Comic Book / Spider-Girl

What if Peter Parker and Mary Jane's baby had survived The Clone Saga? In an Alternate Timeline (Earth-982, to be exact), the baby was rescued and returned to Mary Jane and Peter alive and well, shortly after Peter Parker retired as Spider-Man when he lost one of his legs in a fight which killed the Green Goblin. The baby grew up to become May Parker — Mayday to her friends (and to help us differentiate between her and her namesake great-aunt). The character was introduced in What If? vol. 2 #105 (February, 1998), created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz. Her costume was created by Mark Bagley.

At fifteen, May is a popular, pretty, athletic girl. She's inherited many things from her parents, like her mother's social ease, her father's smarts... and, whoops, his Spider-powers. They manifest quite suddenly during a school basketball game, where — luckily — her parents are the only ones in the crowd who realize what's going on. She's at most about half as strong as her Dad, but much more agile, and her Spider-Sense is apparently better. In an interesting twist on wall crawling, May can also stick other people to walls, or repel them with equal ease.

Needless to say, her parents have mixed reactions to all this. Nevertheless, May finds Ben Reilly's old Spider-Man costume in the attic and decides to put it on after a new Green Goblin appears (Normie Osborn, [grand]son of the originals) to menace her father, who isn't in fighting shape. Unable to secure help from other heroes, Peter reluctantly authorizes May's one-time-only appearance as Spider-Girl. Of course, she ends up enjoying the experience so much (and has had the "With great power, comes great responsibility" meme drilled into her so thoroughly) that she feels compelled to become Spider-Girl on a more permanent basis.

This series sometimes plays with the I Just Want to Be Normal trope in the way Spider-Man does, but to a lesser degree. May genuinely wants to be a superhero but angsts when it brings her into conflict with her parents, or when she messes up, or when she feels she isn't as good as she'd like to be. There are also times when she gives it up, or loses her powers temporarily... but still misses the thrill of superheroics, and lets her sense of responsibility push her back to them.

Was Marvel's longest-running comic starring a solo heroine through 102 issues (including #0 and the annual) of Spider-Girl, a relaunch/renumbering as Amazing Spider-Girl, and a further 31 issues (they just love their #0 issues in Marvel Comics 2) before final cancellation. She-Hulk might have reached #100 first, but Spider-Girl did so without ever being cancelled. Currently running as a digital comic that goes to print after a couple months' delay in the anthology title Web of Spider-Man. An announcement claimed that it would be getting a new, proper monthly series again, until it was later switched into a mini series and a The End one shot to wrap up the series and presumably the Marvel Comics 2.

She reappeared as part of Spider-Verse. At the end of Spider-Verse, she abandons the identity of Spider-Girl and becomes Spider-Woman. Mayday's story continued in Secret Wars (2015) as part of the a set of backstories within the tie-in comic of Spider-Island. She also appeared in Web Warriors, now a member of the Warriors of the Web. After the controversial developments in these events were overturned, Mayday reverted back to her Spider-Girl codename and appeared again as part of the Spider-Verse Unlimited webcomic in November of 2022.

If you're looking for the Earth 616 Spider-Girl (Anya Corazon), see Anya Corazón. If you're interested in The 'Verse, check Marvel Comics 2.

Spider-Girl provides examples of the following tropes:

• Affectionate Parody: The in-verse Spider-Girl comic by Jimmy and Wes, starring a "super" gun-wielding alien princess nothing like the real May. It was clearly a Shout-Out to the live-action Japanese Spider-Man, who also came from "Planet Spider."
• All Guys Want Cheerleaders: At first it seemed like May would join the school cheerleading squad, and one cover even showed her in the outfit, but it's becoming increasingly unlikely with each new issue.
• Almost Kiss:
  • May and Normie get two instances of almost kissing.
  • May and Franklin Richards get one, too, before Peter informs Franklin that she's underage.
• Aloof Big Brother: Darkdevil. Technically an aloof cousin slash genetic-half-brother. He's also a Sour Supporter and Sink or Swim Mentor... but he's only hard on May because he wants her to succeed and admires her determination.
