Meet SPIDER-GIRL | Betty Brant | Marvel What If #7 

Also: WHAT-IF!? JJ's reasoning for thinking Spider-Girl's outfit was obscene wasn't different from Sasha's? "That Spider-Hussie is a MENACE! Those boots don't match that top at all!"

I'm glad you addressed the issue of the suddenly-visible pupils; that always bothered me in the original story. I wondered if it was the result of an editorial decision that was later regretted. For a while I thought that my copy of the original peter parker version had somehow been vandalized before I bought it.

@@arejay54 I think the visible pupils in the Amazing Fantasy story is just Ditko adding them to express Spider-Man's shock. At this point they were still making up the rules for Spidey (I think his spider-sense isn't mentioned until ASM #1). I know some reprints erase the pupils in this panel but I like my reprints to contain the original mistakes, like when Doc Ock calls Spider-Man "Superman", or when Stan's narration calls Peter "Peter Palmer".

Peter: I don't care if you lose your job Betty. I just want to get off watching you use your powers.

I blame the Raimi Trilogy personally.

“I’ll do anything to make sure [Aunt May and Uncle Ben] are happy. The rest of the world can hang for all I care.” - Peter Parker, Amazing Fantasy #15 Might’ve paraphrased a bit, haven’t read it in a while.

@@MemesToa I remember reading that line after getting into Spider-Man thanks to the Raimi films. Pre-spider Peter was a bigger jerk than most people remember, which made his character development all the more impactful

GenerationWest amen

You had friends in the comments, waiting with the explanation but sadly... The bell has already been rung. (I’ll see myself out)

"....and knowing is half the battle!" G.I. Joe

Casually Comics Can you do the alternate spider characters like flash and Jameson in this issue?

Other than that I find it odd that with as much knowledge as you have of comics a lot of the comments are a bit "you are my manic pixie dream girl" or "ackachulley..." comments.

maryfrancess93 Dudes will be dudes. I apologize on behalf of all men.

This issue convinced me that Peter will kill to protect a potential coffee date.

@@CasuallyComics so I'm the only one who got a damn this b**** needs to shave her armpits vibe?

Crisco Istheman the webbing in the cleavage also gave chest hair vibes. I’m a guy but I totally get it.

According to the Editor's Note in *What If the Avengers Fought Galactus* , the Watcher gives himself muscles to look "intimidating" to the Avengers. So either he can change his form to look buff, or he did a workout montage off-screen to get those gains. And given that he slugs it out with Galactus in the climax like the Charles Atlas kid, he knows how to use them.

Lol it means what it needs to mean, Spidey hears the bells!!

Someone likes Poe I guess..

So Sascha does get mre cowbell?

There is a character in the movie "A funny thing happened on the way to the forum" called Tintunabula ... go check out why.

Probably a yes and know since it is probably a spider sense reference .. My spider sense is ringing was something used I am glad we use tingling now but still

Ya know, I pretty much agree with Sasha, but, I do have to admit....once she took off the mask in the final panels, it sorta, worked, I guess, in a way!

TheMajR Payne It did 😈

She should have just had a domino mask with the web pattern then it would've worked. Peter's mask looks so wrong with that costume.

I’m pretty tempted to make it myself.

I think it's the lighter blue of the, what, Spider-Bustier? 😁 If it was the royal blue of the regular Spider-Man outfit, it would probably work better. But yeah, I remember this when it originally came out (yes, I'm THAT old!) and wondering how the under-arm webbing worked when she doesn't have sleeves!

Yes, but Miguel doesn't count, because he's the Spider-Man of 2099 when Spider-Man started his career before 1999. Since it's 2020, Peter has only been active since 2013 or later. Unless Marvel has added a year or two to the sliding scale.

@@toddnolastname4485 Marvel's sliding timescale is tricky. They said in Civil War (when he unmasked) that he got his powers when he was 15 years old. And in ASM Volume 3 (?) #1 it said that was 13 years ago when Peter got bit, so he was now 28 years old (and that was in 2014). Peter has definitely matured once Slott left the book and Spencer took over, but that's mostly due to Spencer fixing most of the characterization problems Slott had done and making Peter act responsible like he should. There have been flashbacks/retcons to the Lee/Ditko era in recent years (i.e. Learning To Crawl mini-series) where they have done some updates to make it so that it doesn't take place in the 1960s (i.e. personal computers) but there are also things they leave in that definitely set it in the 1960s. It's like Marvel wants to have its cake and eat it too. They want Spidey's origin to remain in the 1960s, but they also want it to be "13 years ago" from present-day Spidey.

No, she's the tintinnabulate fan

@@ezraho8449 I dont think they knew what that word meant........

Then who is the ultimate fan girl?

@@markwalker3484 my baby mama

Idk if that was a typo, but penultimate means second last (This gives me vibes like you've been killing Fangirls and Sasha is your penultimate victim)

I would love a video on how the Marvel employees are recurring characters in the early FF run.

I LOVED that issue!!

@@jhornacek seconded!

Yeah right ? We all know it should have been a red webbed one piece swimsuit, bare legs but with full length blue sleeves with red webbed gloves and boots with a giant Power Girl hole for the bosom !

The great fabric shortage of the 30th century lol

Casually Comics “it’s not cold in space, not at all”

It was cool to see that she knows about the LSH. A lot of modern comic fans don't seem to know or care about them so it's nice when a reference, even a small one, is made.

John Boehmer It had a good tv show tho

Maybe the Spider Bite cause the bad luck

@@RyanConIon If there's anything common between every single reality of Peter Parkers, it's that he always ends up with the hottest girls, it's literally a meme now.

