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Marvelous May – Spider-Gwen vs Mayday Parker
Welcome back to Marvelous May! I’d just like to point out that I set up this tournament using a generator I found online, and I didn’t know which seeds would face each other, so this is actually completely random. Nonetheless, we do in fact have a battle between alternate universe Spider-Women: Gwen Stacy of Earth-65 vs Mayday Parker of Earth-982!
Spider-Gwen
In the mainstream universe, Gwen Stacy is probably best remembered as one of Peter Parker’s most prominent love interests (which is saying something, considering how many of them there are, and that even Captain Marvel can be counted among them), whose life tragically came to an end the day Green Goblin threw her off a bridge. However, in an alternate universe, things happened very differently. Gwendolyne Maxine Stacy of Earth-65 was once an ordinary girl with a love for music, acting as the drummer for a band called The Mary Janes. But her life was changed the day she was bitten by a radioactive spider and was granted superpowers. She can cling to and crawl along walls, she has superhuman speed, strength, agility, and balance, but most amazing of all is the Spider Sense, a sixth sense that warns her of danger and can grant her omnipresent detection of her surroundings, though it’s up to Gwen to react appropriately to it. She was also given a costume and web-shooters from her world’s Janet van Dyne, allowing her to web-swing across town or ensnare targets in webbing. At first, Gwen saw being Spider-Woman as a thrill only, loving her newfound fame, until the day her best friend, Peter Parker, depressed from a life of everything constantly going wrong for him (so I guess that’s one thing that’s universal no matter which Peter Parker it is) and in awe of Spider-Woman, decided to make a change. He was transformed into the Lizard, but lost control and ended up in a fight with Gwen, which resulted in his accidental death. Through this event, Gwen realized the lesson that all those with the Spider name must inevitably learn: With great power comes great responsibility. With that lesson in mind, Gwen opted to become a better hero, one that her city deserved. Having learned a lot about detective work from her policeman father, and possessing an analytical mind, she put these to use with her new gifts to make herself a better Spider-Woman, one who would protect her city from any threat that came its way.
Mayday Parker
May ‘Mayday’ Parker is the daughter of her world’s Peter and Mary Jane. Yeah, remember back when Mary Jane was pregnant during the Clone Saga? Well, in this universe, she actually had the baby, though she was abducted as part of a plan by Green Goblin. Eventually, a fight broke out between Spider-Man and Green Goblin, which resulted in the Goblin’s death and Peter losing his leg. With a new bionic leg given to him by Mr. Fantastic, Peter decided to quit being Spider-Man and keep his life as a hero a secret from his daughter. As it turned out, though, Mayday began developing spider powers as well, genetically passed down through Peter’s DNA. One day, she was attacked by a new Green Goblin, Norman Osborn’s grandson, as a message for Peter. Overhearing her parents talk about it and learning that her father was Spider-Man, Mayday began experimenting with her powers, and seeing that her parents were going to confront this new Green Goblin, she took up Ben Riley’s old costume and became Spider-Girl, saving her parents and beginning a new life as a superheroine, whether her parents liked it or not. Eventually, though, they did come around and helped their daughter, who eventually became a reserve member for A-Next, the new team of Avengers. Unfortunately, one day, an inter-dimensional life sucker named Daemos, who had been hunting down Spider-Men across the Multiverse, attacked and killed her father, sending May on a journey with all the remaining Spiders throughout the Multiverse to stop this new threat. After they succeeded, May was given her father’s old costume, and re-branded herself as the Amazing Spider-Woman.
And let the voting begin! You have until May 10th to get your votes in, at which point, we’ll find out which of these two Spider-Women will take on the winner of Scarlet Witch vs Ms. Marvel. Until then, check out the links below to learn more about these other-dimensional Spiders, and be sure to check in next time as Storm battles Gamora. Ja né!
Jyger’s Favourite 5 – 5 Things I’d Like To See Added Or Changed By Next May In Marvel
Well, it’s the last day of May, so I guess that makes this the last blog post for Marvelous May. I wanna thank everybody that came to this blog to enjoy my first ever theme month. Will I do this again? Meh, maybe, if I feel up to it. Still, if I ever do Marvelous May again, here’s some things that I’d like to see different with Marvel Comics and other related properties by that point. As usual, this is in no particular order. And I’m not even gonna bother mentioning that Marvel Studios should make a deal with 20th Century Fox, since I said that once already today. lol So, let’s start off with a big one that I’ve been complaining about for a long time now…
#1 – Less Heroes vs Heroes Event Comics
I cannot be the only person bothered by this. In fact, I know for certain I’m not. I remember being so excited for AXIS, thinking “WOW, they finally did it. They’ve got a big crossover event between the Avengers and X-Men where the focus is on stopping the villain and not fighting each other.” And what happened by the end of it? Heroes fighting heroes. Guys, it’s been played out to DEATH. I’m not saying you can’t ever do it again, that’s stupid. Of course, when you’ve got so many heroes from different walks of life and with differing view points on philosophy, methods in the field, belief systems, etc., things are naturally gonna get heated from time to time. But for God’s sake, it’s like at LEAST every other event in Marvel eventually boils down to or is centered around the idea of heroes fighting heroes. I’m just saying, it’s a new universe following Secret Wars, it’s a clean slate, let’s try something different. Hell, I’ve even got one in mind…
#2 – Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Here’s my idea: Have Marvel Ultimate Alliance be an annual Summer-long mini-series. Each year, the most insane yet awesome set-ups and scenarios occur, requiring the team-up of heroes that aren’t generally seen together. Stuff like ten villains being merged together into a single entity wielding the Mandarin’s rings, or a sentient sun that goes around literally turning whole planets to ash, or the Infinity Gems becoming entities that are out of control. Just crazy stuff like that where we’d need team-ups between the Avengers, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Fantastic 4, Inhumans, and so on. It’d be great, and it’d be about superheroes saving the day against incredible odds.
