutant team X-People who first appeared in the Avengers related title A-Next, which is mostly associated with the MC2, primarily known for Spider-Girl, a Spider-Man character. Presumably she counts as either an X-Men character or an Avengers character or both like her predecessor in speed, Quicksilver. This stuff is messy!

The introduction of Spider-Man into Marvel Studios' MCU while Sony Pictures retains several related characters such as Venom for their own 'Sony Marvel Universe' further splits up the available characters within the MC2. For example, would a symbiote character like April Parker aka Mayhem be retained by Sony for their Venom film series or would her clone nature mean she is loaned to MCU?

It would seem that Mayday and her family are all free and clear to appear in a future production (such as a Into The Spider-Verse related movie, for example) but only some of her rogues gallery, supporting cast and fellow heroes are free and clear to make appearances alongside her. Personally, I'd settle for a great Spider-Girl appearance in a future animated film from Sony if it was as well produced as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
I could cover this a bit more in future, if there's any interest. Let me know!

Until I stop being far too excited by legal documents, I remain

frogoat

Black-Suit Spider-Girl and Earth X Venom Hitting Spider-Man Unlimited

It looks like with the newest update of the mobile phone game Spider-Man Unlimited set to arrive shortly, MC2 fans will be treated to a few familiar playable characters.

Of course, the release times aren't know yet, but assets from the game, along with material officially released by Gameloft make mention of Black-Suit Spider-Girl, Spider-Venom and Venom (May Parker).

The Venom of Earth X has also been referred to as 'Venom X' so obviously the titles are still up in the air at this point.

The update also sees some major changes to the game's rank-up system and a new filtering system for the player's team of Spider-folks.

Until I stop being excited by this stuff, I remain

frogoat