Spider-Girl (Corazon)

This page is for the original Earth-616 Spider-Girl, Anya Sofia Corazon.

For the original Spider-Girl, see: May Parker.

Origin

Anya was born in Mexico and lived there until her mother died, roughly around the age of 5. Her father brought her with him when he moved to the U.S. shortly after that.

Living in Brooklyn, New York, Anya was a normal girl living with her father Gil Corazon, until everything changed one night when she went out to a bridge in Central Park to fight a boy from school. By the time Anya showed up, a fight broke out in the park between a group named “Sisterhood of The Wasps” and a group called “The Spider Society“. Whilst attempting to help a mysterious man named Miguel (from the Spider Society), Anya was stabbed by a member of the Sisterhood of the Wasps. Due to a spell which Miguel had cast, the Sisterhood of the Wasps were transported away because they had used a weapon on sacred grounds, but the wound Anya had was still severe. Miguel (the sorcerer of the Spider Society) transferred some of his power to her, saving her life, but also transforming her into the Hunter of the Spider Society, for whom he had been looking for.

Creation

Arana was created by Fiona Avery and Mark Brooks, and first appeared (as Araña) in Amazing Fantasy #1 (2004). She later took on the name Spider-Girl.

Character Evolution

Anya received a spider-shaped tattoo from the energy transfer, and life seemingly returned to normal. However, the Spider Society soon approached her asking for help in fighting crime, as she was their new Hunter, despite several members being annoyed with Miguel’s choice of who to make the Hunter. After one or two fights against the Sisterhood of the Wasp, Anya was taken out to the desert to unlock her true potential. After a few hours she was attacked by wolves, and had a vision of her mother. Anya then discovered that she could summon a blue exoskeleton around herself, which gave her added endurance and strength. After being picked back up by Miguel and the rest of the Spider Society, Anya was asked to choose a name for herself. Anya decided on Araña, which was her mother’s name and means “spider.” Miguel and Araña would team up many times for the Spider Society to prevent the Sisterhood of the Wasps from summoning their chosen warrior.

Araña recently learned that Hunters (of The Spider Society) don’t have an exoskeleton like she has. In yet another battle against the Sisterhood of The Wasps, the Wasps were once again trying to summon their Hunter. The Sisterhood was unsuccessful, but Miguel did not survive the battle despite Spider-Man‘s help. Araña transferred her power to Nina Smith, another Spider Society member, after the death of Miguel.

Major Story Arcs

Civil War

During the Civil War, a registration act was passed, legally ordering all persons with super-human ability to register with the government. Araña chose to ‘do the right thing’ and register with the government after an encounter with Wonder Man and Ms. Marvel. After this initial encounter Anya, being registered, had been working with Ms. Marvel for a long period of time, as sort of a trainee. She had various super-hero missions together with Ms. Marvel. During one of these missions, Anya was held hostage by the Puppet Master along with superheroes Stature, Dusk, Tigra and Silverclaw. There, she was hypnotized and was ordered to kill Ms. Marvel, Anya resisted the mind control long enough to be restrained by Machine Man and Sleepwalker. During this time, Anya began to see Ms. Marvel (or Carol, as she now called her) as a mother figure and they developed a close bond. When an alien kidnapped Ms. Marvel, Araña came after her, but she was stopped by Agent Sum, he wanted to make a plan first. When Anya and the others got to Monster Isle, where Carol was held captive, they confronted the Brood, who had kidnapped her. A battle erupted and during this battle, Ms. Marvel appeared to them as Binary and defeated the Brood. After this battle, Anya decided it was time to head back home, and to take the superhero life just a little bit slower.

