"Spider-Girl: Comes the Carnage!"

 

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

            After nearly perishing in a battle with the supervillain Roderick Kingsley/Hobgoblin, young superhero May “Mayday” Parker/Spider-Girl was convinced by her mother Mary Jane Parker to give up the webs and live a normal life. As a result, her grades went up, she had more time with her friends and even found a boyfriend in Eugene “Gene” Thompson, son of Coach Eugene “Flash” Thompson, high school rival-turned friend of Mayday’s father, former Spider-Man now forensic scientist, Peter Parker. With the support of her best friends Courtney Duran and Davida Kirby as her campaign managers, Mayday was running for student council at Midtown High School against the popular Simone DeSantos. Fellow Midtown High students Jimmy Yama and Reynard “Wes” Westin were drawing and illustrating a Spider-Girl comic book. Mayday and Courtney were volunteering at St. Andrews Shelter under the supervision of Caitlan Leiber. One of the women staying at the shelter, Mona Carlo, was sought out at the shelter by her ex, Charlie Kurkle, but Caitlan turned him away. Mona had an item that Charlie was sent by the Hobgoblin to obtain. It was a disk that contained information on all the people that the deceased Wilson Fisk/Kingpin had ever paid off, information that would boost whoever possessed it to the status of the new Kingpin of Crime. Fabian LaMuerto/Black Tarantula, current Kingpin who was hiding out in South America, also wanted that disk. Unhappy that Charlie did not possess the disk, Hobgoblin sent one of his stooges to take out Charlie. Mayday was on her way to Café Indigo to meet her friends, including Gene, when she came upon the scene of Charlie about to be put down. Covering her face, Mayday sprung into action and saved Charlie. Charlie returned to St. Andrews, where Mayday had to prevent Charlie from starting a fire in an attempt to lure Mona out. Mona, knowing she was at risk for carrying the disk, went on the run. Mayday then joined her friends at Café Indigo. Hobgoblin went to St. Andrews and attacked Caitlan looking for both Mona and a list of Caitlan’s teenage volunteers, under the impression that Spider-Girl was secretly volunteering at St. Andrews and was the daughter of Hobgoblin’s archnemesis Spider-Man. The police were called to the scene, including Detective Vincent Drasco, who was secretly in the employ of the Hobgoblin. Hobgoblin planned to send two of his stooges, Rudy and Barney, after the teenage volunteers, aided by a battle armor Hobgoblin had come into possession of. On her school lunch break, Mayday went to St. Andrews looking for clues and ran into Hobgoblin’s stooges. Mayday barely escaped, but the stooges were not under the impression they had just battled Spider-Girl. Mayday returned to school late for class, where she was caught by assistant principal Slattery, who gave Mayday detention and Simone leverage in the student council election. While in detention, both Peter and Mary Jane attempted to call Mayday to warn Mayday that Hobgoblin was looking for the teenage volunteers, which only irritated Slattery, but when Slattery answered Mayday’s phone and spoke to Mary Jane, Mary Jane was infuriated Slattery dared to answer Mayday’s phone and sprung Mayday from detention. Mary Jane returned Mayday’s Spider-Girl costume, telling Mayday that Mary Jane could not accept it if Spider-Girl were prevented from saving lives because of Mary Jane, but to keep this a secret from Peter. Spider-Girl returned to battle Rudy, now called Reverb, to save Courtney. Following Reverb’s arrest, Mary Jane took back possession of the Spider-Girl costume.

Former St. Andrews refugee Betty Forest/Bitter Frost returned to St. Andrews, intent on revenge against Caitlan, who failed Betty when Caitlan first started as a social worker years before. Mona contacted Handsome Richie Valentine, attempting to find a buyer for the disk. Bitter Frost went after her abusive ex-boyfriend Wayne, intent on ending him. Caitlan and Drasco went after Bitter Frost to prevent her from succeeding, but their lives were put in danger. Mayday stole the Spider-Girl costume and swung in to save the day. Mona came into contact with Chesbro, representative of the Black Tarantula.

