Monday, September 20, 2010

Amazing Spider-Girl v1 TPB

Tom DeFalco has created a wonderful little corner in the Marvel U for Mayday Parker. I may be really late getting to it, but I'm enjoying it.
Much like the alternate future in Last Days of Animal Man, the Marvel U has moved on in this series. Mayday Parker is the teenaged daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane, and the whole Marvel U sort of feels like it started aging closer to real time in the late 90s. Mayday is a good-hearted gal trying to resist the urge to act responsibly as Spider-Girl. Naturally, she ends up donning the webs and fighting villains, but I like that she's trying to do the right thing by her parents.

The villains feel wonderfully retro. There are old classics like Black Tarantula and Hobgoblin, but even the new guys like Bitter Frost and Reverb have "classic" looks. These feel like stories from the old Peter Parker series from the 70s, only starring a girl instead of a guy.

The supporting cast gets a LOT of pages, probably a few too many, but I can appreciate the effort to make Mayday's world a bit more than just heroes and villains. I bet my daughters will probably like that effort when I pass this trade onto them.

Ron Frenz's art is classic and fun. I love the character designs and the complete backgrounds. The art is solid from cover to cover.

Good

2 comments:

Martin Gray said...

Nice review, I have a few of the digest. Good retro fun indeed.

Timbotron said...

Thanks! I read the digest for awhile, and I actually think this relaunch is better. The series seems more focused and sure of itself.