Spider-Girl

By Tim Hartnett

Since my decision to travel to the trade (see last two columns), I've been replacing and supplementing my comic reading experience with new stories in trade form. The first two I got were Spider-Man Visionaries: John Romita and Spider-Man: The Death of Captain Stacy. Both collected stories spanning seven years, beginning at the start of John Romita's run and ending at his personal favorite---the Vietnam tale spanning issues 108 and 109. For the first time, really, I saw the genius of Stan Lee, able to create such a complex set of characters and situations in such a unique world. John Romita's dynamic artwork captured the emotion and action of each scene with a fluidity that somehow remained constant in execution. This era of Spider-Man was clearly something special, almost like the early seasons of a long running TV show. I have never seen this kind of magic with a Spider-Man related character until I bought the Spider-Girl Marvel Age digest, Legacy.

Legacy is one of Marvel's first ventures into its Marvel Age line, which is initially focused at young and newer readers. This label stereotypically applies to simple, juvenile stories, but the line, and Spider-Girl, are anything but.

Tom DeFalco's webstunner, May "Mayday" Parker, the daughter of the original Spider-Man, came to the comic book scene at a pivotal time for the industry. Overall sales were continuing a fall out from the crash in '93, and the creative voices of the industry had a difficult time being realized. Trade dresses, reproduction and storytelling methods, series alignments, and character concepts were in constant states of change. Born toward the end of this time was Spider-Girl, a concept which originally appeared in Marvel's What if? #105, and later shunted into MC-2, a relatively short-lived imprint with its own continuity, set some time in the future from the current Marvel Universe.

From the start, Spider-Girl was nothing short of a creative wonder. Mr. DeFalco's inspiring pace and tone immediately set itself apart from many other books of the day, and even more so today. The story is told in a combination first/second person point of view, and paced in an offbeat way, similar to the Stan Lee Marvels of the 60s. Furthermore, Spider-Girl had a rather long list of supporting characters for a title born in the 90s, but they all locked into the stories very well with their unique attributes and attractive personalities. Mr. DeFalco's formula was certainly a winner, but that was only the start.

Spider-Girl had some of the most dynamic, inviting covers the industry had seen in years, which captured the feel of the story. Though May struggled with her parents, her newly found powers, friends, and adversaries, Mr. DeFalco never took the road into darkness and unneeded seriousness, as is the case with many modern books. Spider-Girl was intricate and fun, but complicated and relevant in a way that pays much homage to Stan Lee's Spider-Man as much as it represented itself.

Spider-Girl's origin was illustrated by Ron Frenz and Bill Sienkiewicz, who provided a strong introduction of the characters and concept. Sienkiewicz's inking style was very similar to that which was used in the early 80s by both himself and Klaus Janson. This first story sets itself apart from the others in tone, and as sort of a pilot episode for the rest of the series.

From there, veteran artists Pat Ollife and Al Williamson took over, with earth-shattering results. Mr. Ollife's realistic, yet never over-detailed style brought each character to life, each panel's action to fruition. Mr. Williamson, with a host of colorists which included Christy Scheele, Bon Sharen, and Matt Webb, added shadow, intrigue, and color to May's world. It was a perfect storm of creative righteousness that each issue carried.

Not to mention that each story featured a new adversary while continuing the über-storyline. Messrs. DeFalco and Ollife brought these villains to life each issue. Each one was new, menacing, and fun, and was a perfect fit to the drama and pace of the story. When was the last time we had it this good in comics?

As the MC-2 line dissipated toward the turn of the century, and the Jemas-Quesada era began at Marvel, Spider-Girl went through many changes. Stories seem to drag on for months some times, and the covers went from being dynamic and welcoming to anything but with Marvel's then-new iconic cover policy. Soon, Mr. Ollife left the book, replaced by Ron Frenz, and Mr. Williamson left as well, replaced by Sal Buscema. Mr. Frenz' style had changed much throughout the late 90s, and with Mr. Buscema's heavily defined inks, Spider-Girl has lost a bit of its dynamism and feel in the past few years.

Luckily, Marvel has given us the first six Spider-Girl stories for an incredible price of $7.99, about $1.33 per issue! The collection is printed on regular, novel-type paper rather than Marvel's current glossy stock, which does the art many favors as it does not exaggerate the art or coloring. Marvel has also inexplicably relettered the series, replacing Janice Chiang and Chris Eliopoulos' work with Dave Sharpe, who letters in the slightly defunct typecase style that was prevalent toward the second half of Bill Jemas' run as publisher. Even the covers have been edited, as not to show numbers, comics code authority symbol, or bar code. But still, the stories are intact and are as fun today as they were then. This is an example of comics done right for all ages, and at an unbeatable price, the Spider-Girl digest is an excellent value, while contributing the survival of the title's current incarnation.