Spider-Girl, Vol. 1: Legacy

Spider-Girl (1998) (Collected Editions)

by Tom DeFalco, Pat Olliffe (Illustrator), Ron Frenz (Illustrator)

Follows the adventures of May "Mayday" Parker, Spider-Man's daughter, who inherits her father's special abilities and battles numerous villains, including Mr. Nobody, Kaine, and the Green Goblin.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes, Spider Man, Young Adult

144 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2004

About the author

Tom DeFalco is an American comics writer and editor, well-known for his association with Marvel Comics and Spider-Man.

Reviews

[Graham Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Read in 2005, review from 2024).

I read this one as I was just getting going with Marvel comics in 6th grade. It’s a bit odd they had to section Mayday’s story off into an alternate timeline but all and all I did like her character. The villains are a bit all over the place (some are just retreads of classic Spider-Man foes) and there is that “90s comic” vibe I never cared much for. But Mayday herself I like and I love the family dynamic between her and her parents. Also of all the stories in this volume, her introductory one is a great introduction and I love her (and MJ) stepping up to save the retired and injured Peter from the ghosts of his past.

If the Spiderverse movies have gotten you into learning more about Mayday (or at least an older version), highly recommend this one.

[Megan Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the Spider-Man movies as a kid (but never read the comics). When I found out my library had this book I had to try it out. I don't like the second-person narration that's included but I got used to it throughout the book and it became less annoying and more helpful, even though it's used a little too much. But that can be overlooked. If you ever enjoyed Spider-Man as a kid I would recommend picking up this comic. Spider-Girl has a great personality and a will to not back down no matter what her parents say!

[Different Is Beautiful · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love may's outfits

[Bethany Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

So fun rereading one of my all-time favs. Iconic B)

[CheyAnn Robin ·ᴥ· · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series! I'm hoping Disney plus will make a tv series out of it. Pls bring Tobey Maguire and Kristen Dunst back to play MJ & Peter!

[Aundraya · Rating 4 out of 5]

My daughter LOVE superheroes, and although I was a huge fan of the 90 ' s XMEN and Spiderman cartoons, I was never big on comics themselves. I think the images were too distracting for someone like me who just loved the simplicity of the written word and the fun of letting words paint the pictures for you. Of course, now that my daughter has fallen in love with comic books, I decided to give them another try, and I'm glad I did. This particular comic is one I've read aloud with my daughter each night, and we both have enjoyed it. Unlike The Amazing Spidergirl, this May Parker is not some lovesick school girl who is too indecisive to help herself much less anyone else. The main character in these comics is one I wouldn't mind my daughter emulating. She's strong, smart, and funny. She's friends with the cool kids and nerds alike. She has a great sense of responsibility, and she's full of respect. Even when arguing with her parents, she keeps her cool and remains respectful. The only thing I didn't like about the comic was the constant narrating, but I expected it in a Spider-person comic. Plus it made it easier for my 6 year old to follow along. All-in-all this was a good read, and I'll be introducing my daughter to the next installment.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've heard a lot about Spider-Girl being a great character and the story was entertaining, but there are two major problems. One is the second-person narration which is seriously annoying especially since narration is also over-used in this book. It's that whole SHOW don't TELL thing that comics should be able to do really well. And then there's the late 90's fashions including the belly-shirts on every female including Mary Jane--and in this she's an approaching-middle-age mom. Thank god Aunt May didn't make an appearance!

[Artemis Crescent · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Spider-Girl! Spider-Girl!
Don't she make your little head twirl!
My little, brown-eyed Spider-Girl!
She does one heck of a spider twirl!
Hey there! There goes that Spider-Girl!"

- Page 25



Been going back and forth on purchasing this for years. Even when I finally decided to buy it, I wasn't expecting much. Read it, rate it, and move on, only occasionally remembering that it exists.

However, 'Spider-Girl: Legacy', for all its cliches, manages somehow to be a fun little comic regardless.

Set in Marvel Alternate Reality #1021, where Peter Parker and Mary-Jane Watson did live happily ever after (more or less), and have a daughter named May "Mayday" Parker. May is a high school teen who looks like a botox-overloaded Ruby Wax, thanks to the rather ugly artwork, but she's also a straight-A student, a basketball champion, and a quick-quipper and witter like her father. That's not the only thing she's inherited from him, either. She possesses the Spidey-sense and other powers, like super strength and agility, conveniently awakened once in high school (a lightning rod for superpower geneses and hero origin stories).

