Amazing Spider-Girl #8

 



Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciller: Ron Frenz

Synopsis: Mary Jane intervenes to help a girl at May's school who is going through a crisis. 

Comments: The specter of Spider-Girl stands between May and Mary Jane like it did in Spider-Girl #4 and between Peter and Betty in Amazing Spider-Man #30. 





Mary Jane's imagination showing the costume as horrific monster calls to mind the imagery of the symbiotes and foreshadows the return of Carnage. 



Sara's father wants to send to "one of those mutie schools" makes me think it might be a school that would not have Sara's best interests at heart. The title, "The Closet", and Duane's attitude makes me think of gay conversion therapy. 



Sara sees that May has powers as well, so despite her state of distress, she's a lot more perceptive than Howard was in Spider-Girl #89. 



The final page of Mary Jane giving May back her costume parallels the final page of the last issue of May giving Mary Jane the costume. 













Comments

  1. frogoatJanuary 14, 2022 at 5:30 AM

    I really love how good this and the previous issue work when read back to back. All the symmetry you mentioned is also absolutely phenomenal whenever I read through the whole series. This era has some of the best work from the entire creative team, they really give their all.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guest Star Spider-Man: Strange Tales Annual #2

Image
 I thought it would be interesting to see how Spider-Man was portrayed as a guest star in other comics during the first 100 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man.  Writer: Stan Lee Penciler: Jack Kirby Inker: Steve Ditko Looking at the cover, there's not a spider insignia on the front of Spider-Man's costume. Other than that, it's a solid cover. The story is just 18 pages. The rest of the 72 pages advertised on the cover is for reprints, monster stories before the Human Torch took over Strange Tales.   I haven't usually drawn attention to who the inker was, except it was Steve Ditko which helps bring Spider-Man closer in line to how he looked at the time.  So the story begins with the Human Torch jealous because Spider-Man has been getting favorable write ups in magazines and newspapers, which kind of contradicts how Spider-Man is portrayed in his own comic. Outside of Amazing Fantasy #15, Spider-Man seemed regularly vilified in the press, led by The Daily Bugle's J. Jo...
Read more

Tom DeFalco Cancels Barbie?

Image
  "Bye Bye Barbie"  May 1994 Writer: Barbara Slate Penciler: Mary Wilshire Inker: Trina Robbins Editor: Hildy Mesnik Editor in Chief: Tom DeFalco Plot: Barbie and Barbie Fashion editor Hildy Mesnik has to break the news to the artists who produce Barbie that it is canceled.  This is probably the only related Barbie post I will do, because it features Tom DeFalco. DeFalco, then editor in-chief, tells editor Hildy Mesnik that they are canceling the Barbie titles. DeFalco remarks that girls will just have to read Fantastic Four , a title he was writing at the time.  Devastated, Hildy calls all the talent on the Barbie comics and tells them that the comic has been canceled.  However, Hildy decides that she's going to try and save the Barbie comics after all and marches down to DeFalco's office. However, it turns out to have been an April Fool's Day prank that DeFalco and characters of Barbie have played on her.  There are some interesting codas to this sto...
Read more

The Randall Frenz Interview

Image
  Superman #149, brothers Randall and Ron Frenz credited on the cover. The Randall Frenz Interview When I first read the issues of Thor #400 and #401 back in high school (this would have been in the early 2000s, years after they were first published in 1989), I saw the name of Randall Frenz. I was familiar with Ron Frenz, the penciler of Thor , The Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Girl , but who was Randall Frenz? Was it Ron's real name? Was it his alter ego? I even admitted as much when Ron wished Randall a happy birthday on Facebook.  However, I saw that there was confusion from others online as to who Randall Frenz is. The above commenter is correct, but they should have written  is, not was.  Years later, with the advent of YouTube and a book written by Tom DeFalco titled  Comics Creators on Spider-Man , I also learned that Randall Frenz is Ron's older brother through various interviews that Ron has conducted.  Randall wrote 13 published comic book stor...
Read more