Characters / Spider-Girl

Characters in Spider-Girl.

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Spider-Girl and Family

May Parker/Spider-Girl/Spider-Woman

Peter and Mary Jane's daughter, who inherited her dad's superpowers and took up the family trade.

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• Academic Athlete: Was a star member of the basketball team before getting her Spider-Powers, and it's implied she could have gone pro if... well, see Tragic Dream below.
• Amazonian Beauty: She started out on the slender side, but she continually became very athletically toned as the series progressed. Of course, this makes sense considering the amount of exercise she'd get fighting supervillains and bounding across New York.
• Ascended Fanboy: Fangirled the Fantastic Five (especially Franklin Richards) and the Avengers even before becoming a superhero.
• Big Man on Campus: May, like her mother, is rather popular. Until her life as Spider-Girl starts messing things up.
• Big Brother Mentor: Never stops trying to be this to April and will certainly be one to Benjy in the future.
• Big Brother Instinct: Don't mess with her little brother. Or try to date her "sister" (at least if your name is Gene Thompson).
• Boyish Short Hair: She started out with one. Though she eventually started growing it out a little.
• Brainy Brunette: Not quite as much of a nerd as her dad, but she's got the Parker smarts.
• Building Swing: Like her father and "uncle", it's how she gets around.
• Character Development: Daemos killing Peter in Spider-Verse teaches May despair and hatred, and the Spider-Island tie-in revolves around her fully coming to terms with his death.
• Cloning Blues: Angsts about the possibility a few times, but not nearly as much as April.
• Costume Copycat: It used to be her Uncle Ben's. She later takes up her father's old costume and renames herself Spider-Woman, but after coming to terms with her father's death designs her own costume that combines aspects of her original's with her father's.
• Dead Guy Junior: She's named for her paternal great-aunt, whom most Spider-Man fans would know as Aunt May. The latter passed away while Mary Jane was pregnant.
• Deadpan Snarker: As both of her parents were masters at this in their youth, it's only natural that May can quip with the best of them.
• Death Glare: When swearing to avenge the murders of her parents and boyfriend, May delivers a chilling Kubrick Stare to Daemos.
• Defeat Means Friendship: May has a habit of reforming her enemies... painfully, if she has to.
  • Normie gleefully hangs a lampshade on this at one point.

• Everyone Loves Blondes: Four of May's love interests (Brad, J.J., Franklin and Gene) are blondes. Only two are evil, which probably puts her on the luckier half of Marvel heroines.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Changing her short Tomboy look for long brown locks in Amazing Spider-Girl. Notably, the haircut that stuck.
• Expy: Played with but ultimately averted. May has similarities to Peter, MJ and even Ben (Peter lampshades that one) but is her own character. Word of God is that this was deliberate.
• Fanservice Pack: By the time of Amazing Spider-Girl, May has become a very beautiful through the fact that she has longer hair, a prettier face, toned broad shoulders, a great taste in fashion, long toned legs, slightly well-endowed breasts, and a voluptuous yet athletically toned body. Did we mention she was toned? She's very well-toned.
• First Kiss: She has a Smooch of Victory with Brad after Courtney wakes up from her coma. It helped her realize she wasn't really into him anymore, fortunately.

• Has a Type: She apparently has a thing for good-looking athletic blonds. With most of them being superheroes too.
• Hurting Hero: Losing her parents and being forced to flee from her home universe certainly ruined her optimistic outlook on life.
• Important Haircut: Averted. May kept changing her hairstyle every 10 or so issues just because. May finally settled on having long brown hair in Amazing Spider-Girl and retains the hairstyle in Spectacular Spider-Girl comics series, the Spider-Girl End issue, and (most of) her crossover appearances.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: Genuinely enjoys being a hero and Jumped at the Call, but increasingly gets frustrated and fed up with all the stress of a superheroine's life.
• I'll Kill You!: Mayday says this to Daemos after he kills her mother and father.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: To emphasize her naivety and as a nod to that other infamous May.
• It's All About Me: Uncle Ben calls her out on taking this attitude in regards to her claiming her father was the only real Spider-Man and that all the others are pathetic fakes.
• Jumped at the Call: She was delighted to learn she'd inherited her father's powers. At that point, nothing was going to stop her from becoming a superhero.
• Legacy Character: She took over the local webswinging job from her father, and is wearing her "uncle"'s old costume.
• Mama Bear: Don't threaten or hurt her family. (She must have picked it up from MJ.)
• Mental World: After some whining, she convinces her Spirit Advisor to change the decor... into a shopping mall.
• Ms. Fanservice: Though initially not as much as other the super heroines (due to usually being Averted) in her original solo series, Mayday is made for this trope by the time of the Amazing Spider-Girl (along with the Spectacular Spider-Girl comics series as well as the Spider-Girl End issue). While she was pretty in her original solo series, May is very beautiful in her following three comic book series.
• Most Common Superpower: Depending on the Artist. Most often she's not the bustiest of heroines. But by the time of the Amazing Spider-Girl, she has a very nice bust.
• Morality Chain: She tries to be one to April, but isn't very successful.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Mayday has the Inheritor Daemos at her mercy, ready to crush a crystal holding Solus', Daemos' father, spirit inside. At that point, she stops and realizes what she's doing. She later regrets not killing him when she had the chance.
• Oblivious to Love:
  • Finally returns Wes's affections in The End.
  • She also had this with Black Tarantula. She couldn't figure out why he was helping her... even after he got her a strike team, training, a new costume, and flowers.