• Alpha Bitch: Heather Noble, until she hooks up with May's Unlucky Childhood Friend. Simone has filled Heather's shoes quite nicely.
• Alternate Timeline: Diverges from the main universe sometime after The Clone Saga. Known as the MC2 universe.
• Annoying Younger Sibling:
  • Spider-Man II (Gerry Drew) isn't a relative, but otherwise fits the trope perfectly. The Faces lampshade it, noting he and Spider-Girl bicker like siblings.
  • May's clone "April" Parker also qualifies, given how obsessed she is with proving whether or not she's the original May Parker.
  • The Faces themselves are like this too, getting into a childish argument that Funny Face's employer has to break up.
• Anti-Hero Substitute: May's clone April Parker becomes a violent antihero known as Mayhem, who differs from Spider-Girl in that she has no qualms with killing criminals.
• Art Shift: In one issue, May starts looking like she's in Archie Comics for no apparent reason. Foreshadowing she was in a Lotus-Eater Machine without realizing it.
• Ascended Fanboy:
  • Gerry Drew, Spider-Man II. He's a huge fan of May's dad and wears the same costume as a tribute to his hero.
  • Spider-Girl herself may qualify, since she's a fangirl of Franklin Richards and some other heroes and idolized them since before she discovered her powers.
• The Atoner: There are a lot of characters devoted to making up for their wrongs. The most notable is Normie Osborn, who ends up deciding to do good in order to make up for his crimes as the third Green Goblin as well as the injustices done by his father and grandfather the previous two Green Goblins.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: Kaine and Peter put up an impressive fight against The Scriers. With lots of sarcastic Lampshade Hanging.
• Badass Adorable: More adorable than Badass, but you have to give baby Benjy props for saving his mom with organic webshooters.
• Badass Family:
  • The Parkers. Their family tree includes Spider-Man, Peter's Badass Normal parents, May herself, Peter's clones, the son of Peter's clone, and will surely include Baby Ben someday as well. Plus, Aunt May and MJ.
  • An evil version includes the Faces.
• Bad Future: Most of Spider-Girl: The End takes place in one where humanity has been razed by an army of symbiote soldiers called Bio-Preds.
• Badass Longcoat: Kaine wears an overcoat and hunts down criminals. Mr. Nobody might be a villainous variant.
• Bad Santa: The 54th issue begins with Spider-Girl taking down several thugs in Santa suits.
• Beta Couples: Usually Peter and MJ or Courtney and Moose.
• Body Snatcher: Two types: Demonic Possession for Darkdevil and Arana's Grand Theft Me plot.
• Book Dumb: Lampshaded by Moose when he points out that he might not be the sharpest knife in the drawer... right before he points out to May that she doesn't need to blame herself for Courtney being in the hospital after being hit by a car.
• Book Ends: April's Big "NO!" following May's death in the Bad Future of The End, mirrored panel-by-panel by May when Present Day April dies saving her life.
• Boyish Short Hair: May for much of the series had hair that was shorter than Peter's, coming close to a buzzcut a few times.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Darkdevil has difficulty explaining his heritage of being Ben Reilly's son.
• The Casanova: J.J. Jameson is very popular with the girls.
• Cheerful Child: Benjamin "Benjy" Parker is just a baby, but is usually happy.
• Chekhov's Gun: The issue of Amazing where MJ accepts the counselor position at May's school. Play close attention to Baby Ben playing with his blocks in the background.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Wes, a friend of Jimmy's who's briefly introduced as the artist for their Spider-Girl comic book. He turns out to be May's new love interest.
  • Sara Hingle, who briefly appears in one panel, long before the Brotherhood of Mutants subplot.
• Civvie Spandex: Subverted/Inverted with the Spider-Shoppe, where people can buy Spider-Girl-themed clothes and even costumes. MJ founded the place to keep May from getting ripped off by Spidey lookalikes and also to fund May's college education.
• Clone Degeneration: Kaine had the problem of his genetic structure eventually degrading because of being a clone of Peter Parker, Darkdevil was dying of it before the Demonic Possession.
• Cloning Blues: May's Uncle Ben was Spider-Man's clone Ben Reilly. May eventually gets her own clone who is named April and assumes the identity of Mayhem.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Quite a few of May's villains are very eccentric and prone to odd antics, but most notably Crazy Eight, Funny Face and their mother Angel Face.
