Spider-Man Family #1

 



Writer: Tom DeFalco
Penciller: Ron Lim

Synopsis: The release of a TV show brings Spider-Girl in contact with figures from her father's past. 

Comments: So in my head canon, this story takes place after Amazing Spider-Girl #14. After being visited by the Hobgoblin, Arana arranges for the re-release of Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham DVDs to get a firsthand look at Spider-Girl. This was published in 2005, two years before Amazing Spider-Girl #14.  May's hairstyle and Arana looking younger than she did in Amazing Spider-Girl should be considered artistic license on the part of Ron Lim. Sorry, Ron Lim! 




Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham was created by Tom DeFalco, Larry Hama and Mark Armstrong in 1983. It was intended to be a one shot joke book, but it turned out to be a sleeper hit that sold well on the newsstand and so more issues were ordered with Steve Skeates taking over writing the character. Peter Porker appeared in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movie. He and May would later team up in Spider-Verse comic book crossovers. 



Peter's explanation of why Spider-Ham has the name of Peter Porker makes sense to me. 


Even though he insists he's not her sidekick the dynamic between Arana and Miguel reminds me of the Star Spangled Kids (Sylvester Pemberton later Skyman and Courtney Whitmore later Stargirl) and Stripesy (Pat Dugan later S.T.R.I.P.E.) Dugan was the older sidekick to young super heroes. 


                                                               


 

The female Jack O'Lantern (Maguire Beck) first appeared in the mini-series Spider-Man: The Mysterio Manifesto which was written by Tom DeFalco to clear up some of the plot threads about Mysterio in Kevin Smith's Daredevil run, Howard Mackie's Amazing Spider-Man run and maybe J.M. DeMatteis' Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man run. I bought all three issues at the time and I didn't understand it much since I hadn't read Daredevil or Webspinners. I did recognize a supporting character,  A Guy Named Joe, from Steve Ditko's last issue of Amazing Spider-Man #38. The mini-series also has a fantasy sequence where baby May was alive. There's supposedly a continuity error in which Maguire Beck was called Mysterio's cousin in The Mysterio Manifesto, but refers to him as her uncle in this issue. Well, the only people who say he was her uncle are Peter (who might be misremembering) and a robot who was programmed by Arana (who is probably also misremembering). Then again, perhaps Quentin "Mysterio" Beck was a lot older than Maguire and had an avuncular relationship with her. 











Pop would later devour itself when was a short lived series written by Tom DeFalco in Amazing Spider-Man Family called May Porker, Swiney-Girl. 


















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

DeFalco/Frenz Retrospective: Krrish: Menace of the Monkey Men

Image
  Writer: Tom DeFalco Penciler: Ron Frenz Synopsis: A story featuring Krrish, India's superhero.  Comments: Ron wrote on his Facebook page that editor Scott Peterson contacted him when the movie company, FilmKRAFT, behind the Bollywood blockbusters featuring Krrish wanted an old fashioned Marvel comic book, Peterson knew that DeFalco and Frenz's style would play into their sensibilities. I first read this on Hoopla, a library app, and I remember asking Ron about it when I met him in Akron, OH in 2017.  When the project was announced it got a warm write up in Indian edition of Business Insider.    This story is kind a change of pace for DeFalco and Frenz in that it's set in a different country. If go through their body of work, DeFalco and Frenz stay usually in New York City. If one of their heroes travels, they go to a fictional countries like Belgruin and Latveria or other dimensions.  All that talk about powers and responsibility, where have I heard that ...
Read more

MC2 Dangler: J2's place on the Avengers

Image
 Tom DeFalco is not Chris Claremont in how he would leave plotlines unresolved that fans call "danglers", but there were some subplots in MC2 that were not resolved or at least not resolved to my liking. This is the start of a series where I examine a dangler and its non-resolution.  By the second issue of A-Next, Thunderstrike (Kevin Masterson) was already annoyed by J2's enthusiasm, but that annoyance turned to dismay when he finds out that J2 is a really young teenager named Zane. Thunderstrike thought they shouldn't allow someone so young on the team because of the risk and the liability. Stinger, who I suspect already knew, had them table the conversation for later. Thunderstrike responded that they weren't going to ignore the issue.  If Thunderstrike wanted to press the claim that J2 was too immature to be in the Avengers, he was a given several opportunities in issue #2 and #3. During the fight with the Sentry, J2's recklessness style of fighting almost...
Read more