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Quote1 No matter what pain or misery awaits me-- this is a Spider-Girl world! Quote2
Spider-Girl[src]

History

May "Mayday" Parker is the first child of Peter and Mary Jane Parker in a future, alternate universe. Peter and Mary Jane were reunited with their baby daughter by Kaine, who found the child living with Alison Mongrain, the con-artist who had kidnapped the baby on instruction from the Green Goblin. After they were reunited, Peter lost a leg during a horrific battle with the Green Goblin. After the battle, Peter was offered a bionic replacement from Mr. Fantastic, and considering it a wake-up call, decided to retire and focus on being a husband and father.[7] For years, they chose to keep their past from Mayday and hoped that she wouldn't develop powers of her own like her father.

Despite her parents' hopes, May began developing versions of her father's Spider-powers when she was fifteen. At the same time, Normie Osborn (the 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, but her worried parents burned the costume after May used it to keep her from taking on crime fighting.[8]

Days later May was parting ways with her father from the police station when her spider-sense alerted her to a shady character who was stalking her father. She secretly nabbed the stalker, who was intending to kill her father, and beat him up in an alleyway with a trashcan without allowing him to see her identity. This threw the would-be-killer off of Peter's tail, and May got an addicting rush from saving someone's life.[9]

Over dinner the same night, Peter told his family about the police case he was working on related to a string of murders in the fashion business. May used this info to investigate the fashion store her father was talking about, wondering if the villains behind the fashion murders were the same people trying to get at her dad. While investigating, May wore a makeshift costume from various pieces of black clothing she owned as well as the web-shooters she had saved from Ben Reilly's costume without her parents knowing. Upon arriving at the store she found a conversation happening between a mysterious villain named Nobody and his henchmen, one of which was the stalker hired to kill her father. While listening in, May was noticed by one of the henchmen, and a battle ensued in which she defeated the goons and Nobody (who used his powers to teleport away when the cops arrived). May rushed home to avoid being caught fighting crime by her parents. However, the escapade had inspired May to use her powers more, and over the next few days she secretly sewed herself a costume and christened herself "Spider-Girl."[9] Eventually her parents accepted her crime fighting passion and began helping her.[citation needed]

May shares traits of both her parents. Like her mother, she is beautiful, charismatic and a popular student. Like her father, she is intelligent and bright. She also inherited his love for in-fight bantering. In addition, she is a very good athlete and excelled in her girls' basketball team until she quit after her powers emerged. On the other hand, May seems to have inherited the "Parker luck" in which her dual identity wreaks havoc in her private life.[citation needed]

May promised to give up costumed super heroics, dated Gene Thompson, and ran for student council president. When Mary Jane became aware that the Hobgoblin posed a threat to her daughter's teenage friends, she allowed Mayday to resume her activities as Spider-Girl (a situation they wanted to keep secret from Peter). After a battle with the Hobgoblin, May told her father the truth, and after a conversation with Mary Jane, they allowed May to resume her Spider-Girl identity.[10]

After an attempt at helping the S.H.I.E.L.D. government agency, a case filled with a piece of the Carnage symbiote was released. It attached itself to May's friend Moose, who became the new Carnage. In exchange, Carnage would bond itself to Moose's terminally ill father, curing him in the process. Carnage caused a stir at May's school and kidnapped Peter and Baby Ben, forcing May to confront her friend. May tried to talk to Moose within the symbiote but failed, and it bonded with her brother Ben. Peter escaped as May battled the two symbiotes and gathered sonic gear that might have been able to defeat the symbiote. However it was May who used the weapons, thereby destroying the piece of the Carnage symbiote. Her success was not without a measure of collateral damage as well, however; not only was Moose furious at Spider-Girl for dooming his father, but the sonic weapon rendered Ben deaf, possibly permanently.[11]

Ben's hearing was eventually restored thanks to the intervention of Normie Osborn. Normie later stumbled on one of Norman Osborn's former labs, and discovered a fluid tank containing what appeared to be a physical duplicate of Mayday Parker. Notes left behind by his grandfather indicated that this Mayday was the original he kidnapped years ago, hinting that the Mayday who had lived a full life was yet another clone.[citation needed]