The Gauntlet & Grim Hunt

However, Anya’s rest did not last long. During the Kravinoff family hunt for Spider-Man and spider-affiliated individuals, Anya was attacked by Ana, Vladimir and Alyosha. Luckily Spider-Man, as well as the former Spider-Woman now calling herself Arachne and Kaine, came to her aid. But after a run-in with Alyosha, Anya was sprayed with a type of sleeping powder and was taken to the Kravinoff mansion. Anya was taken to a dungeon where it was revealed it was not just her alone taken captive, but Madame Web, Martha Franklin and Arachne were also kept prisoner. The women were to be sacrificed in a ritual to revive Kraven the Hunter. Martha Franklin was the first to die, reviving the son of Kraven, albeit in a monstrous form. The second one to die was Kaine posing as Peter Parker, and with his death Kraven himself was revived. Just before Anya was about to be killed, the recently reborn Kraven stopped his feral son from committing the act. Not long after, Spider-Man attacks the Kravinoff family and freed the others, including Anya. Sasha tried to run, but Anya followed. Help came too late for Madame Web, however, who bled out in Arachne’s arms after passing on her powers of future visions to her. In the meantime, Spider-Man fought Kraven while Anya battled Ana and Sasha. The fight between Spider-Man and Kraven came to a high point when Spider-Man was about to kill Kraven. Arachne, with Madame Web’s powers, intervened and helped Spider-Man make the right call by showing him a future vision of what would happen if he really did kill Kraven. So Spider-Man let Kraven and his family live and disappear. After the battle Spider-Man, along with Arachne and Anya, spoke over Kaine’s tomb as Arachne took on her new responsibilities and gave her Spider-Woman costume to Anya. Peter jokingly called Anya “Spider-Girl” but she refused the name and decided to stick with Araña. After Arachne left, Araña and Spider-Man set off swinging back to the city and leaving the Kravinoff mansion, hopefully forever.

Young Allies and becoming Spider-Girl

After the events of the Grim Hunt, Anya was given the costume of the former Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter. Anya donned the costume, and eventually started calling herself Spider-Girl, while trying to help Spider-Man in cleaning the streets. Anya fought alongside a new team of superheroes named the Young Allies when a group of young villains attacked New York. Wearing Arachne‘s costume, Anya struggled with her lack of powers, barely missing a jump during a team-up with Nomad. She immediately entered into battle against The Bastards of Evil however, where she was subsequently thrown across New York by Singularity until caught by fellow super-hero Toro, the two then once more entered the fray and fought the good fight. After the battle, Anya joined the superhero team and became close friends with teammate Nomad, even trusting her with her secret identity.

Tragedy

During this time, Anya and her father Gil sold their house and started living in New York City. The two found a beautiful apartment. While working on their new place, Anya’s father took her to the Fantastic Four, with whom he had built a warm friendship over the years. This was a big surprise to Anya, since her father had never told her about his friendship with the FF. An example of the warm friendship was when Gil asked Susan Richards for advice about how to raise his teenaged superhero daughter. Susan told Gil he probably had nothing to worry about, since she was a smart, intelligent girl who knew what she was doing, and that he should just support her as much as he could. After their visit, Anya and her dad returned home, thinking their move to New York City was the beginning of something new and great.

However, disaster struck not much later. During the first week in their new house, Anya’s father Gil went to the New York University library, where he worked on solving a murder case with General Thunderbolt Ross in secret. Unbeknownst to either of them, Gil and Ross were being watched and as soon as they found a major clue in solving the murder, an unnamed man poured a deadly poison into both men’s coffee. Ross drank his coffee first and started feeling the effects of impending heart failure but immediately turned into the Red Hulk, temporarily losing his mind and starting a rampage, but surviving the poison. Gil had no such luck. He drank his coffee and started feeling the effects very quickly. This happened at the same time the Red Hulk went on a rampage. Gil managed to save a woman, but got stuck under a large part of the ceiling that had come down after the rampage.

Anya tried texting her father at this time, but got no response. When she saw on the news that there was an incident at the library where her dad was involved with the Red Hulk and the Fantastic Four, Anya rushed to the scene. Swinging into the library, she suddenly stood face to face with a crazed Red Hulk. Seeing her father under a pile of rubble and the FF being taken out, she knew she had to take on the Red Hulk head on. And so she did. Trying to make the Red Hulk leave the scene so paramedics could help her father, she led him away from the city, taunting and punching him when she could, but above all trying to stay ahead of the monster. She finally managed to get the Red Hulk into the harbor, where he jumped into the water and seemingly disappeared, leaving a baffled Anya behind. Not soon after, the Fantastic Four arrived. Susan tried helping her, but Anya ran off to see how her father was doing. She arrived at the scene just in time to see medics taking away her father’s dead body with Anya not being able to do a thing.

Anya was devastated with grief, not knowing how to go on further. Luckily, she was helped and supported by the Richards family and some good college friends including Rocky Flint, who knows what it’s like to lose a parent in a superhero conflict. A strange neighbor also kept assuring Anya that she was welcome to come over any time she wanted or needed to. This did not stop Anya from feeling more lost and alone then ever before. The funeral was visited by many loved ones and friends besides Anya herself, including Mayor J. Jonah Jameson and Reed and Susan Richards.

