SPIDER-GIRL "Avenging Allies"

***1/2

Sorry that it's been so long since I have posted any reviews.  I have been pretty busy in life.  However, I have been doing some reading.  Some of that reading has included Marvel's "SPIDER-GIRL Avenging Allies," written by Tom DeFalco and drawn by Pat Olliffe.  This one is a graphic novel that collects Spider-Girl #12-16 and the 1999 Annual and is the third volume of Marvel's SPIDER-GIRL graphic novels.  To be honest I probably wouldn't have spent my time on a Spider-Girl book, but I happened across this one at my church's rummage sale for just a quarter.  Can't go wrong at that price!

May "Mayday" Parker is the daughter of Peter Parker, the original Spider-Man.  Mayday has inherited some of Spider-Man's abilities, including super-strength, some of his ability to stick to walls and most importantly, his agility and "Spider sense."  During this collection, she is in the process of learning how to use her abilities to combat crime and foes the likes of Darkdevil, the Avengers and the man named Kaine, who shows her the worst defeat she has ever known.  Spider-Girl also finds herself teaming up with Speedball to do battle with a Mr. Fantastic style villain named Mr. Abnormal.  Throughout the whole book, Mayday is battling her emotions, wondering if she is doing the right thing using her abilities in the same manner that her father did as Spider-Man.

As I mentioned earlier, typically this is not a book that I would have grabbed shopping by looking at the cover.  However, I'm glad that I was able to find this one at the rummage sale.  I was very pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed this novel!  Pat Olliffe  makes the book look wonderful and Tom DeFalco has always been an awesome writer in my personal opinion.  The only thing that I wasn't too crazy about with Spider-Girl, is the way that her thoughts are written in the second person.  I understand that DeFalco was trying to allow the reader to feel more like they were in fact in the story.  However, it didn't take to long to get used to how her inner thoughts were written.  I will definitely continue to look for other Spider-Girl comics.  All in all I thought that this was a very good book!  I'm going to give "SPIDER-GIRL Avenging Allies" a score of three and a half out of five stars.