"Because you demanded it! The wildest (and cutest) web-slinger of all!"
— Cover blurb, Spider-Girl #1
What if Peter Parker and Mary Jane's baby had survived The Clone Saga? In an Alternate Timeline, the baby was rescued and returned to Mary Jane and Peter alive and well, shortly after Peter Parker retired as Spider-Man when he lost one of his legs in a fight which killed the Green Goblin. The baby grew up to become May Parker—Mayday to her friends (and to help us differentiate between her and her namesake Great Aunt). The character was introduced in What If vol. 2 #105 (February, 1998), created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz. Her costume was created by Mark Bagley.At fifteen, May is a popular, pretty, athletic girl. She's inherited many things from her parents, like her mother's social ease, her father's smarts....and, whoops, his Spider-powers. They manifest quite suddenly during a school basketball game, where - luckily - her parents are the only ones in the crowd who realise what's going on. She's at most about half as strong as her Dad, but much more agile, and her Spider-Sense is apparently better. In an interesting twist on wall crawling, May can also stick other people to walls, or repel them with equal ease.Needless to say, her parents have mixed reactions to all this. Nevertheless, May finds Ben Reilly's old Scarlet Spider costume in the attic and decides to put it on after a new Green Goblin appears (Normie Osborn, (grand)son of the originals) to menace her father, who isn't in fighting shape. Unable to secure help from other heroes, Peter reluctantly authorises May's one-time-only appearance as Spider-Girl. Of course, she ends up enjoying the experience so much (and has had the "With great power, comes great responsibility" meme drilled into her so thoroughly) that she feels compelled to become Spider-Girl on a more permanent basis.This series sometimes plays with the I Just Want to Be Normal trope in the way Spider-Man does, but to a lesser degree. May genuinely wants to be a superhero but angsts when it brings her into conflict with her parents, or when she messes up, or when she feels she isn't as good as she'd like to be. There are also times when she gives it up, or loses her powers temporarily... but still misses the thrill of superheroics, and lets her sense of responsibility push her back to them.Was Marvel's longest-running comic starring a solo heroine through 102 issues (including #0 and the annual) of Spider-Girl, a relaunch/renumbering as Amazing Spider-Girl, and a further 31 issues (they just love their #0 issues in MC2!) before final cancellation. She-Hulk might have reached #100 first, but Spider-Girl did so without ever being cancelled. Currently running as a digital comic that goes to print after a couple months' delay in the anthology title Web of Spider-Man. A recent announcement was revealed that it would be getting a new, proper monthly series again, until it was later switched into a mini series and a The End one shot to wrap up the series and presumably the Marvel Comics 2*
A Day in the Limelight: Occasionally, usually given to Peter or MJ. The most notable is Spider-Girl #51, about a boy with a crush on May... written by the future author of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.
All Guys Want Cheerleaders: At first it seemed like May would join the school cheerleading squad, and one cover even showed her in the outfit, but it's becoming increasingly unlikely with each new issue.
Alternate Timeline: Diverges from the main universe sometime after the Clone Saga. Known as the MC2 universe.
Annoying Younger Sibling: Spider-Man II (Gerry Drew) isn't a relative but otherwise fits the trope perfectly. The Faces lampshade it, noting he and Spider-Girl bicker like siblings.
"April" Parker seems to be filling this role nicely.
The Faces themselves are like this too, getting into a childish argument that Funny Face's employer has to break up.
Art Shift: In one issue, May starts looking like she's in Archie Comics for no apparent reason. (Foreshadowing she was in a Lotus-Eater Machine without realising it.)
Ascended Fanboy: Gerry Drew, Spider-Man II. He's a huge fan of May's dad and wears the same costume as a tribute to his hero. Arguably May, who's a fangirl of Franklin Richards and some other heroes.
Badass Grandpa: Kaine may not technically be one, being around the same age as Peter... but with his long gray hair, beard, and coat, he does evoke the image.
Roderick Kingsley/The Hobgoblin is one of these if you stop and do the math. He's at least in his sixties and might be pushing seventy.
Badass Longcoat: Kaine. Mr. Nobody might be a villainous variant.
Black Best Friend: Davida seems to be one of these at first but she averts it with character development.
Blondes are Evil: Brad turns out to be an anti-mutant bigot and Gene's The Scrappy for good reasons. J.J. and Franklin are good guys, though. (May seems to have a thing for blondes.)
Book Dumb: Lampshaded by Moose when he points out that he might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer...right before he points out to May that she doesn't need to blame herself for Courtney being in the hospital after being hit by a car.
Chekhov's Gun: The issue of Amazing where MJ accepts the counselor position at May's school. Play close attention to Baby Ben playing with his blocks in the background.
Chekhov's Gunman: Wes, a friend of Jimmy's who's briefly introduced as the artist for their Spider-Girl comic book. He turns out to be May's new love interest.
Also Sara Hingle, who briefly appears in one panel, long before the Brotherhood of Mutants subplot.