Wandering the streets, Anya was invited to stay with a friend, knowing that Anya didn’t want to be alone. On her way over to the house of her friend, she was suddenly taken by the Red Hulk, whom she blamed for her father’s death. She immediately started fighting him, with little to no effect. He had his mind back and tried to explain to Anya that it was not him, but someone else who had poisoned her father. After a while Anya believed him, and she told him she wanted to be a part of taking the ones down who were responsible. She left him saying that even if Red Hulk was not totally responsible for the death, he would still have to pay for his crimes after they would find those who were mainly responsible.

Some time after the funeral, Susan Richards visited Anya, who then confessed to Susan that she was really Spider-Girl. Susan acknowledged that her father had already told her. Susan also told Anya that she and Reed would financially support her, so she would still be able to continue to live in the apartment and go to school. Anya was touched by their kindness and planned to honor her father’s memories as well as bringing those responsible for her father’s death to justice, even if it meant taking down the Red Hulk for his part in the death.

Quickly tracking down the Red Hulk, Anya discovered that General Ross was seeking to expose the Ravens, a long time terrorist group that supplied both regular and biological weapons to various groups and super villains over the years. It was the Ravens who sought to poison Ross, and Anya’s father got caught in the middle. The terrorist group revealed they wanted to use Anya as their own personal body guard and having the Red Hulk inadvertently kill her father was icing on the cake. However, when they confronted Anya they were unaware that she had been infected by the Jackal’s bed bugs that gave her back not only her original spider powers but also organic webbing. She quickly disabled the group and then helped Red Hulk find them, who in turn quickly tore the group apart and used his military and Avengers contacts to defeat the Ravens. It was later revealed that there were small sects of the Ravens still in the world, but due to the fall of both HYDRA and AIM (thanks to Nick Fury), the groups were all splintered but were unknowingly being brought together again by the new H.A.M.M.E.R.

In the meantime, Anya and Ross came to a truce since they were able to avenge Gil’s death. Anya returned to school with Susan Richards as her main guardian and financing through the Future Foundation.

Spider-Island

In the Spider Island story arc, Anya made a deal with Kingpin in order to fight off the Sisterhood of the Wasp, which was using Spider Island as their launching base to change the balance of power and defeat and replace the Queen. After tricking Hobgoblin, Anya was able to defeat the Sisterhood and then ended her deal with the Kingpin after he was cured of his own spider powers by Spider-Man. It was later revealed that the cure used in New York ended up leaving Anya with her spider powers intact and she ventured out to continue her fight as Spider-Girl.

Inhumanity

When the Inhuman Terrigen Mist struck New York, she comes to the Avengers Tower asking for help with her missing social studies teacher who happened to be an Inhuman, who was taken from the hospital when still inside his cocoon. After yelling at the avengers for not listening, she tells them that two cocoons went missing from the hospital, and began to search for them with help from different Avengers members. First, breaking into an A.I.M. facility with Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) and Black Widow, where they discover the cocoon was sold and, with hulk’s help, they get the name of the buyer: Dr. June Covington. Later, she takes off with Wolverine, getting a new change of costume (adding a slit trench coat, chest protection, a hood and punching gloves to her suit). They go to June’s former lab where they found her assistants fighting for the remains of the lab, and find out she left to another laboratory after the cocoon exploded.

With Iron Man’s help, she finds her new location where she left the body of her social studies teacher who is invisible to any kind of machine. Soon, they discover she is on a killing spree, killing A.I.M. scientists in N.Y.

She manages to stop her and her minions with the rest of the Avengers. Later on in her apartment, she gets a text from Captain America with the “Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes” theme.

Spider-Verse

Anya has now become Spider-Woman’s protege and was working alongside her when Spider-UK arrived in their Universe to recruit them in a war against the Inheritors. After meeting up with the rest of the Spiders who had joined the fight Anya would be sent on missions by Peter and eventually was assigned to guard Silk alongside Spider-Woman (Gwen Stacy). While Anya was gushing over how cool her mentor is the pair soon discovers that Silk has run off much to their shock. Eventually, after being reassigned, Anya discovers that she can read the Totem text from the scroll that her mentor had stolen from the Inheritors following the massacre of most of the Spiders by the Inheritors. Learning its contents Anya figures out a way to win the war and she convinces Karn to defect.