• Progressively Prettier: Definitely. While May was still pretty in her original solo comic book series (as well as the What If? issue that she debuted in), she was kind of tomboyish and usually acted and/or appeared in a masculine manner due to her design as well as the art style and the fact that she had short hair. By the time of the Amazing Spider-Girl, May has long brown hair as well as a more feminine taste in fashion in addition to acting and appearing in a more feminine matter along with having a very attractive design due to the new art style, all while still being a superhero. Due to having an attractive design, May has a voluptuous yet athletic body instead of the skinny yet slightly toned body that she originally had in her first solo comic book series.
• Proper Tights with a Skirt: In Amazing Spider-Girl, May usually wears skirts with or without a pair of red or blue tights.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The Blue to April's Red, despite what the costumes might have you believe.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When Daemos kills her father, May is consumed by rage and hatred and swears revenge. Seeing the Superior Spider-Man murder the Master Weaver in cold blood makes her relent, but she later regrets that she didn't kill him.
• Save This Person, Save the World: In "The End", it turns out that the world would be much worse off without her around. April takes the effort to save her.
• Shipper on Deck: For her parents who are inseparable during her childhood and teenage years, making it hard for her to believe there was a time when they dated others. When she traveled back in time to Peter's high school days, she was taken aback that her father was dating Betty Brant. One alternate universe comic X Universe: Spidey has a version of herself bonded with a Symbiote finding an older Peter in a Lotus-Eater Machine where she is disheartened to see Peter desire a world where he married Gwen Stacy and had a son with her, crying bitterly about how Peter never wanted her mother, or a daughter deep down.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: With April and Darkdevil, depending on how you define "sibling". She's the polar opposite of both of them.

• Spider-Sense: One of the powers she inherited from her father. Hers is noticeably more powerful, having possessed it since birth.
• Stepford Smiler: She has to force smiles at some times, when things get really bad. Gets even worse after Spider-Verse.
• Take Up My Sword: At the end of Spider-Verse, Mary Jane gives Peter's old Spider-Man costume to May. May declares she's no longer Spider-Girl, but Spider-Woman. Enthralla and Red Queen take advantage of this by hypnotizing everyone into believing she's an impostor who killed Spider-Man and the real Spider-Girl.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Earth-616 Peter attempts to console her after the Inheritors steal her baby brother and promises to do whatever it takes to get him back, May angrily snaps that he and all the other Spiders are fakes and that the only real Spider-Man was her father, who was killed by Daemos. After the event, she apologizes to Peter for it.
• Tomboy: Mayday is a dedicated athlete and keeps her hair fairly short, that is until the Amazing Spider-Girl where she has developed longer hair due to initially taking a break from fighting crime as Spider-Girl and acts more feminine (she retains these new characteristics in the Spectacular Spider-Girl and The End).
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: May is a sporty, athletic tomboy, in contrast to her fashionable former actress of a mother.
  • Averted in the Amazing Spider-Girl and after, where May is much more feminine and less of a tomboy (but still athletic) mainly due to the fact that she dresses more fashionably.
• Tragic Dream: A major subplot of the first series. May stays on the basketball team as long as she can but finds the potential to blow her cover, cheat, and fail to save a life because she was at a match is just too great. Doesn't make the decision any harder on her, though, and she admits to missing the sport terribly in Amazing.
• Tragic Keepsake: Her costume used to belong to Ben Reilly. Her second costume used to belong to her father.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Played straight at first, as she was drawn as a female Peter, but averted as the art evolved. In later appearances she resembles both of her parents equally.
• Unwanted Harem: Several of her friends and a few of her enemies have fallen for her.
• Wall Crawl: Her wall-crawling ability is markedly different from her father's, being a fair bit stronger for starters. She later suggests to Ben Parker that the other Spiders could do the same things she can if they actually tried.
• Weak, but Skilled: A notable difference between her and her superhero father is how she has less superhuman strength and durability than him, but she also possesses more agility than him and an advanced Spider-Sense. Her electrostatic ability to stick to surfaces is also considerably more powerful than Peter's, allowing her to repel objects away from her and stick people to surfaces without having to web them up.
• "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Peter gives the So Proud of You speeches on a regular basis but still May struggles a lot with feeling stuck in his shadow and earning his respect.
• Younger Than They Look: Some people have assumed that Spider-Girl is older than she is:
  • When Franklin Richards picks her up, Peter very firmly asks Franklin to put his 15-year old daughter down. Franklin is mortified, having mistaken May for being older.
  • When the Hobgoblin returns and transfers his enmity with Peter to May, he assumes that May is in her early twenties.