“Mad Dog” Rassitano, reality television bounty hunter, announced his intention to catch Hobgoblin, a task he had done once before. Mayday’s return as Spider-Girl was beginning to have an impact on her school and social life. Jimmy and Wes made a deal with Deacon, owner of Deacon’s Den, a local comic book show, that if Deacon sole Jimmy and Wes’s Spider-Girl comic book, Spider-Girl would come to the release day event herself. Jimmy intended to have his girlfriend Heather Noble dress the part of Spider-Girl since Jimmy was not convinced Jimmy and Wes could get the real Spider-Girl to promote the comic book. Mad Dog went to Hobgoblin’s brother Daniel Kingsley for information on Hobgoblin’s location. Daniel, who was hiding his brother, sold Mad Dog a location the Hobgoblin was going to be at. However, this was an ambush, and Hobgoblin was not really going to be there. Spider-Girl helped Mad Dog take down the thugs who ambushed Mad Dog, and Mad Dog promised not to televise Spider-Girl’s presence on the scene, mostly because Mad Dog thought being rescued by Spider-Girl on national television would look bad for his reputation. This skirmish caused Mayday to miss a date with Gene.

Drasco and Black Tarantula both obtained Mona’s location. Drasco and Chesbro both went to attempt to get the disk. Spider-Girl swung to Mona’s rescue but needed an assist from Mad Dog. Spider-Girl managed to obtain the disk. Mayday almost missed her campaign speech, but in a turn of events, dropped out of the race and nominated Davida in Mayday’s place, saying Davida would be a better candidate. Hobgoblin learned that Spider-Girl was scheduled to appear at a launch event at Deacon’s Den.

Mayday turned to her confidante Felicity Hardy/Scarlet Spider to try to crack the information on the disk, but Felicity was unable to get past the decryption. At the launch event, Hobgoblin abducted Heather, but realized Heather wasn’t the real Spider-Girl. Spider-Girl saved Heather and lied to Hobgoblin, saying that Spider-Girl had destroyed the disk. Hobgoblin believed Spider-Girl. Spider-Girl was saved from Hobgoblin by Chesbro and one of Black Tarantula’s snipers. Spider-Girl gave the disk to Drasco, unaware Drasco was in the employ of the Hobgoblin. Mayday told her parents that she had returned to being Spider-Girl and intended to keep being a superhero.

Rosetta Morgan/Ladyhawk sought revenge on the Hobgoblin for ending the heroic career of Rosetta’s sister Regina Morgan/Ladyhawk. Harlem crime lord Morgan arranged a meeting with Hobgoblin. Spider-Girl and Ladyhawk came to Morgan to get information on the Hobgoblin. Morgan gave Spider-Girl and Ladyhawk a fake address to the meeting between Morgan and Hobgoblin. Morgan’s meeting with Hobgoblin was actually an attempt to take Hobgoblin out of the picture. Drasco heard shots, and Drasco and the police prevented Hobgoblin’s demise, and Hobgoblin escaped. Mayday realized how much strain being Spider-Girl put her parents through and promised to stop being Spider-Girl until Mayday’s parents said otherwise.

Mayday’s fellow Midtown High classmate Sara Hingle manifested her mutant powers in class. Sara was taken into custody. Mary Jane and assistant principal Slattery visited Sara’s parents Duane and Cindy Hingle. Duane was not handling the fact that his daughter was a mutant very well. Duane decided to send Sara to a mutant boarding school, despite Cindy wanting Sara to stay with Duane and Cindy. Sara escaped custody and tried to return home. Mary Jane tried to talk Duane out of Duane’s decision, saying Duane should love Sara no matter what Sara was. Mayday revealed to Sara that Mayday had powers and promised to try to help Sara live a normal life. Sara’s parents decided to let Sara stay at home. Slattery was impressed with Mary Jane’s empathy and offered to discuss a position for Mary Jane at Midtown High as a guidance counselor. Peter and Mary Jane decided that Mayday was ready to be Spider-Girl and gave Mayday back the Spider-Girl costume.