• Continuity Overlap: Spider-Girl is clearly its own canon. However, the writers often introduce versions of new Marvel Universe characters and plots.
• Cool Old Guy:
  • Kaine may not technically be one, being around the same age as Peter... but with his long gray hair, beard, and coat, he does evoke the image.
  • Roderick Kingsley/The Hobgoblin is one of these if you stop and do the math. He's at least in his sixties and might be pushing seventy.
• Costume Copycat:
  • Gerry Drew steals the identity of May's dad, in part because he's an Ascended Fanboy of the original wall-crawler.
  • Felicity Hardy's stints as the Scarlet Spider have her copying the costume of Ben Reilly, the original Scarlet Spider.
  • May's clone April Parker steals May's identity at different points.
• Dark Action Girl: April Parker is an antagonist who can do well in fights when she is first introduced.
• Dating Catwoman:
  • Spider-Girl and the Black Tarantula are hinted to be attracted to each other in spite of the former being a heroine and the latter being a criminal.
  • Spider-Girl and the Buzz a.k.a. Jack Jameson, sort of, since the Buzz is wanted for stealing his suit and is believed to have killed the person who invented it.
• A Day in the Limelight: Occasionally, usually given to Peter or MJ. The most notable is Spider-Girl #51, about a boy with a crush on May... written by the future author of Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.
• Dead Guy Junior: May Parker (named after her father's Aunt May), her brother Ben (named in honor of Peter's Uncle Ben and his clone Ben Reilly), and Norman "Normie" Osborn (who shares his name with his grandfather the original Green Goblin).
• Deadpan Snarkers: Peter, Kaine, and Darkdevil are all prone to sardonic remarks. May grows into it as well.
• Death by Secret Identity: In Amazing Spider-Girl, the Hobgoblin hires the Mindworm to use his telepathic powers to keep tabs on Spider-Girl, which enables Mindworm to find out Spider-Girl's secret identity. Before he can act on the information, the Mindworm ends up killed in the 18th issue when the Hobgoblin shoots him for trying to betray him. The Mindworm pleaded the Hobgoblin to spare him because he knew Spider-Girl's secret identity, but by then it was too little, too late.
• Decompressed Comic: Quite deliberately avoided. Spider-Girl stories are often complete in one issue, though this applies more to the earlier stories.
• Defeat Means Friendship: May is much better at reforming her enemies into allies than her father ever was.
• Distaff Counterpart: One of the many Spider-Man distaff counterparts, though the only one who is a family member (the others being unrelated women or a Opposite-Sex Clone).
• Dogged Nice Guy: Wes Westin
• Dying Dream: The 63rd issue of the original series had Normie Osborn and the Kingpin dying while having nightmares of being visited by deceased relatives (Normie being visited by his grandfather Norman and Wilson Fisk being visited by his son Richard). In the end, Normie survives his experience while the Kingpin doesn't.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Crazy Eight and Funny Face are criminals who both love their mother Angel Face very much. Subverted when Funny Face reveals mid-Freak Out they might be better classified as love martyrs for an abusive mother.
• Failure Knight:
  • Allison Mongrain, Osborn's ex-lackey who took care of the kidnapped Baby May. She became convinced she had to kill Normie because he'd eventually hurt May. Don't worry, May talked her out of it.
  • Kaine and Peter also have guilt over not protecting Baby May and Ben Reilly. Kaine protecting Spider-Girl and Darkdevil probably has something to do with that guilt, too.
• Fanservice: Usually avoided.
  • Then comes the last page of Amazing Spider-Girl #26, wherein the first thing May sees as she recovers consciousness is Arana's rather generous cleavage. The panel is a POV shot, at that.
  • And then there's the whole flipping-around-in-body-bending-poses-while-wearing-skintight-spandex bit...
  • Darkdevil also gets a lot of Shirtless Scenes in his miniseries. Wonder why.
• Feuding Families: The Osborns and Parkers, of course, given Peter Parker's history with the original Green Goblins Norman and Harry.
