MAYDAY PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-GIRL Appreciation

[ngroove]

Sort of. Silk was created because Slott was afraid that anyone could reveal something about Spider-Man in Original Sin that he wouldn't like, so he made up Silk as a preemptive countermeasure against anyone else. So she wasn't a replacement for Anya. She was a placeholder to deny anyone else the chance to tell a story.

Too late.

Spider-Man / Peter Parker's integrity, was long already stressed, that moment in November 2007. Not just "that", but also using that as an excuse for portraying Spider-Man / Peter Parker as a "swinger" in more ways than one, on-panel making out (including Silver Sable, Silk), even having sex (Black Cat, Michelle Gonzales, Carlie Cooper, Mary Jane, changed from "marriage" to "living in sin"), with anyone he sees, since - comics, and movies (Amazing Spider-Man - had Gwendolyn Stacy not vocally restrained him - we all knew he would do it).

May be a not-surprisingly "norm" for Logan, but Spider-Man? I used to view Peter Parker as a young man with high convictions, including the values and sacredness of love, romance, and marriage.

[Phantom Roxas]

Agreed. I'm not sure how many other ways I could say it, but you're right to describe him as a "swinger", because that is what people truly mean when they claim to want a "single" Spider-Man. They want Peter to sleep around, giving them the satisfaction of seeing Peter in sexual situations, without having to deal with silly commitments. The argument of how Peter's marriage "limits" other love interests, and that Mary Jane can be replaced because Peter can just have other love interests and exes shows how little the supporters of a "single" Peter actually care about women. When they say "love interest", they mean "Someone Peter can kiss if not sleep with", while "ex" just means "Someone Peter used to kiss if not sleep with, but it's possible that could happen again". Except with Mary Jane, they don't want it to be possible for it to happen again. I completely agree that Peter would value love, romance, and marriage. It's fine if people are interested in casual sex, but that's not the kind of person Peter is. People just want the marriage gone so Peter can stay in a perpetual state of juggling his harem.

[Mister Mets]

Sort of. Silk was created because Slott was afraid that anyone could reveal something about Spider-Man in Original Sin that he wouldn't like, so he made up Silk as a preemptive countermeasure against anyone else. So she wasn't a replacement for Anya. She was a placeholder to deny anyone else the chance to tell a story.



That's true for Spider-Gwen. However, Silk's first appearances were in issues of Amazing Spider-Man, a book that will already sell well. The book selling out was not simply due to Silk, so she did not have the same progression as Gwen.



Mayday's book overcame its sales struggle. Her book was only cancelled for good once Anya was promoted as a part of Big Time, and she was Araña until then. Mayday's book was cancelled so the Spider-Girl mantle could be given to Anya. Even if Anya wasn't created as a replacement for Anya, she absolutely became one.

Spider-Girl didn't overcome its sales struggle.

It was out of the top 100 for the last few years.

In May 2007, it was the 118th best-selling comic with just under 20,000 copies.
http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomi...7/2007-07.html

In December 2007, it was the 126th best-selling comic with just over 17,000 copies.
http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomi...7/2007-12.html

In November 2008, sales were estimated at 14,386 copies.
http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomi...8/2008-11.html

The final issue (Spider-Girl End) sold just under an estimated 16,000 copies in 115th place.
http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomi...0/2010-08.html

This was a title that was in cancellation territory for its last few years.

[Phantom Roxas]

Alright, "overcame" was the wrong word. I was thinking of how Lowe said it was being safe from cancellation territory in 2005.

But isn't it strange that Mayday was out of the Top 100 for years before it was finally cancelled? If her book was in cancellation territory for so long, why keep her around?

[Cmbmool]

I found it amazing that anyone thought that would work in Anya's favor. Along with the cancellation of Mayday's series, there was suppose to be a sequel to The Loners mini-series featuring Mattie making a return since she was a main character in that. Way to give a middle finger to the people who enjoyed that series. To add insult to injury lets never mention her again not even by her family, so people won't be reminded too much that there was another Spider-Girl that had a brother-sister relationship with Peter and who was mentored by Jessica Drew that wasn't Anya. Julia is often called the best Spider-Woman, lets erase her personality and implant Madame Webb's annoying one so Anya can get her iconic costume. Putting a woman in the refrigerator and the character assassination of another woman sure made Anya stand out in a bad way. Her first series faded within a year, so it shouldn't have been surprising that the second sold far worse.

Another problem is that Anya never appeared in the main Spider-books before Grim Hunt. I remember a long-time Spidey reader saying he didn't who Anya was when she showed up in that story. They didn't give Spider-fans a reason to be invested in her.

And you can clearly tell that it was all Quesada's doing. Grim Hunt was his idea and he was the one that axed Mayday. Once he left as EIC and Spider-Girl was cancelled Anya had very little appearances before Spiderverse.

Well when you put it like that....there has to be a connection or two.

I was hoping Disney could take an interest in Mayday once they brought Marvel, but nope gender-swapping in Marvel animation.

Now only of Disney could make a proper first animated appearance for Mayday instead of Sony, then I'll be happy. Because nothing says family and happy endings like Disney.

