Merge:Spider-Girl

Spider-Girl (May "Mayday" Parker) is a superheroine, active in an alternate future of the Marvel Comics universe. She was created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz as a spin-off of the Spider-Man character, and first appeared in What If (Vol. 2) #105. She later acquired her own ongoing comic book, Spider-Girl, written by DeFalco and drawn by Frenz and Pat Olliffe, which has become the longest-running superhero book with a lead female character ever published by Marvel.

Publication History
Spider-Girl was a spin-off of the ongoing series What If. According to Tom DeFalco, her first appearance was meant to be her last. However, due to positive fan response, Spider-Girl and two other series (A-Next and J2) set in the same universe were launched under the MC2 imprint. All three were intended to be merely 12-issue limited series, however, Spider-Girl's sales justified its continuation.

Although Spider-Girl has had among the lowest sales of any ongoing series by Marvel, the book's sales were consistent. Its active fanbase caused Marvel to revoke several cancellation announcements. Reprints of the series in digest size trade paperbacks sold well, and Marvel Associate Editor Nick Lowe revealed in a November 2005 interview that "Spider-Girl, for the first time in her history, is completely safe from cancellation." 

Marvel's enthusiasm was apparently short-lived, and the company announced that #100 would be the title's final issue. However, although the Spider-Girl title was indeed cancelled, the book will be relaunched as The Amazing Spider-Girl with issue #1 to be published in October 2006. May will have a redesigned costume and webshooters.

Character history
May "Mayday" Parker is the child of Peter and Mary Jane Parker in a future, alternate universe continuity. In the MC2 continuity, they were reunited with their baby daughter by Kaine, who found the child living with Alison Mongraine, the con artist who had kidnapped the baby on instruction from the Green Goblin. After they were reunited, Peter lost a leg and was forced to retire following the horrific final conflict with the Green Goblin (while it's implied that Peter was responsible for the Goblin's death, this has never been confirmed). For many years, the duo chose to keep their past from Mayday and hoped that she wouldn't develop powers of her own.

Despite her parents' hopes, May began developing versions of her father's Spider-powers when she was 15. At the same time, Normie Osborn (Green Goblin's grandson) set out to restore the family name (as he saw it). Mayday donned Ben Reilly's Spider-Man costume to stop him and soon took to crime fighting, at first hindered, then helped, by her worried parents. May shares traits of both of her parents. Like her mother, she is a good-looking and popular student, and she is intelligent and bright, just as her father was. She also inherited his love for in-fight bantering. In addition, she is a very good athlete and excels in her girls' basketball team. On the other hand, May seems to have inherited the "Parker luck," in which her dual identity wreaks havoc in her private life.

Powers and abilities
May Parker inherited many of the same abilities as her father, Peter Parker. She has enhanced strength, and is able to lift up to 5 tons. She can also leap several stories high, and can cover the width of a city block. She is also tougher and heals faster than a normal human.

Spider-Girl can adhere to almost any surface through a static-electric field her body generates, allowing her to scale the sides of a building, just like a spider. Wall-crawling doesn't come as naturally to May as Peter; she has to concentrate to keep herself from slipping off surfaces. In addition to adhering to surfaces, May can also repel herself like an opposing magnet, or she can repulse and adhere another object or person through a shared medium. For example, she can cause a person to stick to a wall they're touching just by touching that same wall and willing them to, or she can just as easily violently push them away. Finally, May Parker inherited her "spider-sense," a form of clairvoyance that warns her of danger. Spider-Girl's is somewhat more powerful and reliable than her father's, and tells her the direction a threat is coming from with a high level of precision. Through intensive training, she learned to fight blindfolded using only her spider-sense. She can use it to spot weaknesses in an opponent and use them to her advantage. She can also sense mundane threats or observation like her father, but unlike him she can use it to sense deception. By touching her father's clone, Kaine, she experienced a shared precognitive vision, but she does not normally have that ability.

May also has mechanical web-shooters based on Ben Reilly's web-shooter design, but longer and narrower. They do not fire impact webbing or stingers, but could be equipped to do so. Her mobile phone is modified to attach to one of her web-shooters, and looks like one of its cartridges. She occasionally uses spider-tracers, but as they are tuned to her father's spider-sense and not hers, she needs a receiver to detect them.

Spider-Girl once lost her powers due to being electrocuted. However, she borrowed the Green Goblin equipment from Normie Osborn until she regained them.