One night, to save her friends and parents from a Green Goblin descendant (there's a lot of them, apparently), May changes into the old famous costume and straps on the web cartridges of Spider-Man - whom she had just recently found out was her lawyer father, who quit the superhero life after a battle-to-the-death with one of the Green Goblins, losing his leg in the process. He chose to always be there for his new family after such a tragedy; both sides of his life are filled to the brim with great responsibilities on his shoulders.

Even after the Parker family burns any trace left of Spider-Man's legacy to keep May safely away from further superhero temptation, she fights crime secretly at night, taking up a lost mantel and earning the name Spider-Girl (she puts together a different, makeshift costume design at first). She grew up learning all about great power and great responsibility from her parents, and now that responsibility extends beyond her family and school life. This is through her choice alone, propelled by a sense of justice to protect innocents. And her loved ones.

Will the older and jaded Peter understand again what was once his in his youth, and willingly pass the torch? Will he come to accept his young daughter for who she wants to be, no matter how dangerous some choices are, the responsibility being hers? Well, this is May Parker as the Spider-hero here; this is her story, not his. Hypocritical parents are a given in these Generation X types of stories anyway, and at least Peter Parker is only a slightly better father than Harry Potter.

'Spider-Girl: Legacy' is kind of hackneyed and episodic in nature - hero juggling family and school drama with fighting bad guys who don't make much impact until the final issue - but that nature is a good one. The characters at play make it all seem fresh and exciting, even with some dated, cringe-worthy early-2000s dialogue. The comic is saturated, high-blood-sugar level, with fanservice by way of classic Spider-Man villains and Marvel heroes such as the Fantastic Four (the new generation Fantastic Five, here, where Reed Richards is a floating brain in a machine), and Daredevil (Darkdevil, here. Pretty lame, and, for all the potential he serves as Spider-Girl's nemesis and/or mentor, is ultimately inconsequential). It's a candy-coated style of fun, and given how pedestrian and mostly unappealing the artwork is, that's quite an accomplishment. There's a magic medallion that turns a man into a dragon in an issue, because of course they'd fit that in somewhere.

May Parker, once one gets used to her design that makes her look older than her parents, is a cool heroine to follow and want to see succeed. Despite some banter, witty lines, and awareness of her own limits and of the dangers of being a crime fighter, she's not too much like Peter that she's just a female version of her famous father. Personal, and relatable even if a young reader isn't so smart or a basketball player. She's athletic, and thinks on her feet: always a plus for a superheroine. Heck, she unashamedly crushes on more than one guy (or at least thinks they're cute, scrumptious even) like any teenager would.

Sadly, any challenge Spider-Girl faces in this run won't be the hardest thing that's ever happened to her: getting retconned out of existence years later will. Tragically typical for a superheroine; that this character and her story is destined to become pointless thanks to editorial mandates.

May's school friends are also surprisingly memorable, slowly but surely moving past their early-2000s nerd/jock dichotomy stereotypes. They aren't perfect, like May's hypocritical, occasional valley-girl-spoken best friend Davida, a person of colour, and that works in their favour for interest.

So yeah, 'Spider-Girl: Legacy' is dated and cheesy, but I enjoyed it. It can be touching and thoughtful throughout every issue, amidst the action-packed fun. Mary-Jane gets a few moments of her own to shine, too; a little relief from the stereotypical static, supportive mother/wife role.

I stayed up late to finish all of it, curled up in bed, never wanting to put it down after 1am. Another edition to my superheroine comic book collection.

Final Score: 3.5/5

[Jack Phoenix · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has its flaws, to be sure, but Spider-Girl is fun and pure ‘90s nostalgia, taking the reader back to a time when this was the freshest Spidey book on the shelves.

[Tori · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really need to reread this series. It's been so long since I've read the early issues (back when there were actually 'issues' instead of collections to purchase!) I picked up the first few Spider-girl comics when I was in grade school: I was instantly hooked! I love Mayday for a lot of reasons, some personal, some artistic and some stylistic, too. I love the family vibe throughout its initial run, I love seeing grown-up/older versions of characters I knew from the Spider-man comics, I love how different and similar Mayday is from her father, and how this series managed to recycle elements from the ill-fated clone saga in a way that actually works!

I have nothing but positive things to say about Spider-girl, and the Amazing Spider-girl, and everything right up until "The End." It's one of few comics I followed from start to finish and Mayday remains my favorite female super hero.

As far as some of the complaints here go (and I do respect them, we all have our opinions), I think people need to remember this series began in 1998. It's older and a lot of the design and writing stems from that time. The second-person narrative can be a bit jarring if you aren't used to it, but as an adult now looking back, it stands out to me as a staple of this series. When I was reading this as a kid, that kind of narration felt like it almost gave me a personal look into Mayday's life: that yes, she was spider-girl but in some way, it was like the child-me was Spider-girl, too.

