Here right now we're going to talk about comics. I know, I know I've been talking about comics quite a lot. The blog is about writing but I can't just go around telling you everything I'm currently writing because then that takes all the suspense out of what I'm planning to share with the world, so we’ll talk comics instead.
The following blog is an article that I wrote for a certain comics website. They never published and I can't blame them for not doing it. At the time I was up and arms about it. How dare them I thought. I know more about comics than those hipster hacks that they have writing for them. As time went on though I realized that I may have a better knowledge of the history of comics and not just what was new and happening, they probably know more about writing for a website than I did.
Now while I still haven't been published on a website I have self published two books that have had some moderate success. Through sheer experience and countless hours I've gotten better at writing but still no freelance work.
It doesn't matter though that's why I have a blog so I can write and send it out to the world.
Anyway this particle topic is is very important to me and I needs to get my voice out about it, so I took that old post I wrote, rewrote it, edited and shared it here. Let me know what you think and if this could have sat on the endless pages of those damn hipster comics fans that turned me down website.
Sorry still a little sore I guess. Without further a due here it is.
You may not believe it but back when Mary Jane and Peter Parker(Spider-man) were still married they were going to have a baby. The unfortunate thing is the baby sided before it could be born. This all happened we back in the late 90's. It was a sad time, I mean how great it would have been to have a spider child running around. Sadly we didn't get our wish. That is until at the tail end of Marvel's What If series they released "What If Spider-Man's Daughter had lived."It featured Peter Parker and Mary Jane's teenage daughter, May "Mayday" Parker, just discovering her inherited spider powers. It was a great issue for Spider-Man fans. It show d her getting the suit and web shooters and she fought an all new green goblin who was scary as hell. It was so great that it spawned a whole series that spanned well over 100 issues. It was like the little book that could. It faced cancellation time and time again but every time was saved by the fans.
This book holds a special place in my heart because it was the first comic I had started to collect and follow regularly. Sure before then I was getting random comics off spinner racks or from the occasional trip to the comic shop, but the day I had picked up the first Spider-girl book I was hooked. It was like reading early Spider-Man again. A teenager dealing with high school problems and new superpowers. It was perfect for a middle school school kid still going through the awful gauntlet of puberty. Even though I'm a boy and Spider-girl was clearly a girl it didn't matter. I still found her relatable, a young person juggling social life, parents, and super powers. Okay I didn't have super powers, but you get the idea. She spoke to me on a level that adult heroes didn't. This was almost like Stan Lee's original idea reborn , an everyday person with superpowers.
Another aspect that I enjoyed about this book was that it took place in Marvel's future. The audience got a look at what all their favorite heroes and villains were up to 16 years up the line. We also saw the kind of kids that had been born from different unions. There were new versions of Avengers, and it was no longer the X-men but the X-people. The Fantastic Four was now the Fantastic Five featuring little Franklin Richards all grown up, who lets face it doesn't seem to really ever age. It was a great look into what could have happened after the events of the current Marvel continuity we were already reading, and it was an excellent world for brand new characters to be introduced.
This series has got to be one of the few comics that has been saved by sheer willpower of it's fans. Not only was it saved one time but several times. Fans would not let this character die. It was not until the much controversial "One More Day" storyline that told the story of Peter and Mary Jane selling their marriage to Mephisto (at least that was my interpretation), that we finally saw that cancellation of this well loved character. An almost thirteen year long run of a female character was finally over, but was it.
She resurfaced in the pages of Spider-Man, during his "spider-verse“ crossover. In which we see Spider-Men and women from different universes banding together to face a common threat. In it we see the return of May "Mayday" Parker. Her appearances so far have been short and uncommon but it gives me and I'm sure all those other disgruntled Spider-girl fans hope for the future. What with super heroines on the rise like the new Ms.Marvel, Spider-Gwen, and Squirrel Girl, and with female readers coming into the light and screaming that they like comics too and that comics are no longer going to be just a testosterone driven medium. I think it's time that we welcomed the real Spider-girl daughter of the Amazing Spider-Man back into our monthly books.
There you have it. It’s a little dated sure and was written back in my early days of writing but I feel It still holds true. To keep it even more current they released a storyline showing the Parker’s child growing up still. Another books happening in an alternate universe. The thing is the little girl in this book is not May.
I don't get it honestly. The book is enjoyable for a quick read but it's not the same character. Along with this new character is the spider woman Silk, who was bitten by the same spider that it Peter Parker. This character as well leaves me baffled.
Maybe that's not right. Its not the character but the idea of introducing all these new Spider women and leaving Spider-girl behind. Why Marvel has done this I can't say. I feel like they've left behind a great character and replaced her with half done duplicates. Now I’ m not saying that people other than the Parkers can be spiders but Spider-girl was here fist damn it! Show her the respect that the daughter of the original Spider-man deserves.
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