Civvie Spandex: Subverted/Inverted with the Spider-Shoppe, where people can buy Spider-Girl themed clothes and even costumes. MJ founded the place to keep May from getting ripped off by Spidey lookalikes and also to fund May's college education.
Cloning Blues: May's Uncle Ben. And maybe May herself.
Dating Catwoman: Spider-Girl and the Black Tarantula. Spider-Girl and the Buzz aka Jack Jameson, sort of.
Dead Guy Junior: May Parker, her brother Ben, and Norman "Normie" Osborn.
Deadpan Snarkers: Peter, Kaine, Darkdevil. May grows into it as well.
Decompressed Comic: Quite deliberately avoided. Spider-Girl stories are often complete in one issue, though this applies more to the earlier stories.
Defeat Means Friendship: May is much better at reforming her enemies into allies than her father ever was.
Distaff Counterpart: One of the many Spider-Man distaff counterparts, though the only one who is a family member (the others being unrelated women or a Opposite Sex Clone).
Kaine and Peter also have guilt over not protecting Baby May and Ben Reilly. Kaine protecting Spider-Girl and Darkdevil probably has something to do with that guilt, too.
Fanservice: Usually avoided. Then comes the last page of Amazing Spider-Girl #26, wherein the first thing May sees as she recovers consciousness is Arana's rather generous cleavage. The panel is a POV shot, at that.
And then there's the whole flipping-around-in-body-bending-poses-while-wearing-skintight-spandex bit...
Foreshadowing: Two of the first bad guys May meets, Crazy Eight and Funny Face, are Monster Clowns. Turns out they're brothers. Oh, and sure, Funny Face sounds similar to another DeFalco badguy Angel Face but that's just a gag. She's their mom.
Generation Xerox: Played straight in that almost all of the MC2 heroes are following in their parent's or mentor's footsteps (and costume choices). Subverted in that most of them have different personalities and motivations.
May has a LOT of xeroxed relationships, though.
Heck, even Peter's gotten in on the act. He's as overprotective as Aunt May sometimes...
It can be argued it's just a more subtle, realistic version of the trope. No one's a carbon copy of their parents/mentors (looks aside), but naturally there are still a lot of Like Parent/Mentor Like Child/Mentoree moments.
Upon meeting her, Elektra instantly deduces that Spider-Girl is indeed Spider-Man's daughter. She invokes the trope: "You move like him, stand like him, sound like him, fight like him."
J. Jonah Jameson himself. Not that he was a villain, but in this continuity, the old man openly supports Spider-Girl's actions. Still grumpy, though.
Hero Killer: The Hobgoblin. Arguably the deadliest villain in the series (barring the Eldritch Abomination Set), in Spectacular Spider-Girl #4, he effortlessly beats down an assembled group of heroes with only one other ally at his side. He is only defeated via sneak attack.
Hollywood Nerd / Hollywood Pudgy: Courtney plays both of these straight while subverting them. She has the geeky hobbies plus the body type... but she's the one with an adoring boyfriend and the authors even tease at a Love Triangle between the Gentle Giant and Casanova. Turned out she and JJ were just friends and Moose had it all wrong... but still.
The original series did this twice: Once in Darkdevil's mind and, in the last issue of Spider-Girl, Normie does through the symbiote to snap May out of a near-death Heroic BSOD.
Knightof Cerebus: He doesn't completely distort the book, but things get a lot grimmer when the Hobgoblin is on the scene.
Lamarck Was Right: At least it isn't unreasonable to believe Peter's DNA could have been altered by that spider bite.
Lighter and Softer: Generally, though some of the 'verse backstory has pretty dark spots.
Lightning Can Do Anything: Being electrocuted when she's fighting Killerwatt causes May to lose her powers. Being accidentally zapped by the Costume Copycat who steals her dad's costumed identity causes May to regain her powers.
Angel Face is an inverted, evil version. When one of her sons dies, she goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge with his brother. Except they end up taking out their anger out on everyone else who had a part in his death, instead of on the killer.
Mental World: We've seen May's, Peter's, and Darkdevil's. Normie's too, sort of, in a dream sequence.
Monochrome Casting: Subverted. Mayday's group of friends is pretty diverse without getting Five-Token Band about it. There's also a lot of diversity amongst random mooks and civilians.
More than Mind Control: April, maybe. She claims she only tried to kill May because Fury was going to kill her, but...
And she thinks Stripperiffic outfits would leave her vulnerable. (Plus, her dad would freak!)
Mutants: Averted and subverted. May's status as a mutant is rarely acknowledged. And her friend Nancy, who has powers, wants to be a doctor instead of a superhero. Unfortunately, Davida accidentally outs her out of jealously and Brad arranges a mob to go after her, forcing Nancy to join the X-People. Then in Amazing, there is Sara, whose father couldn't accept a mutant child. Now, she's been manipulated by Magneta and possibly killed by her own powers.
Mysterious Protector: Darkdevil, who subversively ridicules and mocks the heroine. Or maybe it's not so subversive, since he's really heraloof big bro- er, cousin.
Kaine becomes a standard one of these after his Heel Face Turn. Reilly, his previous protectoree, probably picked it up from him.