• Fighting Fingerprint: Upon meeting her, Elektra instantly deduces that Spider-Girl is indeed Spider-Man's daughter. "You move like him, stand like him, sound like him, fight like him."
• First Kiss / Smooch of Victory: May to Brad, after Courtney wakes up from a coma. Causes her to see she's not really that into him anymore, which turns out to be fortunate.
• Fix Fic: The idea is basically "what if we took every stupid idea we inflicted on Spider-Man in the '90s and made it awesome again with Mayday?"
• Forceful Kiss: May to Normie. It didn't work out.
• Former Teen Superhero: Phil Urich. He's become a weird mix of Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass and White-Dwarf Starlet (or should that be superhero?).
• Foreshadowing: Two of the first bad guys May meets, Crazy Eight and Funny Face, are Monster Clowns. Turns out they're brothers. Oh, and sure, Funny Face sounds similar to another DeFalco badguy Angel Face, but that's just a gag. She's their mom.
• Fusion Dance: Darkdevil's origin is that he's a fusion of the ghost of Daredevil and Ben Reilly's son.
• Generation Xerox: Played straight in that almost all of the MC2 heroes are following in their parent's or mentor's footsteps (and costume choices). Subverted in that most of them have different personalities and motivations. May has a LOT of xeroxed relationships, though. Heck, even Peter's gotten in on the act. He's as overprotective as Aunt May sometimes... it can be argued it's just a more subtle, realistic version of the trope. No-one's a carbon copy of their parents/mentors (looks aside), but naturally there are still a lot of Like Parent/Mentor Like Child/Mentoree moments.
• Gentle Giant: Moose Mansfield after he grows out being a Jerk Jock. Although now that he's become Carnage and lost the only way to cure his dad's cancer, he becomes unfairly harsh toward Spider-Girl.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Normie's tattoos, removed as a last gift by the Venom symbiote and Kaine's scars.
• Grand Theft Me: The final story arc of Amazing Spider-Girl involved the original Green Goblin Norman Osborn coming back from the dead by taking over Peter Parker's body.
• Happily Married:
  • May's parents Peter and MJ are obviously happy together. They even end up having another child named Ben.
  • Normie and Brenda end up married and are shown to be a loving couple in their subsequent appearances.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • May seems to have a knack for making her enemies become good guys. "I have destroyed my enemy by making him my friend" might as well be Mayday's motto. Her converts comment on it, sometimes.
  • J. Jonah Jameson himself. Not that he was a villain, but in this continuity, the old man openly supports Spider-Girl's actions. Still grumpy, though.
• Hero Killer: The Hobgoblin. Arguably the deadliest villain in the series (barring the Eldritch Abomination Set), in Spectacular Spider-Girl #4, he effortlessly beats down an assembled group of heroes with only one other ally at his side. He is only defeated via sneak attack. In the last issue of the original series, he even killed the Venom symbiote itself.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Courtney has the body type... but she's the one with an adoring boyfriend and the authors even tease at a Love Triangle between the Gentle Giant and Casanova. Turned out she and JJ were just friends and Moose had it all wrong... but still.
• Identical Grandson: Norman "Normie" Osborn looks just like his grandfather the original Green Goblin.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: May tries to talk her father into fighting the influence when he is possessed by the Venom symbiote and does the same to Moose when he is controlled by the Carnage symbiote.
• Imagine Spot: One of the early issues showed all of May's friends (except Moose) fantasizing about being a superhero. Then Normie's fantasies/delusions of defeating Spider-Girl.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Lots of the bad guys are inept to the point of deserving pity, but most notably Normie and Raptor.
• Innocent Blue Eyes:
  • May, probably 'cause of her Naïve Everygirl status.
  • Also Benjy.
• Intergenerational Friendship: May is tight with Phil Urich, whom she refers to as Uncle Phil.
• In the Blood: May unsurprisingly takes a lot after her father. Lampshaded often.
  Elektra: You move like him, stand like him, sound like him, fight like him.
• Jerkass: May's clone April Parker is a relatively rare female version of a character who is excruciatingly rude and spiteful. She keeps on trying to get May out of the picture and stubbornly refuses to share her existence with her.
