| Code Name: | Spider-Girl --> |
| Converted: | y |
| Debut: | What If #7 (November 1977) |
| Publisher: | Marvel Comics |
| Cat: | super |
| Subcat: | Marvel Comics |
| Hero: | y |
| Sortkey: | Spider-Girl |
Spider-Girl is the code name of several fictional characters in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The most prominent version and first to receive an ongoing series is Mayday Parker from the MC2 universe, the second version is Anya Corazon, the third version is Gwen Warren, and the fourth version is Christina Xu, the latter three from the Earth-616 universe. Several alternate reality incarnations of the character have additionally received notoriety, including the Ultimate Spider-Girl, Ashley Barton, Betty Brant, April, Penelope and Petra Parker, and Charlotte Morales.
The first portrayed Spider-Girl, Mayday Parker, first appeared in a one-shot story in the ongoing series What If. Following positive fan response to the concept, Spider-Girl and two other series (A-Next and J2) set in the same alternate future universe were launched under the MC2 imprint with The Amazing Spider-Girl and Spectacular Spider-Girl.[1] [2] On November 8, 2008, Marvel EIC Joe Quesada confirmed that Spider-Girl would become a feature in the monthly anthology magazine Amazing Spider-Man Family. The series would replace the feature "Mr. and Mrs. Spider-Man", written by DeFalco, which served as a prequel series to the Spider-Girl universe.[3] The title would continue to be simultaneously published in paper form within Amazing Spider-Man Family. Amazing Spider-Man Family #5 (published April 2009) through #8 (July 2009) contained these Spider-Girl stories until the title's cancellation with issue #8, followed by one last Spider-Girl tale, Spider-Girl: The End, in which fellow Spider-Girl April Parker is killed.
In November 2010, a new Spider-Girl series was launched that was unconnected to the MC2 universe. The MC2 Spider-Girl title was cancelled, having surpassed publisher expectations for longevity. The new series featured a new character, Anya Corazon, whose adventures occurred on Earth 616. The series was canceled after only eight issues. No official reason was given for the cancellation. This character returned for a Spider-Island limited series.[4]
The character who would in 2023 become the second Earth-616 Spider-Girl was introduced in Avenging Spider-Man #16 (January 2013), before returning a decade later in X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #69 (January 2023) under the name "Gwen Warren", assuming the mantle of Spider-Girl as a member of the X-Men. The character who would in 2024 become the third Earth-616 Spider-Girl: Christina Xu, a homeless friend of Bailey Briggs, was introduced in Edge of Spider-Verse vol. 3 #3 (June 2023), before becoming Spider-Girl in Spider-Boy vol. 2 #12 (October 2023).
See main article: Spider-Girl (Mayday Parker). The daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson from the MC2 universe.
See main article: April Parker. Prior to calling herself "Mayhem", Mayday's clone April goes by Spider-Girl, the two sharing the mantle.
See main article: Anya Corazon. A Latina superhero who originally called herself Araña (Spider), and occasionally goes by Spider-Girl.
The mutant chimaera daughter of Scott Summers, Gwen Stacy, and Ana Soria, cloned by the Jackal using technology stolen from Mister Sinister, the newborn Spider-Girl battles The Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus' mind in Spider-Man's body) and the X-Men in the form of a 30 ft. human-spider hybrid, resembling a giant garden spider with human eyes able to shoot eye-beams, before being returned to a normal size with sentience, to the physical size of a twelve-year-old humanoid girl.[5] Later, she enrolls in and drops out of the Jean Grey School For Higher Learning under the name "Gwen Warren".
