Spider-Girl (MC2 universe)

 "No one dies on my watch"

Writer: Tom DeFalco

Pencils: Pat Oliffe

Inks: Various

Colours: Various

Letters: Various

Publisher: Marvel Comics

What's it about?

Spider-Girl is May Parker, the daughter of Peter Parker (Spider-Man) and Mary-Jane Watson.  This series is set in the Marvel Comics 2 (MC2) universe, a sort of What If? parallel reality where creators can explore alternative ideas.  In the main continuity May Parker was snatched from her parents shortly after birth, and is presumed dead.  In this MC2 universe she was snatched but then given back, and is now about 15 years old.  She's a regular schoolgirl - reasonable student, loves basketball and plays for the school team.  As the series starts she is just starting to exhibit her inherited spider powers, more or less the same as her Dad's.

Image on the right is from issue 56.

This series is about her life - how she dons the Spider-Girl mantle, how she deals with new villains and old heroes, how she manages school life and superheroics, and how her parents support her in her new activities.  It's a basic premise, delivered with a sense of fun and love.

Superhero Comic characters with disabilities - sensory loss

After putting together the Characters of Colour posts, I thought it was about time we highlighted other role models not commonly seen in popular culture.  Specifically, we will look at people with disabilities, (or disabled people, if you prefer) and we shall attempt to find some decent characters with mental health problems.

Daredevil/Echo: Vision Quest

Writer and Artist: David Mack
Letters: Virtual Calligraphy's Cory Petit
Publisher: Marvel Comics 

What’s it about?

Vision Quest is Maya Lopez’s story. 

Maya is a Dancer, a performance Artist, and Actress and a Boxer.  She has the extraordinary ability of being able to mimic any action or movement she sees, perfectly and without error.  This talent was first discovered at primary school when despite being Deaf, she played a complicated piece of music after seeing a musician perform it once.

Maya was first introduced in Parts of a Hole, with what felt like a solid introduction to her story.  However this book provides more detail as to her background, her relationship with her father, her Native American community, her experience of Deafness and Sign Language and her experiences growing up.

Maya Lopez describes herself as an echo – because she’s Deaf, because she has her father’s imprints upon her, because she doesn’t feel quite real in her own body.  Vision Quest sees Echo return to her Native American community to search out the Chief and seek advice on her life.  He advises her to go on a vision quest and the meat of the story is born.

Valentine Reviews - Daredevil: Yellow

written by Jeph Loeb
pencils and inks by Tim Sale
colours by Matt Hollingsworth
Publisher: Marvel

What's It About?
Daredevil: Yellow is a bitter-sweet romantic comedy. Matt Murdoch, the hero known as Daredevil, is in mourning. Karen Page, the love of his life, is dead. He needs to express his feelings and so his best friend comes up with a solution: he should write her a letter about how he feels. So Matt writes about their past, about two young lawyers who set up their own practice in New York and about the secretary they both loved, about the hero Murdoch was only just becoming and the battles that defined all their relationships.

Daredevil/Echo: Parts of a Hole

Writer: David Mack, Joe Quesada, Jimmy Palmiotti
Pencils: Joe Quesada, David Ross, Rob Haynes
Inker: Jimmy Palmiotti and Mark Morales
Colours: Richard Isanove and David Self
Letters: Comicraft's Liz Agraphiotis, Troy Peteri and Oscar Goongora
Publisher: Marvel 

What's it about?
Meet the cast.
Daredevil, aka Matt Murdock

He's a lawyer by day and a vigilante by night.  As a small child he had an accident which left him blind, this same accident heightened his other senses, beyond that of regular humans.







Echo, aka Maya Lopez

A Native American woman who is Deaf.  She has the ability to accurately mimic any physical action she sees and as such is an accomplished performer.  Her (now deceased) father was called Crazy Horse, and he worked for...

Daredevil: Wake Up

Story: Brian Michael Bendis
Painted art: David Mack

What's it about?
There's a little boy named Timmy, he's the son of a third rate supervillain named Leapfrog.  Timmy is barely talking and when he does rouse himself it is to narrates a fictional superhero fight.  All anyone knows is that Leapfrog was last seen fighting Daredevil (our hero) and is now missing.

Ben Urich is a reporter at the Daily Bugle and has taken an interest in Timmy's story.  Unfortunately neither the police nor his editor seem to think it is worthy of his time.  Nonetheless he decides to investigate and discover what has happened to put Timmy in this catatonic state.