"Spider-Girl: Keeping the Faith"

            The following is a review of the graphic novel “Spider-Girl: Keeping the Faith” as presented in Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection format.

            May “Mayday” Parker/Spider-Girl is the daughter of Peter Parker/Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson-Parker. She has the proportional speed, strength and agility of a spider, adhesive fingertips and toes, and a unique precognitive awareness of danger called “Spider-Sense.” She fights crime in the legacy of her father.

            May got a tip from ex-boyfriend and fellow superhero Jack “JJ” Jameson/Buzz that the supervillain Doctor Jade might be back in the game. Jack was living with his grandfather J. Jonah Jameson in the absence of his parents, who were in Europe due to Jack’s mother’s lecture tour. Jonah informed Jack that Jack’s parents would be coming for a visit, but Jack was not happy about this prospect because he figured his parents would jet off again right away. May had just quit her high school basketball team due to the expulsion of Nancy Lu, a student and teammate who was outed as a mutant and May thought this treatment was unfair. This put her at odds with her former crush Brad Miller, who turned out to be anti-mutant and her best friend Davida Kirby, who outed this student as a mutant. May was worried about Jack’s erratic behavior and placed her father’s “Spider-Tracer” on Jack so she could keep track of his location and see what he was up to and to get a lead on Doctor Jade. Another of May’s former crushes Normie Osborn was recovering in the hospital, watched over by his girlfriend Brenda Drago/Raptor, another superhero. Buzz tried to bust one of Doctor Jade’s operations and was almost captured in the process, but Spider-Girl was able to swing to his rescue, a fact that only made Buzz angry at Spider-Girl.

            May needed to recover the Spider-Tracer from Jack and invited herself over to his house to study, which was also an effort to evade Brad. John and Ashley Jameson were there arguing with Jonah. John and Ashley wanted Jack to come back to Europe with them, which Jonah was not happy about, but the choice was left to Jack. Meanwhile, Peter and Mary Jane had their hands full with their new baby Benjamin “Benjy.” John Jameson was abducted while getting his gear from the airport, which led to Ashley Jameson confessing to Jack that John and Ashley weren’t really on a lecture tour, they were treating patients who had been mutated by a rogue genetic engineer. Jack swore to prevent his parents’ work from being exploited. Meanwhile, May turned to her ally Darkdevil to look for John Jameson. Spider-Girl was signaled by a man calling himself Chesbro who served as an envoy for the crime boss the Black Tarantula, who agreed to give Spider-Girl John’s location in exchange for a favor, an offer Spider-Girl accepted. Spider-Girl found Doctor Jade and her ally Carolyn Trainer, the new Doctor Octopus, already in conflict with Buzz. The evil Doctors were able to mutate John into the Man-Wolf. Spider-Girl fought with Doctor Jade, Doctor Octopus and Man-Wolf to try to help Buzz save his father. Following this fight, the Black Tarantula contacted Spider-Girl.

            Spider-Girl teamed up with Avenger J2 to fight invisible monsters. Jack discovered the Spider-Tracer and he and his handler Richie decided to use it to try to learn Spider-Girl’s secret identity. They followed it to the Midtown South Police Station and falsely assumed Spider-Girl was a cop. May learned of the Spider Shoppe, a store devoted to Spider-Girl memorabilia. Spider-Girl and J2 turned to Doc Magus, Sorcerer Supreme, to combat the invisible monsters, believing them to be magic based.

            Mary Jane hand washed May’s Spider-Girl costume while May was at school. May was contacted by Chesbro, who informed May that Lady Octopus was attempting to recruit allies, including Handsome Richie Valentine, a member of the Canis crime family. Canis was in jail for taking down Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. Chesbro also informed May that Normie was in trouble. May was in a rush to be Spider-Girl and put her costume in the dryer. She swung to the hospital to check on Normie, who seemed to be okay, while Brenda informed Spider-Girl that Brenda was preparing to talk about engagement with Normie. Spider-Girl then went to Valentine Motors, where she battled Lady Octopus again. During this battle, Spider-Girl’s costume began to rip. When Brenda spoke of marriage with Normie, Normie instead decided to end their relationship. Following this fight, Spider-Girl was again contacted by Chesbro.