Like I said, this series was a huge, important part of my childhood so I'm probably coming off a little bias, but I do encourage everyone here to give it a chance: it is a little older, a little different, but sometimes we need a little of that in our lives.

I do not and will not, however, accept Mayday's reintroduction in the Spiderverse arc as canon. That series tore down and stomped on everything I loved about Spider-girl's world and character. If it isn't DeFalco behind the pen, then I don't want to hear it! (I hope one day he returns to her and gives us long-time fans the satisfactory continuation we've been waiting for.)

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Marvel's Mightiest Heroes Book 89.
More than a decade after Peter Parker retired from his life as a superhero, his teenage daughter May discovers that she too has spider-powers. Learning her dad's secret history she has to choose whether to try to live a normal teenage life or, despite her father's objections, accept that with great power comes great responsibility.

This is an interesting take on the Spider-Man mythos with the relationship between Peter and May being the emotional core of the story.
It's interesting to see Peter torn between his own beliefs about power and responsibility, and his certain knowledge that being Spider-Man all-but ruined his life on numerous occasions, not least in a final confrontation with Norman Osborn which cost him a leg. May herself is an clever subversion of the classic tropes too, actually being popular and athletic at school, as well as having her moral compass based on the lessons learned from Peter and MJ, rather than a traumatic loss like her father's.
I also really like May's costume, even though I always hated that exact same costume design as worn by Ben Reilly (although that might have more to do with Marvel trying to convince us that Ben was the real Spider-Man instead of Peter in the mid-90s).

There are also some intriguing elements of this possible future world introduced, such as the Fantastic Five led by John Storm, a new version of Venom and the mysterious Darkdevil (implied to be an undead version of Daredevil).

There's basically two parts to this book, with the first part being the 'What if...' story which originated the character. Plot-wise and art-wise it is leagues beyond the rest of the book, even giving May her own incarnation of the Green Goblin to face as her first true test. The rest of the book is a bit sloppier and has some pretty poor artwork in places and the second-person narration rapidly become irritating. There's a reason it's not commonly used like this.

* More reviews here: https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.page *

[Maja · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I was like 13, I read the first issue of this and thought it was the best thing in the world, because I loved Spiderman and this was like Spiderman but...a girl! *gasp* But I never realised that it was an entire series.
Unfortunately, now I'm older and more critical of some 90s concepts, and of bad art in comics. Both don't work in favour of this book, but there's still stuff to like.
Good things:
- May is a cool character, I love that she's called May, I love her design and dialogue
- 2nd Person narration is literally my favourite style and this is maybe the first Marvel comic I've ever seen that uses it: Very cool
- May's relationship to her parents and especially her father is well-written and emotionally compelling
Bad things:
- the art is mediocre to bad, I just really don't enjoy looking at it
- the artist also has no clue how to draw realistic female characters, which is extremely unfortunate for a series like this.... May's waist always looks so thin; it really doesn't help that she seems incapable of wearing clothes that cover her belly........... I really lost it when she made her own costume and it also had a bare midriff?!? And she fights like this? I mean it's hardly the worst I've seen from Marvel, but still annoying as hell
- the villains are universally stupid; I think the worst is still the Osborne heir in the first arc, who has a tattoo across his entire back that reads "honor thy father, kill the spider" surrounded by ...blue roses??? I'm sorry, I stopped taking him seriously after that panel; it just looks comically bad and it's meant to be menacing
- May's two love interests are both idiots and don't deserve her, and their love triangle is really, really tiring
- in fact all the high school scenes are idiotic; or maybe I'm just too old and I don't relate to American high school life

[Matisse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Godlike. This is teenage Spider-Man storytelling at its finest.

'Spider-Girl' goes balls-to-the-wall from the very start. We know who she is, we know the world she's inhabiting, we know that this older Peter Parker takes the entire canon in broad strokes, and you never *feel* like you're in an infodump. As a late-90's comic, it's certainly still in the style of the classic Marvel comics--goofy narration and banter and all--but the episodic format is heavily serialized, so you feel like you're binging a good series on Netflix. Furthermore, as a soon-would-be contemporary of the industry-defining Ultimate Spider-Man, there's plenty of angst and character development for 'Spider-Girl' to remain relevant on a modern shelf.

