So, a few things occurred and occurred to me in quick succession to make this post possible. First, I was re-reading Amazing Spider-Girl #1 which opens with these pages from Jimmy Yama and Wes Westin's own Spider-Girl comic:
Obviously, 'Jennifer Justice' Spider-Girl and her *clears throat* larger than life aspects were not-so-subtle references to other, more 'extreme' and 'edgy' comics of both the 90's and the 2000's. But, digging a little deeper, there's a far more obscure and maybe even subtle reference to found, the second thing: Planet Spidera!
At first I thought this could have simply been a goofy on the nose name for a planet, then I recalled the 1978 Toei produced Supaidāman, a Japanese television adaption of Spider-Man. In this adaption, motorcycle racer Takuya Yamashiro is given his spider-powers by Garia, the last survivor of Planet Spider. By now, alarm bells were going off, but I couldn't find the evidence I needed to back up my theory.
I had a vague recollection that artist extraordinaire Ron Frenz had shared some concept sketches for the Jennifer Justice comic-within-a-comic on the Spider-Girl Message Board. However, I could not find the relevant pages (even using the Internet Archive) so I resigned myself to never proving my hypothesis. I eventually asked Mr Frenz himself and he confirmed that I wasn't imagining these sketches. So, now more determined than ever, I went through an old external hard drive and found the sketches in question saved for posterity! If you are still wondering why these sketches are at all relevant to Supaidāman, let me share them with you below and we'll compare them to the shows characters:
This is Amazoness, right hand woman to Professor Monster who also masquerades as Yoshida Saeko; Editor in Chief of the Weekly Woman magazine. There's also clear design elements borrowed for Sister Sinestra, Jennifer Justice's sister and sworn enemy who serves her uncle The Black Tarantula. I actually really like that the germ of an idea for Spider-Girl's 'sister' was already in play back when these concept sketches were being produced around the time of Amazing Spider-Girl #1.
Finally, Professor Monster's Iron Cross Army is filled out with his seemingly limitless supply of cyborg soldiers, the Ninder. Similarly The Black Tarantula's Elite Venom Corp. is filled with an unlimited supply of clone soldiers.
I think the parallels are obvious at this point. I think it's a shame we never got to see more of Jimmy and Wes' comic, as I would love seen more of this goldmine for parody, references and nods. How about it, Ron?
Until I become the Emissary of Hell, I remain
frogoat