#3 – Stop Having Heroes Do Villainous Behavior
Look, I see nothing wrong with flawed heroes. It’s unrealistic to imagine heroes not having any kinds of problems, considering all they have to deal with, and frankly, it’s not interesting to read. But for God’s sake, there’s a difference between being flawed and just being plain unheroic. This is my problem with Hank Pym, Reed Richards, and modern-day Tony Stark and Scott Summers. They don’t act like heroes. Granted, right now, Tony kinda has an out where his moral compass has been inverted, but he was already kinda taking a dive to the dark side long before that, as I’ve documented before. Then there’s Cyclops, who willingly put the world in jeopardy to bring back the Phoenix, and then after doing horrible things while being possessed by it, has apparently decided in the set-up for Secret Wars to become the Phoenix AGAIN. I remember a while ago making a demotivator telling everyone to get over the fact that Cyclops was a villain, and then recently he decided to try to be a good guy again, and now he’s pulling this crap. Oh, and just saying this now, I don’t care what is done from here on out, I am NEVER accepting Namor as a superhero ever again. That was my ONE problem with A-Force #1, was when he showed up to help out. On top of everything else he’s done, he knowingly and willfully blew up a fucking planet, killing everyone on it. More than anyone else in the Illuminati, he is now unforgivable in my eyes. I would sooner read Tony as a hero than Namor. If you want these guys to be villains, FINE, make them villains. If nothing else, it makes their behaviour easier to understand. Do not, however, jerk us around with this crap by having them be heroes that do outright villainous things. It’s ANNOYING.
#4 – Reverse The Deal With Mephisto
Okay, let’s get this outta the way right now: I’m very happy that Renew Your Vows features a Peter Parker that didn’t make the deal with Mephisto, is still married to Mary Jane, and has a daughter named Annie-Wait, Annie? What happened to Mayday? Also, REALLY, guys? You had a redheaded daughter that you decided to name ANNIE? And yes, I know MJ has an aunt named Anna, but come on. Regardless, even if this is a change that will continue into the new universe, the bigger problem is that the deal wouldn’t have been UNDONE, just forgotten about and tossed aside to where it’s never addressed again. What I would much rather like to see is the main Peter Parker learning of this one living in Battleworld, recalling the deal, and before Secret Wars is over (or perhaps after it as a sort of follow-up story), he tells Aunt May the truth about what he did, then decides to go see Mephisto and call off their deal, realizing what he gave up and how wrong it was. THAT would be undoing One More Day and the deal with Mephisto, and would set Peter back on the path of taking actual responsibility for his actions and growing into an adult with real adult problems requiring real adult solutions. Granted, I might also like to see him still running Parker Industries as best as he can at the same time. Plus, then we’d have a really good excuse/explanation for why him and Miles are both Spider-Man following Secret Wars, since both have so much in their lives that they need to balance. Actually, I’m pretty sure that last part is more or less what they’re gonna do regardless of if the deal is undone or Peter and MJ are married or not, but whatever, just saying there’s more drama and potential storytelling to be had there.
#5 – A Better Frigging Animated Series
I like Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. I may have brought this up once or twice before. lol However, even if I didn’t, I can assure you, I would still hate its successor, Avengers Assemble. The writing is weaker, the choices of voice actors are kinda iffy, and whereas EMH started off with a team that paid tribute to the early days of the Avengers in the comics and then eventually added new members from various eras of the Marvel Universe, this team is pretty blatantly based off the movie team, with Falcon being added to basically be the viewer’s stand-in guy for the team. Kinda like Jubilee in the X-Men cartoon, where she was the new girl and was our eyes and ears in this world. Then Scott Lang joins, because he’s got a movie coming out, and do you see the problem? The quality of the show takes a backseat to advertising the movies. And I’m not saying they shouldn’t advertise the movies, just that we still need a quality show. What would be a MUCH better idea, in my opinion, is to have a show where all the new solo-movie heroes (Ant-Man, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Spider-Man), along with some of the new Avengers that joined in Age of Ultron (Vision, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Falcon, and War Machine) team up, and bring back the writing team that did EMH. That way, you’re still advertising the movies, but you’re also doing something different and you’re making sure the writing is good enough to where people WANT to watch. I have NO idea who is watching this show or why… … …Also, just saying this while I’m on the subject, EMH has the best frigging superhero cartoon theme. Not kidding. Play that shit.
Anyway, that’s all I got for now. Got one I didn’t list? Leave it below, and we’ll see how things change between now and next May. In the meantime, as we close out Marvelous May, be sure to check in next month when I give my thoughts on DC’s Convergence, both good and bad, and where this is all hopefully going. Ja né!
Jyger's Rant 