The Daily Comic Book Coffee, number 22: Amazing Spider-Girl #15, penciled by Ron Frenz, inked by Sal Buscema, written by Tom DeFalco & Ron Frenz, lettered by Dave Sharpe, and colored by Bruno Hang, published by Marvel Comics, cover-dated February 2008.
Her name is May “Mayday” Parker, and she is the daughter of Spider-Man.
Yes, it’s a “May Day” post, which would have been absolutely perfect for yesterday. Oops. As the man used to say, “Missed it by THAT much!”
AHEM! Spider-Girl is the daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, from a reality where their newborn baby was rescued from the clutches of the diabolical Norman Osborn. Now a teenager, Mayday has inherited both her father’s powers and sense of responsibility. Assuming the identity of Spider-Girl, Mayday attempts to fight crime and save innocent lives while juggling high school classes, an active social life, and a pair of parents who are understandably very concerned that their daughter is following in her father’s web-swinging footsteps.
Spider-Girl is the little comic book that could. Originally making her debut in a one-off story by DeFalco & Frenz in What If #105 (Feb 1998), Spider-Girl graduated to her own ongoing series just a few months later. DeFalco, first paired with penciler Pat Olliffe, and later reunited with Frenz, did a great job developing Mayday and her supporting cast. Spider-Girl gained a relative small but very enthusiastic fanbase and ran for 100 issues, followed by Amazing Spider-Girl, which lasted another 30 issues. Mayday then migrated to several issues of Spider-Man Family and Web of Spider-Man, and then a Spectacular Spider-Girl miniseries, with DeFalco & Frenz bringing her story to a close with the Spider-Girl: The End special in October 2010. Of course, that was still not the curtain for Mayday, who has continued to pop up here and there. You can’t keep a good Spider-Girl down!
DeFalco & Oliffe introduced Café Indigo, a coffee shop in Forest Hills, Queens where Mayday and her friends often hung out (It was named after Olliffe’s wife’s interior design business at the time). It certainly evoked memories of the Spider-Man stories by Lee & Romita where Peter, MJ and their circle frequented The Coffee Bean.
In Amazing Spider-Girl #15 the gang gathers at Café Indigo to welcome back their pal Moose, who had to move away for several months due to his father’s illness. Ron Frenz does a great job with this sequence, giving it moments of both characterization and comedy. I love the facial expressions. Frenz is such a strong storyteller, as this page demonstrates.
Inking is provided by the legendary Sal Buscema, who has been working with Frenz regularly since 2003. They make a great art team.
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