Spider-Girl (vol. 2) #3

Dec 26

Dec 26 Spider-Girl (vol. 2) #3

A Certain Point of View

Anya Corazón is still coming to terms with the death of her father. One of the hardest things she is trying to cope with is how expensive it is to support herself with her part-time job as a translator for the Munn Private library. Money is going to be even tighter if Rocky Flint convinces her to repaint the apartment to make it hers. Rocky lost her own mother three years ago and she thinks keeping shrines to her father will slow the healing process.

Anya also wonders if her father wanted her to be Spider-Girl. He was proud of what she did, but she isn’t sure he was happy. She also wonders how much he worried when he would watch the news about her exploits with the Young Allies.[1] She was thinking of quitting after her father’s death, but after hearing Rocky call Spider-Man a hero despite her mother’s death, she has decided to continue her career as a crime fighter. However, she can’t do it alone and is glad that her teammate, Nomad aka Rikki Barnes, knows her secret identity.

Later, Anya attends her father’s burial and as the priest gives his eulogy, all Anya can think about is how the Red Hulk was apparently responsible for her father’s death. After the service, Anya admits to Rocky that she still “talks” to her father by sending text messages to his phone. Rocky says that’s only natural, as she used to “talk” to her mother after her death as well. She also, once again, offers to talk if Anya needs someone to speak to.

After this, Anya packs a bag because she is staying the night over at a friend’s house. She decides to pack her Spider-Girl costume in case she needs it. On her way out, she is stopped by her neighbor Mister Goodwin, who offers to help with anything. She reminds him that he has told her this multiple times over the past few days, but thanks him. She is posting on social media about how creepy her neighbor is when she happens upon two men trying to break into a car. Rushing into a nearby alley, Anya quickly changes into Spider-Girl. However, when she returns to the scene of the crime she discovers someone else has already dealt with the car thieves.

The person responsible is the Red Hulk who tells her that they need to talk. He then grabs Spider-Girl and leaps up onto a nearby rooftop. There he pins Spider-Girl to a wall so he can tell her how things went down on the day her father died. The Red Hulk explains that, in his human form, sought out his father when one of his friends in the military died of a mysterious heart attack. He knew that it was murder and Gil wanted to help him uncover the truth. However, as they were working in the library, someone slipped the same drug into the Hulk’s coffee. Instead of killing his human form, it triggered a transformation into the Red Hulk and he lost control.

The Red Hulk then tells her that this organization, the Raven Society, was killing anyone who has found out about their secret order. Unlike AIM or Hydra, who seek world domination, this organization is only concerned with making money by any means possible. In fact, they put out an insurance policy on the Red Hulk’s friend before they murdered him. The Red Hulk then explains that when he was forced into a rampage, her father spent the last moments of his life bringing people to safety. Spider-Girl then tells him to stop talking about his father. When he asks for her father’s files on Raven, Spider-Girl insists that she is going to help bring this organization down. However, she tells the Hulk that this doesn’t get him off the hook because he is just as responsible for the death of her father as Raven is.

She ultimately decided to cancel her sleepover. She had to make up and excuse to Rocky as she didn’t want to reveal the truth about her double identity. Even when she met up with Rocky the next day to talk about her father, she couldn’t bring herself to tell her friend that she was actually Spider-Girl. She then went to Spider-Man for advice, but she found that the web-slinger didn’t really see her as Anya Corazón. That’s why she decided to go to Susan Richards, the Invisible Woman to tell her everything. She thanks Sue for listening and turning invisible while she did, as it made it easier for Anya to talk about her feelings.

With this out of the way, Sue then tells Anya that she is in the process of having Anya assigned to a legal guardian, but assures her that she can stay in the apartment. Also, the Fantastic Four have created the Gil Corazón Scholarship of which Anya will be the first recipient so she can continue her education. Anya can hardly believe this, but Sue assures her that thanks to her husband’s patents, the Fantastic Four can afford it. Sue also tells her that she’s known that Anya was a super-hero for years because her father told him. Listening to his concerns, Sue saw a lot of herself in Anya and convinced Gil to support her. Still, Sue says her father was good at keeping secrets, and that’s what made him a good reporter. He knew plenty about the Fantastic Four’s dirty laundry, something tabloids would have paid a fortune for and he kept the team’s secrets. This makes Anya really appreciate what a good man her father was and, looking at his photo, hopes he is resting in peace.