10 Comics Changed Due To Fan Backlash

2. Keeping Mayday Alive

Spider Girl Marvel
Marvel Comics

May Parker - affectionately known as Mayday - is a character who was originally intended for a one-off appearance as part of Marvel's What If...? line. Created by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz, May is the teenage daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson - and yes, she has superpowers that mirror her old man's.

Rarely have comic book readers played such a pivotal role in a characters's existence than in the case of Spider-Girl. Firstly, so well received was May's What If...? appearance, Marvel Comics were pushed to give Spider-Girl her own title. That would be titled simply 'Spider-Girl', and May Parker's existence would eventually lead to an entire alternative world of books being launched under the MC2 banner.

Across the years, Marvel made several announcements of impending cancellation for the Spider-Girl book - and each and every time, the passionate push back from fans saw said cancellation scrapped. Even when Spider-Girl did get cancelled after 100 issues, the book was soon relaunched as The Amazing Spider-Girl.

When The Amazing Spider-Girl was brought to a close after 30 issues, May Parker's adventures continued on in The Amazing Spider-Man Family, and May has since been a semi-regular part of reader's habits thanks to titles such as Spectacular Spider-Girl, Web of Spider-Man, and Spider-Geddon.

So directly responsible were readers for keeping Mayday alive, those involved with the character have regularly championed the fan base.

For example, writer Tom DeFalco thanked the fans for not giving up on the the character's solo title "even when Marvel cancelled it and and told me there was no hope of ever bringing it back," before proclaiming "Spider-Girl lives because of her fans!"

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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