Note that all comparisons to Spider-Man's abilities do not apply to his power upgrade in Spider-Man: The Other, as that event never took place in MC2 continuity.

The mutant question
It is unclear whether Spider-Girl is a mutant. She did not receive her powers by accident or design, but was born with them, which fits the usual definition of "mutant" in the Marvel Universe. However, the series never uses the word "mutant" to describe her. Before her birth, a Sentinel robot registered her as "beyond the range of embryonic normalcy," but not specifically as a mutant (The Amazing Spider-Man #415). Spider-Girl has not been shown to register on a mutant detector such as Cerebro that can distinguish a "true" X-gene mutant from other types of superhuman.

Main cast

 * Peter Parker, May's father, who has retired from superhero business and works as a police scientist. He lost his leg after the final battle with the first Green Goblin, a.k.a. Norman Osborn.  He occasionally dons his costume to assist May.
 * Mary Jane Watson-Parker, May's mother. In this universe, MJ is a very responsible and sharp-witted character, knowing every thought of her superhero husband and daughter inside out.
 * Phil Urich, a former Green Goblin (the only hero to use that name) and a good friend of the Parker family. (He has been a friend of the family for so long, that May calls him "Uncle Phil.") Phil works with Peter Parker at his job in the crime lab. Occasionally, he uses his Goblin powers to help May, at one point taking on the identity of the "Golden Goblin." Later, with the assistance of Normie Osborn, Phil was able to come out of retirement and take on the identity of the Green Goblin once more.


 * Benjamin Richard Parker is May's little baby brother.

Supporting cast

 * Darkdevil, a.k.a Reilly Tyne, is a mocking Puck-like superhero who constantly taunts Spider-Girl for her various weaknesses, but has also proven to be a valuable ally. Tyne is later discovered to be May's cousin.
 * Courtney Duran is May's pigtailed friend in school. She is a level-headed and bespectacled "Miss Normal" who is in her Science Club.
 * Felicity Hardy is the daughter of Felicia Hardy and Flash Thompson. She knows that May is Spider-Girl and adopted the costume of Scarlet Spider when May took a break from superhero business.  However, she abandoned it quickly and helps May in her civilian identity.
 * Jack Jameson, also called "JJ", is the grandson of J. Jonah Jameson, and is one of May's secret crushes. He is secretly a superhero called The Buzz.
 * Davida Kirby is May's best friend in school and her teammate in her basketball team.
 * Moose Mansfield is a burly footballer who constantly clashes with Jimmy Yama (see below). He also has a crush on Spider-Girl.  On a field trip, he witnessed Spider-Girl running out of a toilet in which Courtney had been, and from then on, thought Courtney was Spider-Girl.  This led to comic results.  He has recently moved away to live with his uncle while his father is in the hospital.
 * Brad Miller is a good-looking, smart teenager and May's secret crush. Later, she dropped him when she found out he had a hatred for mutants.
 * Normie Osborn is the grandson of Norman Osborn and was this universe's Green Goblin until he ceded that role to Phil Urich. Former enemy and former crush of May's.  He is engaged to Raptor though it is apparent he still has feelings for May.  In recent issues, he had obtained the Venom-symbiote for his own use until it died in the final battle against Hobgoblin and the Scriers.  He has recently voluntarily joined Kaine's superteam on the condition that Raptor (who does not get along with management) may be allowed to quit.
 * Raptor (Brenda "Blackie" Drago) daughter of the second Vulture and former rogue until Spider-Girl convinced her to quit crime. She is a member of Kaine's superteam of reformed supervillains and was recently married to Normie Osborn.
 * Kaine is very protective of Spider-girl (his niece... and ultimately the source of his redemption). He currently leads a government team of reformed supervillains.
 * Flash Thompson is the trainer of May's basketball squad. He was once married to Felicia Hardy and had a daughter Felicity with her (see above), but is unaware that both are superheroes.
 * Jimmy Yama is a nerdy Asian schoolmate of May who is on her Science Club. He has a crush on May, a fact that makes May - who likes Jimmy as a friend, but not more - embarrassed.  He has a cousin named Zane, who happens to be the superhero J2, the son of the Juggernaut.
 * Nancy Lu is an Asian schoolmate of May who was secretly a mutant with telekinetic powers, until she was outed by her classmates, and forced to leave the high school. She later returned as an X-Man in-training known as "Push".

