Today’s post is all about
Mattie Franklin aka
Spider-Woman, the mysteries surrounding her place in the
MC2 and
maybe a few surprises along the way.
Mattie presents us with a somewhat
rare case of a character who was created after the clearest divergence point
between the
Main Marvel Universe and the Universe of the
MC2, but
still exists in some form within the
MC2.
Martha ‘Mattie’ Franklin was the third character in
the
Main Marvel Universe to be granted the super heroic moniker of
Spider-Woman.
Her debut and solo title ran concurrently with
May ‘Mayday’ Parker’s own
Spider-Girl title.
Mattie was given a pretty obvious push from
editorial, appearing frequently in the early days of the
Howard Mackie
and
John Byrne-led
Spider-Man reboot era of the late
90’s
leading into her aforementioned comic series.
With her series ending after just 18 issues,
Mattie languished
in obscurity, only appearing in two stories before meeting her end in the the
post-One More Day story ‘
Grim Hunt’. The first appearance, a storyline
in the ‘mature’ series
Alias by
Brian Michael Bendis where
Mattie
mostly appears in a drugged state as the victim of several indignities. The
second story, the
Loners mini-series written by
C.B. Cebulski,
depicted
Mattie as a member of a support group for recovering former
superheroes. Between both stories, details such as a familial relationship to the
Jameson’s are erroneously depicted, because clearly no one was paying enough
attention. Mattie would reach her unceremonious and meanspirited demise in the
post-
One More Day story ‘
Grim Hunt.’
Let’s start by taking a look at her first appearances in the
Main Marvel Universe.
Mattie cameoed in the shadows in
Spectacular
Spider-Man #262 where she overhears her father being coerced into participating
in the
Gathering of Five ritual by
Norman Osborn. Taking part in
this ritual herself in
Amazing Spider-Man #441 alongside
Madame Web,
Morris Maxwell,
Gregory Herd and
Norman Osborn, Mattie
would (unbeknownst to everyone at the time) gain the gift of great power.
Later,
Mattie would use these powers to take on the mantle of
Spider-Man
during the original hero’s absence. Shortly after,
Mattie would gain the
spider-powers of the previous
Spider-Women and a new, evil
Spider-Woman
(
Charlotte Witter).
The most obvious issue with
Mattie Franklin’s
existence in the
MC2 is the
Gathering of Five and
Final Chapter
storylines, which saw
Norman Osborn use the aforementioned ritual
in an attempt to gain further power through mystical means, along with the ridiculous
resurrection of
Aunt May, despite following several hints that
Peter
and
Mary Jane’s baby
May was still alive. You see, in the
MC2,
these events not only don’t play out in this way, they also occur much later in
the timeline.
The first appearance of
Mattie Franklin in the
MC2 is during a flashback in
Spider-Girl #39 when
Julia
Carpenter (the second
Spider-Woman) is discussing how ‘
all the Spider-Women’
used to use
Peter Parker to relay messages to
Spider-Man. We get
a glimpse of
Mattie in her original
Spider-Woman costume,
alongside a youthful looking
Madame Web.
We next glimpse
Mattie Franklin’s Spider-Woman in another
flashback, this time courtesy of
Gerry Drew, the son of
Jessica Drew,
the original
Spider-Woman. Here we see
Mattie is still wearing
her original costume and appears to be meeting with her two predecessors.
Notably
Jessica is in plain clothes and apparently depowered while
Julia
seems to retain her abilities, appearing in
Spider-Woman costume (
Spider-Girl #40).
Mattie Franklin makes her final
MC2 appearance
to date during a flashback in
Spider-Girl #49, which coincidentally is
also chronologically her earliest appearance. Taking place during the
MC2
version of the
Gathering of Five, the flashback depicts
Mattie as
a participant of the ceremony just as her
Main Marvel Universe
counterpart had done before her. And I mean ‘
before’ in more than just publication
order, because the
MC2’s Gathering of Five ceremony takes place
sometime later than the one seen in the
Main Marvel Universe. This is
Spider-Man’s
last battle with
Norman Osborn, with
Peter losing his leg and the
Goblin ultimately losing his life. As the ritual was interrupted before
completion and we see
Mattie fleeing with the
Five pieces, we can
assume she later successfully completed the ritual and thus gained the ‘gift’
of power.
It’s unknown who else participated in this new
Gathering of
Five ceremony, but as we see a youthful
Madame Web in
Spider-Girl
#39 alongside
Mattie, it’s logical to conclude that she was one of
the five and gained the ‘gift’ of immortality just like her
Main Marvel
Universe counterpart. Even if all the remaining original participants had taken
part in ritual again, that leaves the vacant spot once held by
Norman Osborn
that an unknown person must have filled.