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Mayday continued to date Gene, but her jealousy over Gene's relationship with Simone enraged and confused her. She found some mild release from her problems due to her close friendship with Wes Westin, which in turn incensed Gene. During an encounter between the three in a bar, Gene almost knocked out Wes with a firm fist, but the punch was blocked by a concerned Mayday. Gene's punch being obstructed by Mayday humiliated him in front of his entire football team.[citation needed]

Mayday eventually started to feel the weight of her relationship, and chewed out Wes for intervening on her behalf. Wes, however, remained deeply concerned about Mayday and discovered a plot by Simone to blackmail Gene and discredit her in front of the entire high school. Meanwhile, Fury the Goblin Queen activated a signal that awakened the Mayday inhabiting the tank within Osborn's labs, and she escaped, confronting Mayday on the roof of her high school just as she was changing into Spider-Girl. The clone could mimic Mayday's clothing as well as her appearance.[citation needed]

Having been caught in the heart of an explosion that decimated New York City, a critically injured Mayday, her costume torn away by the impact, was rescued from the debris by Araña's forces. Araña, realizing that Mayday might not survive her ordeal, offered to merge with her, but she intervened in a vision quest that Mayday was undergoing, and by aiding her overcome a force she was meant to overcome alone. She obstructed Spider-Girl from uncovering whether or not she was the true Mayday. Araña successfully completed the merging and temporarily assumed control of Mayday's body, leaving Mayday and a third, blond woman who shared her name (possibly the spirit of Aunt May) trapped within her own subliminal consciousness before regaining control of her body.[citation needed]

Meanwhile, the clone assumed Mayday's life and picked up where she left off, however her presence deeply disturbed Benjy and a crestfallen Mayday also discovered that she had split up with Gene. Gene angrily retaliated when Mayday visited him, forcing her to take physical action and slam him through a table. She later received a call from Normie, telling her about the capture of Peter Parker, leading the clone into assuming the role of Spider-Girl.[citation needed]

The body-swapped Mayday in Araña tried to find Araña within her own body, who was using her body as a trap to defeat the Black Tarantula. However, the body-swapped May was found by the clone leading into a battle between the two of them, just as the body swapped Araña was lead into the lair of the Black Tarantula. The Black Tarantula was able to see through Araña's trick and nearly knocked her unconscious, just as May in Araña's body was knocked unconscious as well leading the two of them to recover their original bodies.[citation needed]
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Meanwhile, Normie Osborn, along with Kaine, Phil Urich (in his Green Goblin Costume), Darkdevil, and Normie's wife Raptor, tried to rescue Peter Parker from Fury's hands, unaware of the the fact that Peter had absorbed the mind and memories of the original Norman Osborn. This led to a fight between the assembled heroes and Peter, now possessed by the Green Goblin. Mayday arrived just as Peter/Green Goblin reunited with the clone, who was revealed to have been genetically spliced with the DNA of the Venom symbiote, giving her the metamorphic powers displayed by Spidercide, but without the need for a host like normal symbiotes.[citation needed]

Bonding with his "daughter" (and, unintentionally, Spider-Girl), the possessed Peter declared himself as "The Goblin God" and began to go on a rampage, while Mayday found herself trapped within her father's mental psyche. With the aid of the spiritual avatar of her great-aunt May Parker, as well as flashbacks to the day she healed Normie Osborn's psychological scars, Mayday and Peter were able to overcome Norman in a psychic duel and convince the Brand New May that Mayday was a good person. Norman was seemingly defeated, but not before he denied Mayday the chance to discover whether or not she was the true daughter of Peter and Mary Jane, or the clone. Mary Jane was rescued from near-death by Benjy, who revealed he had developed organic webbing.[citation needed]

With the Brand New May uncertain of her place, Mayday proposed she become a member of the Parker family. Mary Jane agreed, though Peter distrusted her and objected to the idea. Mayday took a walk, reflecting on how her parents, baby brother, and potential new twin sister had overcome so much and truly become "An Amazing Spider-Man Family".[citation needed]

Her relationship with Wes, and the exposing of her face to the Black Tarantula, remained unresolved for a while. However, after her life was saved by April, she begins a relationship with Wes.[citation needed]

Spider-Verse[]