  • Also Rosetta, the half of the Ladyhawk duo that offers nothing but harsh words to Spider-Girl, like Darkdevil used to be when May was discovering her abilities.
• Jerk Jock:
  • Moose was a gym student who bullied other students, at least before Character Development turned him into a Boisterous Bruiser.
  • Now Gene May's manipulative (ex, finally) boyfriend is taking up this role.
• Jock Dad, Nerd Son: Inverted with Mayday who is far more popular and athletic than her father was at her age, nor is she the Class Clown her mother was at high school. Peter in the opening issue expresses bemusement about his daughter's popularity and how different her schooldays are from his.
• Journey to the Center of the Mind:
  • The final story arc involves May travelling into both her own mind and that of her father.
  • The original series did this twice: Once in Darkdevil's mind and, in the last issue of Spider-Girl, Normie does through the symbiote to snap May out of a near-death Heroic BSoD.
• Knight of Cerebus: He doesn't completely distort the book, but things get a lot grimmer when the Hobgoblin is on the scene.
• Lamarck Was Right: At least it isn't unreasonable to believe Peter's DNA could have been altered by that spider bite.
• Last Guy Wins: Wes ends up becoming May's boyfriend.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Edna Mode makes a brief cameo in issue 91, as an investor who specializes in fashion based on superhero costumes.
• Left Hanging: We never did find out why the Kingpin wanted Peter Parker dead.
• Legacy Character: Aside from Mayday herself, many characters are successors to one of the original Marvel heroes, even if most of them go by different names.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Avoided most of the time. Some of the heroes Spider-Girl gets into squabbles with even note how pointless it is for two people to fight each other when they're on the same side.
• Lighter and Softer: Generally more lighthearted than the in-continuity Spider-Man comics, though some of the 'verse backstory has pretty dark spots.
• Lightning Can Do Anything: Being electrocuted when she's fighting Killerwatt causes May to lose her powers. Being accidentally zapped by the Costume Copycat who steals her dad's costumed identity causes May to regain her powers.
• Like Brother and Sister: May and Normie, though they sure took their time getting there.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Trapping people inside simulations is Misery's gimmick. Notable attempts include making May believe her parents were killed by the Green Goblin and that she was turning into everything from a turtle to a giant spider.
• Luke, You Are My Father: Darkdevil, a.k.a. Reilly Tyne, Ben Reilly's son.
• Mama Bear:
  • Mary Jane won't take kindly to anyone who threatens her kids May and Ben.
  • Angel Face is an inverted, evil version. When one of her sons dies, she goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge with his brother. Except they end up taking out their anger out on everyone else who had a part in his death, instead of on the killer.
• Mental World: We've seen May's, Peter's, and Darkdevil's. Normie's too, sort of, in a dream sequence.
• Mistaken for Gay: In the eleventh issue, J. Jonah Jameson mistakes a time-displaced Spider-Girl for Spider-Man and notes her feminine appearance. He then expresses concern for how people will react to knowing that he is attacking Spider-Man when he is a minority. While not outright stated, it is implied that J. Jonah Jameson came to the conclusion that Spider-Man is gay.
• Ms. Fanservice: Though initially not as much as other the super heroines (due to usually being averted) in her original solo series, Mayday is made for this trope in the Amazing Spider-Girl and the Spectacular Spider-Girl comics series as well as the Spider-Girl End issue (While she was pretty in her original solo series, May is very beautiful in her following three comic book series).
• Monochrome Casting: Subverted. Mayday's group of friends is pretty diverse without getting Five-Token Band about it. There's also a lot of diversity amongst random mooks and civilians.
• More than Mind Control: April, maybe. She claims she only tried to kill May because Fury was going to kill her, but...
• Most Common Superpower: Played with in regards to May as she's most often not the bustiest of superheroines, but she's drawn as being more buxom than usual in Amazing Spider-Girl #9 and Jimmy and Wes's indie Spider-Girl comic gives her this fully, as well as long blonde visible hair and the backstory of being an alien princess from the planet Spider. And she thinks Stripperiffic outfits would leave her vulnerable. (Plus, her dad would freak!). Played completely straight with Arana.
• Mutants: Averted and subverted.
