MC2 Untold: Valkyrie

 

Today I’m going to try something a little different and talk about something we didn’t see in the MC2. This will be the first in an occasional series looking at some of the Untold Tales of the MC2: costumes, concepts, story ideas and characters that never saw the printed page. For our inaugural instalment, let’s look at Valkyrie.  

 

As per Thunderstrike and A-Next co-creator, artist extraordinaire and all-around nice guy Ron Frenz’s own facebook:

When The Time Is Right!

Below left is an incomplete sketch of a character I intended to introduce in the MC2 title A-NEXT had the book continued.

Obviously, an Asgardian Valkyrie, she would have been charged by Thor, now the ruler of Asgard to train and watch over the MC2 version of Kevin Masterson as Thunderstrike.

As I said, the title was dis-continued and the idea stored away.

Next to that sketch is an early conceptual drawing of Gruenhilda, an Asgardian Valkyrie charged by the Lady Sif to train and watch over the 616 version of Kevin Masterson as Thunderstrike in the 2011 THUNDERSTRIKE mini-series.

Weird.

So there you have it, the MC2’s Kevin Masterson aka Thunderstrike could have had a similar arc with an Asgardian Valkyrie mentor and trainer. Seeing this story concept and character adapted to the Main Marvel Universe does at least mean the idea eventually saw print in some form. For anyone wondering, the name Gruenhilda is a nod to dearly missed writer and protector of Marvel Comics continuity Mark Gruenwald.



An interesting foil to the story regarding the published appearance of Gruenhilda, also directly from Mr Frenz’s facebook:



That Was Weird!

Back in 1994 in an issue of THUNDERSTRIKE I had The Lady Sif wearing a variant of a Kirby design which showed a bit more skin.

(Sue me, it was the '90s!)

Nobody blinked.

In the 2010 THUNDERSTRIKE mini-series we introduced an Asgardian Valkyrie character and I thought it would be consistent (and cool!) to repeat elements of the same design to demonstrate their common origins.

Skin included.

The original colors for the character Gruenhilda were shown in the solicitation for the issue.

But at the eleventh hour Editorial blinked big time and re-colored the cover and eliminated the exposed epidermis.

Anyway,1994 nobody blinked.

2010, blink!

That was weird!

Anyway, there you have it, we nearly had a Gruenhilda -or similarly designed- Asgardian Valkyrie character in the MC2, but she did eventually see the light of day thanks to the 2011 Thunderstrike mini-series set in the Main Marvel Universe.

Until I stop stalking Ron Frenz’s facebook for content, I remain

 

frogoat

Felicia Hardy in the MC2

Felicia Hardy aka the Black Cat has been a prominent and important figure of the Spider-Man mythos since her first appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #194, so her being the focus of today’s post should come as no surprise. Let’s take a look at Felicia Hardy in the MC2.

Felicia Hardy makes her MC2 debut in the pages of Spider-Girl #36 where she visits Mary Jane and reveals she got back into town a few weeks prior and mentions her kids, who unlike her, are not doing fine.

 

It’s in the following issue when Felicia accompanies Mary Jane to an appointment that we get more details. Felicia believes Felicity blames her for divorcing the children’s father, Eugene ‘Flash’ Thompson. When Mary Jane enquires about Felicia’s son Gene, however, we don’t get a straight answer (Spider-Girl #37).

 

Felicia visits Mary Jane at the Parker family home and is sorry to hear she didn’t get to see May as she hadn’t seen her since she was a baby. Felicia also discloses to Mary Jane that Felicity barely speaks to her. Before Mary Jane can finish their conversation, she collapses to the ground (Spider-Girl #39).

 

Felicia calls the ambulance and at the hospital meets with Peter and May. Felicia remarks she hasn’t seen May since she was a toddler. After learning Mary Jane is doing well, Felicia leaves to allow Peter and Mary Jane privacy with the doctor (Spider-Girl #40).

 

During another visit to Mary Jane, once more at her home, Felicia discusses concerns about her daughter Felicity. Felicia believes that not only has Felicity not forgiven her for divorcing her father, but also disapproves of her current lifestyle. Mary Jane assures Felicia she’s entitled to live her own life regardless of how her daughter feels about it. Meanwhile, Felicia just want’s her daughter to open up and communicate with her (Spider-Girl #45). If Ms. Hardy only knew what her daughter was up to…

 

In Spider-Girl #47, Mary Jane invites both Felicia and her partner Diana over for a cup of tea. Diana mentions the couple were previously living in Paris but have moved back so that Felicity can reestablish a relationship with her father. When Mary Jane asks how long the two have known each other, Felicia states ‘it’s going on six years now’ and mentions that Diana used to be a contract operative for her detective agency. While Felicia’s detective agency isn’t named here, it’s presumably Cat’s Eye Investigations, which she first formed in Felicia Hardy: Black Cat #4 way back in 1994. Diana thinks one of the reasons Felicity ‘doesn’t approve’ of her is because she believes her to be ‘some kind of opportunist’.