As part of the Great Hunt initiated by Morlun, his brother Daemos located May's family and Wes and immediately assaulted them, managing to badly wound May and damage Peter Parker's cybernetic leg. Peter, in an effort to save his daughter, collided with Daemos, knocking him clear. May managed to grab her brother, Benjy, and could only watch on in horror as her family members were cut down in front of her. Just then, two other Spider-Men opened a portal from another universe and beckoned May to join them. A tearful May then vowed vengeance on Daemos for the murder of her loved ones as she vanished.[12] She later accompanies Spider-UK, Spider-Ham, and Old Man Spider-Man to recruit the Peter Parker and other Spider Totems of Earth-616, revealing herself to him to convince him of the gravity of their situation.[13]

Later, Benjy was revealed to be the Scion and was kidnapped by the Inheritors, 616 Peter promises May they'll get him back, but she angrily declares her father to be the true Spider-Man compared to the rest of them.[14] When Uncle Ben tries to have a heart-to-heart with her, calling her out on the egotism of claiming her father is the only true Spider-Man and acting like she's the only one who lost loved ones, May attacks and berates him. Their fight is interrupted when a wall she cracked in a fit of rage crumbles and unleashes a horde of mutant spiders. The two set aside their disagreement and work together to contain the spiders, but May stubbornly refuses to let go of her desire for revenge against Daemos, stating that she hopes that somewhere an alternate version of herself exists who never had to suffer the loss of her loved ones.[15] However, after witnessing the death of the Inheritors' Master Weaver, May realizes the cost of revenge and refuses to kill them, stating that she will seek justice rather than vengeance, with Spider-Ham commenting that, if her father was anything like him, he would be proud of his daughter.[16] With the Inheritors defeated, May returned to her world with Uncle Ben, learning that her mother and Wes had survived the Inheritors' attack. As Ben chose to remain and be the grandfather he never had the chance to be, May decided to take on her father's costume and rename herself Spider-Woman.[2]

However, it wasn't that easy: despite all of this, people still called her "Spider-Girl" and she hadn't gotten over her father's death, still wishing she had murdered Daemos when she had the chance. Using this against her, Enthralla and the Red Queen began ambushing other heroes with Enthralla hypnotizing them into thinking Mayday was an impostor who murdered Peter Parker and took his costume. Aided by her other hero friends and a late-to-the-party Ben, Mayday was able to stop the two villains, preventing a hypnotized Cassie Lang from killing her father and finally coming to grips with her own father's death in the process. She abandoned Peter's old costume and took up a brand new one, filled with renewed hope for the future.[17]

Web-Warriors[]

Sometime within the eight months following the Incursions, Mayday joined Spider-Gwen, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-UK, Spider-Man India, Spider-Ham, and Anya Corazon in protecting Earths without Spider-Men. After a romp on Earth-3015, Mayday confided to Gwen that she was still too concerned in leaving behind her mom and brother and told them to call her if they needed her. However, when an army of Electros attacked a nearby building in an attempt to steal silver, the two Spider-Women jumped into action, only for Gwen to get captured when Mayday attempted to rally the other Spiders.[18] She then returned to Loomworld and informed Spider-Man (Paviitr Prabhakar), Spider-Ham (Peter Porker), and Karn of the situation regarding Gwen's kidnapping. She was later seen alongside the other members of the Warriors of the Great Web in order to investigate the scene of Gwen's kidnapping.[19]

Spider-Geddon[]

She was one among the Web-Warriors sending Spider-Bots to the universe where the Inheritors were trapped in order to keep them from leaving.[20] When Superior Octopus started using the technology of the Inheritors to create more clone bodies, the Web-Warriors went to Earth-616 and stop the Inheritors from using Otto's bodies as a way to escape, however the Inheritors succeeded in escaping.[21] After that, May joined with Arana, Spiderling, and her parents and travel to Earth-18119 in order to find a way to stop the Inheritors. After fighting the Vulture Gang, Brix, and Bora, and curing a six-armed Normie Osborn, she discovered that Annie, now known as the totem Patternmaker, is effectively her younger sister from this universe.[22] They reunited with the rest of the Spider-Army and defeated the Inheritors and turned them into babies. When returning to their native realities, Annie explained to May the true nature of the Spider-Totems, just as the Other was resurrecting May's father.[23]

Spider-Verse Unlimited[]

At some point, May went back to calling herself Spider-Girl and attending Midtown High. During a Friday afternoon, she and Davida discussed their plans for a girls' night out, While talking, they were approached by Jason, who offered to let them visit his uncle's new fun center. Davida turned him down due to already having plans, and May revealed that she'd be busy watching Benjy while her parents were out on a date.