Afterward Spider-Man leads the assault against the Inheritors and with Karn’s help they’re victorious though the Superior Spider-Man betrays them and tries to destroy the great web with the sacrificial dagger. Anya notices that the dagger has Totem text and reading it she learns that a Great Weaver is needed to mend the web and along with the others learns that the Great Weaver is none other than an older Karn. Accepting his distance the younger Karn takes up the role of Great Weaver and starts to send them all home, however when Spider-UK decides to stay, due to his Universe dying to an Incursion, Anya also decides to stay, though promises to visit as her mentor would miss her, and fight alongside him. Karn decrees that they’re defenders of the Web and than leads the pair to their sleeping quarters before the next day….

Spider-Verse: Secret Wars

Due to the Incursions that have been wiping out Universes, Anya finds herself on Battleworld with her memories altered however her connection to the Great Web causes her memories to appear randomly only to be lost as well as feeling like she doesn’t belong. Eventually Anya meets other Spiders like her who’re suffering the same memory issues though they’re soon attacked by the Sinister Six who, despite Spider-UK and Anya’s great teamwork, defeat and capture them. The Spiders are soon after brought to Norman Osborn who apologizes for the violence and wishes to work with them as he has made a discovery about the Great Web which is familiar to the Spiders.

Despite her loss of memories Anya has retained a close bond with Spider-UK, even referring to him by first name basis, and is fiercely loyal to him as well as his most able and trustworthy ally. So when Spider-Woman (Gwen Stacy) tries to get them to leave Norman Osborn’s building, as she doesn’t trust him, Anya refuses to leave unless Spider-UK would as well which he wouldn’t.

As the others work Anya thinks back to how she knows things about her surroundings yet isn’t sure “how” she does, she than remembers first seeing Spider-UK on patrol and how she immediately felt that she belonged at his side hence how they met. Seeing her lost in thought Spider-Ham takes her to a buffet where he reveals “Caesar’s Palace” to her. Curious she goes to learn more about Caesar’s Palace and than brings the rest of the team over to see it as well. When Caesar’s Palace reacts to their presence a Thor appears and warns them to back away.

The Thor attacks the Spiders and in a desperate move Caesar’s Palace activates somewhat and saves them. However, the Spiders are drained by this and this allows Norman to try and use Caesar’s Palace himself. Luckily aid arrives in the form of Spider-Gwen and a depowered Peter Parker and they’re able to prevail though when the dust settles Caesar’s Palace is destroyed. Seeing Norman defeated the remaining Sinister Six arrive to try and kill the Spiders but are detained rather easily by them. While Anya isn’t comfortable about the destruction of Caesar’s Palace she remains true to her friends and looks to Spider-UK for their next move as a team.

Web Warriors

Following Secret Wars, the team is back to their original mission statement of helping Universes in need of Spiders. Anya remains Spider-UK’s second on the team and his most trusted ally.

Teamin up with Black Widow

In San Fransisco, Black Widow (Natasha Romanoff) called Anya, in need of her help with taking down an evil organization. Anya was elated to be working with Natasha again, recalling the “Team Spy-der” that they briefly had with Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) during Avengers Assemble.

Anya teamed up with Natasha and White Widow (Yelena Belova) and they, along with Lucy Nguyen and Hawkeye (Kate Bishop), successfully took down the organization.

Later on, Anya joined Natasha again on a mission to investigate a tip that she had received. Anya partnered up with Lucy and they discovered the presence of an auction. Anya described it to Natasha and the others over comms before she and Lucy mysteriously stopped responding.

Powers and Abilities

• Superhuman Strength : Araña’s strength is relatively large at her stage in heroism. Her strength may also be increasing, because she was quickly able to subdue Arachne, who can lift 10 tons.

• Superhuman Speed : Araña can run and move at speeds that are beyond the physical limits of the finest human athlete. She is ultimately capable of running at speeds in excess of 30 miles per hour .

• Superhuman Stamina : Araña’s advanced musculature produces less fatigue toxins during physical activity than an ordinary human. This allows her to exert herself physically for much longer periods of time before fatigue begins to impair her.

• Superhuman Agility : Araña’s agility, balance, and bodily coordination are all enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete. Araña is extraordinarily limber and her tendons and connective tissues are twice as elastic as the average human being’s, despite their enhanced strength.

• Superhuman Reflexes : Araña’s reflexes are similarly enhanced and are currently about 10 times greater than those of an ordinary human.

• Wall-Crawling : She has the ability to cling to walls at will.