[Mister Mets]

Alright, "overcame" was the wrong word. I was thinking of how Lowe said it was being safe from cancellation territory in 2005.

But isn't it strange that Mayday was out of the Top 100 for years before it was finally cancelled? If her book was in cancellation territory for so long, why keep her around?

The numbers kept going down, so it could be that it was profitable at 17,000 copies but not at 15,000.

It could also be that they were hoping for some kind of reversal, and realized after a few years that it just wasn't going to happen.

It's interesting how this leaves a company in a position where they're damned if they do; damned if they don't.

They cancel a book when it's on the bubble, and fabs attack claiming they didn't give it a fair shot.

They cancel a book after several years of it being on the bubble, and fans attack claiming that the book's continued publication meant that it was clearly successful for Marvel, so the cancellation is suspicious.

[Phantom Roxas]

Man of Sin referred to how Grim Hunt killed of Mattie Franklin and Madame Web, removed Julia Carpenter from her role as Arachne so she could become the new Madame Web, and Julia outright gave her outfit to Anya, who was going to have a new series called "Spider-Girl", and I'm sure you would agree that Mayday's book would have caused confusion over the similar titles of the books. Or at least, Marvel would have thought as much, and it's only taken them until Miles' current book to realize that a simple name (Spider-Girl, Spider-Man) can feature a different character than the protagonist of the "Amazing" books. But nope! Anya succeeded Julia who succeeded Cassandra, while Mattie was just removed from the equation because she might have distracted from Anya, and a month after Grim Hunt wraps, Spider-Girl: The End was published.

Oh yeah, and One Moment In Time was published immediately after Grim Hunt, so The End was published in the middle of that. Three different women were removed from their roles while Anya was given her Spider-Girl outfit, putting her in place for her new book, while Mayday was given a sendoff concurrently with the publication of a storyline that reiterated that the marriage of her parents was gone. That is way too many things going on at once to just be a coincidence. Grim Hunt, One Moment In Time, Spider-Girl: The End, and Anya's Spider-Girl Big Time series were a concentrated effort to go full-on scorched earth against any trace of the marriage. Even if Mayday's book was within cancellation territory, what Marvel did in 2010 was overkill.

[Celgress]

Poor Mayday though, spoilers:

lost in the multiverse with Spider-UK

end of spoilers as of Web-Warriors #5. Convenient to dispose of the one solid reminder that once long ago the Pete-MJ Spider-marriage WORKED. To quote Kid!Loki, "the House ALWAYS wins".

What a sad and aggravating end to a once promising character.

[PyroTwilight]

Yeah I knew the stuff in this thread but it is painful to look over. Mayday's certainly gotten the shaft ever since Spider-verse brought her "back". It would've been better to leave her universe alone than pull it in just to kinda pull it apart to make her more of a Spider-man clone.

And I wasn't aware she was in Web-Warriors until just a little while ago as she wasn't on any cover, which sounds like a common issue thus far.

In many ways what made Mayday unique was she was a "modern" teenage girl dealing with issues like Peter did in the beginning of his life. Overbearing family, being pulled into super powered skirmishes etc...

Her book in many ways was a callback to the early Spider-man stories.

[MikaelNovasun]

I read somewhere that it wasn't the MC2 version of MayDay that Slott used in Spider-Verse but 982-verse MayDay. So The original Mayday and her family is still out there untouched since her own comics end. I could be wrong and it may not be official. I am trying to find where I read it.

[Phantom Roxas]

982 is MC2. I think I know what you're referring to, and the general idea is that Mayday's eye color was never right during Spider-Verse, and Mayday's dialogue in Spider-Verse Team-Up #3 was basically DeFalco and Frenz implying that they reject the idea of her character being involved in that nonsense, because she longs for a universe where she can be happy, just as her fans wish. So it's not official, but you can choose to believe that Spider-Verse really had nothing to do with the "true" Mayday.

[MikaelNovasun]

982 is MC2. I think I know what you're referring to, and the general idea is that Mayday's eye color was never right during Spider-Verse, and Mayday's dialogue in Spider-Verse Team-Up #3 was basically DeFalco and Frenz implying that they reject the idea of her character being involved in that nonsense, because she longs for a universe where she can be happy, just as her fans wish. So it's not official, but you can choose to believe that Spider-Verse really had nothing to do with the "true" Mayday.

Yea that sounds like what I read. I think DeFalco went further and hinted at something like the MC2 and 982 became similar yet separate universes during the Spider-Verse when asked by a fan about the event.

[Phantom Roxas]

Oh, I get it now. So MC2 isn't 982 anymore? I could work with that. It definitely subverts how 982 was used to refer to it during Spider-Verse.

[Huntsman Spider]

Oh, I get it now. So MC2 isn't 982 anymore? I could work with that. It definitely subverts how 982 was used to refer to it during Spider-Verse.

Technically, MC2 was the comics line Spider-Girl started and 982 was the designation of the universe the comics in the MC2 line took place in.

[Phantom Roxas]

Exactly. I'm just wondering if MC2 can still be considered what it was with Spider-Verse having no bearing on it, while the 982 designation "shifted" to some alternate MC2.