Peter Parker/Spider-Man

• Back-to-Back Badasses: With May, Darkdevil and Kaine at different points.
• Beta Couple: He forms this with MJ, as they're supporting characters rather than protagonists.
• Bullying a Dragon: When Crazy Eight tried to escape from the courthouse where he was on trial, Peter got in the way. Crazy Eight dismissed Peter as a harmless old man and threw a bunch of ball bombs at him, only for Peter to prove he's Still Got It by catching and throwing them all back at him.

  Crazy Eight: As threats go, you barely rank above a Teletubby!

  Peter: Oh gee, you really know how to hurt a guy. Fortunately, so do I.

  Crazy Eight: Eeep!

• Cain and Abel: He and Kaine still don't get along. Although, they get into less fights.
• Character Death: In a tie-in to Spider-Verse, he's killed by Daemos.
• Deadpan Snarker: He may not be Spider-Man anymore (most of the time), but he's still got a razor-sharp wit.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: He has a shock of white in his hair, but the color of it is still brown.
• Evil Twin: May has to fight his from an alternate universe. Also, Kaine, though he's not so bad these days
• Failure Knight: Over his inability to protect Ben Reilly and Baby May.
• Happily Married: He stayed married to MJ in this continuity (which is a stark contrast to the mainstream Peter Parker/Spider-Man due to a certain comic book story line).
• Handicapped Badass: He lost one of his legs fighting the Green Goblin, which caused him to retire from superheroing.
• Heroic Sacrifice: In Spider-Verse he dies fighting Daemos of the Inheritors in order to buy time for his family to escape.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When he got his leg blown off at the knee in his last fight with the Green Goblin, Peter re-evaluated his priorities in life, particularly with a new child to support. He permanently retired as Spider-Man and used his science smarts to become a police scientist, living as an ordinary family man until May developed her powers.
• Living Legend: As Spider-Man, when he suits up again. While he can't really carry on as Spidey thanks to having a prosthetic leg, he is regarded with absolute awe and deep respect by the younger generation of heroes.

• Papa Wolf: Do not go after his children.
• People Puppets: What Norman Osborn does to him in the last arc of Amazing
• Older and Wiser: He's a good 15 years older here than he is in the mainstream comics, and working for the police has let him develop a lot of skills.
• Old Superhero: He’s 15 years older, starting to go grey, and has settled down to the life of a family man working for the police after losing his leg in his final battle with the Green Goblin. This doesn’t stop him from occasionally donning his old costume and fighting alongside his daughter. Even in his street clothes, he can still kick ass. When Crazy Eight throws a series of ball bombs at him, Peter simply catches them all and throws them right back in his face.
• Overprotective Dad: About May's Spider-Girl antics rather than boys... most of the time. He jokes about how he should be like this because the son of his old high school rival is dating his daughter. He also says that he likes Jimmy Yama because the kid's terrified of him.
• Retired Badass: He lost his leg fighting the Green Goblin to the death, and although he acquired a prosthetic he wasn't able to carry on as Spider-Man.
• Science Hero: Long after he hung up his webs, Peter continues using his science smarts to fight crime. He does it as a police scientist instead of a superhero. J. Jonah Jameson is very proud of Peter for this.

Mary Jane Watson-Parker

• Character Death: In a tie-in to Spider-Verse. She's later revealed to have survived, along with Wes.
• The Farmer and the Viper: Her attempts to comfort April went... badly. Although they probably would've worked had April not been mid Freak Out.
• The Fashionista: Turns out she is the one behind the Spider-Shoppe and has been secretly saving all profits from her spider-themed designs for May and Ben's college funds.
• Funny Background Event: Following Reilly around at Normie and Brenda's wedding.
• Happily Married: She and Peter stayed married in this continuity (which is a notable difference from the Mainstream Mary Jane Watson due to a certain event).
• Mama Bear: Attacked the Green Goblin (Normie) with a lamp. While lecturing him.
• Psychologist Teacher: Becomes the school counselor at Midtown in Amazing.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Compared to Peter. Most of the time.
• Shipper on Deck: Ships Wes/May and May/Normie.
• Talking the Monster to Death:
  • How she convinces a student's parents to stop trying to "fix" their mutant daughter.
  • When Normie assumed the mantle of the Green Goblin and attacked her, MJ knew exactly who he was and called him out on it since she practically raised him.

