Across the Spider

Spider-Girl's original solo series holds a very special record in Marvel Comics, highlighting the importance and popularity of Spider-Man's daughter.

May Parker is introduced in Across the Spider-Verse as the infant daughter of Peter B. Parker and his timeline's Mary Jane Watson. The cute little girl is shown to already possess the abilities she inherited from her father and accompanies him throughout the film. However, May has an even deeper history in the comics, becoming an unexpected fan-favorite after debuting in What If...?.

On top of gradually becoming one of the most important multiversal Spider-Heroes, May Parker still holds an impressive record. Spider-Girl's original solo series -- which debuted twenty-five years ago -- remains Marvel's longest-running series with a female title character. As a result, May has transformed into one of the Spider-Verse's best characters.

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Spider-Girl debuted in What If...? #105 (by Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, Matt Webb, and Chris Eliopoulos) as one of the heroes of Earth-982. Eventually dubbed the MC2 Universe, this was a world where Marvel heroes actually aged, with many eventually retiring or dying. Almost two decades later, a new generation of heroes realizes their potential and fills the roles left by their predecessors. This includes May Parker, a teenage girl who realizes her father is the now-retired Spider-Man and takes on the mantle to protect him from Normie Osborn.

The success of the story prompted a miniseries further exploring the character and her world, expanding May's supporting cast and rogues' gallery. What initially had been intended as a miniseries soon turned into an ongoing comic. The series' dedicated fans kept the comic going for years. Overall, the original Spider-Girl ran for 102 issues, making it the longest-running Marvel ongoing series with a female lead.

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Spider-Girl went on to become one of the multiverse's most distinct and memorable Spider-Heroes, giving her important roles in many major events. She played a huge part in the build-up to Spider-Verse after her father was killed by the Inheritors, and was an important supporting figure in that event as well as the subsequent Web-Warriors and Spider-Geddon storylines. May became a more confident hero during this period, pushed to accept her role as Spider-Woman in light of her father's apparent death.

May even retains a potentially vital role in the future of the core-Marvel Universe, with Mephisto teasing that Spider-Girl would be the crux to his ultimate defeat. Seeing Spider-Girl as a baby is a fun new way for fans of the older character to view her in a new light. But given the ending of Across the Spider-Verse, May's cinematic counterpart just might get a chance to show off her potential and prove why Spider-Girl fans have long defended the character.

Brandon Zachary is a Senior Writer with Comic Book Resources and has written for CBR since 2018. He covers breakouts on comics, film, television, video games, and anime. He also conducts industry interviews, is a Rotten Tomatoes certified film critic, and knows a LOT about the X-Men. For requests, comments, or to hear his pitch for a third Avatar series that incorporates robots, you can reach him at [email protected]