This page is for the original Spider-Girl, May Parker.
For the Earth-616 Spider-Girl, see: Anya Sofia Corazon.
Origin
May “Mayday” Parker is the child of Peter and Mary Jane Parker in a alternate future In the MC2 continuity. When she was little she was kidnapped from her parents. They were reunited with their baby daughter by Kaine, who found the child living with Alison Mongrain, the con artist who had kidnapped the baby on instruction from the Green Goblin. After they were reunited, Peter lost a leg during the horrific final conflict with the Green Goblin. For years, they chose to keep their past from Mayday and hoped that she wouldn’t develop powers of her own. Despite her parents’ hopes, May began developing versions of her father’s Spider-powers. At the same time, Normie Osborn (Green Goblin’s grandson) set out to restore the family name (as he saw it). Mayday donned Ben Reilly‘s Spider-Man costume to stop him and soon took to crime fighting at first hindered, but then is helped by her worried parents.
Creation
Spider-Girl was created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz and first appeared in What If…? issue 105 in February 1998. (MC2) May is based on (Earth 616) baby May Parker, who was born in the page of Spider-Man #75 (1996) and was created by Howard Mackie and John Romita Jr.
Character Evolution
Mayday shares traits of both of her parents. Like her mother, she is a beautiful, charismatic, and a popular student, and she is intelligent and bright, just like her father. She also inherited his love for in-fight bantering. In addition, she is a very good athlete and excelled in her girls’ basketball team until she quit, after her powers emerged. On the one hand, Mayday seems to have inherited the “Parker luck” in which her dual identity wreaks havoc in her private life. On the other hand, her superhero career, unlike her father’s, begins with her successfully protecting her family, teaching her a more positive lesson about responsibility-when she succeeds, people live. From the early part of her career onwards, Spider-Girl has developed a reputation for avoiding unnecessary battles and reforming her former adversaries, like Normie Osborn and Raptor. Spider-Girl quickly establishes herself in the superhero community, gaining reserve status in the Avengers and allies in the New Warriors and Fantastic Five.
The question has been brought up if May is a mutant or not. May simply discards the thought as it isn’t important to her current problems as a crime fighter. Some anti-mutant factions such as Humanity First have questioned how she obtain her powers. Before her birth, Sentinels chased down her father due to him being an “enhanced human” and took note of a pregnant Mary Jane stating the baby she is carrying is “beyond range of embryonic normalcy”.
Major Story Arcs
May Begins Her Spider-Girl Career
Peter and Mary Jane Parker initially forbade May from adopting her new role, but they soon realized that their protests were in vain, and Peter chose to help teach his daughter the skills she would need to survive. As Spider-Girl, May encountered many new villains and allies in her war against crime. Most importantly, she convinced Norman Jr. to abandon his pointless feud, and they co-founded a loosely banded super-team of “New Warriors”. In a battle with the super-villain Killerwatt, who controlled electricity, Spider-Girl was severely shocked. This causing her to lose her spider abilities. Afterward she resumed her role as Spider-Girl, she just used the Green Goblin glider and the Green Goblin bombs to fight criminals. Eventually she got in a battle with “The New Spider-Man” (Spider-Woman‘s son), during which she fell into a generator, and was severely shocked again. The second shock restored her powers, along with some new powers over magnetism.
May Meets Spider-Man
May accidentally gets transported back in time when she attempted to stop Spyral from changing dimensions. But her additional weight caused him to time travel instead. She ended up in Midtown High, when her father himself was a student there and sees him getting bullied by Flash Thompson. She gets chased by Human Torch (who became leader of the Fantastic Five in MC2) on to the rooftops where she loses him. Spider-Man finds her though and, thinking she’s an impostor, attempts to apprehend her. She eventually uses her own super agility and web-shooters to lose him, which confuses Peter. She tracks down Spyral who claims the only way to get back to their own time is for both of them to enter the time portal together. She agrees, but Spider-Man and Human Torch find them just as they’re about to go in. Johnny tries to apprehend both of them, but Peter calls him off, trusting May. Before entering the portal, May accidentally refers to Peter as ‘Dad’.
