Tom Grummett and the MC2

Recently I've been thinking about well-established artists in the comics industry who's take on the MC2 characters we've yet to see. Then I remembered there are a bunch of artists outside of MC2 mainstays such as the wonderfully talented Ron Frenz, Pat Olliffe, Paul Ryan, Ron Lim or Todd Nauck who've in some way worked on my favourite fictional universe. Every so often I'll try and dedicate a short post to each artist's brief foray into the MC2 Universe.

Tom Grummett

Tom Grummett kind of flew under my radar for the longest time as a young comic reader. I was aware of his work on books like Thunderbolts and it was his artwork alone that got me through New Exiles. But it wasn’t until later I learned of his iconic run drawing Superman and Batman over at DC. Truly, Mr Grummett deserves the comic industry’s respect. But we are going to take a look at the two occasions Tom Grummett drew May Parker aka Spider-Girl.

Tom Grummett actually worked with for Tom Defalco’s novel X-Men & Spider-Man: Time’s Arrow Book 3: The Future which was first published in 1998. We got two chapter illustrations pencilled by Tom Grummett with inks by Doug Hazelwood. The art was presented in black and white, but as I’ve mentioned in my Spider-Girl 2020 post, the first illustration was partially coloured for a composite image in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005. So, technically, Tom Grummett was one of the first artists to draw May Parker as Spider-Girl.

Speaking of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005, Mr Tom Grummett’s art not only appeared within the book, he also produced a new piece of art for the cover. This was one of -if not the- first Official Handbook I bought and it was all thanks to that gorgeous art. It certainly helped that it features Tom Grummett’s rendition of May ‘Mayday’ Parker aka Spider-Girl AND Rina Logan aka Wild Thing!

There’s a world out there somewhere in which we saw more MC2 titles and issues, and I believe a prime candidate to fit the style and tone of the MC2 imprint would be Tom Grummett. My appreciation of Tom’s Spider-Girl 2020 design from the novel has increased through the years. I’d love to see him pencil a crossover between the MC2’s Spider-Girl and Spider-Girl 2020. Someday, friends! Someday!



Until I stop building imaginary comic titles and crossovers in my head, I remain



frogoat

Spider-Girl 2020

With the futuristic year 2020 ushering in a new comic event commemorating the characters of Earth-8410 aka 2020 A.D. - most notably Iron Man 2020- I figured now would be a perfect time to acknowledge the overlooked superheroine in the room: May Parker of Earth-8410 aka Spider-Girl 2020.

While I may have briefly touched on the 2020 in the distant past, this will be a more focused look at the character. To begin with, the character is not a comic book native, making her first (and to date, only) appearance in a novel. Written by Tom Defalco and eluki bes shakar (now legally known as Rosemary Edghill) with interior chapter art by penciller Tom Grummett and inker Doug Hazlewood, X-Men & Spider-Man: Time’s Arrow Book 3: The Future was first published in 1998 with a September release date listed on its interior pages. This third and final book in the Time’s Arrow trilogy of novels by Defalco (paired with a different co-writer for each book) marks the debut of Spider-Girl 2020 in its fifth chapter which takes place in -you guessed it- the year 2020 A.D.!

The story sees Spider-Man (the Main Marvel Universe or Earth-616 version, according to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005) on a mission with Cable of the X-Men and Aliya of Earth-9870 to prevent Kang’s destruction of various alternate worlds.  Having been hired by Kang to stop the heroes, Earth-8410’s Arno Stark aka Iron Man of the year 2020 recruits his reality’s Spider-Girl under the pretext of protecting her territory Queens, New York.

It’s here we learn that this world’s May Parker had lost her own father, and had followed in his heroic footsteps during her freshman year of high school, aged only 14 years old. May notes she can’t remember a time when she didn’t know her father was Spider-Man, and recalls how he died with his secret identity intact, leaving some people mere years later to believe the web-swinger was still alive. May, now ‘twentysomething’ still lived with her mother Mary Jane Watson-Parker due to the housing crunch. Mary Jane was initially not pleased when May announced her intentions to suit up as Spider-Girl at such a young age. May works as a ‘page designer’ for Cadence Communications Corporation… which I guess makes her a web designer, right?