            Fellow student Christopher Jarkoer was majorly crushing on May. He was trying to ask her out when May thought she saw a sign of Lady Octopus. She swung in as Spider-Girl, only to discover it was a cat burglar calling himself Claw. As they fought, Claw hit on Spider-Girl. Agent Weadon, who oversaw a team led by former mercenary Kaine and including Raptor, was contacted by authorities who believed Spider-Girl was fighting Lady Octopus, and the team went in to bust up the fight. Chesbro informed Spider-Girl to look in on Normie and discovered that the reason Normie wouldn’t marry Brenda was because he was already “married” to Élan DeJunae.

            May went to watch a high school basketball game. While this game was on, Canis was being transferred from Riker’s Island to the courthouse. Lady Octopus busted up this transfer and freed Canis. Spider-Girl was contacted by Chesbro, who informed her of Canis’ escape. Spider-Girl swung in and fought Lady Octopus and Canis but was unable to prevent this escape and had to be rescued by Darkdevil.

            Spider-Girl received support from Black Tarantula, including training from Elektra Natchios and a strike force headed by two women called April and June. Kodiak, an agent of Canis, went after Handsome Richie Valentine for ignoring promises to Canis. Spider-Girl swung to his rescue in her new black costume, which she bought to replace her tattered red and blue.

            May’s new costume scared Mary Jane, who was reminded of Venom, a supervillain who had a similar appearance. Canis and Lady Octopus planned a crime summit so Canis could stake his claim as the new undisputed Kingpin of Crime. Kaine and Darkdevil instructed May to contact them if she saw Élan, who was the daughter of a major European crime boss. May busted up another of Canis’ agents trying to establish Canis as the Kingpin of Crime, and June was injured in the fight. Black Tarantula provided May with a whole closetful of Spider-Girl costumes, both red and blue, and black.

            Black Tarantula prepared for the inevitability that Spider-Girl would turn against him after Lady Octopus and Canis were apprehended. Kaine contacted Spider-Girl to inform her Kaine had orders to bring in Black Tarantula dead or alive. Canis attempted to start his crime summit, only to realize that he had been double-crossed by Lady Octopus and that the actual crime summit to establish the Kingpin of Crime was being held in a different location by Black Tarantula. Spider-Girl called in assistance to apprehend Canis, then went after Lady Octopus and Black Tarantula. Kaine’s team was called in as well and instructed to treat Spider-Girl as hostile. Meanwhile, Élan revealed to Normie that she was a member of the Order of the Goblin, a cult dedicated to Normie’s grandfather Norman Osborn/Green Goblin. Spider-Girl returned to her red and blue and attempted to call Normie, but Élan had Normie tied up.

            Élan planned to use the Goblin Serum on Normie to turn him into a true Goblin. May considered a romantic relationship with Chris. While with Raptor, Spider-Girl received a phone call from Élan, who told her she had Normie. Spider-Girl and Raptor rushed to Normie’s aid to fight the Goblin Queen. During the fight, Spider-Girl was injured.

            Kevin Hartman was a student at Midtown High School who was bullied. He turned to Carlton T. Hackmutter/Dragon King, former custodial engineer, now mutated supervillain, in an attempt to get revenge on his bullies. Courtney Duran, May’s best friend, encouraged May to repair her friendship with Davida. Davida and May stumbled upon Dragon King, but May was forced to resolve the conflict without changing to Spider-Girl in order to protect her secret identity. Courtney’s boyfriend Moose Manfield had been acting odd for a while, and he finally opened up to May about exactly what was going on in his life that was bothering him so much.

            Spider-Girl fought supervillain Allison Dillon/Aftershock, the daughter of one of Spider-Man’s villains, Max Dillon/Electro. Normie and Brenda actually got engaged. Electro turned himself into the Avengers and asked to speak to Spider-Man. He was unable to touch his daughter due to different frequencies in their electrical auras that caused physical pain upon contact. He didn’t want his daughter going down the same path he went down and ending up in jail like he did. Spider-Man, Spider-Girl, the Avengers and Electro confronted Aftershock to try to convince her to end her criminal ways.

            May invited Chris to Normie and Brenda’s engagement party. The Goblin Queen crashed the party and threw the Venom symbiote at Normie, turning Normie into Venom. The Fantastic Five tried to fight Venom but were impeded by the Goblin Queen. Reilly Tyne/Darkdevil and Spider-Girl swung in to fight, but Darkdevil was severely wounded by Venom, and the villains were able to escape. Spider-Girl brought Darkdevil to the Avengers, who called in Doc Magus and Doctor Strange to try to save him. May’s “Uncle” Phil Urich/Green Goblin flew in to fight Venom and the Goblin Queen, and May donned her black costume again.

