favorite fight scenes: the amazing Spider-Girl versus the amazing Spider-Man

It's ironic to me that I've been so often distressed in recent years by the lack of positively portrayed female heroines in comics. When I was eleven, my local comic book store was full to bursting with them. This is a short fight scene, but I've always loved it.

Back in 1998, Marvel started a line of alternate universe comics, called "Marvel 2", exploring a possible alternate-future generation of heroes. The most popular of these comics was The Amazing Spider-Girl, a title a) ran longer than any other female character solo book Marvel has ever had so far, and b) survived both the collapse of the Marvel 2 line and cancellation a landmark three times throughout the course of it's run, eventually ending in 2009. The premise centered around Peter and Mary Jane's daughter, May (nicknamed "Mayday") who inherited her father's spider-powers and became Spider-Girl (while dealing with the ordinary things that suck about being a teenager.)

To me, the best thing about the series was its blend of realistic tension with superhero fantasy. As a kid, I identified with May. Unlike the vast majority of superhero characters I read about, most of whom were orphans or aliens, May was an only child who came from loving and supportive two-parent, middle-class household, just like I did. I also identified with her insecurity. Mayday spent a lot of time trying to do the right thing, and a lot of time questioning herself. She did have confidence, but she always agonized over her choices as she made them, even while she faced forward. As a preadolescent, I had no sense of scale: every big thing that happened felt like it was something that would always be important in the Grand Scheme of Life. None of my choices were life and death as Mayday's were, but they felt big because I'd never experienced them before. Such is the short sighted narcissism of youth.

One of it's high points of the series for me was in issues #10 and #11 in which May accidentally traveled back in time only to bump into dear old dad in his teenage heyday.

Naturally, it isn't long before Mayday sneaks off to slip into her second skin, and of course, this happens:

Pat Oliffe's artwork is wonderfully fluid and dynamic here, and Tom DeFalco nails the classic Spidey wit. A bit of Peter's  false bravado comes through, something Mayday doesn't get to see from her dad when he's training her or yelling at her to do her homework.

(Love the McFarlane inspired webbing!!! Because I am that kind of nerd.)

One of the things I now love about this scene is something subtextual that I totally missed as a child: Mayday doesn't know that constant fear and teenage insecurity are ever present pieces of what makes Peter Parker into Spider-Man (particularly in the classic Lee & Ditko Spider-Man comics on which this version of Peter's past is obviously based.) Spider-Man was not an Avenger in the early days (and didn't officially become a team member until 2005) and, as is revealed later, he and Johnny Storm hadn't even developed their legendary  making-breakfast-for-each-other domesticity bromance yet. If Spider-Man was in trouble, chances are he was on his own.

Before they can continue, Peter takes off to save someone. I love that. Don't you love that? It's so true to the character. It's the way it had to go. Spider-Man talks a big game, but Peter's defining quality is that he's never chosen personal pride over his obligation to Do the Right Thing once in the years since Uncle Ben died.

As for Mayday, it takes her another ten or so issues or for her to decide that she's truly equal to the task of being Spider-Girl. Like all of us at sixteen, she doesn't understand that our true strengths are usually things we fail to appreciate about ourselves because they're so instinctual that we take them for granted. She is every inch her father's daughter.

(The scene here is collected  in the first volume of Spider-Girl trade paperbacks, and is available for purchase used on amazon for as little as $3 USD.)