The only thing holding this title back is the art style, because of HOW classic it looks. A few issues after this collection, Spider-Girl is blown to the past and teams up with teen Peter Parker. One would imagine the artists would have to re-interpret the classic characters to mesh with Spider-Girl's art, but her art style is virtually the same, despite a thirty-year gap in publication. Again, the Ultimate comics are only three years younger than 'Spider-Girl', but they look and read much more modern. Hell, I won't lie: I've steered clear of 'Spider-Girl' simply because of the 90's art, and the Guruhiru cover for this collection tricked me into thinking they did the whole series. (Curse you, used book impulse purchasing!)

Still...these five issues blew me away. And looking at the 100+ issues to go, I think I'm gonna be with Mayday Parker for the long haul. VERY glad I gave her a chance!

[Comics Instrucciones de uso · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aunque suene a refrito (que lo es), Spider Girl es un gran personaje, si bien, a mi juicio, no por las razones que sus creadores pretendían: que fuera la versión popular -en otro universo- de Peter Parker, porque apenas May Parker se calza el traje se transforma automáticamente en el Spider man tradicional: bromista, a ratos torpe, y muy graciosa. Le añade encanto el que su padre sea un Peter Parker cojo que no quiere que su hija sufra lo que él, pero lamentablemente en este tomo (que recopila la primera aparición de May Parker), los conflictos son apenas rozados y muchas veces se presentan en un número para ser olvidados por completo en el siguiente. Hay villanos ridiculísimos (un auxiliar de un colegio molesto por lo sucios que son los estudiantes), y es muy claro que el libro está pensado para niños muy pequeños porque cuando se narra algo de modo no líneal lo explican temiendo que el lector se pierda. Los últimos números incluyen a Darkdevil (la versión alternativa de Daredevil), que siempre que se encuentra con Spider Girl le da una paliza a modo de lección, y quizás es de lo mejor de este tomo.

[patrick o levens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good now

Spider-Man was my favorite as a kid. The book played a major part in my childhood. It helped me to learn to read when public school system couldn't. My dad bought me comics and read them with me, it was the best time of my life, and the best memory of my father. Now that I'm a father of a 11 baby girl who has problems with reading O have the homer to get to do the same for/with her. Spider-girl is as well written as Spider-Man was and the art is well done. I'm smitten by the book and grateful for the opportunity it provides.

[Paul Dinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the first comics I really loved was Amazing Spiderman 96. From there, I became a huge spiderman fan. So Peter has a daughter? Why not. It is a great story. Tom DeFalco did a run on Amazing long before he became editor in chief that is still his best work. So he was the right author, the art first by Ron Frenz and then Pat Oliffe does leave something to be desired. What is fascinating is how the parent child relationships in the book carry out. I can't say more than I want to read what is next. To me that is the highest compliment I can pay.

[Benja Calderon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entretenido, el origen de Spider-girl es entretenido
Ya que la historia se repite lo suficiente para que cause nostalgia, pero innova lo necesario para que no se sienta refrito

May tiene carisma, donde Peter tenia compasión. Desenvoltura, donde Peter pacateria, pero ambos son Parkers y logran sortear los desafios

De todas maneras, no me parece necesario, pero esto nunca ha sido sobre necesidad

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

May "Mayday" Parker (aka Spider-Girl) doesn't have her father's over-whelming sense of responsibility, or his skills, or his street smarts. She doesn't even share her mother's cup size. But she was born with super spider genes and she's doing her best to make her parents proud. The learning curve is harsh, but that's what makes this series so much fun.

[Ethan Leopold · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fresh take on the Spider-world that grabs you from the start. The second person POV dialogue parts are a bit weird at first but I got used to it after a while. Left me wanting more. (Good thing the series goes on for a loooong time after this collection ends).

[Max Ostrovsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a book I read with my daughter. That was fun.
Outside of that, the stories just gave me a 'meh' feel.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories were good, but others were a drag. I have book two, so I might as well give it a go… But after that, I don’t really see myself continuing with the series.

[Fizzgig76 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reprints Spider-Girl (1) #0-6 (October 1998-February 1999). May “Mayday” Parker is a popular athlete at Midtown High School. Like other girls her age, May is finding that she’s going through some changes…mostly in the form of gaining superpowers. May’s life is turned upside down when she learns that her father Peter Parker was Spider-Man and she’s gained his powers. Now with the moniker Spider-Girl, May is out to be a hero…and her parents can’t stop her.

Written by Tom DeFalco, Spider-Girl 1: Legacy contains the first six issues of the long-running Marvel series. The first issue is a reprint of What If (2) #105 (February 1998) which introduced the Spider-Girl character and due to a limited print run was reprinted as Spider-Girl #0. Marvel entitled the line M2 and featured other M2 titles like A-Next and J2. The series features art by Ron Frenz on Spider-Girl #0 and Pat Olliffe on Spider-Girl #1-5.