Older and Wiser: Peter Parker, of all people. Bad Ass, has a beard, a bionic leg and a stick he uses to beat people up. Like Bruce Wayne in Batman Beyond, but not as old.
Omake: The one-page stories about Baby Ben in Amazing, with art by Colleen Coover.
One Dialogue, Two Conversations: In Spider-Girl #5, there is an oblique conversation between Peter Parker and Phil Urich after which Peter thinks he made Phil understand that Mayday must not continue being Spider-Girl while Phil thinks Peter told him to train her being a superheroine because Peter can't do it himself for fear of worrying his wife Mary Jane.
Overprotective Dad: Peter Parker, again. It's a lot easier to sympathize with him, since he's less concerned about May's boyfriends than the risk of her getting killed while fighting supervillains. A more traditional application of this trope applies when he very bluntly informs Franklin Richards that May is only fifteen years old.
Retired Badass: Once again, Peter Parker. Age has cost him some of his reflexes and strength, but he's still got the experience and skill gained from his early years as Spider-Man.
Rogues Gallery: Mr. Nobody, Crazy Eight, Funny Face, Killer Watt, Mr. Abnormal, Raptor, Earthshaker, the Hobgoblin, Reverb, Dragonfist, the Dragon King, Angel Face, Misery, Aftershock, etc.
Sarcastic Confession: Employed by May more then once to cover up for her Secret Identity. Having a merchandising store around helps people to dismiss them.
Shadow Archetype: April and May, May and Arana, Kaine and Peter, maybe May and Darkdevil, played with between May and Normie.
Mother-Son team The Faces to Peter and May.
Probably Uncle-Nephew team Kaine and Reilly to Peter and May, too.
Ship Sinking: May/Brad. And eventually May/Normie.
Shout Out: After just waking up, Mayday mutters "Kltpzyxm!" In Superman, this is Mxyzptlk's name reversed, and Supes must trick Mxy into saying it to get rid of him until their dimensions next align (in other words, for three months.)
Plus the many characters and places named after Spidey writers. Oh, and May's Temporary Love Interest, named after a Big Name Fan's screen name.
Sidekick Glass Ceiling: Felicity's attempts to play Scarlet Spider would count, except that she's always being forced out of (or quitting) the superhero biz before becoming a full-fledged sidekick. Not that this has stopped her. Since then, Mayday's new partner is newly discovered clone April Parker.
Sky Surfing: The Green Goblin(s), Hobgoblin, and Fury of course. Mayday even gets in on the act, using Goblin gear when she (temporarily, of course) loses her powers.
Sleep Cute: Peter and May get a non-romantic version, after having spent a whole issue bickering at each other and helping reunite an ex-villain with his daughter.
Spirit Advisor: May gets one in the form of a mysterious blonde also named May in the last arc of Amazing. It's Aunt May, of course.
Squee: This is basically Gerry Drew's reaction to meeting his idol, the original Spider-Man. Although a little overwhelmed at first, Peter Parker is very flattered.
Strong Family Resemblance: Normie looks almost exactly like Harry, Reilly Tyne is basically Ben Reilly with red hair.
Stuffed into the Fridge: Defied by MJ. When Normie comes to kidnap her, she isn't fazed. She starts berating him, pointing out she used to change his diaper, why the hell would she be scared of him? And she starts beating him with a table lamp just before May swings in to the rescue...though by this point, it's unclear just whom she's rescuing.
Teen Idol: Franklin Richards, a superhero version. He's actually pretty into May until he finds out her real age.
Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Peter's superior, Captain Ruiz, stands over a foot taller than him.
Uncanny Family Resemblance: Early in the series, May looked a LOT like Peter. Now she resembles both her parents without looking a clone of either of them. Speaking of clones, though, Reilly Tyne looks just like a redheaded Tobey Maguirerrr, Peter Parker. And somehow only MJ and Normie Osborn have noticed this.
A recent dream sequence featured May's brother Ben looking almost exactly like his dad, too.
Very Special Episode: A downplayed example in "The Girl Who Fell To Earth," which was the culmination of a long subplot, and the abused character (Sandra) remains part of the supporting cast. Later, May and Courtney who also got attacked by Sandra's boyfriend when she tried to help her start volunteering at the women's shelter.
Who's Your Daddy?: The "who is the mother of the new Spider-Man?" subplot. Lots of red-herrings point to Felicia Hardy, but it turns out he's the son of the first Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Mutant Sara Hingle, who was last seen apparently self-exploding from stress after Magneto's daughter messed with her head and hasn't been seen since.
What the Hell, Hero?: All of the New Warriors to May after she lets Angel Face and Funny Face go out of guilt for not being able to save Crazy Eight, which lets them go loose on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
was revealed that it would be getting a new, proper monthly series again, until it was later switched into a mini series and a The End one shot to wrap up the series and presumably the Marvel Comics 2*.If you're looking for the Earth 616 Spider-Girl (Anya Corazon), search her in the Spider-Man Character Page. If you're interested in The Verse, check Marvel Comics 2.
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