As she returned home, she received an alert from her Spider-Sense and donned her costume to help the Ladyhawk twins stop Mr. Abnormal and Killerwatt from robbing a bank. While the villains were carted off by the police, the Ladyhawks offered to let May join them for a concert, but she turned them down.

With the villains defeated, May returned to her home and wished her parents luck as they went on their date. Now alone with herself and Benjy, she turned on the TV while asking him what he wanted to do tonight. Benjy, upon seeing an advertisement for CADE, asked May to take him there.[1]

Upon entering CADE, May and Benjy met up with Jason, who provided them with free cards for the games. As they tried to find some games to play, Benjy and May briefly used their spider powers to prevent other attendees from getting sick on the bumper cars or getting hit by stray skee-balls. During this, they were unaware they were being watched by CADE's founder.[24]

As she took Benjy to a slot machine, Randy rigged the machine to ensure they'd hit the jackpot, winning them one million tickets and access to a VIP backstage area. The siblings enjoyed eating pizza and watching the animatronic band performance, only to soon find themselves boxed in by several giant arcade machines. Randy then revealed himself and explained how he had turned to villainy after a group of heroes had accidentally destroyed his favorite arcade as a kid. May responded by telling him that was the most ridiculous villain origin story she ever heard.

Brushing off her critiques, Randy revealed that he had trapped them in a series of killer games, including Smack-a-Mole [24] and Down the Clown. [25] As she and Benjy dodged the lasers, May noticed the reflective paneling behind the clowns and used her web-shooters to tear off one of the panels, reflecting the lasers back at the clowns and destroying them. She then used the clown's head to burn through the walls and reach R. Cade's hideout, but he was already gone. R. Cade revealed over intercom that they had given him enough information on how to improve his VIP experience and allowed them to leave.

As they exited CADE, they were confronted by Jason, who explained that the arcade would have to be shut down indefinitely because of faulty wiring. Now out of a job, Jason suggested he and May could hang out sometime, with May awkwardly declining.

Later that night, Peter and Mary Jane returned to their home to find May and a sleeping Benjy on the couch. When asked what they did, May joked that they bonded over some killer games. May was then contacted by the Ladyhawks, who asked if they should try and locate Cade before he strikes again. May responded that they should keep an eye out since she had a feeling this was only the beginning.[26]

Attributes

Power Grid[39]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Some Training:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/None:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Enhanced:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Superhuman:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (800 lbs-25 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Normal

Powers

Spider Physiology: Spider-Girl possesses the proportionate powers of a spider she inherited from her father, granting her superhuman strength, speed, toughened flesh, and numerous arachnid-like abilities. Unlike her father, she has less superhuman strength than him, but she also possesses more agility than him and an advanced Spider-Sense. Her powers include:

