Amazing Spider-Man #637

[cyberghostface]

So, quick recap. Kraven's family killed Spider-Man to resurrect Kraven. Turns out they killed Kaine instead, so now Kraven's stuck in a "living death"--unable to die unless at the hands of Spider-Man. So Kraven's pissed off at his family, needless to say.


Sasha Kravinoff slits Madame Web's throat. In her dying moments, Web transfers her psychic abilities to Arachne.




That's right. Spidey just tore off her face. Granted, it's not as if she didn't have it coming, but... Spidey just tore off her face.



So Arachne (is that what she's called?) shows how Spidey killing Kraven will essentially destroy him and turn him into a monster. Granted, I can imagine it being a slippery slope, but Kraven's essentially in a state of suffering and "living death" against his will, so would putting him out of his misery be that much off a horrible thing?



Somehow I think J. M. DeMatteis is saying the same exact thing as Kraven right now.



So later, the Spider crew visit Kaine's grave. Arachne's blind and the new Madam Web, and now Arana has taken her place (wearing her Arachne's costume). Only she still wants to be called Arana, saying that the name "Spider-Girl" is "corny and makes you want to puke".  Nice.

Kraven and his family escape to the Savage Land to rebuild his family. Sasha wants nothing to do with it, calling Kraven a coward. Kraven snaps her neck.  Alyosha flees. Kraven's daughter stays with him, and to prove herself she goes off to hunt and kill Alyosha. And thus the story ends.

EDIT: Turns out I was wrong. The very last page shows Kaine rising from his grave as some mutated Tarantula-man. Yeahbuhwhah?

And somewhere, J. M. DeMatteis is probably drinking himself into a stupor now.
 

Comments

[skalja]

It's such a disservice to BOTH Spider-Girl and Araña - Spider-Girl because it makes her less accessible to new fans because of name confusion, and Araña because it erases her Hispanic identity. Apparently teen girl characters are interchangeable, though, which is why out of the three spider-powered ones, this story just killed one and grafted another's name onto the third, who also got an older female character's costume. WTF.

[stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

It'll be a disservice when and if it happens. Right now it's nothing more than a running gag, and I really can't imagine that the Cuban editor-in-chief of Marvel is going to deliberately de-Latina Araña, particularly when he's very specifically proud of having introduced more South American superheroes during his run as EIC.

She's even over in Young Allies speaking Spanish and translating for Rikki as of last week.

[skalja]

Whether or not the name will stick in-story, they are certainly advertising Araña as "the new Spider-Girl" in solicits.

[stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

I'm seeing a lot of rumors on the subject after a Google, but I'm not seeing it in solicits.

Even if they do have her taking up the name - although it'd be funny if it was just the name of the book as an attempt to get more sales, and she was complaining the entire time that she's still Araña - I'm not seeing how it "erases her Hispanic identity." If she gets her own book, I'd imagine she'd still be Puerto Rican outside of the costume, much like how McKeever goes out of his way in YA to establish her racial identity.

[outlawpoet]

At least Araña hasn't shown up blonde and white anywhere yet.

[twigcollins]

I always thought they had detailed character bibles for this sort of thing but *glances at Conner* not so much these days.