            Okay, so we’ve had a very thorough synopsis of the book where I tried to leave out as many spoilers as I could. So, since I’ve rattled on for so long, I’m going to try to make my parts a little briefer, so I don’t totally waste your valuable time, and also, I have been working on composing this post for over two hours now and am getting ready to move on. So, the first thing you’re wondering is did I enjoy this book. I can absolutely confirm that I did, in fact, enjoy this book. However, I will say this is not exactly what I expected. First let’s talk about what I enjoyed. I found the stories to be of excellent quality and highly entertaining. I felt like the high school drama, the family life, and the superhero struggles were all in good balance and made for an enjoyable read. I found myself invested in and caring about the characters and what happened to them and what they were going through. I liked how they utilized new characters inspired by older characters from previous comics. I will say that I must complain about the artwork slightly. There’s something about the shape of the characters’ heads that bothers me in almost every issue in this graphic novel. I want to like the artwork, and I mostly do, but the heads are just a little wonky and off-putting in my opinion. Now, when I say this is not what I was expecting, I say this because of the cover. On the cover, May is wearing her black costume. This intrigued me before I purchased this book, leading me to believe May was going to get the Venom symbiote. Her not getting the symbiote in this book was a disappointment, but I was still able to enjoy the book for what it was.

            Next, we’re going to talk about accessibility. Now when I say this, I mean how easy it is to get into this book, especially if you know little or nothing about Spider-Girl or Marvel Comics. I will tell you that the accessibility rating of this book in my opinion is low. It does draw on a lot of history from Spider-Girl and her universe. What doesn’t help is that this is Vol. 5 and the only other Spider-Girl Modern Era Epic Collection available at the moment is Vol. 1, so at this exact point in time of my composing this post, there is a lot of Spider-Girl history unpublished in Modern Era Epic Collection format. I will tell you there is a lot that left even me, a twenty-three year Marvel veteran, lost because I’ve never actually read Spider-Girl before and these Modern Era Epic Collections are my first times experiencing her stories. So, if I was lost, there’s a chance you might be lost if you don’t know anything about Marvel Comics. In other words, if you’re looking to get into Marvel Comics, this is not the right place to start.

            Now, we’re getting to the most important part of the review: my numeric score. I work on a very simple scale. I rank my reviews on a scale of one to ten. One means this is trash and should be burned, ten means this is outstanding. Now, this book was really good, but like I said, it wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, and I feel like it detracted from my enjoyment of this book slightly, and the artwork did have a mild displeasing look here and there. So, I do have to give it a high score, but I do have to take a little away. So, since I absolutely must do this, I’m going to score this book at… eight. For what it was, it was really good, but the artwork just had to take off a point, and the story just wasn’t total perfection, so I do have to deduct another point there, but otherwise, I really found it to be an enjoyable read.

            Next, we’re going to talk about if I actually give my own personal recommendation of this book to you, my readers, and regardless of if I actually personally recommend it, to whom do I recommend this book. So as far as giving it my personal recommendation, I give it a resounding yes, this book is highly recommended by One Tim Cubbin. However, it does come with a caveat. As I said, this book does have accessibility problems, and I can’t recommend it to just everyone who reads this review. However, if you are a fan of Mayday Parker from any point in Marvel Comics history, this book comes highly recommended by me, I’m telling you that you should read this, I think you will find it extremely enjoyable. And if you do want to read this book with no Marvel knowledge at all, I mean, hey, that’s your choice, that is all up to you, I can’t stop you, I just don’t recommend you do that. But if you do read this book, please feel free to leave some kind of comment, I’d love to hear your opinion, too. I’ve never actually gotten a response from a reader before and I would love for you to be the first, that would actually be really cool.

            Okay, so I feel like it’s time to say goodbye for now. I’ve rambled on for quite some time, and if you’re still here, you are honestly THE BEST! I will tell you that I post on a very frequent basis, you can expect another post sometime within the next four weeks, probably sooner than that. I have written over one hundred posts, including dozens of book reviews just like this one, and you can expect plenty more to keep coming. I literally buy every Marvel Modern Era Epic Collection that comes out as soon as I’m able to get it, so there’s going to be plenty of content keeping on coming to this blog. I’ve also written short stories, poetry, essays, articles, and editorials, so there’s plenty more to read. I’ve written a bunch of things called B’ings if you want to totally waste some time. Just keep looking at timcubbin.blogspot.com and keep coming back for more, I’ll be here. And so, I say to you until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!