S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill came to government special agent Arthur Weadon and his team of rehabilitating convicted supervillains (Earthshaker, Mr. Abnormal, Killerwatt, and Kaine) with the mission of guarding an item code-named Specimen 297. Kaine turned to Reilly Tyne/Darkdevil for assistance in watching the transfer of the bioweapon that was being transferred to a government lab because it was believed the specimen might have medical benefits. Courtney’s boyfriend Maurice “Moose” Mansfield, whose father was in a hospital dying of cancer, was staying in New Jersey and not getting in touch with Courtney. Courtney learned Moose was coming to Midtown Medical Center to see Moose’s father and Courtney decided that Courtney wanted to see Moose to see where their relationship stood. Slattery offered Mary Jane a job at Midtown High. Courtney arrived at Midtown Medical and found Moose with another girl. The transfer of Specimen 297 was attacked by a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents led by Contessa Valentina Allegro De Fontaine. The S.H.I.E.L.D. team obtained Specimen 297. Spider-Girl attacked the S.H.I.E.L.D. team, and in the confusion, Specimen 297 escaped. Specimen 297 was one piece of the Carnage symbiote, which had been broken apart and was held in government custody. It was now believed that the symbiote could cure cancer. The escaped symbiote bonded with Moose, and a new Carnage was born. Moose was insistent on trying to curb Carnage’s murderous tendencies. Carnage attacked Café Indigo and scared Courtney and Davida, but Mayday fought Carnage until Carnage decided to leave. Weadon tasked his team with apprehending Spider-Girl. Kaine and Darkdevil contacted Spider-Girl to warn her about Carnage. Mary Jane went to school with Mayday to speak with Slattery about the guidance counselor position. Slattery offered the position to Mary Jane. Mary Jane said she would get back to Slattery with her decision. Carnage came to the Parker’s home and abducted Peter and Ben, Mayday’s baby brother. Spider-Girl went after Carnage and fought the symbiotic being. Peter managed to escape from Carnage’s imprisonment. Carnage went to Midtown Medical Center to find Moose’s father. Spider-Girl fought Carnage, and Carnage fled. During their fight, Carnage infected Ben with a piece of the symbiote. Ben attacked Spider-Girl. Hill and Weadon’s team tried to apprehend Spider-Girl but failed. Carnage took Ben back to Midtown Medical. Kaine and Darkdevil found Val and her agents and learned the truth about Specimen 297. Courtney found out the woman she saw Moose with was Moose’s cousin Donna Mansfield. Peter came to Midtown Medical with the Reverb armor, which fired sonic blasts, Carnage’s weakness. Peter faltered when he realized Carnage had infected Ben, so Spider-Girl took the sonic blaster and shot the symbiote off of Ben, causing Ben to have hearing loss. Mayday defeated Carnage before Carnage could infect Moose’s father, causing Moose, a huge Spider-Girl fan, to hate Spider-Girl, saying if Moose’s father died, it would be Spider-Girl’s fault. The doctors told Peter they had to run more tests to determine if Ben’s hearing loss was permanent.