So, let’s revisit the timeline of events with a bit more
overall context from other events in the
MC2, shall we? It goes a little
something like this:
- Norman Osborn, for unknown reasons does not enact
the Gathering of Five ritual until much later in the MC2,
likely as a result of setting up other schemes and masterplans in the meantime.
- Eventually, Kaine rescues and returns Peter and Mary
Jane Parker’s baby May to them.
- Spider-Man has several adventures while raising May
including those seen in the Mr and Mrs Spider-Man stories.
- Mattie Franklin steals her father’s piece and joins
willingly in the Gathering of Five ritual alongside Norman Osborn,
Greg Herd, Madame Web (Cassandra Webb) and Morris Maxwell.
The ritual is interrupted Spider-Man before it’s completion.
- Mattie flees, taking the pieces for the ritual with
her. Spider-Man loses his leg and Norman Osborn dies in
their final battle.
- At some point afterwards, Mattie, Madame Web
and others successfully complete the ritual. This ritual gifts Mattie with power and
restores Madame Web’s youth.
- Mattie uses her powers to become a superhero, taking
on the mantle of Spider-Woman.
- Jessica Drew, having apparently never regained
her spider-powers, encounters Julia Carpenter and Mattie Franklin
under unrevealed circumstances.
- At some point, Mattie made contact with Peter Parker,
in an apparent attempt to get messages to Spider-Man.
- According to Anya Corazon, Madame Web died at
some point, despite her apparent immortality (Amazing Spider-Girl #14).
Though
Anya isn’t the best source of reliable
information, I think it’s safe to assume that
Madame Web did in fact
pass away. Given that the various ‘gifts’ from the Gathering of Five began to fade
over time in the
Main Marvel Universe, it’s likely
Madame Web succumbed
to her disease or of old age in the
MC2. I mention this because it might
help to explain
Mattie Franklin’s absence in the present day
MC2
if her powers simply faded away and forced her to retire.
Going by the established timeline of events,
Anya Corazon
aka
Araña was active as a superheroine before Mattie Franklin gained
powers in the
MC2, having encountered a still-active
Spider-Man during
a flashback seen in the
Spider-Man Family One-Shot.
There are a few more points to briefly discuss, such as
Charlotte
Witter aka the villainous fourth
Spider-Woman who drained the powers
of her heroic predecessors. Created by
Doctor Octavius aka
Doctor
Octopus, this
Spider-Woman not only didn’t debut in the
Main Marvel
Universe until after the aforementioned point where the
MC2 takes a
drastically different path, it’s possible
Charlotte Witter was never
kidnapped, tortured and experimented upon at all. Assuming this is to be true,
Mattie
would never have obtained the various spider-powers of her predecessors, nor
the ability to manifest psychic spider legs from
Witter. Well, at least
Mattie
had a spider-themed costume, right?!
While not appearing in the issue itself, we do see
Mattie
Franklin amongst an assortment of other superheroines on the cover to
Spider-Girl
#60, again sporting her original
Spider-Woman costume. You might
have to take a close look as she’s only partially visible at the very top of
the image.
It’s also worth mentioning that the boutique
Spider
Shoppe -which produces clothing based on the designs of various
Spider-Women-
stocks a full-mask cosplay variation of
Mattie Franklin’s last
Spider-Woman
costume, which we see
Davida Kirby wear in
Spider-Girl #91 as
part of a diversion to defeat
La Fantome. This could be an indication
that
Mattie did in fact wear this costume at some point in her super
hero career in the
MC2.
Unfortunately, I think that’s everything, all that we know
about the short-run
Mattie Franklin in the MC2. While she was never a particularly
well written character, I do think
Martha had a great deal of untapped
potential that was undercut by her introduction in such a poorly-conceived and poorly-received
era for the
Spider-Man mythos. It’s ironic that
Mattie would be
written into the history of the
MC2, given that the character was seen
by fans at the time as a rival to
May’s own title. In fact,
Mattie’s
creator
John Byrne is quoted as remarking ‘The
Spider-GIRL series
is dead.
SPIDER-WOMAN continues to do quite nicely, thank you.’ in an
AOL chat room in
December 1999, just a year before his book’s
cancellation. Later when discussing another cancelled book,
X-Men: The
Hidden Years,
Byrne claimed the book was selling ‘better than
SPIDER-GIRL,
for instance, which has been “saved” from cancellation.’
Despite this apparent animosity on
Byrne’s part,
Defalco’s
inclusion of
Mattie into the
Spider-Girl series demonstrates a
remarkable level of professionalism. This type of decorum from
Defalco
is also seen later with the integration of the aforementioned
Anya Corazon
aka Araña, another short-lived rival
to
Mayday’s title, into the history of the
MC2.
Until I gamble everything on an occult ritual in an attempt
to gain power, I remain
frogoat