  • May's status as a mutant is rarely acknowledged. And her friend Nancy, who has powers, wants to be a doctor instead of a superhero. Unfortunately, Davida accidentally outs her out of jealously and Brad arranges a mob to go after her, forcing Nancy to join the X-People.
  • Then in Amazing, there is Sara, whose father couldn't accept a mutant child. Now, she's been manipulated by Magneta and possibly killed by her own powers.
• Muscle Angst: In Amazing Spider-Girl #15, the villain Mindworm tricks May into believing she's future version of Black Tarantula. She gets grossed out when she sees her new costume and extremely muscular physique in a mirror.
• Mysterious Protector:
  • Darkdevil, who subversively ridicules and mocks the heroine. Or maybe it's not so subversive, since he's really her aloof big bro— er, cousin.
  • Kaine becomes a standard one of these after his Heel–Face Turn. Reilly, his previous protectoree, probably picked it up from him.
• '90s Anti-Hero: April follows the typical gritty antihero archetype who has no problem with killing bad guys.
• No Bisexuals: Avoided. The Black Cat is shown living with a long-time lover she met after divorcing Flash Thompson. Before her outing in 616!
• No-Dialogue Episode: The 41st issue has no dialogue whatsoever, being part of Marvel's "Nuff Said Month", where every issue of every comic published at the time had little to no words.
• No-Sell: Mary Jane reacts to Normie trying to kidnap her with a thunderous slap, a lamp to the head, and a dressing down that completely thwarts his effort and chases him off with his tail between his legs.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Fury the Goblin Queen. Definitely creepy but May deals with her easily... the first time. Then, she forces Normie to bond with Venom, helps Norman Osborn take over Peter's body and goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against her former allies. While messing with April for the heck of it. Oh, and she's learned May's real identity.
• Official Couple: The couples officially canon to this series include Courtney and Moose, Jimmy and Heather, Normie and Brenda... and of course, Peter and MJ.
• Older and Wiser: Peter Parker, of all people. Badass, has a beard, a bionic leg and a stick he uses to beat people up. Like Bruce Wayne in Batman Beyond, but not as old.
• Older Hero vs. Younger Villain: Inverted. Almost everyone in May's rogues gallery is older than her, even the ones who didn't previously fight her father.
• Older Sidekick: Phil Urich, a.k.a. The Green Goblin is an adult sidekick to teenage Spider-Girl.
• Omake: The one-page stories about Baby Ben in Amazing, with art by Colleen Coover.
• One Dialogue, Two Conversations: In Spider-Girl #5, there is an oblique conversation between Peter Parker and Phil Urich after which Peter thinks he made Phil understand that Mayday must not continue being Spider-Girl while Phil thinks Peter told him to train her being a superheroine because Peter can't do it himself for fear of worrying his wife Mary Jane.
• Overnight Age-Up: Darkdevil was only a child, but became able to instantly grow to adulthood.
• Papa Wolf: Peter Parker won't let anyone harm his daughter or son.
• Parental Abandonment: Not for the heroine, but amongst the supporting cast...
• Parental Incest: Touched upon during the time travel arc in the tenth and eleventh issues, where Spider-Man at one point flirts with Spider-Girl while unaware that she is his future daughter. Spider-Girl is understandably grossed out. After he finds out, this immediately vanishes.
• Parental Sexuality Squick: May's hilariously memorable reaction to her parents revealing that her mother is pregnant (thus implying that her parents had sex) is to pull a disgusted face and go, "Ewww..."
• People Puppets: The final story arc centers around the Green Goblin attempting to mentally enslave Peter and use his body to return to life.
• Pick on Someone Your Own Size: Subverted. Many of May's enemies are much older than she is.
• Plucky Girl: Guess who.
• Psycho Electro:
  • The villainous Killer Watt has electrical powers.
  • Aftershock, too, being the daughter of Electro.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Crazy Eight and Funny Face indulge in this trope to an often disturbing degree.
• Puberty Superpower:
  • May's powers kick in when she's in her teens and not at birth.
  • Also happens to Darkdevil.
  • Averted (and subtly foreshadowed) with Baby Ben, whose powers develop not long after he is born.