Spider-Girl Leading Team Spider
Spider-Girl was faced with other specters from her father’s past, including the near-invincible Black Tarantula. The Tarantula arrived from and selected May Parker to be the perfect young woman to carry his bloodline. Creating “Team Spider” to supposedly help May in her war on evil, he tried a twisted mind-game to win May’s heart, while seeking to strengthen his grip the criminal infrastructure. She also fought the Savage Six, and fought Aftershock (Electro‘s daughter). In a battle with the electricity-controlling super-villain named Killerwatt an attack severely shocked Spider-Girl,
May gives up being Spider-Girl
Following a battle with Hobgoblin which nearly resulted in her death, May promised to give up costumed super heroics, dated Gene Thompson, and ran for student council. When Mary Jane became aware that the Hobgoblin posed a threat to her daughter’s teenage friends, she allowed Mayday to resume her activities as Spider-Girl (a situation they wanted to keep secret from Peter). After a battle with the Hobgoblin, May told her father the truth and after a conversation with Mary Jane, they allowed May to resume her Spider-Girl identity.
Carnage
After an attempt at helping the S.H.I.E.L.D. government agency, a case filled with a piece of the Carnage symbiote was released. It attaches itself to May’s friend Moose Mansfield, who becomes the new Carnage. In exchange, Carnage promises it will bond itself to Moose’s terminally ill father, curing him in the process. Carnage causes a stir at May’s school and kidnaps her dad and Baby Ben, forcing May to confront her friend. May tries to talk to Moose within the symbiote but fails, and it bonds with her brother Ben. Peter escapes as May battles the two symbiotes and gathers the sonic equipment of Reverb from police custody in an attempt to defeat the symbiote. She gives it to her father, but he is wary of causing harm to his son. However May uses the weapon, thereby destroying the piece of the Carnage symbiote. Her success is not without a measure of collateral damage as well, however; not only is Moose furious at Spider-Girl for dooming his father, but the sonic weapon renders Ben deaf, possibly forever.
May Breaks-Up with Gene Thompson
Ben’s hearing is eventually restored thanks to the intervention of Normie Osborn. Normie later stumbles on one of Norman Osborn’s former labs, and discovers a fluid tank containing what appears to be a physical duplicate of Mayday Parker. Notes left behind by his grandfather indicate that this Mayday is the original he kidnapped years ago, hinting that the Mayday who has lived a full life is yet another clone. Mayday continues to date Gene Thompson, but her jealously over Gene’s relationship with Simone DeSantos enrages and confuses her, she has found some mild release from her problems due to her close friendship with Wes Westin, which in turn has incensed Gene.
During an encounter between the three in a bar, Gene almost knocks out Wes with a firm fist, but the punch is blocked by a concerned Mayday. Gene’s punch being obstructed by Mayday humiliates him in front of his entire football team. Mayday eventually starts to feel the weight of her relationship, and chews out Wes for intervening on her behalf. Wes, however, remains deeply concerned about Mayday and discovers a plot by Simone to blackmail Gene and discredit her in front of the entire High School.
May Clone’s April Parker
Meanwhile, Fury The Goblin Queen activates a signal that awakens the Mayday Clone inhabiting the tank within Osborn’s labs, and she escapes, confronting Mayday on the roof of her high school just as she is changing into Spider-Girl. The New May was revealed to be a human/symbiote hybrid with all the abilities of Mayday and the powers of a symbiote. The symbiote was not sentient, so the girl did not had to deal with a second consciousness in her mind. This new hybrid was all a part of Osborn’s master plan to be reborn into an immortal Goblin Creature.
