Spider Man Books For 5 Year Old

[Vikki Nagindas]

Latelywhat with Shathra in Amazing Spider-Man, Tara in Peter Parker: Spider-Man and Scorpia in Spider-Man/Black Cat, it looks like the web-slinger has got himself a huge helping of female opponents to battle. But it was not always so. In fact, in the forty-year history of Spider-Man, women sparring partners have been few and far between. In the first 100 issues of Amazing, for instance, (back in the chivalrous 1960s and early 70s), Spidey only tangles with three women and two of those fights (with Medusa and the Black Widow) are misunderstandings with super-heroes. (The third woman and only actual villain is Princess Python and she is a member of a mostly male group.) And so, to acknowledge the changing attitudes among Spider-writers and to honor the few female opponents of the past, I am declaring 2003 to be the Year of the Woman in Lookbacks. Let's begin with the character deemed to be Spidey's opposite number (at least until all those "Spider-Women" started showing up), the character Spidey himself declares is a "female copy of myself" on this issue's cover... the aforementioned Black Widow!

The Black Widow has, over the years, gone through some changes. She started as a villainous femme fatale; a Russian spy with no super-powers who used her fancy clothes and female wiles to seduce Iron Man and make men do her bidding. She eventually teams up with Hawkeye (when Hawkeye was still a villain), initially using him as she uses all men but later falling in love with him. She gets super-abilities and a costume, goes straight, hangs with the Avengers, and breaks up with Hawkeye. (But, ulp, I'd better shut up. She'll tell you all about this herself when we get to page 3 and page 4.) This issue inaugurated another change... a new solo series and a brand-new costume.

Those of you who were with us for the Schemer Lookback, will recall that Spidey ended up trapped in a net while the Kingpin went catatonic upon learning that the Schemer was his son in disguise. When the web-swinger broke free of the net, no one in the room seemed to notice, so Spidey slipped out a window and left the Fisk family to their own devices. Now, at the start of this issue, he is still making his way home. As he web-swings past a smoke stack, he tries to clear his head. "I'm still reeling from that blow I took when I had to fight the Kingpin!" he thinks. (And he must be reeling more than he thinks since he didn't absorb any blows from the Kingpin in the previous issue.) So intent is Spidey on this non-existent blow that he doesn't even notice Natasha Romanov, known as the Black Widow, who is clinging to the smoke stack around on the other side. In the lower right-hand corner of this splash page, a caption placed inside a red ribbon promises "a sensational new costumed adventurer" but I think it really means an old adventurer in a sensational new costume. Because the Widow is still dressed in the same slightly purple, one-piece bathing suit with fishnet stockings and fishnet bodice, small cape like something worn to the opera and useless mask that looks like it was stolen from Nightwing costume that she has worn since hanging out with Hawkeye and the Avengers. Seeing the web-slinger gives the Widow ideas. She decides that Spidey is "the perfect answer to everything I need". She uses her own web line and ability to cling to walls to make her way across town back to her apartment. And she reasons, "If I could learn the secret of Spider-Man's powers and then combine them with my own, then no one would be able to stop the Black Widow!"

Once back at her apartment, she removes her costume and throws it across the room. (Sorry, guys, she keeps a sheet or a towel or something strategically placed so she might as well be wearing a parka for all the good it will do you.) Her problem is that she is haunted by memories that won't let her rest except in the "forgetfulness that action and danger can bring". Except, of course, once the action and danger are over, the memories come rushing back in again. Like now, for instance.

Natasha thinks back to that stuff I was mentioning in the introduction... back before she wore any costume other than a slinky outfit and a mink stole, back when she was coerced into being a Russian spy since her husband was being held hostage by the Politburo (a retcon that was employed to turn the Widow from a villain to a hero). She was initially teamed up with the Crimson Dynamo, battled Iron Man, got that sort-of purple costume and got into a romance with Hawkeye. The heartbreak that followed from this relationship prodded Natasha to serve with "the Avengers and the dedicated agents of Nick Fury's SHIELD". She ends up taking a SHIELD assignment that ends in the death of the Soviet hero known as the Red Guardian and then discovers that the Red Guardian was her long-lost husband. Tormented by this turn of events, Natasha must "flee from everything, from everyone who was a link to my tragic, guilt-ridden past". And so, since that time, she has been living "a life of ease and luxury as the wealthy, pleasure-seeking Madame Natasha", becoming "a leader of the jet set" and hating every minute of it. And so, at last she knows that she must become the Black Widow once again "to fulfill my destiny" and "to help me forget the haunted past". Now clad in a green dress, she steps over to a drawing table and shines a light on a costume design perched there. "In order to erase every last vestige of that past" she says, "I'll begin by designing a new costume for myself. And then, I'll search for Spider-Man!"

