Spider-Girl - Volume 7: Betrayed by Tom DeFalco

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Spider-girl #34-38 and for some reason #51.

Like other Spider-girl books, this one features the adventures of Marvel's longest running female superhero in the MC2 universe.

The books asks many questions and even answers a few. Some of the questions this book raises include: 1) Has Normie Osborne (i.e. the third generation Green Goblin) really reformed? 2) Why is Mary Jane Parker having a series of spells? 3) Who will prevail in the battle between the forces of Wilson Fiske and a new crime lord in town? Why exactly is Issue 51 (drawn in a completely different style) in the same book as Issue 34-38? Who is the new man who has adopted the old Spider-man's identity?

As usual, the Spider-girl book includes a healthy mix of action, suspense, and drama. Most of it works okay, but I think in a couple places, Betrayed illustrates the pitfall of leaving a character in High School forever. It's worth noting that in the Amazing Spider-man, Spidey with High School in Issue 28. You do run out of typical teenage problems to portray. In this book we have May''s new boots getting ruined and then we have Spider-girl worrying about why she doesn't have acclaimed adventures like the Fantastic Five. What's ironic about this is that in real life, her adventures ran for 135 issues, while FF had five forgettable issues. However, DeFalco does come up with a good complication in May's teenage existence at the end.




Spider-Girl - Volume 8: Duty Calls by Tom DeFalco

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Spider-girl Issues 39-44 and stays true to form.

Many of the same problems that Spider-girl (May "Mayday" Parker) faced in Spider-Girl - Volume 7: Betrayed continue in this series of stories and head towards something of a resolution. The Gang War between Kingpin and Canis continues as does the adventures of the new fake Spider-man and once again Peter Parker puts on the webs again and comes out of retirement. In the MC2 World, Spider-man has more comebacks than Evander Holyfield.

The book is marked by excitement, action, and fun characters, as well as a good lesson or two along the way. This book took Spider-girl to new places and new struggles for her as she deals with a death and a new threat that comes as a result of it, leading her to form her own superhero team.

One of the artistic highlights of the book had to be Issue 41 which featured only pictures and no words in telling the aftermath of the death. It was a beautiful piece of art. Issue 44 features a bit of retelling of the Spider-man legend as Peter makes a momentous decision.

The downside of the book is that a lot of time in the book is spent on the confusing yet also uninteresting love triangles going on at May's high school. And if you want to be picky on the art, May's inexplicable glasses in Issue 42 really did not look good.

Minor points to consider in light of this great series.





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