The Marvel title, Spider-Girl has been around for quite a few years now. It’s dodged the cancellation bullet a number of times, but apparently, #100 will be it for “Mayday” Parker. That book, written by one of the last old-school Marvel scribes, Tom DeFalco, was launched in 1998 alongside two other titles
(A-Next and J2) under the MC2 (Marvel Comics 2) banner.

Both A-Next and J2 ended and were replaced by two other MC2 series, Fantastic Five and the quirky little book we’ll be taking a look at today:

Wild Thing #1 - “”Crash Course”
Original Release Date: October 1999
Writer: Larry Hama
Artist: Ron Lim
Inker: Al Williamson
Colors: Tom Smith
Letters: Jack Morelli
Editor: Tom DeFalco
EIC: Bob Harras

Rina Logan’s not one of the rich, popular snobs that rules Upper Saddle River High School. Nope, she’s considered bottom of the barrel by her peers. Today, for example, Cameron Bryce-Jones, the uppity type, takes the opportunity to remind Rina of her place by slamming the poor girl’s locker door on her head.

Not all people at the school are like Cameron, though. Colin, Cameron’s boyfriend, has a much nicer side. He runs to the aid of Rina once he realizes just how hard Cameron slammed that locker door on her noggin. Cameron sees no use in fraternizing with someone lower than them and urges Colin to hurry up; her dad’s chauffeur is waiting outside to take the two to the country club.

Colin reluctantly leaves Rina and exits the school with Cameron. Rina watches them both leave, her eyes heavy on Colin, all the while wondering what he sees in that blonde, arrogant bimbo. Before she can complete an expletive-filled thought, a scream erupts from outside the school.

Once outside, Rina sees a man in a suit of armor clutching Cameron in his hands. The man easily swats aside the defending chauffeur as well as Colin. Rina may not have minded the bad guy taking Cameron, but once he laid a hand on Colin, that was enough for her to spring into action. Ducking behind some bushes, Rina suits up as Wild Thing!

Psychic claws spring from the backs of each hand as the angry young lady makes her way toward the armored goon. Before she can make it to him, he notices her and unleashes a repulsor blast that sends her reeling. Happy that he has no one left to attack him, the villain readies himself to leave; roller blades pop out from the bottom of the boots of his armor and a rocket pack kicks in. The goon quickly exits the area, shouting his codename, “Thrash Bandit” to all who can hear!

Rina recovers and finds Colin standing around not knowing what to do. She tells him to get in the chauffeur’s vehicle and follow Thrash Bandit. Colin agrees, despite having nothing more than a learner’s permit for driving. Wild Thing jumps on the hood and steadies herself for the ride.

Meanwhile, Thrash Bandit, using his cell phone, has called up the father of Cameron, asking for twenty-five million dollars for her safe return. Mr. Bryce-Jones attempts to get the villain to lower his asking price, but Thrash is doing no such thing! The two continue their phone conversation, but it ends up being cut short as Wild Thing and Colin catch up to the speeding baddie and his hostage. With some fancy cross-traffic vehicle jumping, Wild Thing jabs her psychic knives into Thrash’s helmet, disrupting his thoughts. Unable to concentrate, Thrash throws Cameron across moving traffic… into the waiting hands of Wild Thing!

Thrash Bandit, unable to continue any longer due to the mental pain caused by Wild’s psychic knives, gives himself up to the police. As for our heroes, Colin, Wild Thing, and Cameron head back to their high school. As they travel, Cameron tells them about her father’s attempt at making a deal with the villain, turning the ride back rather somber.

Once back at the school a familiar figure stands at the front steps. Colin and Cameron approach and the short, hairy guy asks if they’ve seen his daughter, Rina Logan. Cameron tells him that she hasn’t seen the girl since Wild Thing showed up a little while ago. Upon speaking Wild Thing’s name, she and Colin realize the young hero is no longer with them. Just then Rina shows up and greets her dad. With a quick “good-bye” to her peers, Rina and her father climb onto a motorcycle and speed off.

As the two ride through the city, Rina asks her dad what he would do if she was ever kidnapped. Would he pay a ransom? Her father tells her that he wouldn’t pay a ransom; he’d find her and take care of things himself… Rina smiles, knowing her father truly cares for her.

******

This first issue of Wild Thing doesn’t sound like a masterpiece, I know, but it’s still a fun book. Larry Hama was an appropriate choice to write a book on Wolverine’s daughter due to his long and fantastic run on Wolverine. Ron Lim, one of my favorite Spider-Man artists, does a good job here. The art is very clean and matches the tone of the book perfectly.

Upon doing some research, I’ve found that the master goal of the line was to appeal to the “mass market” by not having a new reader need to rely on twenty or thirty years of continuity to understand what was taking place. Sound familiar? You might recognize this idea as one of the main reasons for the creation of Marvel’s “Ultimate” line.

Marvel had intended to sell the books in packs of twelve issues at K-Mart and Target, two places where they could easily reach the “mass market.” According to Tom DeFalco, Marvel eventually decided this wasn’t something they wanted to go through with, so they cancelled the initial books (A-Next and J2) with their respective issue twelve (Spider-Girl being the exception) and replaced those with two other books, Wild Thing and Fantastic Five. Wild Thing, Fantastic Five, and Spider-Girl went on to sell well in the Direct Market (comic stores, etc), but would eventually see cancellation (again, Spider-Girl being the exception for a time).

Spider-Girl and the some of the MC2 line are currently being collected in digests. What’s interesting about that is Spider-Girl’s not one of Marvel’s monthly best-sellers, but the digests have sold like hotcakes in the “mass market.” It sounds like Marvel’s original plan is working for them, huh?