Benjamin "Benjy" Parker

• Badass Adorable: Saving MJ with his organic webbing while still being a baby.
• Cheerful Child: He's just a baby, and he's a happy one most of the time.
• The Chosen One: It's revealed that he is the receptacle of the Scion. If he is murdered, no new Spider-Totems will be born, which spells bad news for the multiverse at large.
• Day in the Limelight: The L'il Benjy "series" of one-page comics that start showing up in the end of Amazing and Spectacular.
• Dead Guy Junior: Named after both Uncle Bens
• Depending on the Artist: Originally depicted as a blonde (see example) before the art team settled on Fiery Redhead. Also appears as a brunette in May's Mindworm-induced hallucination of the future.
• Evil Detecting Toddler: Can immediately tell that April (disguised as May) is not who she appears to be.
• Fiery Redhead: He inherited his mother's hair color.
• Funny Background Event: Is the subject of these when he's not being adorable
• Tyke-Bomb: Briefly transformed into one in the Carnage storyline.
• Naughty Is Good: Starts growing into this once he gets his spider-powers, using his newfound skills to cause mischief (revealing his secret to his family by pelting May with toys from above for example). In the L'il Benjy "series" he frequently uses them to cause mischief and evade grownups.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Future!Ben looks just like Peter with blue eyes, in May's Mindworm induced hallucinations

April Parker/Spider-Girl Blue/Mayhem

"This is my chance to forget about May. It's the only time I don't care which of us is the original. (Even though I'm still convinced she's my clone!) This is when April Parker truly comes into her own as—the merciless Mayhem!"