• Biological/Organic Webbing Generation : She has the ability to organically produce her own silk webbing from glands within her forearms, limited by her body’s health and nutrition. These organic webs have many of the same properties as Spider-Man’s artificial webbing. The silk is released through a spinneret near each wrist containing a central web spigot orifice used for web-slinging and drag lines, supplemented by several radial minor spigots for other types of webs connected to specialized glands.

Former Powers

• She could summon a blue exoskeleton carapace that emanates from the tattoo on her upper arm; she can control the thickness, coverage, and shape of the carapace. At its thickest, it is resistant to small firearms. However, when using full armor, contact with water leaves her unable to breathe, forcing her to retract it.

Personal Data

Characteristics/Status

• Height: 5’3″
• Weight: 115 lbs. (123 lbs. with carapace)
• Eyes: Brown
• Hair: Brown
• Unusual Features: Stylized spider tattoo on her right arm.
• Place of Birth: Mexico
• Citizenship: American
• Identity: Public identity
• Legal Status: Registered superhuman
• Marital Status: Single
• Occupation: High-school student
• Education: Currently high-school student
• Known Relatives: Gilberto Corazon (father, deceased); Sofia Corazon (mother, deceased)

Alternate Earths

Earth-982

On MC2, an adult Araña is partnered with a still-living Miguel. She tests Spider-Girl and then covers for her by posing as a seer to lead Hobgoblin off track when he tried to find out her weakness. She later tricked Spider-Girl into switching bodies, leaving Spider-Girl stuck in Araña’s body, and Araña in Spider-Girl’s body. Arana then tried to bring down the Black Tarantula, revealing that she once had a romantic relationship with him.

Earth-6215

On Earth-6215, Araña is a member of the League of Losers. She was killed by an explosion when the League was trying to find the time machine used by Chronok.

Other Media

Animation

Marvel’s Spider-Man

Anya is a main character in the show, and is a student in Horizon High. She first appeared in “Horizon High” Pt. 1, and is voiced by Melanie Minichino. She is a gifted student who works closely with Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales. Near the end of the first season, she is one of the many New Yorkers who gains spider-powers due to being exposed to the Jackal‘s chemicals during the multi-episode “Spider-Island” story arc. In the show’s second season, she regains these powers and uses them to become Spider-Girl during the “Bring on the Bad Guys” arc.

Games

Marvel: War of Heroes

Anya appears in several cards in the mobile card game Marvel: War of Heroes. Her cards are:

• [Spider Society] Spider-Girl
• [Anya Corazon] Spider-Girl
• [Loomworld] Spider-Girl
• [Spider Hunter] Arana
• [Skilled Gymnast] Arana

• [Creative] Spider-Girl

Spider-Man Unlimited

Anya appears in Spider-Man Unlimited as her Spider-Girl persona.

Marvel: Avengers Alliance

As part of the Spider-Verse Spec Ops two-part crossover Anya is one of the many Spiders who can be added to the player’s roster once unlocked. Anya uses her Spider-Girl persona in Marvel: Avengers Alliance. She is a reward in the PVP Tournament.

Her bio says: Anya Corazon, alias Spider-Girl, originates from the same universe as the “Superior” Spider-Man. Anya was born in Mexico, but came with her father to the United States soon after her mother died. She grew up in Brooklyn and developed an interest in gymnastics, until one day, she saw a man being assaulted by a group of strange individuals. Anya jumped in to save the man’s life but was fatally wounded. The man, Miguel, turned out to be a part of a secret group called the Spider Society. He was also a sorcerer, and he transferred some of his powers into Anya in order to save her life, gifting her with incredible powers that manifested through a spider-shaped tattoo. Assisting the Spider Society for a time, Anya eventually returned her gifted powers, but she managed to maintain her incredible strength and agility. After a fight with the Kravinoff family, the former Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter, was impressed with Anya and how she handled the situation and decided to pass her old black costume to Anya who took on the mantle of Spider-Girl.

Marvel Avengers Academy

Spider-Girl is a playable character in the game, released during the “Spider-Man: Homecoming Event”. Her Recruitment Quest was Get Spider-Girl!. She is voiced by Daisy Guevera.

Merchandise

• Spider-Girl was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Ultimate Green Goblin Build-a-Figure wave.
• Funko produced a Spider-Girl bobblehead for their Pop! line.
• Spider-Girl appeared in Hasbro’s Titan Hero line.
• Spider-Girl was featured in the HeroClix figure game.