Spider-Girl just seemed like a bad idea to capitalize on the Spider-Man character. Marvel at the time was experimenting with a new Spider-Woman in Mattie Franklin and Spider-Man seemed to be even more places in the late ’90s than Wolverine…despite this, I really enjoyed Spider-Girl.

The series played out much like the original Amazing Spider-Man series in the ’60s. Each issue of the comic was rather independent of each other with some over-arcing storylines. May is likable and the opposite of Peter Parker at the beginning of his own series.

In addition to being a reversal of the original Spider-Man storyline, the comic allows for a lot of fun “what if” storylines in that the characters of the Marvel Universe are all sixteen years older. You see what becomes of the Fantastic Four and the X-Men and Spider-Man’s victims. It is a great way to get to show an alternate reality (as in What If? where the character premiered), but a feature series allowed the world to be explored and played with…which is different than a lot of other Marvel alternate realities.

Spider-Girl was a great series that got more enjoyable with every issue as May’s world was fleshed out. Unfortunately for Spider-Girl, the character just never could get a strong enough core audience to keep the series from being on the bubble for almost its entire run. Despite this, DeFalco and his team put up a good fight, and Spider-Girl had a solid run. Spider-Girl 1: Legacy was followed by Spider-Girl 2: Like Father, Like Daughter.

[Holden Attradies · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seems to be a solid entry into the MC2 universe. I've been picking up little bits of it here and there and not really reading it in order, so seeing the "beginning" of this character was rather nice.

I like May Parker and she makes a great Spider-person and the stories are great, they just have some genre heavy flaws. The first is the narration is very awkward. I guess it's supposed to be written as if you are May and she is narrating her life to you (who is her?). any ways, it's confusing and there is WAY to much of it. Second, visually (and verbally at times) it is VERY obvious that the book was written in the 90's. I guess that can be a plus if you fondly remind that time, but for the rest of us it can make certain parts of the story a chore to get through. although I suppose this is no worse then say, going back to the original marvel stuff from the early 60's. The worse 90's feel though is not the dialog, but rather the visuals. The clothing is all very 90's, the art is very angular (which in my minds seems very 90's), and the villain's look f'n ridiculous when they are new creations.

All of that said, if your okay with the cheese that comes along with the genre it's a good read. Not great, but good.

[B · Rating 4 out of 5]

in this comic, it's 1997 all over again. phil urich green goblin, the sensational spider-man duds, the venom:lethal protector, lyja on the fantastic four. the only thing we're missing are gratuitous mentions of "impact webbing," amirite?

the one place where this book really fails is its depiction of peter parker. he's kind of a cross between seward trainor and miles morales' father. (dead ringer for trainor, which is weird.) the earth x version of the same character was much more believable


otherwise, it is really a super-fun book freezing a moment in time but pretending to be about a future.

[Benjamin Juarez Uribe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom Defalco, Ron Frenz y Pat Olliffe superó captar la esencia de spider-man. A través de Spider-girl se vio como podría ser la hija de peter parker y mary jane, usando los mejores elementos de ambos personajes. May day heredaria la personalidad de su madre, pero conservaría el sentido moral y ético de su padre cosa que confronta al peter parker que sólo quiere proteger a su familia, especialmente a su niña.
Es de lo mejor del universo de spider-man, aunque tiene alguno detalles pequeños que sólo se aprecian leyendo la historia.

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just reread the first volume of the Spider-Girl series. I really liked the development of this new character in the alternate future of Marvel. I like Mayday and I believe she can hold her own in the halls of Spidey lore. I only wish her future was more in tact since the release of the Brand New Day story line a few years back. Still hoping Peter and MJ end up together.

[Anthony Sanabria · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book shows what they call passed down from generation to generation and now you get to see spidey's daughter in action and taking the family buisness to a whole new level and theres a lot more action

[Nicolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting twist on the Spiderman story. This is my first foray into the MC2 universe, but I thought it was very cool. May is a good character and it's fun seeing grumpy old Peter Parker playing a different role. I definitely plan to read volume 2 and might give Fantastic 5 a shot too.

[Emily Stark]

Spider girl 1
Tom defalco
5
Unknown
It was a good book fun to read about
It was interesting it had sloughs of details
Have her dad not be mad at her all the time
Teenagers people with a passion for fantasy

[Mitchell Friedman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basically a re-read but in a different format. And it didn't really hold up to a re-read. I like May and Phil and Fantastic Five. But all in all it just kind of has the feel of cardboard, though cardboard with potential. 3.5 of 5.