Hey, really quick: remember when J.J. Abrams and his son Henry Abrams launched a new Spider-Man title that surprised everyone by being set in an alternate universe that introduced Peter Parker’s son, Benjamin ‘Benny’ Parker II? Remember how it caused the comic collectors market to suddenly drive up the value of Spider-Girl #59 because it was tangentially related by having also introduced Peter Parker’s son Benjamin ‘Benny/Benjy’ Parker II, our beloved Li’l Benjy of the MC2?
Well, what if I told you they got it wrong? I mean, obviously these two Ben’s are very different characters from completely different alternate realities. But what if I told you Spider-Girl #59 isn’t even Benjy’s real first appearance? That’s right, I’m going to be nit-picky here.
You see, Benjy actually makes his first appearance on-panel in
Spider-Girl #57, two issues prior to his credited first appearance. Here,
Mary Jane Parker and May ‘Mayday’ Parker pay a visit to the Fantastic
Five Building for a prenatal check-up with the team’s Big Brain aka Reed
Richards.
It’s here we see a full-term Ben shortly before his birth via Richards’ high-tech ‘diagnostagram’. It’s also here that Mayday get’s her first glimpse of her baby brother, which is a nice when you remember she will miss his birth in Spider-Girl #59. It’s also May who suggests to her mother Mary Jane the name Ben for her as-yet-unnamed brother.
Hope you’ve learned something today, and remember the value of a comic is what you get out of it, not how much money it makes in the collector’s market.
Until I stop revisiting my favourite series just to ruin things for collectors by picking nits, I remain
frogoat