Mayday felt overwhelming guilt over Ben’s predicament, but Peter and Mary Jane did not blame Mayday. Peter and Mary Jane brought Ben to the doctor. Hobgoblin disguised himself as his brother Daniel and locked up the real Daniel Kingsley. The day of the student council election came. Hobgoblin turned to William Turner/Mindworm to form an alliance against Spider-Girl. Gene, feeling neglected in his relationship with Mayday, broke up with Mayday. Ben began to manifest spider powers in front of Mayday. Gene moved on with Simone DeSantos. Hobgoblin went searching for Madame Web, hoping to learn a way to defeat Black Tarantula, and found Anya Corazon/Araña, disguised as a priestess. Araña told Hobgoblin the “heart of the spider” was the only weapon that could defeat the Black Tarantula. Moose announced he would be coming back to Midtown High, accompanied by his cousin Donna. The Parker family’s observed “May’s Special Day” arrived. Mindworm began to psychically implant illusions of Spider-Girl’s enemies into Mayday’s mind. Normie Osborn helped the Parkers arrange an appointment with Dr. Milton Kaplan, one of the nation’s top ear, nose and throat specialists. Mindworm learned Ben had an appointment with Dr. Kaplan, and Hobgoblin kidnapped the doctor. Mindworm attempted to manipulate Spider-Girl to learn about the “heart of the spider.” Hobgoblin abducted Spider-Girl and tried to force her to reveal the “heart of the spider.” Spider-Girl’s allies Darkdevil, Ladyhawk, Jack Jameson/The Buzz, the Fantastic Five, Mad Dog, Weadon’s team, the Avengers, Green Goblin, and more came to Spider-Girl’s rescue and fought off Hobgoblin and Mindworm. Mayday returned home to celebrate her special day with her family.

Okay, now that we have that lengthy plot summary out of the way, let’s move on to my individual bits of this review. As always, we’re going to start off with my own personal opinions about this book. I will say that I loved this book. I thought the stories in it were fantastic. Let’s talk about what I enjoyed the most. I loved watching Mayday trying to find her identity as both Mayday Parker and Spider-Girl. Her conflict between wanting a normal life and wanting to be a superhero was explored in a phenomenal way. Mayday tried to get her grades up and run for student council and because of Spider-Girl ended up in detention and her best friend had to take Mayday’s place in the election. Mayday tried to have a boyfriend, and Spider-Girl led him into the arms of her rival. I also loved how Mayday had to face the consequences of her battle with Carnage. Spider-Girl turned her greatest supporter into a Spider-Girl hater, and caused hearing loss in her baby brother, and then had to deal with the guilt of her actions. I enjoyed watching the Hobgoblin’s war against Black Tarantula with Spider-Girl caught in the middle, and that Spider-Girl wasn’t even Hobgoblin’s main concern, just an annoyance on the side. I enjoyed Mary Jane’s developments, from not wanting her daughter to be a superhero, to encouraging her daughter to be a superhero, then confronting the Hingle’s on how they should love their daughter no matter what she was and being offered a position as a guidance counselor at Mayday’s school. I enjoyed seeing the villains double-crossing with fake meeting locations and ambushes. I liked watching Slattery being an antagonist and assistant to Mayday and Mayday’s family, and particularly when Mary Jane stood up to Slattery after Slattery put Mayday in detention and answered Mayday’s phone. There was so much about this book that I thoroughly enjoyed. However, I will say that I do feel like the artwork did go wrong a lot. For the most part the art was relatively good, but there were just moments where the faces and bodies just didn’t look right. Now, I’m also very nitpicky about the title and cover being appropriate for the content of the book itself. Every issue in this book had a different title, and there were fifteen issues in this book, so including each individual issue title and the option to make an original title not taken from the title of any issue in the book, there were sixteen potential choices for a title. The title “Comes the Carnage!” was the title of an issue in this collection. The Carnage storyline was an ongoing storyline in this volume, and while I don’t particularly feel it was “the best” title for this book, I will say that I will approve this as an appropriate title. As for the cover, it very simple portrays Spider-Girl web-swinging through New York City. I feel like this simple cover is perfect. It offers the promise of seeing Spider-Girl swing into action in this book, and this book delivers on that promise. So, I will say that all in all, this book was an amazing production, and I thoroughly enjoyed my time going through it.

