Now that all the characters are in the know, it’s time for them to find Rodrigo … before it’s too late!!
And, on a totally unrelated note, I’d like to recommend a new comic coming out today. Sadly, it’s the final appearance of the daughter of Spider-Man, May “Mayday” Parker, in Spider-Girl: The End. With Marvel giving her name to a different character in a couple of months, they’ve signalled – rather strongly – that it’s finally the end for this 13-year old franchise, which has been propelled from the beginning by writer Tom DeFalco and (for most of the issues) artist Ron Frenz.
It’s not only the last appearance of this character and her cast, but likely one less appearance of the classic Marvel style of storytelling, one driven by words and pictures working in tandem, rather than the illustrated dialog so in vogue with most modern comics.
While, surprisingly, Marvel does have a final Spider-girl collection in the works, they have no real incentive to keep these trades in print, given that they’ll immediately have a new and different Spider-Girl to promote. The dubious logic of that move given the “failure” of the Spider-Girl brand is another question, one nicely articulated by Defalco (a former Marvel EIC) himself in this interview: “As a former editor, I think Marvel is committing marketing suicide by switching the name and launching a “new” Spider-Girl series so quickly… If [readers] didn’t order or read Spider-Girl last week, they won’t suddenly order or buy her next–even though it’s a “new” character. I believe Marvel would have been better served if they had waited a year or so before re-naming Arana.”
Supposedly, DeFalco and Frenz have a new gig at Marvel, and I wish them the best with it. (my hope? They’re put to work on Marvel Adventures Spider-Man, where they could keep doing work that they and their fans enjoy, without being shackled to the mainline post-Civil War Marvel Universe) They’re a great team that work really well together and I look forward to seeing what they do next, whether at Marvel or somewhere else.
Spider-Girl: The End should be a fine example of their work together, a classy send-off to a much-loved character and concept, and a darn entertaining comic. Check it out for yourself while you still can!
Watusi the Talking Dog 
Poor Rodrigio! He just can’t catch a break!
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I’ll try to keep him on the sleazy side when he appears again – I don’t want you to be conflicted about disliking him, after all…
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Gah! I didn’t recognize Dr. Gutierrez – obviously not paying enough attention to the details. Looks like the players are coming together now, so something surprising is bound to happen soon.
And to your unrelated note, re: Spider-Girl: The End, the story was as good as expected, and perhaps even a little better. I agree with your comments about the series, and with the DeFalco quote you mentioned. I made a point of taking the title off my pull list at my comic shop, because I don’t want anyone to pull the “new” Spider-Girl for me. There’s even a little dig at the change in the dialogue of the issue, when May tells April/Mayhem that calling herself Spider-Girl doesn’t make her a hero and that there’s more to being Spider-Girl than just using the name
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Yep, with everyone caught up to speed (as far as they can tell, at least), things will be reaching the boiling point soon enough!
I was pretty happy with “The End”, too – I thought it wrapped things up well, yet ended on an appropriately hopeful note. And it looks like this will be the next DeFalco/Frenz project. Seems I have some back issue reading to do before then …
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If I find any Thunderstrike issues in the bargain bins I might take a look at them. I’ve got a few that I bought way back when because a certain webbed character was in them, but those were the only issues I read. Fortunately, the Watusi story line is more interesting than that. (Had to bring it back on topic SOMEHOW.)
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How come the translation from Spanish was incomplete? If you’re putting the dialog in both languages, I don’t think you should be using the “translated” brackets around it.
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Good point! I’m struggling with the best way to include some local color in the dialog, yet be able to have these characters talk intelligently … and haven’t yet found that happy medium. I’ll keep working at it!
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I can hear the Dragnet Theme in my head as I read this strip. 😉
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Hopefully that can be replaced by the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” theme in a little while …
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I got the “Spider-Girl-The End” this weekend. I was sad about it, but it was a good read. Won’t be picking up the “new” book.
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Me either … but the new Thunderstrike series has me reading the DeFalco/Frenz runs on Thor and Thunderstrike – while I’ve accumulated nearly all of the issues, I’ve read only a handful of them so far. Guess I’ve got a couple of months to get up to speed with them, tho!
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