There is a character I like, A series I wanted to like, but was disappointed by. She is Anya Corazon, the non May Parker Spider-Girl. I like Anya, my introduction to the character came in two places at roughly the same time. I had just finished reading Ms. Marvel's recent series which featured her as a supporting character. She was someone for Ms. Marvel to mentor, and they had a little sister/big sister kind of relationship. About the same time she appeared in Grim Hunt, as one of the 'spiders' Kraven's wacky family was after.
In Ms. Marvel she was young, new and inexperienced, but greatly wanted to be a hero. Ms. Marvel needed what she was, a younger character to mentor, to teach. At the time Ms. Marvel needed to have a real inexperienced character looking up to her, she acted as a nice foil to Ms Marvel and really added to my enjoyment of that series.
Anya was also pretty damn interesting in her own right. The fact that she was registered post civil war (pretty new at the time) and had the encouragement of her father. That was something I had not seen yet. The family who knew the teen was a hero and supported her. In 'Grim Hunt' she fought valiantly against superior forces, and would of made Spider-Man himself proud. Though she was eventually defeated.
So... fast forward a bit, Anya gets her own on going series. Now some fans did not like the fact that she was now Spider-Girl, there were several reasons for this complaint. One of them was basically the view that there is only one Spider-Girl, May Parker. Now I love May Parker and I love that Mc2 series. Hell I remember picking up issue #1 off a magazine rack in a 7-ll as a kid. But I can put that to the side and appreciate this Spider-Girl. Or I could if the series was good.
The Problems
Finally Screwball fights someone on her own power level, a normal 16 year old girl.
Shes called Spider-Girl, and her closest Superhero associate (outside of the short lived young allies) is Ms. Marvel. Yet 7 issues in and there is no Ms. Marvel appearance. We do get a throw away line about her training with Ms. Marvel in like book 3. Ms. Marvel is not busy, couldnt she stop in? Hell I'd read a Ms. Marvel/Spider-Girl team up book. Also until about issue 5 there was no Spider-Man.
Now I don't expect Spider-Man to costar in the series, but some mention or some appearance in him would of been nice considering the book was labeled "Big Time" the label The Amazing Spider-Man was using at the time. And yet this series had nothing to do with Big Time or Spider-Man. Just to clarify, it was labeled with the 'Big Time' banner and had nothing to do with the Spider-Man 'Big Time' story.
Another issue I had is she is now powerless. Apparently, between panels somewhere in Grim Hunt her powered were taken away. I hate this. I hate everything about it. I hate depowering heroes, I hate depowering female heroes. So, clearly I missed something in the 'Grim Hunt' storyline right? I reread it and still, nothing. I assume she tripped and she fell between panels and sprained her spider bone or something which rendered her powerless.
Another Another issue, they killed of her dad in issue 1. Killing off supporting cast is overdone, and frankly he was one of the most interesting parts of her cast. It left a bad taste in my mouth, and oddly the trauma of having her father murdered did little to effect her motivations.
The Fantastic Four as supporting cast members, I have no problems with this. I have a problem with the seemingly retconned relationship they, her and her father have (Maybe it was in her original series? I don't know) Her relationship with Susan Richards was fine, but that should of Ms. Marvel.
The evil super science secret society she was going up against, really? does Marvel need another one of these? uhg.
Now for a few things I did not hate that I thought I would, Her twitter updates, (I lent my Father this series and he hated these, he is old) I also like that they came back to bite her in the ass later. Also Red Hulk, I do not like Red Hulk, but he wound up being interesting in this series.
I bought every issue of her solo series and I was disappointed by almost every issue. Issue 7 she gets a Deus Ex Machina in the form of new Spider-Powers returning via the Spider-Island event. Which is good, I like her new power set. Shes a real Spider-Girl now, Anya also has a 3 part miniseries tying into Spider-Island, how is the first issue? Basically 'Meh', look for a full review soon.
To sum it all up. I like the character, I like the concept, but nothing that has been done with her lately has been interesting unless it was in Avengers Academy.
Want to read a series about young inexperience heroes? Save your money on Spider-Girl back issues and buy Avengers Academy.
Seriously, I keep giving this series (and I am counting the miniseries) chance after chance after chance. I think I am done. No more Anya, you've done me wrong to many times.
Oh, okay maybe just one more chance.
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