 

When Felicia learns of her daughter’s superhero antics, she confronts Felicity about putting herself in jeopardy and humiliating her in the eyes of an old friend aka Peter Parker. It doesn’t go down well, with Felicity angrily responding that she isn’t crazy about Felicia’s own decisions including leaving her father, quitting as the Black Cat and beginning a relationship with Diana. Felicity departs with a parting shot questioning if her mother is angry about her endangering her life or because she patterned herself after the Scarlet Spider instead of the Black Cat. Despite Diana’s attempt to comfort her, Felicia remains convinced her daughter hates her (Spider-Girl #48).

 

After Felicity skips school, Felicia walks her daughter in to the school despite her daughter’s protests, informing her that she needs to stop acting like a child unless she wishes to be treated like one and reminds Felicity of her appointment with the school guidance counsellor within earshot of other students, inadvertently causing more of a scene. Felicia has made this appointment for her daughter because she believes she may be depressed; a fact Felicity throws in her face afterwards when she arrives home and interrupts Felicia and Diana in a loving embrace (Spider-Girl #53).

 

As I have noted previously, this storyline unfortunately never saw completion, apparently for one or more real-world reasons including multiple attempted cancellations of the Spider-Girl title at the time. It would be over 20 issues before we saw Felicity again in the series and Felicia and Diana were lost in the lurch almost entirely, with Felicia making only a brief appearance years later in Amazing Spider-Girl #3. It appears by this point the relationship between Felicia and Felicity has improved, with the pair heading off for lunch together happily.

 

That’s all for the actual MC2 appearances of Felicia Hardy, but perhaps one day I may get a chance to detail one or two untold stories involving the Black Cat in the MC2.

 

Until I find out my parent is a cat burglar and I take up the family business, I remain

 

frogoat

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 Swiney-Verse

 

A fun little side-piece to my two Spider-Man: No Way Home related posts Raimi-Verse References in the MC2 and MC2 in the TASM-Verse, today we’ll be taking a very brief look at the Raimi-Verse in the Swiney-Verse.

 

A lifetime ago I wrote about the Sensational Swiney-Girl and I later mentioned the character’s appearance as a playable character in the Spider-Man Unlimited mobile game.  But let's skip ahead and recap starting with Amazing Spider-Man Family #4 where Tom Defalco leaves hoof-marks on his own creation 'Spider-Girl’ when he and artist Shawn Moll introduce May 'Mayday' Porker, The Sensational Swiney-Girl. Miss Porker is the daughter of Peter Porker (definitely a pig) and Mary Crane Watsow (and not Mary Jane Waterbuffalo) and as such her origin somewhat mirrors our own Mayday's. Beginning by going into action to help her father against the Green Gobbler, (apparently Norman Osbird's son out to for revenge) Swiney-Girl goes on to face the Hay-Monger in Amazing Spider-Man Family #5 and in an epic two-part story in the Spider-Ham 25th Anniversary Special One-Shot, faces off with Crayfin the Bunter.

 

Anyway, lets look at the references to the original Spider-Man movie of the Raimi-Verse in the Swiney-Verse. In the origin story of Swiney-Girl seen in Amazing Spider-Man Family #4, we see a flashback to Peter Porker’s final battle with the Green Gobler (yes, I checked the spelling with the issue itself, one ‘b’) which is a clear nod to the first Spider-Man movie’s final confrontation with the Green Goblin. In the film, the Green Goblin presents Spider-Man with a sadistic choice atop the bridge; dangling a tram full of children in one hand and Mary Jane in the other.

 

Later in the same issue, we get another direct nod to the climactic battle of 2002’s Spider-Man film, when, in another flashback to Spider-Ham’s last showdown with the Green Gobler, we see Porker’s mask is damaged, exposing part of his face. This reference was pointed out by the MC2 A Day blog, please check it out here. Additionally, Spider-Ham also mentions avoiding Thanksgiving ever since, which has to be another nod to the film’s plot.

 

I’ve enjoyed revisiting the Swiney-Girl stories while working on this post, I wish we had a few more. They deserve to be collected in a trade paperback at some point. Do you agree, let me know!

Until I get my own Ham Hock 3000 prosthesis and continue my bovine bravery, I remain

 

frogoat