• Angel Face, Demon Face: April's costumed form looks similar to a black-and-blue version of Spider-Girl's, but when she becomes Mayhem her eyes become distorted, she frequently forms a wide mouth full of black teeth, and the black markings on her suit become chaotic.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: During her time with the Parkers, she was this to May.
• Anti-Hero Substitute: What Norman intended her to be. May has to keep her on track to prevent her from injuring or killing people. As "the merciless Mayhem" she breaks with May to become a full-on antiheroine, but after realizing the damage she's caused she returns to the good side and turns back time to sacrifice herself to save her sister.
  April: The friendly neighborhood days are over! If you want to survive, you need to go grim! Go gritty!
• Bad Future: Causes one when she decides that the only way the world can be fixed is if she kills every other superpowered individual she comes across.
• Bad Powers, Good People: She has powers that are similar to Carnage, but deep down is a good but troubled person.
• Berserk Button: Hates being compared to May, one of the reasons she went rogue as Mayhem.
• Blade Below the Shoulder: She can transform her limbs into simple bladed objects.
• Born as an Adult: Came out of the tank a teenager.
• Cloning Blues: April was convinced that it was May who was the clone and that she was the original Parker baby, much like Ben Reilly was.
• Combat Tentacles: Due to being part symbiote she can create tentacles at will and often uses them to complete chores faster.
• Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like: During the climactic fight that resulted in May's death, April makes declarations like, "You only saved me to make me look bad!"
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to Spider-Girl, April can come across as malicious, especially as Mayhem.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Tries to invoke My Sibling Will Live Through Me after accidentally killing May, but it fails when Mary Jane sees through her right away.
• Distaff Counterpart: To Ben Reilly, Kaine Parker, and Venom; being a clone of the series' Spider-hero who is convinced they're the original, not opposed to using excessive force or killing, and bonded to a clone of the Venom symbiote.
• Emo Teen: Due to the whole Cloning Blues thing.
  Mary Jane: What on—April! What's wrong, sweetheart? Why are you in the dark? Oh, my! Where did you get that outfit—and why are you crying?
  April: E-everyone hates me. The kids at school... May... even you and Uncle Pete!
• Evil Costume Switch: April normally looked similar to a black-and-blue version of Spider-Girl, but as Mayhem she takes a leaf out of Carnage's costuming department◊.
• Evil-Detecting Baby: Benjy is the first to realize there is something off about "May".
• Evil Twin: Starts out as one of May.
• Fallen Hero: After May's death, April tried to become a hero. "Tried" here meaning "killed every other super powered individual she could find".
• Femme Fatalons: Due to being half symbiote she could transform her fingers into claws.
• Freak Out: Has one when she accidentally causes May's death.
• Generation Xerox: To Kaine, being an angsty homicidal clone of a member of the Parker family.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: The combined grief of accidentally killing May, being kicked out of the Parker family, and realizing that she was the real clone causes April to snap and go on a rampage, killing any superhero she comes across in an effort to make the world a better place.
• Half-Human Hybrid: She was a clone of May Parker fused at a genetic level to the Venom symbiote.
• Heel–Face Turn: Decides to embrace her dark side and becomes the antiheroine Mayhem, but ultimately sacrifices herself to save May.
• Heroic Sacrifice: April, having been given memories of a Bad Future where May died because of her by her own future self, sacrificed herself to save May.
• Jagged Mouth: As Mayhem she manifests a mouth full of black teeth that blend into the rest of her mask.
• Kill and Replace: After causing May's death, April tries to impersonate her as a form of repentance. Mary Jane saw through it right away, figured out what happened, and furiously expelled April from the Parker household. The combined trauma drove April insane.
• Knight Templar: Decides the only way the world can be fixed is if all other superpowered individuals kick the bucket.
• Mirror Match: Any time she and May fought, due to her being a clone.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Espouses this viewpoint when it comes to crime fighting, killing Tombstone and Hobgoblin, and even threatening to kill May herself if she gets in her way. When she decides to become a hero and make the world a better place, it's by killing all the other superpowered people she can find.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The look of horror on Mayhem's face when the warehouse she and Spider-Girl were fighting in exploded is visible even through the symbiote's Blank White Eyes and More Teeth than the Osmond Family, showing that she never truly intended to kill May and was genuinely remorseful that she'd succeeded.
• My Sibling Will Live Through Me: April tries to invoke this via Dead Person Impersonation after believing Tombstone killed May, and again after accidentally causing May's death. Unfortunately for her, Mary Jane sees through the latter attempt right away, and when she figures out what happened furiously kicks April out of the Parker family.
• Nightmare Face: Was capable of manifesting Venom's fanged maw and absurdly long tongue while in human form.
• '90s Anti-Hero: April is brooding and sarcastic at the best of times. At the worst, she's downright bloodthirsty, and while she lacks some common attributes, as Mayhem she can tick off scary "costume" and scary name as well.
• One-Letter Name: Goes by "Auntie A◊" in the Bad Future.
• Prehensile Hair: When her symbiote side manifests, her hair looks like it's suspended underwater.
• Punny Name: As she herself put it, "After all, April comes before May".
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: When Tombstone states that he killed May, April furiously unleashes her symbiote side and kills him.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong: When her actions lead to the government mass-producing copies of Carnage that subsequently go out of control, Mayhem decides to travel back in time and stop herself from killing May.
• Serial-Killer Killer: Adopts this approach to fighting crime, even taking out bigwigs like Tombstone and the Hobgoblin.
• The Sociopath: May accused April of being one over her cheerfully cavalier attitude towards Gwen Reilly's murder. She may not be too far off considering April is habitually bored by civilian life and constantly craves the stimulation of crime-fighting, has a very skewed moral compass, a general Lack of Empathy, a fragile ego that doesn't forgive slights (real or imaginary), and doesn't really understand "love" beyond the concept of it. It takes a Bad Future for her to really internalize the morals that May attempted to instill in her and make her Heroic Sacrifice. Twice over.
• Tele-Frag: When she travels back in time, Future Mayhem appears inside a wall, but lives long enough to transfer her memories to her past self.
• Twin Switch: Impersonated May both as Spider-Girl to fight crime and in her civilian ID to make out with Wes, and later tried to take her place in life after accidentally killing her.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: In her grief after May's death and her expulsion from the Parker family, Mayhem kills almost every other superhero out of a belief that it would make the world a better place. This only makes things worse when the government mass-produces clones of Carnage to stop her and they go on a rampage.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: For all that she resents May, she is probably the closest thing April has to be a friend, and April is devastated when she accidentally gets her killed. And see It's Personal above. Twisted, but it shows she cares.
• Whole Costume Reference: April's superhero persona looks almost identical to Spider-Girl, and when she lets her symbiote side surface she occasionally appears similar to Spider-Carnage. As Mayhem she looks similar to a black-and-blue Carnage.

Aunt May Reilly-Parker

• I Was Quite a Looker: Appears as her younger, blonder self when guiding Mayday... until Peter recognizes her.
• Posthumous Character: She's been dead for well over a decade by the time the series starts; unlike in the 616 continuity, her death in Amazing Spider-Man #400 stuck.
• Spirit Advisor: Her spirit serves as a guiding force for May.

Ben Reilly

• Disappeared Dad: It's revealed that he's Darkdevil's father. Being dead, he didn't have much of a chance to raise his son.
• Generation Xerox: He and May are similar according to Peter. His son reaches out to a troubled clone, just like he did for Kaine.
• Posthumous Character: He was killed by the Green Goblin at the end of the Clone Saga.

• Tragic Keepsake: May inherited his costume.
• Sacrificial Lion: He died saving Peter from the Green Goblin.
• Shrouded in Myth: Somewhat, since Peter has been hesitant to openly discuss the details with May.

Kaine

• The Atoner: After Ben's death he set out to redeem himself, and even hosts a self-help group for reforming villains.
• Antagonist in Mourning: Was this to Ben Reilly and Daredevil.

• Deal with the Devil: With Zarathos to save Daredevil. It does not go as planned.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: He's gone grey.

• Papa Wolf: Very protective of his niece and nephews.
• Parental Substitute: Tries to be this to Darkdevil even if the latter is reluctant to trust him again.

