Spider-Girl’s history is a tumultuous one, to say the least. May Parker, alternate-universe daughter of Peter Parker and his wife Mary Jane Watson-Parker had a new life started in the same title that brought such stories as “What if the Fantastic Four all had the same power?” and “What if Wolverine was Lord of the Vampires?” Yet, she managed to find life beyond the one-shot, and grew a universe all her own. Since her ongoing series launched in 1998, the character has faced cancellation multiple times, always to the outcry of a loyal fanbase. Now, after the latest end of series for her earlier this year, Mayday will be coming backonce again. This time, she’ll be in a backup feature in the new Web of Spider-Man, a series that plans to examine Spider-Man’s life and times from different perspectives.
Tom DeFalco, who has written Spider-Girl’s adventures since the start, stopped by First Comics News to talk about Spider-Girl‘s role in the recently announced Web of Spider-Man series and tells us what Spider-Girl is all about.
First Comics News: Did you have any idea Spider-Girl would be able to survive 2 cancellations and still keep going?
Tom DeFALCO: Two cancellations?!? We’ve been canceled a lot more than that. We were originally told that the book would only run 12 issues. Then we were told to do six more and, later, six more. The six mores have been going on for almost 13 years now.
1st: What is it about this character that keeps her going?
Tom: I like to think that she’s a fun, exciting and inspiring character who appears in one of the last traditional, Marvel-style, super-hero comic thatís jammed to overflowing with action and angst.
1st: When you first created this character did you have any idea you would still be writing her adventures 13 years later?
Tom: Absolutely not! When Ron Frenz and I put the first story together for What If #105, we thought there was an outside chance that we might do a sequel to it, but it never occurred to us that Marvel would want to launch a series based on Spider-Girl. Are you kidding? Who in their right mind would ever think a series based on a young super-powered woman that sets in an alternate universe would survive six months?
1st: As a co-feature, how many pages does the Spider-Girl story get in each issue of Web of Spider-Man?
Tom: The Spectacular Spider-Girl will be available in 16 page installments in every issue ofWeb of Spider-Man. It can also be found on Marvel Digital at Marvel.com.
1st: How many issues will the average story run?
Tom: Ron and I actually try to include a complete done-in-one in every installment.which is usually part of a larger storyline. The length of the larger storylines will vary as the mood strikes us.
1st: Is this going to be a fresh start for the character, or will things pick up right from the last story?
Tom: A little of both! Weíre going to assume that some people have never seen Spider-Girlbefore, but weíre going to continue her current adventure.
1st: Since this is Web of Spider-Man #1 some readers will be seeing Spider-Girl for the first time. What do they need to know about May Parker?
Tom: It would be helpful if the readers knew that once upon a time there was a super-hero called Spider-Man but even that isnít completely necessary to enjoying our work.† Ron and I tend to give a reader everything he/she needs to enjoy that particular story.
1st: Is this a second title for Spider-Girl or is this instead of Spider-Man Family?
Tom: Web of Spider-Man replaces Spider-Man Family.
1st: Will we be seeing all the characters from the MC2 Universe.
Tom: Some, but not all. Weíve created a few hundred over the years and we want to keep the focus on Spider-Girl.
1st: For anyone who never picked up a Spider-Girl comic. What’s so cool about her that everyone needs to add Web of Spider-Man to their pull list today?
Tom: Spider-Girl has the greatest, most dedicated fan base in the history of comics and we think everyone deserves a chance to share the love–and the Hoo-HA excitement that Ron Frenz, Sal Buscema and I bring to each and every episode!
Web of Spider-Man #1 is scheduled for release in October from Marvel Comics
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