He used the hybrid to fuse his mind with the bodies of May Parker, Peter Parker, and his symbiote hybrid creation. After the ensuing battle in their collective consciousness, the Parkers proved victorious and the hybrid decided to join their family. She then named herself “April” as a play-on-words with her “sister” May. She then enrolls in the same school as May calling themselves “cousins.” She also becomes the psychotic vigilante, Mayhem. It has yet to be determined which girl is the clone and which is the original – April or May. Mayday has more experience then April who jumps into battles without thinking. However, April is more vicious then Mayday and is not above killing criminals to stop them.
The Death of May Parker and Return
April eventually takes on the name “Mayhem” and embraces her symbiotic, intense, no-nonsense nature and cuts herself off from The Parker family to pursue a life as a vigilante who answers to no one. Mayday eventually sacrifices herself to save April’s life. Shocked by what had happened, April tried to assume May’s life but Ben Parker was able to realize that April was an imposter and after that Mayhem went on a rampage, killing all the various super powered criminals of New York from Funny Face to members of the Revengers. Eventually the Redeemers and Kaine were sent to deal with her but she killed them one by one. Then later, April in a battle with American Dream accidentally impaled her in a fit of anger and the government used the various pieces of the Carnage symbiote to create bio-predators from various hired mercenaries.
The Bio-peds as they were called went out of control and either destroyed and assimilated others into their numbers, put the world in chaos but in doing so, April changed her ways and fought for humanity. However, in the far future, a future incarnation of April uses Doctor Doom‘s time machine to return to the present and convince her past self to act responsibly, she does and saves Mayday’s life at the cost of her own and at the cost of the future that came to be. Mayday is later united with Wes, who reveals that he does indeed know Mayday’s true identity and they kiss, beginning a relationship.
Spider-Verse and Web Warriors
Mayday marked the end of her hiatus with her return in Amazing Spider-Man #8. Spider-Girl, Mary-Jane, Peter, Ben and Wes were attacked by Morlun‘s brother Daemos. Despite the efforts of Peter and Mayday the pair could not defeat Daemos, and was forced to flee with Benji while he murdered her family and boyfriend. While escaping her burning house, Spider-UK and Last Stand Spider-Man emerged from a portal. May tries to convince them to help her, but they state that her family is dead. May leaves with them through the portal after vowing vengeance on Daemos.
When May returns to her world with Uncle Ben and Benji she discovers that her mother and Wes survived the fire (but sadly, not her father). Mary Jane presents to May her father’s costume and states it is time for her to take up the mantle of Spider-Woman.
May has since joined the group of heroes known as the Webwarriors, whom where formed after the events of Spider-Verse and consists of members of the Spider-Army that defeated Morlun.
Powers and Abilities
Spider Powers
May possesses powers inherited from her father, including the proportionate strength, speed, and agility of a spider. While unable to lift 10 tons like her dad, she is more agile than Peter. May also has super equilibrium. She also has the subconscious premonition of danger sense known as her spider-sense. May’s spider-sense seems to be more developed than her fathers; Whereas Spider-Man could only get a feeling that a particular spot was dangerous to him (or similarly to the preservation of his secret identity), Spider-Girl is able to sense the exact direction from which the danger comes. In addition, whereas Spider-Man’s spider-sense simply registered a general sense of danger (with the strength of the response being in proportion to the amount of danger he was in), Spider-Girl can recognize sources of danger. This allows her to determine whether the danger is posed by a familiar source (such as an attack by a familiar foe) or is a new threat. This applies even if she has incomplete knowledge of the source of danger. For example, if May is being spied on by an unknown observer on several different occasions, she is able to tell if each incident involves the same, or a different observer as a previous incident.May also has a power that her father doesn’t have. May can magnetize an object by touching it. A magnetized object will stick to a wall without falling off, and she can also force an object at high speeds away from her with reverse magnetism.