Spider-Girl's Uncle Ben
Like her father, May also has an Uncle Ben. However, unlike her dad, May never knew her uncle: Ben Reilly, Spider-Man's clone. His last words before his death are about her: "Take care of my 'niece,' Peter... tell her about... her Uncle Ben" (Peter Parker: Spider-Man vol. 1 #75). Her first costume and web-shooters are in fact his, kept in storage since his death. When May asks her father about him, however, Peter leaves out the fact that Ben was really a clone, instead referring to him as a cousin.

If Spider-Girl has any children in the future, they too would have an Uncle Ben - May's baby brother. As Peter and MJ named May after Peter's Aunt May, May asks which Uncle Ben the newborn is named after: her Uncle Ben, or Peter's Uncle Ben. Peter asks if it really matters, and May simply responds, "I guess not."

Earth-616
May Parker also exists in the primary Earth-616 timeline in which most Marvel Comics are set. However, her status is unknown and she is believed to be dead.

Mary Jane became pregnant at the beginning of the Clone Saga. Impending fatherhood was one of the main reasons Peter retired as Spider-Man during that storyline, giving the name to Ben Reilly instead. However, at the end of the story, Mary Jane was poisoned by Alison Mongraine, an agent of the Green Goblin. Mary Jane's baby was stillborn (or seemed to be, as Mongraine apparently took the sedated infant away with her). Ben Reilly died at the Green Goblin's hands the same night, and Peter Parker became Spider-Man again.

Unlike in the MC2 continuity, baby May and her parents were never reunited. Editors have repeatedly stated that the baby died, or at the very least will not be seen again; the baby was considered a major factor in the "aging" of the characters. However, no proof of her death was ever shown, it was clearly implied that she was kidnapped, and Alison Mongraine and Kaine were never conclusively shown to have died either. As no proof has been shown and the baby's return is a frequent fan request, baby May is considered a prime candidate for eventual resurrection.

Earth X
There are two variant and alternate universe versions of Spider-Girl. One was raised by a Ben Reilly who survived after her father died during her childhood, as seen What If? vol. 2 #86, and later revealed in the Paradise X: Heralds mini-series. Another version of Spider-Girl is actually Venom, who is seen in the Earth X mini-series and its two sequels, Universe X and Paradise X.

The world of MC2 is designated as "Earth-982". The world where Spider-Girl was raised by Ben Reilly is known as "Earth-1122" and the world featuring Venom as Spider-Girl along with the other heroes of the Earth X saga is known as "Earth-9997".

A May Parker also exists in the alternate future 2020, known for its Iron Man 2020. She is also known by the superhero name Spider-Girl. This universe's Earth is designated Earth-8410.

Action Figures

 * Toy Biz's 8-inch scale "Famous Covers" action figure line included a Spider-Girl with a cloth costume and removable mask.
 * Toy Biz's 5-inch scale "First Appearances" line included a Spider-Girl (as well as her allies, Stinger and American Dream).
 * Toy Biz's preschool-oriented "Spider-Man & Friends" line has included several Spider-Girl figures and toys. These feature an exposed lower face, visible eyes, and pigtails or a ponytail, to make it easier for very young children to differentiate Spider-Girl from Spider-Man.

Trade paperback

 * Spider-Girl (Marvel Comics, August 2001; ISBN 0785108157, reprints Spider-Girl #0-8)

Digests

 * Spider-Girl Vol. 1: Legacy (Marvel Comics, April 2004; ISBN 0-7851-1441-6, reprints Spider-Girl #0-5)
 * Spider-Girl Vol. 2: Like Father Like Daughter (Marvel Comics, December 2004; ISBN 0-7851-1657-5, reprints Spider-Girl #6-11)
 * Spider-Girl Vol. 3: Avenging Allies (Marvel Comics, April 2005; ISBN 0-7851-1658-3, reprints Spider-Girl #12-16 and Spider-Girl Annual 1999)
 * Spider-Girl Vol. 4: Turning Point (Marvel Comics, September 2005; ISBN 0-7851-1871-3, reprints Spider-Girl #17-21 and #1/2)
 * Spider-Girl Vol. 5: Endgame (Marvel Comics, January 2006; ISBN 0-7851-2034-3, reprints Spider-Girl #22-27)
 * Spider-Girl Vol. 6: Too Many Spiders! (Marvel Comics, June 2006; ISBN 0-7851-2156-0, reprints Spider-Girl #28-33)
 * Spider-Girl Vol. 7: Duty Calls (Marvel Comics, November 2006; ISBN 0-7851-2157-9, reprints Spider-Girl #34-38)