Marvel Is Still Ignoring Its Best Spider-Girl

The biggest hero in the Marvel Universe is Spider-Man, the company’s most familiar face. His popularity has inspired countless spinoffs and supporting cast characters, including female equivalents to the web-slinger. Marvel is now set to introduce a new take on this concept, but the publisher is still overlooking the best incarnation of this heroine.

Spider-Girl is a mantle that’s been used by several heroes, and Marvel Comics recently revealed that a new version of Spider-Girl is on the way. This adds to the seemingly endless array of alternate “Spider-People,” which has become an increasing issue for fans of Spider-Man himself. Ironically, introducing a new version of the female wall-crawler angers some fans in another way because Marvel Comics continually passes over a fan-favorite.

Why Marvel’s Newest Spider-Girl Is Already Controversial

Upcoming Debut: Spider-Boy #12 by Dan Slott and Paco Medina

Revealed at San Diego Comic-Con, the new version of Spider-Girl is still a somewhat esoteric and mysterious character. She seems to have no ties to previous versions of the character, and given her suggested age by the pigtails coming out of her mask, she may take the “girl” part of her name literally. This would make her similar to Bailey Briggs/Spider-Boy, who’s not even a teenager. That character is barely even a year old, yet this new wall-crawler is already being introduced. Therein lies one of the biggest issues with the new Spider-Girl among longtime franchise fans.

There are already too many disparate spinoff characters related to Spider-Man, with Spider-Boy himself inspiring all manner of groans and skepticism. This is especially the case for Spider-Girl, as there have been multiple versions of her over the years that have been completely dropped by Marvel. It’s more egregious with this particular mantle, as the title of Spider-Girl is most associated with one character: May “Mayday” Parker. The future daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, she was the face of the MC2 (Marvel Comics 2) Universe. Even though Marvel Comics is hesitant to acknowledge her, she remains the “true” Spider-Girl in the eyes of many.

Mayday Was the Best Version of Spider-Girl

Debut: What If? #105 by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz

Introduced in a potential future seen in an issue of Marvel’s What If? comic book, Mayday Parker is who most fans imagine when it comes to the character of Spider-Girl. Her story spun out of the events of the infamous “Clone Saga,” offering an alternate look at that story’s outcome. Named after her paternal aunt (who passed away not long before her birth), May grew up as a normal girl who was socially quite different from her bookworm father and her life-of-the-party mother. However, during a high school basketball game, her powers manifest, proving to her parents that she had indeed inherited Peter’s radioactive genetics. Forced into action by a new Green Goblin and wearing a modified version of the Spider-Man costume once worn by her father’s clone, Ben Reilly, May took on the identity of Spider-Girl.

The comic book adventures of Spider-Girl were popular among fans, with this success seeing her book (intended for only 12 issues) extended into an ongoing title. Even though sales soon slumped, the comic book was frequently saved from cancelation due to fan enthusiasm and the sales of trade paperbacks. Part of the reason she continued to be a hit was that Mayday’s adventures resembled the early days of her father.

This old-school nature ironically felt fresh and modern, especially as the Marvel Universe grew darker. Following the fallout of Spider-Man: One More Day, in which Peter had his marriage with MJ erased, the Spider-Girl title was more lauded than ever, namely for fans who preferred the marriage of her parents to stay in continuity. While her published comics eventually ended, she was far more successful than some of her other counterparts.

Marvel’s Other Spider-Girls and Spider-Women Haven’t Been Major Hits

Jessica Drew, Anya Corazon and Cindy Moon Don’t Have the Biggest Audiences

Besides Mayday Parker, there have been several other Spider-Girls and Spider-Women. Sometimes, these were alternate universe incarnations like a variant of Betty Brant who became Spider-Girl in a one-off issue. Given the nature of such stories, it’s no surprise that these incarnations amounted to little in the grand scheme. At the same time, Spider-characters who got much more of a push have comparatively failed next to the May Parker version of Spider-Girl.

Chief among these is the Jessica Drew Spider-Woman, who’s always been a tangential “Spider-Man character.” Her powers and origins have nothing to do with Peter Parker, and she’s rarely interacted with him beyond when they were both members of the Avengers. This is likely the reason for her being obscure at best and completely forgotten at worst, as her lack of ties to Marvel’s biggest character is a notable example of poor marketing and branding. At the other end of the spectrum is Cindy Moon, a.k.a. Silk.

Silk was bitten by the same spider as Peter Parker, but she didn’t become a public superhero until much later due to being hidden by Ezekiel Sims. She debuted during Dan Slott’s long run on The Amazing Spider-Man, with said first appearance being made in the wake of the success of both the Miles Morales version of Ultimate Spider-Man and Ghost-Spider, a.k.a. Spider-Gwen (an alternate universe version of Gwen Stacy). This made her failure to catch on even more egregious, as both of those characters were overnight sensations.

Despite her close ties to Spider-Man, Silk couldn’t stick the landing. The same was the case with the Anya Corazon Spider-Girl (who has returned to her original Arachne codename) and the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman, the latter of whom is perhaps even less iconic than Jessica Drew. In comparison, Venom and the symbiotes are far more popular despite being villains in many cases. Even though they’re not the most popular, many of these characters continue to appear in different crossovers and event stories, a fate that sadly isn’t shared with Mayday Parker.

Why Marvel Is Reluctant to Bring Back Its Best Spider-Girl

The fact that Marvel is increasingly hesitant to even acknowledge Mayday Parker, let alone give her more comic books as Spider-Girl, stems from the situation surrounding Spider-Man himself. Ever since One More Day, the hero has been stuck in a cycle of mediocrity that keeps him from evolving and growing as a character. The fact that his marriage to Mary Jane was erased only makes this more obvious, and it’s been a bone of contention among fans for years.

Now, One More Day is nearly 20 years old, thus cemented as the status quo for the mainstream version of Spidey. Making matters worse are developments such as introducing a character named Paul, who seemingly existed only to drive a wedge further between Peter and MJ. This is despite their love for each other being rekindled right beforehand, with the Nick Spencer run on The Amazing Spider-Man hinting that One More Day might be overturned.

With Marvel editorial seemingly refusing to budge on retconning the controversial storyline, it’s no surprise that anything hinting at a future where MJ and Peter are together is off the table. This includes Spider-Girl, a reminder of how things were before One More Day. An exception to this rule is the new Ultimate Spider-Man book, which is set in the rebooted version of the Ultimate Universe. In this continuity, Peter doesn’t become Spider-Man until he’s an adult, and he’s already married to Mary Jane and has two children with her.

With this already taking the spot of a Spider-Man book in an alternate universe where Peter is happily married, there’s even less room for a title based on Mayday Parker. After all, even characters in the 616 Universe, such as Ben Reilly, are frequently ignored by editorial, with the growing list of Spider-people only making this worse. As things stand, the newly introduced Spider-Girl is the one that Marvel Comics is focusing on, even if it’s another incarnation that fans would rather see again.