Equipment
May used mechanical web-shooters based on Ben Reilly’s web-shooter design, but longer and narrower. They can fire impact webbing and metal needles called “Stingers”. May rarely uses the stingers, thinking them to be too brutal. Her mobile phone is modified to attach to one of her web-shooters, and looks like one of its cartridges. She occasionally uses spider-tracers, but as they are tuned to her father’s spider-sense and not hers, she needs a receiver to detect them. She wears a skin tight spandex unitard which she was uncomfortable with at first because of its revealing characteristics but has grown accustomed to it and even enjoys wearing it as she has been quoted as saying it feels like a second skin. When May lost her powers, she used Green Goblin’s glider and bombs.
Unarmed Combat
May has received martial arts training from the Ladyhawks and Elektra Natchios.
Physical Characteristics
- Height: 5’7″
- Weight: 119 lbs
- Eyes: Blue
- Hair: Brown
Other Versions
Earth-616
May Parker
May Parker did also exist in the main Marvel Universe – Earth-616, but it is believed she died at birth. However the events ocurred in One More Day and expanded in One Moment in Time retconned her out of existence.
Earth-9997
Mayday Parker was born with spider powers and lead a life much like Mayday in MC2 universe. After her mother, Mary Jane, died through unknown circumstances, she was raised by her father Peter (Spider-Man). It was not much later when the Terrigen Mist was released causing every normal human to mutate. At first, Peter and May tried to live as much indoor as possible. Eventually she met a young boy named David, (later known as that Universe’s Daredevil) whom turned out to be the only normal human left on Earth. Some time later, May was taken over by the Venom symbiote, when Eddie Brock was too old for it. The symbiote thought May hated her father, Spider-Man, for letting her mother, Mary Jane, die and hoped to use this hate against her. However, Mayday’s Spider-Sense was stronger than Venom anticipated, and it couldn’t control Mayday. Peter thought the symbiote was controlling her and considered her an enemy, but she managed to coexist with it. May became a hero just like her father as Spider-Girl. She was however later mind controlled by The Skull. This brought Peter out of his depression and let him to join the police force, and even release Spider-Girl from Skull’s manipulation.
Some time later Peter was gone two days when he went after Spiders Man. Spider-Girl found them trapped in an illusionary world, where Peter wanted to be with Gwen Stacy, his first love. She failed to release Peter from the illusion and started beating on Spiders Man, even went ass far as willing to kill him, that was what snapped her father out of the illusion.
Earth-1122
Another Spider-Girl exists on Earth-1122, where she is the daughter of Ben Reilly – Scarlet Spider. This Spider-Girl later joined the Heralds.
Earth-8410
The Spider-Girl of Earth-8410 (Spider-Girl 2020) wore a costume similar to Spider-Woman‘s. She has the same powers as Earth-982 Spider-Girl, plus she can fire Venom-blasts just as Spider-Woman. She is also a mutant.
Earth-91110
Though she was born a nameless baby girl at the end of “What If Spider-Man had kept his Cosmic Powers?” the first incarnation of May Parker on record was born with both the powers of Captain Universe and Spider-Man, indicating that she was conceived before The Uni-Power took Spider-Man’s powers and used them as a catalyst for its own self-sacrifice in order to unify the world. It was suggested by Uatu the Watcher that she was born because despite Earth’s unification it would still been in need of a Champion to protect it from danger.
Earth-555326
Her name isn’t known, but Spider-Woman assumes that it must be her daughter in the future. On the Earth where Next Avengers were working for Hulk (Maestro). She is killed with Hulk and old Stark by Immortus.
Earth-924
Spider-Girl of Earth-924 is a member of Calibur.
Earth-8311
The daughter of Peter Porker, the Spider-Ham, May Porker continues her father’s legacy as Swiney-Girl.
What If The Scarlet Witch Ended ‘House of M’ By Saying, “No More Powers?”