Speaking of Spidey, he has just made it back to his apartment and not a moment too soon. He is feeling tired and groggy and wonders if he's not coming down with an illness. All he wants to do is get inside and "hit the sack" but when he peers in the window, he sees Gwen Stacy, George Stacy, and Harry Osborn all sitting there. You may recall from the previous issue Gwen and her dad were getting so pushy with nosey questions for Pete that he hid in his bedroom, changed to Spidey, webswung into a window and pretended that he had some sort of financial deal with Parker to take pictures. He hung around on a wall outside until the intimidated Stacys left the apartment but then made the mistake of going out to search for the Schemer without ever going back inside again. Soon after, the Stacys returned and found Peter gone, which is why Gwen is so distraught now and why Harry is explaining that "I never know where [Pete] goes, Gwen, but he always comes back okay." Hanging upside-down outside, Spidey "can't bear to see Gwendy so upset". He knows that he has to get inside to comfort her soon. Besides he now feels "too shaky to stay out here much longer". Wobbling, the web-slinger wall-crawls over to his bedroom window, shoots some webbing inside, snags his clothes and shoes, heads for "the shadowy side of the building" and climbs to the roof to change. He is so unsettled that he almost slips on his way up and, once changed and in the elevator, his head throbs so much he can barely think. (And what little thinking he does is in the nature of, "I wonder how long they've been in the room?" and "How much do they suspect?" and so on.)

Taking the bull by the horns, Pete heads right into the apartment and cheerily calls out, "Hi group! Don't tell me I missed a party!" Gwen is so happy to see him that she runs right up and gives him a big hug. Harry casually reminds the Stacys that "I told you he'd be back!" But Captain Stacy is not so easily assured. Peter notices that the Captain is looking at him strangely. Then Gwen's dad asks him, "What happened to your face?" This is not a set-up for one of those old insults we used to say to each other in grade school. ("It looks like someone set it on fire and then put it out with a waffle iron", that sort of thing.) No, this is a serious question and once George asks it, then Gwen notices too. She takes Peter's face in her hands and cries out, "You've been hurt!" Sure enough, Pete has bruises all over his face from his fight with the Kingpin (which, you'll recall, never actually took place unless he's referring to the fight he had with the Kingpin in ASM #84 in which case he should have had the bruises when Gwen and George came to visit in ASM #85). And then it gets even more complicated.

Because of the act Peter put on when he tried to scare the Stacys as Spidey, Gwen is convinced that the web-slinger beat up her boyfriend. As Pete looks at himself in the mirror, Gwen pushes the point and our hero doesn't know what to say. "If I agree, she'll end up hating Spider-Man" he thinks, "but... can't tell her Peter Parker was battling the Kingpin". George asks him if he's in any trouble and Pete blows up at that. "Why does everyone keep hounding me?" he yells. Gwen grabs him by the shoulder and asks him if that's all he can say "to people who worry about you, who want to help you? Is that how you feel about a girl who loves you?"

Pete grabs Gwen by the wrist and asks her to forgive him. "I wouldn't hurt you for anything in the world" he says. If that's the case, then Gwen wants him to "Promise you'll never have anything to do with Spider-Man again!" and when Peter hesitates, she heads right for the door. Harry grabs his jacket and offers to drive the Stacys home. But Captain Stacy pauses for a moment to dispense more of that gender-equality wisdom he seems to love to give out. "Gwen is a female," he tells Pete, "and like all females she thinks with her heart!" He reminds Peter that Gwen "feels you're keeping something from her", that "that's hard to take for a girl in love", and having done his part to really mess with Pete's head, goes down to get that ride home from Harry.

Peter looks out the window and watches the car drive off. He wonders how much Captain Stacy actually suspects about him and he wishes the dizziness would pass so he could think clearly. This dizziness worries him more and more. "I've been in fights before, been injured before but never felt like this!" he says. And he starts to wonder if he's been "in one fight too many" and that his spider-powers are finally deserting him. He goes to his bedroom and picks up a textbook but he knows he is too dull and lethargic to study. And then he decides that it may be a blessing to be so groggy. "Anything's better than facing the fact that I might be losing Gwen!"

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