Operating as one of 2020’s last lone vigilantes or ‘Independents’, Spider-Girl protects her territory of Queens, New York from ‘incursions of Wreckers, Illegals, rioting Vidiots or worse’. As for powers and abilities, this Spider-Girl has inherited her father’s spider-like ability to stick to walls, strength, speed and agility, which are described as being equal to the original web-head’s own. May also utilizes ‘gold bracelets of cylinders’ on both wrists that fire explosive ‘venom blasts’ that produce a poisoning effect in their targets. Presumably these are dual-purpose web-shooters, as Spider-Girl is also seen spinning webs. It’s not clear if this May Parker possesses a spider-sense, though she does appear to detect people rather quickly.

As for her costume, I think it’s worth using some direct quotes to demonstrate how the chapter illustrations by Tom Grummett (though absolutely beautiful) do perhaps differ from the books text descriptions. Spider-Girl is first described as wearing a ‘tight scarlet-and-blue combat suit’ with a ‘spill of red hair down [her] back’ beneath which ‘her eyes were invisible behind the white shields of her mask’. For the most part, Spider-Girl is referred to while in action as a ‘red-and-blue figure’ and angrily notes when seeing Spider-Man that his costume is an echo of her own. When Spider-Man catches clear sight of Spider-Girl we get a more detailed portrait spelled out: ‘Her costume was red and blue, just like his, with a black pattern of webbing against the red. Around each wrist she wore a gold bracelet of cylinders-possibly the source of the blasts she’d bracketed him with-and a half-mask above which her long red hair whipped around her face like Medusa’s snakes.’

 This combined with the mentions of the costume being red and blue (rather than blue and red) and Peter noting it’s ‘so like his own’ make it seem as the design is meant to more closely resemble the original Spider-Man design. That said there is this one quote that might balance out the artwork somewhat; ‘May Parker had always known that she’d grow up to wear the webbed mask and the famous blue and scarlet garb.’ When added to a brief mention of the first two Spider-Women, it might help explain the potential discrepancy. Either way, I’ve grown to like the Tom Grummett's Spider-Girl 2020 design, even if it does seem to be missing the gold web-shooters.

As for the actual story, accompanying Arno Stark’s Iron Man and his Iron-Bots into the sewers beneath Queens, where they encountered Spider-Man, Cable and Aliya, Spider-Girl is shocked and angered to encounter an apparent imposter posing as her deceased father. When the trio of dimension-hopping heroes briefly escape, Arno brings a subway stop’s ceiling down on them, against the heroic Spider-Girl’s protests. However, Spider-Man and company are rescued from the rubble by Machine Man and his friends, the Midnight Wreckers. When Arno returns to finish the job, Spider-Girl again battles Spider-Man until he unmasks and convinces her of his good intentions. With Iron Man knocked out of commission, Spider-Girl orders his Iron-Bots to retreat, allowing Spider-Man, Cable and Aliya to complete their mission.

Unfortunately, that’s it for this Spider-Girl, except to say her appearance in the Time’s Arrow novel was later confirmed as taking place in the same 2020 A.D. as various other characters in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005. That is, Spider-Girl 2020 shares the same universe as not just Arno Stark’s version of Iron Man but also Machine Man, Death’s Head and Wild Thing (no, not that one! This one’s name is Nikki Doyle). The coloured image of Spider-Girl 2020 originates from the aforementioned handbook as part of a composite image of various denizens of that reality by various artists. The composition, colouring and art reconstruction were (I believe) the work of Scott Elmer under the pseudonym Pond Scum. I mention this as there only exist two official images of the Spider-Girl 2020 character, and this is, to date, the only one reproduced in colour.

Notably, writer Tom Defalco is the co-creator of the world and various characters of Earth-8410’s 2020 including Arno Stark, the Machine Man of 2020 and the Midnight Wreckers and afterwards would frequently reference them in his other work. Or at least he used to, before he conceived the MC2 Universe with frequent collaborator and handsome devil Ron Frenz. I’d absolutely love to see a small crossover with these two Tom Defalco-created Spider-Girl’s, especially because they have such varied stories, ages and costumes and present very different iterations of May Parker.





Until I stop living in the far-flung year of…erm…. the present, I remain



frogoat

Exiles

The Exiles was one of those comics you 'just had to be there' to understand and love. It was a series about a team of (mostly) mutant heroes taken out of their own timelines and thrown together to fix various alternate realities. If that hook sounds cool to you, then you'd have loved this book. But really, deep down, the series was, in essence, the story of people lost and far from home who had to work with complete strangers and hope they didn't die or get left behind or worse. A series about people caught up in a cosmic crap-storm, just trying to survive long enough to make it home.