Next up on the list of topics we need to discuss is accessibility. I know I’ve explained my definition of this over seven dozen times at this point, but I feel obligated to explain myself again because I know that there are some readers here who have never been to this blog before to experience a Tim Cubbin review. So, for you newbs here, when I use the word “accessibility,” what I’m saying is how easy it is for someone who knows absolutely nothing about Spider-Girl or Marvel Comics to obtain this book, read it, and understand it as it is written with no outside knowledge on the source material. So, when asking if this book is accessible, I will say that, yes, it is. This book contains the first fifteen issues of one new series, and contains a recap issue (which I did not discuss, I only cover actual comic-style material and not expository-style material when reviewing a graphic novel, so since that issue was not written in a comic narrative style, I didn’t include that in my review), and it does not pick up directly off of any previous stories, crossover into any other series, or tie into any events. As such, getting into this book is actually pretty easy. If you’re looking to get into reading Marvel Comics and are looking for a good place to start, this book offers an excellent jump-on point.

Okay, moving on, we’re going on to the numeric score. I know that some people consider this section the most important segment in my reviews because it cements exactly how good I feel a book is. I also know that some of my readers come to these reviews primarily so they can read about the stories. I know that to different people, every segment in my reviews is the most important to some readers. But this is one of the primary segments of my reviews. So first, I will explain exactly how I score graphic novels. I work on a scale of exact whole numbers ranging from one to ten. One is the lowest score I can give, and if I give that score, I felt like this book is not even worth reading. If, however, I give a book a ten, that is my highest score, and that means that this book is sheer perfection and should be the top seller at all the retailers. To get a ten, a book has to have a story that is enjoyable all the way through, artwork that is consistently visually appealing, a title that fits the content of the book, and a cover that delivers on what it shows on the front of the book. So, when I take all these factors into consideration, the score I’m giving this book is… a nine! I loved almost everything about this book, and while I do feel the art could use some improvement, I thought this was a great effort.

Next up is the recommendation segment. This segment answers two separate questions. The first is, do I, Tim Cubbin, personally recommend this book to you, my readers? The second question is, regardless of whether I approved of this book or now, whom do I think would be the best audience, aside from the obvious fans of the characters, Marvel Comics, or the creative team? To answer the first question, yes, I do recommend this book. If you are reading this review, and now, based solely on the words you’ve just spent the past few minutes reading you’ve decided you want to read this graphic novel, I would tell you to go to your favorite bookstore or online retailer, or your local comic book shop or library, or your Marvel obsessed friend or family member, and try to get your hands on a copy of this book at your earliest convenience, you will definitely enjoy it. As for the best audience, I would recommend this book to teenagers or people who like reading stories about teenagers, females or people who enjoy reading about heroic female protagonists, people who like stories about characters trying to discover who they are, and people who like soap operatic stories.

Well, we’ve come to the ending paragraph of my review. There are still things that need to be said before we move on with our lives. If you have any spare time, please continue checking out timcubbin.blogspot.com for more of my content. I’ve been doing this blog for six years now. In that time, I’ve published over 190 posts. Some of these posts are short stories, some are poems, some are essays, some are articles, some are editorials, but the majority are reviews. You will find a few reviews of prose novels, manga, and comic book events here. Primarily, you will find over seven dozen other reviews of Marvel Epic Collections just like this one. The current focus of this blog is on Modern Era Epic Collections and Ultimate Epic Collections. I purchase every one as soon as I can after it is released and post a review of it as soon as I possibly can. As such, I post on a very frequent basis, so expect to see plenty of content from me pretty often. If you liked this post and have some spare time, please feel free to check out my reviews of “Spider-Girl: Legacy” “Spider-Girl: Keeping the Faith” and “Spider-Girl: Family Ties” for more Spider-Girl content. As for the future of this blog, keep checking back because sometime in the next four weeks, you can expect my next review “Miles Morales: Spider-Man: Sitting in a Tree” to be published. You can also keep expecting to see more content coming from me for a long time, I intend to keep doing this blog for as long as I can, and I don’t think anything is going to stop me soon. If you have anything you’d like to say, feel free to leave a comment, please like, share, retweet, reply, spread the word, do whatever you can to get me out there and let me know what you think of what I’m doing. I’d really love to hear from you guys. That’s really all I have to say for now. Until next time, Tim Cubbin… out!