  • Wallcrawling: Like her father, May possesses the ability to manipulate the inter-atomic binding forces of matter, allowing her to form temporary molecular bonds between her body and another object, which in turn enables her to cling to solid surfaces and scale walls simply by placing her hands on them. Her electrostatic ability to stick to surfaces is considerably more powerful than Peter's, however, wall crawling does not come as naturally to May as to her father, and must always concentrate to stick to surfaces. She also has the ability to transmit this ability through objects for short distances. For example, Spider-Girl could stick to the floor, and by transmitting her electrostatic "stickiness" through the floor, cause all people and objects in contact with the floor (within a reasonable distance) to become stuck in place. Lastly, she can reverse this ability and instead repel off of a surface. This is generally used to add power to her jumps, but has also been used to repel people and objects away from her at great speeds. This ability is assumed unique to her, though she suggested to Ben Parker that the others simply haven't thought or tried to use their powers in this manner.[15]
  • Superhuman Strength: Spider-Girl possesses superhuman strength enabling her to press and lift five tons, though she possesses only half of her father's strength.
  • Superhuman Speed: Spider-Girl is capable of running and moving at speeds that are far beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete.
  • Superhuman Stamina: Spider-Girl's advanced musculature produces less fatigue toxins during physical activity than an ordinary human. This allows her to exert herself physically for much longer periods of time before fatigue begins to impair her.
  • Superhuman Durability: Spider-Girl's body is physically tougher and more resistant to some types of injury than the body of a normal human. Her body is more resistant to impact forces than anything else. She can withstand great impacts, such as falling from a height of several stories or being struck by an opponent with super strength, that would severely injure or kill a normal human with little to no discomfort.
  • Superhuman Agility: Spider-Girl's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are all enhanced to levels that are far beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. Her agility is more advanced than Spider-Man's.
  • Superhuman Equilibrium: Spider-Girl possesses the ability to achieve a state of perfect equilibrium in any position imaginable. She seems able to adjust her position by instinct, which enables her to balance herself on virtually any object, no matter how small or narrow.
  • Superhuman Reflexes: Spider-Girl's reflexes are similarly enhanced and are possibly about 40 times greater than those of an ordinary human. In combination with her spider-sense, the speed of her reflexes allows her to dodge almost any attack even gun fire if far enough.
  • Spider-Sense: Spider-Girl possesses an extrasensory "danger" or "spider" sense which warns her of potential immediate danger, and links with her superhuman kinesthetics, enabling her to evade most any injuries, unless she cognitively overrides her automatic reflexes. May's spider-sense seems to be more developed than her fathers: Whereas Spider-Man could only get a feeling that a particular spot was dangerous to him (or similarly to the preservation of his secret identity), Spider-Girl is able to sense the exact direction from which the danger comes. In addition, whereas Spider-Man's spider-sense simply registered a general sense of danger (with the strength of the response being in proportion to the amount of danger he was in), Spider-Girl can recognize sources of danger. This allows her to determine whether the danger is posed by a familiar source (such as an attack by a familiar foe) or is a new threat. This applies even if she has incomplete knowledge of the source of danger. For example, if May is being spied on by an unknown observer on several different occasions, she is able to tell if each incident involves the same, or a different observer as a previous incident.
  • Regeneration: Somewhat like her father, she has the ability to regenerate from physical injuries;[citation needed] however, it doesn't necessarily count as a healing factor. Also, it is slightly inferior to her father's.[citation needed]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Transportation

Web-swinging and conventional automobiles.[27]

Notes

  • 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".[28] 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 asked which Uncle Ben the newborn was named after: her Uncle Ben, or Peter's Uncle Ben. Peter asked if it really matters, and May simply responded, "I guess not."[29]

Mutant Status[]

  • It was believed by fans that May Parker was a mutant.[30][31]
    • Before her birth, a Sentinel robot registered her as "beyond the range of embryonic normalcy",[32] but not specifically as a mutant.
    • It was confirmed by Tom Brevoort that she was not a mutant, as she wasn't technically "born with her powers" but "inherited [them] from her father" and was "bred true".[33]

Trivia

  • May's very first costume was in fact the same one worn by spider-clone Ben Reilly while he was acting as Spider-Man. The costume was disposed of following her first outing as Spider-Girl, but May created another one using the same design not long afterwards. At one point she also donned a black and white costume similar to Venom's (which she purchased from the Spider Shoppe) when her costume was damaged in a fight.[34]
  • The aforementioned "Spider Shoppe" is a boutique which sells Spider-Girl and Spider-Man themed apparel and accessories. Initially May was upset to learn someone was capitalizing off her name (especially in light of the fact that nothing in the store came in her size). This was made even worse by the fact all of her friends believed that by shopping there they were helping their heroine Spider-Girl, assuming that she had to have some connection to the store for it to use her likeness. It was later revealed that May's mom Mary Jane owned the Spider Shoppe (MJ said that Peter was upset that he could never collect on the various comics and products that used his image, so she figured she would take control of Spider-Girl's appearance early on in her career). The profits go towards May's college fund.[35]
  • During Spider-Verse, May confessed to Uncle Ben that she hoped that an alternate version of her and her brother out in the multiverse existed who would wake up to loving and thriving parents. This was intended as an attempt by the original Spider-Girl creative team to assure readers of the character that there exists the possibility of the Parker family they followed for Spider-Girl's twelve years in publication untouched by the events that have befallen this version of Mayday.[36]
  • May said she utilized a Facebook page for her Spider-Girl identity. She planned to update it to Spider-Woman.[37]
  • Mayday was voiced by Laura Bailey in Spider-Man Unlimited.

See Also

Links and References

References

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