Among some of the best things a comic book about alternate realities can have is a great creative team. Exiles, with few exceptions, always had a great writer, great artists and some of my favorite colorists in comics. Judd Winick and Mike McKone set the series rolling in a dazzling fashion, establishing the concept, introducing and fleshing out the characters and generally making the series shine. Jim Calafiore would often alternate with McKone for the art in the series, as it was often released two issues per month. Jim Calafiore for me is the Exiles. There is something about his dynamic figures that has always left me in awe. McKone may have created alot of the original characters, but Jim's art is what comes to mind when I think of the Exiles.

Chuck Austen took over the writing chores when Judd left the book. I say chores because I've honestly never thought much of Austen's 'writing', especially his depiction of female characters. Google some reviews of his time on X-men or Avengers to get an idea of what I'm referring to. Besides that, Chuck actually did a half decent job on Exiles, he kept the plates spinning, and he played with the concept a little, by having the Timebroker (the apparent entity behind the scenes) become rather mean spirited, pitting the Exiles against their darker counterparts, Weapon X. Clayton Henry turned his hand to art around this time too, and I can say his art is solid stuff.

Judd Winick returned for a half dozen issues to deliver some gut-wrenching moments which made for  genuine tears on my part, and I'm sure many others. Mizuki Sakakibara joined the rotating team of artists at this point and delivered some beautiful work. Her characters are a little more 'soft' and, I guess, manga-inspired. An excellent addition to the Exiles credentials.

Tony Bedard would take up the writer's pen to make some serious changes to the series concept as a whole, giving us at first a peak behind the curtain of the Timebroker, dropping favorite characters bringing on board controversial members and generally making the book his own, while still paying his dues to the earlier stuff. Then came the big reveal. Which I won't spoil, but I will go so far as to say it was a squee-tastic moment for me as a younger reader. Where would the series go now? A World Tour. Brilliant! Let's visit all the old favorite alternate reality stories from Marvel's past. I loved the idea. I know many people had a few problems with it, and I will concede that it was too long, lasting for a year of the series in real time. but I enjoyed where it took both the series and the characters, and being as it was supposed to be Tony's last hooray on the title, I can dig it.

Only, Tony didn't leave the title. Chris Claremont suffered health issues prior to his start on the series, meaning that now, Tony had to stretch out his run without changing the status quo. Oi vey. I will give credit where it's due, the Exiles team composed entirely of Wolverines was hilarious as all hell and had me scrambling to find out who Albert and Elsie-Dee were.  We also got a sort of 'funeral' issue for all the fallen past members, which was well presented.

Finally, the famous Chris Claremont: X-men visionary, responsible for giving us the version of the X-men that everyone is still clamoring on about to this day, the writer who-to some-is something akin to a god, a never-do-wrong by dint of being Chris Claremont, the man who re-invented the X-men. Problem is, Chris' work has not been good in years. Relying on the same-old stories, using his pet-characters (I'm looking at you, Psylocke and Sage!) and apparently not having any concept of who the Exiles were led me to bite my lip and hold on until another writer would take over. Paul Pelletier at least made the book look gorgeous, as he always does.

'Exiles canceled with #100!' Oh, god! He killed the series! 'New Exiles by Claremont Announced!' The Heck?! Chris would not only end the original series, he'd have it cross over with his own pet-title, New Excalibur, then get to dump all the series regulars in place of personal favorites, and finally lead this 'New' incarnation to it's end. Did I say Oi Vey? Cos, Oi. Vey! Again, the artist saved this from being a total disaster. Hat's off to you, Tom Grummett!

Jeff Parker and Salva Espin, on the other hand were given just six issues to turn the tide of fan-outcry around. Jeff is a clever writer and I always enjoy anything he turns in. He loves playing with all the toys and he writes great characters. Salva....well, let's just say he loved drawing the ladies. His art was a nice change of pace from the previous 'New' styles more 'realisitic' tone. The brighter colors made this title a breathe of fresh air, and the return of some old favorites with a new twist really worked. For six months. Oi Vey.

I guess I should mention that Jim Calafiore also wrote a couple issues back in the day, too. The man is oozing talent. So, I guess 5 out of 6 excellent writers isnt so bad, right? With nary a misstep art-wise, this book was always a pleasure to look at. If the series were to ever come back, I'd love to see Jeff's vision played out fully, as he clearly had a plan and was bristling with ideas.

At it's core Exiles just made me love comics more with it's wide platter of ideas and concepts, it's well-considered characters, it's off-the-wall story telling and it's charm. If you can find the trades, I highly recommend (most of) it!