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THE BEEF: 012506 |
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"Why must Spider-Girl die? Well it's a
long and strange story of parallel universes, regime changes and an incredibly
loyal core group of fans. It's so unique that this week you're getting a BEEF
column out of me on the titles long and strange history. And don't forget to check the
bottom of the page (after you read my reviews) for a link to some SNEAKY PEEKIES
of future titles" |
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 WHY
SPIDER-GIRL ENDS WITH #100
This story has been told many times but
this time seems as if we have seen the last of the adventures of May Parker with
the news this week that Spider-Girl will end with August’s #100. When the
title’s cancellation has been announced before the book has gotten a last minute
reprieve but this time it seems as if nothing is going to change Marvel’s mind.
May Parker first appeared in 1997’s What If? #105. In that issue we got a look
into the Marvel Universe’s future, a sub-universe full of characters, called
MC2. (Editor’s Note: For the record it’s really set in the future of Marvel
Earth 982 and not the future of Marvel Earth 616 which is considered "THE MARVEL
UNIVERSE" reality which everyone is familiar with. Many are confused by this but
if you just remember that Marvel has 99,476 distinct but easy-to-understand
Earth's you'll be just fine. And to think people said DC's Hyper time was every
hack writer's dream come true!) May Parker was the daughter of Peter Parker
and Mary Jane (a development that mirrored the current Spider-Man situation) and
in that issue she discovered she had powers. Of course, she put on a costume and
went out to fight crime but when the issue ended we thought we would never see
her again. But the one-shot sold very well and a monthly Spider-Girl title was
launched in 1998. We were introduced to other heroes existing in the same
universe and a line was created involving her, J2 (starring the son of the
Juggernaut), A-Next (the new Avengers team of Jubilee, Stinger, J2, Speedball,
Thunderstrike, Mainframe) in monthly titles. We also saw limited series with the
Fantastic Five (the adventures of Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, Lyja Storm, Ms.
Fantastic, Ben Grimm the Thing, Franklin Richards, Psi-Lord, Reed Richards, Big
Brain), Wild Thing (Wolverine’s daughter), The Buzz (with Jack Jameson, grandson
of The Daily Bugle’s J. Jonah Jameson) and Darkdevil (a mystic version of
Daredevil). The monthly books all lasted a year but Spider-Girl remained as the
only representative of a line that failed.
From the start the title was written by former Marvel Editor in Chief, Tom
DeFalco, with art by old style creators like Pat Olliffe, Ron Frenz, and the
legendary Sal Buscema. None of the stories tended to last longer than one issue
and the book gained a small following from older readers who got turned on to
Marvel in the 60’s and fathers who were looking for something to read to their
young daughters. The optimum word there is small because the book never moved
more than 20,000 copies a month and that was at Marvel’s cut off for profitable
books.
The first death of the title was during the Bill Jemas years and when the title
was announced to die Marvel received a flood of letters and e-mails from fans
begging Marvel to change its mind. These letters were from older readers who
liked the style of the book and parents who read the title to their young
daughters. Jemas relented and the book continued on but Marvel always let the
fans know that the book had to pull its own weight or it would happen again.
The title teetered and wobbled on with word starting to spread that the numbers
still weren’t enough to save the book so one solution was for Marvel to raise
the price and use the extra cash to keep the book alive. Fans will remember that
this was when Peter David was doing the cult fave Captain Marvel and got the
Internet all prickly when he objected to the increase of the price of his title
as well. The price increase helped a little but not much.
Digest reprints of the title were a hit in mainstream book stores and that kept
the book going for a while but the numbers didn't help as much as they could
have. In fact, the Spider-Girl trades were the first to show Marvel that a low
selling title can maintain itself on the mainstream market even though it sells
little in the direct market. That trend was the main reason that Marvel
relaunched Sentinel because they knew there was money in the character. From
time to time there were news items that the book was guaranteed to last until a
certain issue but this time around the hand looks pretty bleak for the title.
Fans at the Spider-Girl Message Board have taken up the cause to save the series
again but the fat lady has sung and moved on to another opera.
The title did strike a chord in some fans but never enough to make the book
appealing to the X-Men, Avengers or Teen Titans crowd. DeFalco told well crafted
stories and the artwork was always pleasant but honestly, the team on the book
never had much of a following in the first place. What we read on a monthly
basis were nice, wholesome tales that were a change of pace from books like
Punisher and Daredevil but more people want to read books with an edgier feel so
as you were standing in front of the rack looking at this week’s new titles you
may have glanced thru an issue but when it came time for you to pay for your
stuff the book generally stayed on the rack.
One thing that could have saved the book was an animated series. DC is able to
sell Teen Titans Go, Superman Adventures and The Batman because parents will
bring their kids into a comic shop and look for a book like that. Marvel does
have an animation unit and it would seem that a weekly Spider-Girl series should
have been on the minds of some of the folks who work there but I never read any
plans for such a series even though it would have created an interest in fans
who would as you assume wander into a shop looking for the monthly book.
Therefore, an opportunity was lost.
Fans also like connections and since the Universe that May Parker lived in
existed only in the pages of her title there was a natural disconnect that
blocked newer fans from taking interest in the title. It wasn’t as if you could
spike sales with a Wolverine appearance because there was no way to graft a
character like him into the safe little corner of the Marvel Universe. One of
the things that was going on in House of M was other universes were affected by
what the Scarlet Witch was doing but do you remember when her changes came to
the world of May Parker? That’s right, they didn’t. So with no connection to the
regular Marvel Universe, or even the Ultimate one you ended up with Marvel’s
version of the Legion of Super-Heroes, a self contained world that lived on
existing fans of the book only. It was a small audience and so the book is
finally gone. |
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"See, I told you I'd be
down here. We've got a bunch of SNEAKY PEEKIES of future
MARVEL, DC and IMAGE titles right
HERE" |
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Article ©
2006 Alternate Reality, Inc. |
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OUR GUTLESS WONDER
DISCLAIMER: |
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All
books/images pictured on this page are the copyrighted
property of their respective owners.
The views expressed are solely those of the individual
writers and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Alternate Reality,
Inc. |
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