• Stronger with Age: He’s a degenerated old clone, but he’s an experienced Lightning Bruiser and strong enough to beat down May and Darkdevil at the same time and can tank their hits with a smile. Not to mention he no longer feels pain due to his nerve receptors no longer functioning.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Over time, he and Darkdevil's relationship softens from bitter enemies into this.
• Would Hit a Girl: Delivered a brutal beating on May during their first encounter which ended in her covered in bruises and with a black eye.

Reilly Tyne/Darkdevil

• Badass Bookworm: Studying at ESU (and interning with Foggy Nelson) during the day and patrolling at night.
• Big Brother Instinct: Towards May, April and Gerry. Not that he'd ever admit it.

• Dark Is Not Evil: Despite taking the name "Darkdevil," he's very much on the side of good.
• Deadpan Snarker: He almost, but not quite, surpasses May in this. Quite a bit of his snark is directed at her.
• Depending on the Artist: Like Benjy, his hair color bounced between blonde and red before the artists settled on having a redhead. Fanon is that he tried bleaching his hair to look more like Ben Reilly.

• Emergency Transformation/Mental Fusion: With Daredevil to prevent a complete Demonic Possession.

• Freudian Excuse: He was taken in by his maternal aunt and uncle. They turned out to be neglectful and abusive drunks. No wonder he has trouble spitting it out.
• Generation Xerox: Reached out to April like Ben Reilly reached out to Kaine.
  • Subverted when you compare his childhood to Peter's. See Freudian Excuse.
  • Not to mention fashioning a new identity for himself, just like Ben Reilly and Elizabeth Tyne.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Gets nervous talking to Spider-Girl out of costume, and seems to be a bit of a Socially Awkward Hero in general due to being kind of Married to the Job (both of them).

• No-Sell: He's immune to Enthralla's hypnotism. More to the point, looking into his head leaves her in a coma.

• Parental Abandonment: His Dad is dead and his mother is still doing time.
• Pet the Dog: Teams up with Gerry Drew despite how very very very annoying he can be. Not to mention all the Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other moments with Mayday.

• Secret-Identity Identity: Does NOT appreciation Doc Magus's suggestion that he exorcise himself and stop being Darkdevil. Although, considering what might happen if he did...
• Secret-Keeper: For Kaine. It looked like Doc Magus might become his, but it didn't pan out.

• Trickster Mentor: It's heavily implied that he's hard on Mayday to motivate her into being a little more serious (and safe) in her superheroic pursuits.
• Tsundere: Towards May, big time, though by the end of the series he's openly praising her and even tries to hug her when she's worried about April.

• Uncanny Family Resemblance: He looks a lot like his father, though only MJ and Normie have noticed it. Peter (who insists the kid looks more like Tobey Maguire) and May remain oblivious.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Norman Osborn implies he feels this way towards Spider-Man, questioning why Darkdevil keeps helping Spidey even though Peter sees him as an Inadequate Inheritor to Daredevil's legacy.
• You Are Not Alone: Tries to convince April she belongs in the Spider-Family.

Midtown High Students

Courtney Duran

• Bespectacled Cutie: She is a cute bespectacled girl with a sweet personality.

• Oblivious to Love: It takes her a while to figure out what's going on with Moose
• Secret-Keeper: Heavily implied to have figured it out in The End.
• Shrinking Violet: But she starts to grow out of it
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: They're both Tomboys, but when it comes to boys, May is the Girly Girl

Davida Kirby

• Dude Magnet: Implied when Wes gushes about his crush on her to May.
• Green-Eyed Monster: She blows up when Coach Thompson gives Nancy Liu her place on the basketball team's starting five. It leads her to unwittingly out Nancy as a mutant.
• Heel Realization: After Nancy leaves school thanks to Brad's bullying.
• Mistaken for Cheating: Is convinced Nancy cheated and used her powers to get on the basketball team.
• Operation: Jealousy: Tries this to get May to notice Wes. It doesn't work.

• Secret-Keeper: Always seems to be on the cusp on finding out and/or being told. And now that Wes and maybe Courtney know...
• Shipper on Deck: Davida is very anti-May/Gene and pro-May/Wes.
• The Casanova: Implied to be a female version.
• We Used to Be Friends: Fell out with May over the Nancy thing for a while.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Calls Brad out on his bigotry.

Maurice "Moose" Mansfield

• Loves My Alter Ego/Mistaken Identity: Mistakes Courtney for Spider-Girl... but falls for her on her own merits.
• Missing Mom: She died of cancer.
• Parental Abandonment: And near the end of Spider-Girl, his dad gets it too.
• Odd Friendship: With Jimmy, who he used to bully, eventually
• Official Couple: With Courtney
• The Symbiote: He's taken over by the Carnage symbiote.
• You Killed My Father: Sees Spider-Girl destroying Carnage (the best hope for curing his Dad's cancer) as this. Sadly, this plotline was never resolved.