Only a week after every Superhero and Mutant on the planet loses their abilities Mary Jane reveals to Peter that she’s pregnant with their child. Nearly two months later as Peter and Mary Jane are setting up the baby’s room they witness Reed Richards‘ lifeless corpse being tossed onto a Swastika-decorated stage by a Cosmic Cube-wielding Red Skull garbed in Doctor Doom’s uniform. Taking his old web-shooters which still had some of their fluid left in them Peter goes out, destroys the Cube and leads all of New York City against The Red Skull and his army of A.I.M., HYDRA and The Hand minions. Thirty years later at the old Avengers Mansion Memorial Statue Garden a version of May (who’s at the very least in her mid-twenties and is practically the spitting image of her Mother) and a much older version of Peter are watching May’s daughter Anna play just as Tony Stark arrives to pay his respects to every powerless superhero who died fighting the Red Skull. Peter and Tony briefly reflect on what it was like to have powers and if there will ever be another generation of superheroes. Tony and Peter briefly look over at both May and Anna while Peter remarks that perhaps one day when the time is just right the Earth will see the rise of a whole new generation of superheroes.
Spectacular Spider-Man (UK)
In the UK/Panini kids publication, Spectacular Spider-Man, it is revealed in this continuity that Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson will have a daughter in the future. This version of Mayday Parker has much in common with her MC2 counterpart, she shares the same costume, powers and her father retires due to an injury to his leg. She met up with the present day version of her father when he traveled to the future believing him to be, at first, an imposter Spider-Man but felt that she could trust him as they team up to take down the Sandman. Spider-Man returns to his timeline and Spider-Girl returns home to her parents where her father reveals that the Spider-Man she encounter that day was a past version of himself and he didn’t tell her that this would occur as to not put any of the past or future at risk.
May would again meet her father in his past when Lady Octopus travels from the future, using a device made by the Tinkerer, to kill Spider-Man. Using the Tinkerer’s device to follow Lady Octopus, Spider-Girl helps her father defeat her and she travels back to her timeline with the defeated Lady Octopus. Before returning to her timeline Spider-Girl and Spider-Man shared a few words. Spider-Man said that he knows he will find out about her one day but in the meantime he tells her “With Great Power…” Spider-Girl finishes the line, “Comes Great Responsibility? Like I’d ever forget.”
Other Media
Video Games
Marvel Ultimate Alliance
Spider-Girl makes an appearance as an alternate costume for Spider-Woman.
Marvel Super Hero Squad Online
Spider-Girl is a playable character in the 2011 PC and Macintosh massively multiplayer online role-playing game Marvel Super Hero Squad Online. She is voiced by Tara Strong
Her Description says: No one knows the secret identity of this mysterious girl who looks like Spider-Man, but everyone knows that she’s awesome!
She gets a second costume with her black suit desing, this alternate bio says: Here comes ‘Mayday’ Parker in her sleek black costume, ready for battle!
Marvel Heroes
Spider-Girl appears as a enhanced costume for Spider-Man. She is voiced by Mary Faber.
Marvel Mighty Heroes
Spider-Girl is a playable character in the game.
Marvel: Avengers Alliance
Mayday, as Amazing Spider-Woman, is a playable character in the game. She can be recruited via using command points. She was released in the Spider-Girl costume too.
Her bio says: In an alternate reality, Peter Parker married Mary Jane Watson and had a daughter, May “Mayday” Parker. Inheriting her father’s powers, Mayday donned Ben Reilly’s old costume in order to confront the new Green Goblin. Against her parents’ initial misgiving, she continued being a superhero. After her father’s death at the hand of the Inheritors, May rechristened herself the Amazing Spider-Woman, continuing on with the tradition that with great power comes great responsibility.
Merchandise
- Spider-Girl was featured in the Famous Covers line from ToyBiz.
- Spider-Girl was featured in ToyBiz’s 1st Appearances action figure line.
- Spider-Girl was featured in ToyBiz’s Spider-Man and Friends line of child-friendly figures.
- Bowen Designs created a Spider-Girl bust.
- Dynamic Forces created a Spider-Girl bust based on Alex’s Ross‘ Earth X artwork.
- Spider-Girl was featured in Diamond Select’s Minimates line as part of a two-pack with a Guardsman.
- Spider-Girl appears in the HeroClix figure game.
- Spider-Girl was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Hobgoblin Build-a-Figure wave.