• Punch Catch: May is threatened by a schoolmate's abusive boyfriend who intends to intimidate her into keeping her nose out of his business. His punch never connects, though: May catches his fist and squeezes.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Or, as April puts it, "Spider-Girl Red and Spider-Girl Blue"◊. Subverted in that May is more of a Blue and April more of a Red.
• Redemption Equals Death:
  • April ends up killed in Spider-Girl: The End after deciding to change her ways.
  • The Venom symbiote turns a new leaf only to be destroyed by the Hobgoblin.
• Retired Badass: Once again, Peter Parker. Age has cost him some of his reflexes and strength, but he's still got the experience and skill gained from his early years as Spider-Man.
• Rogues Gallery: Spider-Girl's most notable enemies include Mr. Nobody, Crazy Eight, Funny Face, Killer Watt, Mr. Abnormal, Raptor, Earthshaker, the Hobgoblin, Reverb, Dragonfist, the Dragon King, Angel Face, Misery, Aftershock, etc.
• Romantic False Lead: Brenda/Raptor becomes this after her Heel–Face Turn. Subverted in that after lots of Ship Tease and Will They or Won't They? she gets the guy instead of Mayday.
• Sarcastic Confession: Employed by May more than once to cover up for her Secret Identity. Having a merchandising store around helps people to dismiss them.
• Screaming at Squick: Early in the series May travels back in time and encounters her father when he was still a teenage super-hero. When Peter makes a flirtatious comment towards her, May's 2nd person narration ends up screaming at the idea.
  Spider-Man: We big league super-types often take abuse - though rarely from anyone as cute as you.
  Narration: I-Is he trying to come on to you?!
  Beat
  Narration: EEEYYUUUU!
• Secret Government Warehouse: Where Weadon and Kaine's teams works — an abandoned amusement park.
• Shadow Archetype: Quite a few characters are unscrupulous counterparts to other characters.
  • April and May, May and Arana, Kaine and Peter, maybe May and Darkdevil, played with between May and Normie.
  • Mother-Son team The Faces to Peter and May.
  • Probably Uncle-Nephew team Kaine and Reilly to Peter and May, too.

• Shout-Out:
  • After just waking up, Mayday mutters "Kltpzyxm!" In Superman, this is Mxyzptlk's name reversed, and Supes must trick Mxy into saying it to get rid of him until their dimensions next align (in other words, for three months). It's also a shout-out to papa-Parker, who would (sometimes) say the name forward after waking.
  • She also once says, to someone who asks her to hold a train in place, that she must be thinking about that other girl whose name starts with S. Apparently, she's a fan of the Distinguished Competition.
  • Plus the many characters and places named after Spidey writers.
  • And May's Temporary Love Interest, named after a fan's screen name.
  • One issue has her tussling with a hooded villain who looks for all the world like the Fifth Avenue Phantom from Spider-Man (1967).
• Show Within a Show: Jimmy and Wes's Spider-Girl comic is an in-universe work of fiction.
• Shrouded in Myth: Darkdevil and Black Tarantula, at first, were believed to not be real.
• Sibling Team:
  • Brothers Funny Face and Crazy Eight, a villainous example that ends tragically when the latter is killed.
  • Played with in Spider-Girl's team ups with Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man II, neither of whom she's related to.
  • May and "April" are technically a more genuine example, since April is May's clone and therefore could be considered her sister. As are Spider-Girl and Darkdevil, arguably, since Darkdevil is actually the son of Spider-Man's clone Ben Reilly.
• Sibling Yin-Yang:
  • Spider-Girl and Darkdevil, depending on how you define sibling.
  • Ditto for May and April.
• Sidekick Glass Ceiling: Felicity's attempts to play Scarlet Spider would count, except that she's always being forced out of (or quitting) the superhero biz before becoming a full-fledged sidekick. Not that this has stopped her. Since then, Mayday's new partner is newly discovered clone April Parker.
• Sky Surfing: The Green Goblin(s), Hobgoblin, and Fury of course. Mayday even gets in on the act, using Goblin gear when she (temporarily, of course) loses her powers.
• Sleep Cute: Peter and May get a non-romantic version, after having spent a whole issue bickering at each other and helping reunite an ex-villain with his daughter.
