Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Spider-Girl News

Inklings that perhaps Spider-Girl will continue to exist in some form beyond issue #100, via Newsarama.


#100 - NOT THE END? SPIDER-GIRL CONTINUES? by Matt Brady

Though Marvel has announced – multiple times – that Spider-Girl will end with July’s issue #100, this weekend at the Pittsburgh Comic-Con, writer Tom Defalco and artist Ron Frenz strongly hinted that, as with many things at Marvel, dead may not mean dead.

According to the series’ creators, there is a possibility of a relaunch of a Spider-Girl series, or a series starring Spider-Girl in the future. As the two revealed at a Spider-Girl panel, Defalco has begun preliminary discussions with Marvel about a relaunched title – which would feature a new logo and a more prominent role for Spider-Girl’s father (Peter Parker) in the series. Discussions are, Defalco stressed, preliminary at this point, with a new series not a done deal.

The series, which is Marvel’s longest-running comic in its history with a female protagonist, has been plagued since its earliest days with rumors and threats of cancellation. Set in a possible future of the Marvel Universe, the series stars May “Mayday” Parker, taking up her father’s mantle, as one of a new generation of Marvel heroes. Initially launched as part of a group of “MC2” titles that were set in the future world, Spider-Girl outlasted all of her contemporaries, running from 1998 to this year’s #100.

While the series made sense at its start (Marvel was expanding and looking for new territory to mine and attract readers), the series became somewhat marginalized over time as the other MC2 series fell by the wayside, and Marvel opted to focus on strengthening its “core” universe, and streamline its continuity.

Throughout the series run, it has been saved from cancellation time and time again by the efforts of its fans, who are, while not great in number, perhaps the most dedicated and loyal in mainstream comics. It was partly due to fan support that Marvel chose to collect and reprint Spider-Girl issues in digest form, which have reportedly proven to be very popular.

Asked for comment or confirmation about Defalco’s claims that a new Spider-Girl series is in the offing, a Marvel spokesperson said that nothing has changed - issue #100 is to be the final issue of the series. Asked for further clarification or if there was semantics issues involved, Marvel again reiterated that Spider-Girl #100 will be the final issue of the series.

Comments:
Anything that keeps Spider-girl going sounds good to me, though it seems stupid to restart the series. If you want more Peter Parker (and I still don't think he should play much more of a role than moral support/compass, and possibly help Phil Urich train her, assuming Phil survives), then just gradually increase his presence in the book. Why start over to do that? DeFalco has managed to alter the role played by various characters over time, like Brad or J.J., or Danica, with their importance waxing and waning through the book.

One more thing.

'Focus on streamlining their continuity'?

By adding the Ultimate Universe, bringing Hudlin to rewrite the Black Panther's origin however he pleases, by having Bendis imply all sorts of stuff happening in the past there's no evidence for, JMS telling us Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn had a love child?!

That's "streamlining" the same way a kick in the nuts is "physical therapy".
 
I suppose there is such a thing as "a fate worse than death" ...
 
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