If you caught the preview in last week's issue of Amazing Spider-Man, you're probably curious about the all new Spider-Girl swinging through the New York skyline these days. The wall-crawler formerly known as Araña was recently de-powered and thrust into the role of Spider-Girl in the "Grim Hunt" storyline, and now she's got her very own solo series written by Paul Tobin and drawn by Clayton Henry.
I talked to Tobin about the character and her new book, out this week.
Paul Montgomery: This week sees a fresh new start for Anya Corazon in the role of Spider-Girl. Just as a refresher, what's changed in her power-set, and how does she feel about this big change?
Paul Tobin: Other than being trained by some of Marvel's best fighters, Spider-Girl is out there facing the bad guys with no powers at all, which makes it all a far more unique challenge than it use to be. She can't be as impulsive as she once was, when the blue body armor could act as a temporary bailout. A lot more thought is going to go into what she does.
As far as how she feels about the change. It's a mix. When she became Arana, she was kind of thrown into the mix with little regard to what she wanted to do in life. Because of that, there were some negative connotations in her mind. Now, she's her own person, and I think she feels better about herself than she has in a long time. Still… there are times that the enhanced speed / power of her old days would come in handy. It's definitely something that plays on her mind.
PM: As seen in the preview for the first issue, you've employed a Spider-Girl's personal Twitter feed in the place of thought balloons or caption boxes. Can you talk a little about this concept? I know there's also a corresponding Twitter account that readers can actually follow as well…
PT: The Twitter feed came from something that was happening in the book as I began scripting, and that frankly happens in almost everything I write… I simply wanted to tell MORE. I wanted to get more into the thoughts of the main character… tell more of the story. Using Twitter as a story-telling tool allows me to expand on her thoughts. I'm not confined to 22 pages. Because of this Anya / Spider-Girl can wax poetic about her life, or the cute boy she's swinging past, or how she has to do her laundry… but do some of that on twitter and leave room for her to deal with the Red Hulk in the comic.
All of the twitter-style captions in the comic will appear online, but there's "extra" online. And of course I'm making sure that the comic exists as a separate entity. There's Absolutely No Need for a reader to go on twitter in order to get the complete stories. I'm just dealing with Twitter as "dvd extras."
PM: Who is Spider-Girl? Where does her voice come from?
PT: She's a 16 year old girl that feels that same sense of responsibility that drives Peter Parker. She's seen an enormous amount of horrible events / villains in her life, and she's determined to fight to make it all better for the next person in line. At the same time, she enjoys life… enjoys being with her friends, being someone who laughs. It's that enjoyment that makes fighting the bad guys all that much more important to her. I never want her to be the type of hero that wants nothing more than to stop bad people… I want her to help good people.
PM: What circle does Spider-Girl run in? Will we see any interaction with the Young Allies?
PT: She's establishing a group of friends in the first few issues. There's Rocky Flint, a girl that goes to school with Anya. And there's Sue Richards… the Invisible Woman. And I'll be moving over a character that's so far only seen print in the Marvel Adventures line. And Rikki Barnes certainly exists in Anya's life as well. Plus… Spider-Girl, after accepting who she is, and the Spider-Girl name, definitely wouldn't mind hanging out with Spider-Man now and then. Wouldn't anyone?
PM: What is her relationship with her father? Is he her Aunt May? Her Uncle Ben?
PT: Neither, really. He's first and foremost her dad. He's a man that taught her a lot of her ideals… his own quest for truth (in his role as a reporter) is the catalyst for the first storyline. And Gil is a father that has to, on a daily basis, know his daughter is out there as Spider-Girl, and that an impressive collection of the World's Most Dangerous people want her dead… so there's definitely some interplay there. He's come to accept it, though… he can't very well tell his daughter to back down when they both know HE wouldn't.
PM: Is the spider on Anya's costume a big target for Spidey's rogues gallery? Is she ready for that kind of attention?
PT: A target? Yeah. You could say that. She's definitely going to have to swim in those waters and fight a few of those sharks. As far as being ready for that kind of attention… she's just going to have to deal with it… on rather a pass / fail basis.
PM: What's next? Any hints at future threats?
PT: Sure. I think we've all seen that some of the first covers have a sort of "red and heavily muscled" theme, and let's just say that a certain grim family thinks hunting season isn't quite over.
Spider-Girl #1 debuts in stores this week.
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I’m thinking of trying this book just on the strength of the character design!
Looking forward to this one! Anya & Rikki 4evar.
Sounds interesting and the character was quite interesting in the Grim Hunt story. One to watch.
She must have some power left. No way one can swing around like that without the extraordinary musculature. Just sayin’.