Jimmy Yama

• Asian and Nerdy

• Odd Friendship: With his ex-bully, Moose
• Platonic Life-Partners: With Courtney
• Those Two Guys: With Wes in Amazing and Spectacular.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: To May. He gets over it pretty quickly, though. Courtney was one for him.
• What the Hell, Hero?: To Moose after he breaks up with Courtney for "her own good"

Brad Miller

• Betty and Veronica: The Betty to J.J.'s Veronica... or so it seems

Heather Noble

• Alpha Bitch: At first.
• Betty and Veronica: Poised to be the Veronica to May's Betty, with Brad as the Archie. They both give up on him.
• Fan Girl: For Spider-Girl. First seen shopping at the Spider-Shoppe, later posing as Spider-Girl for Jimmy and Wes's comic.
• Give Geeks a Chance: With Jimmy

• Romantic Runner-Up: Fears that Brad is only with her because he can't be with May. She's right, which is why she decides to Give Geeks a Chance

Jack "J.J." Jameson/The Buzz

• All There in the Manual: How he got the Buzz suit.
• Betty and Veronica: Initially the Veronica to Brad's Betty. Until Brad turned out to be bigoted against mutants.

• Dating Catwoman: He never figures it out, but May does.
• Generation Xerox: To Spidey, sort of, as he becomes the subject of Jonah's ire due to a misunderstanding.
• Ladykiller in Love: With Nancy Lu. May even states he's a much better boyfriend to her.
• Locked Out of the Loop: His Dating Catwoman situation with May
• Mistaken for Murderer: Of his Big Brother Mentor, no less, which is how he ended up with the Buzz suit

Felicity Thompson/Scarlet Spider II

• Ascended Fanboy: Not quite, but boy, does she try.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: May regards her with about as much respect as one.

• Mommy Issues: Is not happy about Felicia's new partner. She's upset about her parent's divorce rather than her mom being a lesbian.
• Sidekick Glass Ceiling: She never even graduates to sidekick.

Gene Thompson

• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He used to be a kind, caring boyfriend. Or so Mays says.
• Dirty Coward: Doesn't handle dangerous situations well.
• Expy: Of Flash pre-Character Development

• My Sister Is Off-Limits: May's reaction to his hooking up with April.

Simone De Santos

• Friends with Benefits: With Gene. Implied as much as you can in an All Ages comic.
• Hidden Depths: Tries to rescue her father from Fury. Too bad it didn't work.
• Missing Mom: Mr. & Mrs. Spider-Man reveals she was gunned down, leading to her father's Start of Darkness

Reynard "Wes" Westin

• Back for the Dead: Daemos throws him headfirst into a fireplace, knocking him out, and he's assumed dead after the Parker house burns down. He's later revealed to have survived along with Mary Jane.

• Emo Teen: Averted. Looks the part (kind of) but is more of a male Perky Goth.

• Hidden Depths: Tries to save Simone from Fury, despite not having any powers or idea what he's doing.
• Hyper-Awareness: How he figures out April kissed him.
• Just Friends: Both he and May argue this. They're not fooling anyone.

• Perky Goth: Looks a bit like a Rummage Sale Reject leaving Hot Topic... but turns out to be a sweet, sensitive Nice Guy.

• Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The sensitive guy to Gene's manly man.
• Starving Artist/Teen Prodigy: Well, maybe not the starving part.

Spider-Girl's Friends and Allies

Normie Osborn/The Green Goblin/Venom

• Dark Is Not Evil: His stint as Venom rehabilitates the symbiote.

• In the Blood: He seems to have inherited his smarts and best friendship with a Parker.
• Like Brother and Sister: After lots of Ship Tease and Will They or Won't They?.

• Odd Friendship: May, of course, but he and Reilly/Darkdevil seem to have one as well.

• Sins of Our Fathers: Struggles with the pressure Norman Osborn put on him to kill the Parkers, then struggles with everyone assuming he'll go evil.
• Starter Villain: He's the very first villain May faced as Spider-Girl.

Phil Urich

Brenda Drago Osborn/Raptor

• Dark and Troubled Past: Her parents were less than stellar and her abusive boyfriend manipulated her into stealing for him. Luckily, things got better for her.

• Faux Action Girl: Normie convinced her to retire after losing to Lady Ock, Fury and Hobgoblin. Until she demanded to be let back into battle.

• Odd Friendship: Working together seems to have fostered one with Kaine.
• Recruiting the Criminal: Recruited into Kaine's team as an alternative to going to jail.

Gerald "Gerry" Drew/Spider-Man II

• Annoying Younger Sibling: To Spider-Girl and Darkdevil. Despite not being related to them at all.

• Determinator: Desperate to play hero even if he's secretly dying.
• Disappeared Dad: Walked out on him and his mom when Gerry got sick. This might be why he idolizes Peter so much.