• Spin-Offspring: The series is about Spider-Man's daughter continuing her father's legacy.
• Spirit Advisor: May gets one in the form of a mysterious blonde also named May in the last arc of Amazing. It's Aunt May, of course.
• Squee: This is basically Gerry Drew's reaction to meeting his idol, the original Spider-Man. Although a little overwhelmed at first, Peter Parker is very flattered.
• Stalker with a Crush: The Black Tarantula has a creepy fixation on Spider-Girl.
• Strong Family Resemblance:
  • Normie looks almost exactly like Harry.
  • Reilly Tyne is basically Ben Reilly with red hair.
• Suicide by Cop: Normie tries to invoke this on May, attempting to put an end to the Goblin-Spider family feud, thinking that he was a lost cause at that point.
• Take That!:
  • In the 20th issue of Amazing Spider-Girl, May remarks on the difficulty of making web fluid by wishing that she and her father's powers included organic webbing. Peter quickly dismisses the idea of organic webbing as gross.
  • In the 27th issue of Amazing Spider-Girl, the Lil' Benjy strip has Ben Parker use his wall-crawling abilities to help Shelly pretend she is flying like a certain caped heroine. Benjy cuts Shelly off before she can say she's "Supergirl", explaining that the name is a bad word in his house.
• Teen Idol: Franklin Richards, a superhero version, is adored by many teenage girls. He's actually pretty into May until he finds out her real age.
• Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: Peter's superior, Captain Ruiz, stands over a foot taller than him.
• Training from Hell: Who better to train May in the use of her powers than dear old dad?
• Tyke-Bomb: May's baby brother Ben, in the Carnage storyline. Sort of.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance:
  • Early in the series, May looked a LOT like Peter. Now she resembles both her parents without looking a clone of either of them.
  • Speaking of clones, though, Reilly Tyne looks just like a redheaded Tobey Maguirerrr, Peter Parker. And somehow only MJ and Normie Osborn have noticed this.
  • A recent dream sequence featured May's brother Ben looking almost exactly like his dad, too.
• Unlucky Childhood Friend: Jimmy Yama to Mayday. Mayday to Normie.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Kaine's facial scars are never commented on.
• Unwanted Harem: Most of the male cast has had a crush on Mayday at some point.
• Very Special Episode: A downplayed example in "The Girl Who Fell To Earth," which was the culmination of a long subplot, and the abused character (Sandra) remains part of the supporting cast. Later, May and Courtney who also got attacked by Sandra's boyfriend when she tried to help her start volunteering at the women's shelter.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Kaine and Darkdevil become friends prone to arguing and insulting each other, once Reilly gets over his issues.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Mutant Sara Hingle, who was last seen apparently self-exploding from stress after Magneto's daughter messed with her head and hasn't been seen since.
• What If?: Spider-Girl began as a story in Marvel's What If?.
• What the Hell, Hero?: All of the New Warriors to May after she lets Angel Face and Funny Face go out of guilt for not being able to save Crazy Eight, which lets them go loose on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Why Did It Have to Be Symbiotes?; Darkdevil. When fighting April.
• Who's Your Daddy?: The "who is the mother of the new Spider-Man?" subplot. Lots of red-herrings point to Felicia Hardy, but it turns out he's the son of the first Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew.
• Will They or Won't They?: There are two cases of playing with the uncertainty of whether or not a couple will actually come to be.
  • Mayday and Normie in the original series.
  • May and Wes in the relaunch.
• Witch with a Capital "B": Spider-Girl and Raptor occasionally called each other "witch". This is lampshaded in the second issue of the original series, where a thug at one point calls Spider-Girl a "meddlesome witch" and Spider-Girl informs him that he's lucky he called her the W-word and not the B-word.
• With Great Power: Naturally. At one point, lampshaded and Played for Laughs:
  May: But Daddy, I have a responsibility...
  Peter: Don't give me the responsibility shtick, young lady! I INVENTED the responsibility shtick!
• Would Hit a Girl: Spider-Girl's enemies have no problem attacking her with everything in their arsenals.
• Yandere: Elan is psychotically obsessed with making Normie her husband.