In AF #15 and the first ASM issues Peter has no luck with women but as he becomes more confident with being Spider-Man he really matures and gains confidence as Peter Parker. He is talking back to Flash, something a pre-spider bite Peter would never do. And he asks Liz out more than once in a normal way, and not the "Gosh, would you, I mean, I wanted to ..." way he asks the girl (Sally?) to the science demonstration in AF #15. The first instance of Peter being Smooth AF with women is the end of ASM #7 (?) with the Vulture returning. He's sitting in the Bugle behind Betty's desk with Betty and he's acting very smooth with her. We don't see anything but it's heavily implied they make out off panel as the issue ends.

Peter Parker is basicly a harem main character with a personality.

My first spider-girl. I love them all, but she's still my fave. She was so 90's spunky.

@@maryfrancess93 Marvel's been collecting her series in TPB so ive been reading it and I really like what I've read so far. I figure if Sony wants to make that female lead spiderverse spin-off, they should just go to peter b parker's universe and do mayday's story since he gets back with MJ there.

there were so many instances of Peter prooooobably having sex with girls in the early years that it is downright insulting to the readers that the mandated change in Sins Past was that Gwen's twins couldn't have been Peter's because ew, premarital sex, icky

​@@aceshighdueceslow There were never any instances during the Lee/Ditko run of Peter having sex with anyone - I don't think they ever show him kissing either Betty or Liz. During the Lee/Romita run he kisses Gwen *a lot* but there is never any indication that ever have sex (even though Peter thinks about proposing to her). After Gwen dies he's in mourning for awhile. It's widely believed that at the end of ASM #149 when MJ is in his apartment and Peter closes the door, that the two of them sleep with each other, and that's the first time Peter has sex. If you actually look at the Peter/Gwen romance, it fits in with the Sins Past statement that Peter and Gwen never had sex. They were in love but there was never any indication that it went beyond kissing. Plus it's also widely accepted that Peter and Betty have sex after she comes home from her honeymoon with Ned. So it's not like Marvel was saying (even years before Sins Past) that Peter never had pre-marital sex - it's just that he's a monogamous guy and doesn't rush into things.

@@jhornacek fair enough, I may be getting my wires crossed of what was actually shown in the early run with reinterpretations from newer stuff, such as things like Spider-Man Blue where it's implied pretty heavily what happens after Gwen asks "will you be my valentine?" All that aside my hate is more directed at the character assassination that is done because Joe Quesada just absolutely refuses to allow Peter to grow up or be a stable person in the main continuity. OMD was awful for many reasons but Sins Past is absolutely my least favourite arc in any comic because it does Gwen so dirty. At least in the aftermath of OMD MJ and other characters are still around to be redeemed by better writers and stories later but Gwen is still dead, so we are just having her memory dragged through the mud

@@aceshighdueceslow For all its praises (mostly the beautiful art), SM Blue gets a lot wrong with continuity - characters appear in the wrong order, people appear that shouldn't appear until later (or earlier), etc. It's basically a retcon of Peter and Gwen's relationship, told in the present as Peter talking into a tape recorder (?) so of course he's looking back at it through rose-colored glasses. Fully agree on the Quesada hate. Although his business sense saved Marvel as a company, he will forever be one of Spidey's arch-villains (along with Tony Stark) as someone who set out to "save" the character and ended up destroying him. As far as Sins Past, the first half of it is great but it falls apart in the second part. JMS admitted he wanted Peter to be the father but Marvel said no so instead of throwing out the story he went ahead with it and made Norman the father (he says he was told that OMD was already planned and he was told he was going to be able to retcon the Stacey twins out of existence with the Mephisto deal, so at least he thought the twins birth would never have happened). If you're interested there's an article on the Crawl Space website about what works in Sins Past, what doesn't, its legacy, and how it fits into established continuity. The author's explanation was so detailed and researched that Marvel recognized it as the official explanation of when and how Norman and Gwen hooked up.

lol Hal "Hot Mess" Jordan and his BDE (Big Disaster Energy) give me life.

I think the comic shop I work at has one of those issues. We've had it forever! I wish I was more fluent in Spanish. Nobody wants it.

Marvel writers some years after that What If? "holy shit, we should totally make an actual series out of this idea"

So much...so so much lol

Boz Comics Lol. I almost ship the costume, except, a: it's Not full cover, which means u gotta stop it clashing. Either a tanning booth, or you can knock back the primary's a couple shades. That doesn't Have to imply she's not poisonous. The copperhead is Not scarlet, and the Mamba is Totally Camo. So there's no reason Spider Girl has to have a madly clashing rig. An b: the other reason I don't ship is personal, an has to do with my preference for a few sparkly wisps as a costume. Oyea, y'all object to the cold. Hate to tell you this but really healthy people don't notice a few degrees extra- either cold OR hot. Btw, don't try that last at home. Ima totally badass hero an ur NOT.

Bad design. Just bad and awkward design.

Boz Comics Ok, so, it's a crappy costume. Any decent Couturier could beat it to death without even trying- but maybe she's never made a costume before. 👻😎

'That Spider-Man, he's a hussie!' - JJ Jameson

If only.

One of the first comics I ever bought myself was a collection of the first few issues of Spider-Girl, I got it from a small comic shop alongside a collection of older issues redrawn with a more modern art style, and the last issue of the Sins Past arc which confused me a bit as a child but I now debate whether or not to burn it. On a different note, I legit thought the Spider-Girl comic was the destined future for the mainline Marvel comics when I first read it as a young-un, since her debut What If issue was simply marked as Issue 0, the idea of legacy superheroes was planted in my mind thanks to watching reruns of Batman TAS alongside Batman Beyond, and (most importantly) my 9-year-old brain was blissfully unaware of the weirdness that is the Comic Book Multiverse.

So what you're saying is the bell has already been rung lol oh god it's all coming full circle.