Gwen later went to work as a waitress at the Krakoan-American cuisine restaurant called Gifted Kitchen. She would later meet Nature Girl and Armageddon Man who set off her giant spider side. They calmed her down and got her on their side.[6]
Becoming a member of X-Men Green as the superhero Spider-Girl, she is able to turn into both a giant spider and a "spider-girl" at a thought.[7]
During the "Fall of X", Gwen was among the mutants that took refuge at the Limbo Embassy.[8]
The homeless best friend of Bailey Briggs / Spider-Boy, Christina uses equipment to become a new Spider-Girl alongside Bailey.[9]
See main article: Betty Brant. In "What If Someone Else Besides Spider-Man Had Been Bitten By The Radioactive Spider?", Betty Brant is one of three candidates – along with Flash Thompson and John Jameson – who is bitten by the radioactive spider which gave Spider-Man his powers. After confiding in Peter, and with his assistance, she begins to fight crime under the name "The Amazing Spider-Girl", with a mask similar to Spider-Man's but a very different costume. One time, she fails to stop a certain crook, who subsequently murders Peter's uncle Ben. The shock over the consequences of her failure makes Betty quit her Spider-Girl identity, although Peter takes up the identity of Spider-Man later on by synthetically recreating and ingesting the irradiated spider's venom.[10] This incarnation also appears in the events "Spider-Verse" and "End of the Spider-Verse".
See main article: Ultimate Spider-Girl. An Ultimate Marvel version of Spider-Girl/Spider-Woman is featured with the Ultimate continuity. This version, known by various names, is a gender-swapped clone of the Peter Parker of the Ultimate Universe, with all of his memories, from their perspective having gone to sleep one day a boy and woken up the next as a girl. Initially known as Spider-Girl/Spider-Woman, she joins the Avengers and takes on the mantle of Black Widow, before returning to their original name.
In Ultimate Spider-Man #200, a glimpse of the future shows to eventually become Spider-Girl.[11]
See main article: Spider-Bitch (Ashley Barton). In the pages of Old Man Logan, Ashley is the daughter of Tonya Parker and Hawkeye who did not like the way that Kingpin was running Hammer Falls. She becomes "Spider-Bitch", allying herself with a new Punisher and Daredevil, and plans to take back Hammer Falls, only for the group to be captured and Daredevil and Punisher to be fed to the carnivorous dinosaurs.[12] Hawkeye breaks his daughter out of her cell, whereafter Ashley immediately beheads Kingpin which avenges Daredevil and Punisher's deaths. Then she attempts to kill her father, before taking over Hammer Falls as the new Kingpin. Old Man Logan rescues Hawkeye as Ashley sends her men after them.
The character appears in the "Spider-Verse" and Spider-Geddon storylines, now referred with her father's surname as Ashley Barton, and alternately referred to as "Spider-Girl" and "Spider-Woman" due to the family-friendly nature of the narrative, and is among the spider-powered characters who are recruited by The Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus's mind in Peter Parker's body) to help fight the Inheritors, before returning to the Wastelands in "Venomverse" and "Old Man Quill".[13] [14]
Introduced in "Spider-Verse", Penelope Parker is the 11-year-old Spider-Girl of Earth-11, who is best friends with Mary Jane Watson and has a crush on Flash Thompson.[15]
The celebrity daughter of Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales from Earth-8, Charlotte operates as Spider-Girl alongside her brother Max as Spider-Boy.[16]
Several incarnations of Spider-Girl appear in (2023):
An older, more cynical alternate version of May Parker/Spider-Girl appears in the Spider-Man/X-Men team-up novel Time's Arrow 3: The Future by Tom DeFalco & Rosemary Edghill . In that novel, Spider-Man travels to the alternate future known for its Iron Man 2020 (Arno Stark). This universe's Earth is designated Earth-8410. In this reality, Spider-Girl wears a costume almost identical to the one worn by Jessica Drew, except the colors have been modified to look like Spider-Man's costume. She has the ability to fire venom blasts and webs.
Peter Parker #1–4 (March–June 2010) features a Spider-Man advocacy group known as the Spider-Girls in "The Private Life of Peter Parker", consisting of , , and , who operate a community service centre in Spider-Man's honour, opposed in merchandising by , also calling herself Spider-Girl, with the four coming to peace and ultimately all being known as the Spider-Girls by the storyline's end.[26]