• Red Herring: No relation to Peter OR Felicia. He's the son of Jessica Drew.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Promised Peter he would try out a cure invented by Reed Richards. Then we never see him again.

Anya Corazon/Araña

• Body Snatcher: "Borrowed" May's body for a while.
• Big Sister Mentor: Well. She keeps trying, anyway.

• The Cowl: To May, who is more of a cape.
• Dating Catwoman: She and Black Tarantula had lots of Foe Romance Subtext. Then it was revealed they used to have a thing. Then they started living together. In Spectacular, Fabian proposed.

• Most Common Superpower: Anya is quite well-endowed, and frequently keeps her jumpsuit partly unzipped exposing her cleavage. Lampshaded after May awakens in Arana's body, she opens her eyes to find herself staring down Anya's cleavage. Doubles as Ms. Fanservice since the shot is a POV shot resulting in the audience also staring down Anya's chest.

• The Obi-Wannabe: Because of her and May's clashing morals.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: She managed to kill the original Black Tarantula who keep in mind managed to frequently beat down Spider-Man in his prime and had a potent healing factor to boot.
• Shoot the Dog: Not above killing bad guys like Fabian's father.

Fabian LaMuerte/Black Tarantula

• Affably Evil: Like his father.
• Arch-Enemy: He and Araña are this to each other. Among other things.
• Chess Master/Manipulative Bastard: Manages to get and keep the Kingpin's criminal empire after the latter's death. Which he arranged, by the way. At least until he starts losing it all in Spectacular.

• Heel–Face Turn: Gives up a life of crime after his empire implodes in Spectacular.
• The Juggernaut: Every bit as strong and hard to keep down as his father, and can beat down strong fighters like Kaine and Darkdevil with ease. He even has better control of his eye beams than his father.
• Legacy Character: Looks like Fabian does indeed follow in his father's footsteps.
• Loving a Shadow: It's implied he took an interest in May because she reminded him of Araña.
• Noble Demon. A crime lord like his father but has a sense of honor and goodness. He mainly tries to play it up to convince May to be his mate.
• Pet the Dog: Seems to genuinely care for Spider-Girl and is in love with Araña despite their complicated history.

• Stalker with a Crush: To May. She doesn't understand why he's helping her despite him blatantly saying he’s obsessed with her.
• You Killed My Father: Araña killed his.

Villains

Angel Face

• Continuity Nod: She's an old rouge of Phil's from the Green Goblin series.

• Mama Bear: Granted, an evil and abusive version, but still.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Goes on one following her elder son's death. Somewhat subverted in that she and her surviving son tear a swath through the underground but never get to the people responsible.
• You Killed My Son: Blames Spider-Girl for Crazy Eight's death.

Carnage/Moose Mansfield & Benjy Parker

• Body Horror: For Moose. And who knows how it affected Benjy...

Crazy Eight

• Affably Evil: He's funny, calls his mother and looks out for his little brother. When they're not trying to kill each other. He even compliments a rookie Spider-Girl on her fighting skills!

• Always Someone Better: Funny Face saw him as this.
• Big Brother Mentor: To Funny Face. Sometimes.
• Cain and Abel: Him and Funny most of the time.

• Clothes Make the Legend: Seems to think so, since he refuses to wear normal clothes to his trial for the sake of his reputation. Played heartbreakingly straight after his death when we finally see him without the makeup... as he's being buried in a nondescript suit.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Scolds Crazy Eight for not calling their mother more often.
• Foil: In retrospect, it's funny he and fellow Aloof Big Brother big brother Darkdevil were introduced in the same issue.
• Improbable Weapon User: Favors weaponized eight balls.
• Love Martyr: Presumably, Angel Face wasn't any better to him than she was to Funny Face. Yet he still loves her dearly.
• Save the Villain: Subverted. He dies because May didn't and chose to save Gerry from gunfire instead.
• Sibling Team: With Funny Face.

Funny Face

• Always Second Best: To his big brother Crazy Eight. Until his brother dies.
• Creepy Doll: His best friend... er, puppet, Bunky. Who he treats as a real person.
• Freak Out: Over May "trapping" Bunky in webbing. Because "Bunky" is claustrophic due to his mother locking him up in the closet for days at a time. Suddenly that whole "talks to his puppet thing" isn't so funny anymore.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Yes, even when they're not worth it.

• Never My Fault: His brother's death might not have happened if he hadn't exacerbated tensions between the Kingpin and Canis out of sibling rivalry. Naturally, he blames Spider-Girl for it instead.

• Shadow Archetype: Lampshades the similarity between May and Gerry's bickering to his and Crazy Eight's. They're also similar to the ''other'' team of bickering Spider-Kids, Spider-Girl and Darkdevil.

Hobgoblin/Roderick Kingsley

The original Hobgoblin, come out of retirement.

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• Knight of Cerebus: Things go to hell whenever he's around.

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