Anya Corazon

Anya Sofia Corazon is a fictional half Mexican and half Puerto Rican superheroine in the Marvel Comics Universe. She initially went by the pseudonym Araña, but later changed to using Spider-Girl.

Publication history

Araña was created by writer Fiona Avery and artist Mark Brooks and is based on ideas J. Michael Straczynski used in his run on The Amazing Spider-Man. She was the star of the resurrected Amazing Fantasy comic book in 2004. After her storyline ended in Amazing Fantasy vol. 2 #6 she appeared in her own twelve issue series, Araña: The Heart of the Spider, starting in March 2005 as part of Marvel Next. Anya next appeared in the Ms. Marvel title as a recruit for service as a licensed superhero under the Superhuman Registration Act.

She next appears teaming up with Nomad to fight the secret empire in a backup story in Captain America #602-605. Chronologically, her next appearance was during the "Grim Hunt" storyline in The Amazing Spider-Man; however, her appearance in the new Young Allies series was published first.

As the new Spider-Girl, she starred in a monthly Spider-Girl comic that debuted on November 17, 2010 as a tie-in to the "Big Time" storyline in The Amazing Spider-Man,. With the change of moniker she became the second published character to adopt the "Spider-Girl" alter-ego, but she actually comes prior to the first character in the chronology of the Marvel Universe. Concurrently with the announcement of the series' cancellation it was announced that Spider-Girl would be receiving a new mini-series as part of the Spider-Island crossover. The first issue of the mini-series was released one month after the final issue of the cancelled series, and one month after the mini-series ended Anya appeared in one issue of Avengers Academy.

Fictional character biography

Origin

On her first day at Milton Summers High School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, Anya Corazon is recruited by Miguel, a mage from a mystical clan called The Spider Society to act as their Hunter. A ritual is performed on her by giving her a spider-shaped tattoo that endows her with spider-like powers. WebCorps offers Araña various costumes, but Araña decides to make her own costume. She designs a costume with red and blue sneakers, blue track pants, red backpack, red gloves with many pockets, and big goggle-eyed sunglasses. As part of her powers a crusty exoskeleton covers most of her body with a bug-like bluish skin. In place of equipment like web-shooters or spider tracers, Araña attaches cords to discs that are about the size of her palm and have eight red legs able to grip objects. Araña fights a Hunter from The Sisterhood of the Wasp, adversaries of the Spider Society.

Heart of the Spider

While interrogating a spy for the Sisterhood of the Wasp, Anya and Miguel discover that the Sisterhood has recruited a fifteen-year-old boy codenamed Amun, a descendant of Egyptian assassins who believes he is skilled enough that he does not need to conceal his identity. Anya soon meets Amun, who has enrolled at her school under the name Jon Kasiya. The two soon deduce the other's dual identity.

Later, during a fight with Anya, Miguel, and the Sisterhood, Amun tells her that he will attack her loved ones if she opposes him. Noting her father is filming the fight, Anya takes him to safety. In her absence, Amun seriously wounds Miguel. The encounter leaves Anya doubting her duty due to the danger it poses to her loved ones. However, in a chance encounter, Spider-Man arrives and, after discussing her origins and adventures, tells her, "With great power comes great responsibility" and that in every age, people are called to be heroes.

Soon afterwards, Anya fights Amun and, in anger, nearly strangles him to death. She is stopped by Ted, who tells Amun to run. Ted tells her that she had released "the Spirit of the Hunter" and warns her not to do it again without Miguel with her. Back at WebCorps, Miguel is revived upon being reunited with Anya, and he tells her the history of the organization that would eventually split into Wasps and Spiders.

After an encounter with a gunman in a coffee shop, in which Anya saves Lynn and Amun without revealing her secret identity, Amun promises to respect her double life and to stop targeting her friends and family.

Night of the Hunter

The Sisterhood of the Wasp recruits a Mexico City crime lord, Jaime Jade. Jade has mental abilities that allow him to hypnotize other people. He was also possibly involved in the death of Anya's mother. Miguel stops Anya from going after Jade alone with the promise that Anya can punish him afterwards. Anya and Amun develop a loose truce because Amun has lost his father as well, so he checks into Jade's possible involvement in Anya's mother's death.

Jade hypnotizes Anya into fighting Miguel, but she eventually breaks free of his control and knocks Jade out. When Jade wakes up, the car he is in is suspended by a rope over the river. He thinks she's bluffing, and says, "Little miss super hero won't want my death on her conscience." She replies, "No, my conscience feels fine," and lets go of the rope. Amun arrives too late, and tells her that Jade was not responsible for her mother's death. Realizing that he never admitted to it, and Amun may not be lying, she dives into the water to save Jade, but he has already escaped.

Spider-Man/Araña: The Hunter Revealed

In this one-shot she discovers that her exoskeleton is not an ability from being a Hunter, and she has in fact never been a true Hunter. Upon discovering this, and being faced with a gigantic monster summoned by the Wasps, she grants her Hunter abilities to Nina and renounces Webcorps. During the fight Miguel is killed saving Nina from a blast. In the end, Nina becomes Webcorps' chosen champion, and Araña is free to pursue a new fate.

Civil War

The pro-registration heroes have tasked Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man to find Anya, convince her to register, and train her. After foiling an attempted robbery Anya and her father are taken into custody where Mr. Corazon learns of Anya's superpowers. He is proud to let her train with Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man. Anya's training will essentially comprise her accompanying Wonder Man and Ms. Marvel on missions and playing "sidekick" to them. Anya accompanies them to Stark Tower, where she forces herself into a meeting with Iron Man, and then on a mission to capture the Shroud and Arachne. Arachne escapes, but the Shroud is captured and taken into S.H.I.E.L.D. custody. A strike team led by Ms. Marvel and Wonder Man arrives at the home of Arachne's parents to take her into custody. After a battle between the heroes, Arachne is arrested and her daughter Rachel forcibly separated from her. Anya is deeply shaken by the ordeal and states that if being a hero means separating a mother from her child, she wants no part of it. However, she remains part of the pro-Registration strikeforce.

Before a battle with Doomsday Man, Ms. Marvel asks Anya to go get help if she fails to make contact with her by a certain time. Eventually, Anya joins the battle, and Doomsday Man rips away her exoskeleton, severely injuring her. Although she eventually recovers, her exoskeleton is gone. Her father takes out a restraining order to keep Ms. Marvel away from her, although Anya secretly visits Ms. Marvel to tell her she is not to blame for what happened. Soon after, Anya quits her job, and is confronted by Arachne, who is enraged and demands to know the whereabouts of her daughter. Anya manages to subdue her, but chooses to accompany Ms. Marvel and Arachne in their attempt to find Arachne's daughter, even though that means violating the restraining order her father has placed against Ms. Marvel.

Anya gets into a fight with her father for treating her like a child after he accuses her of seeing Ms. Marvel. She tells him at least Carol is showing her how to grow up. She is later captured by Chilean soldiers, who deliver her to the Puppet Master; she is added to a collection of female heroes that includes Stature, Dusk, Tigra, and Silverclaw. During a battle with Ms. Marvel's team, Anya is partially subdued by Machine Man and Sleepwalker, and resists the Puppet Master's command that she kill Ms. Marvel, whom she sees as a mother figure.

Grim Hunt

During the Kraven family's hunt for "Spiders", Anya is targeted as a sacrifice. Spider-Man, Julia Carpenter, Madame Web, and Kaine come to her aid. Despite their help, Anya is knocked out and captured along with Julia and Madame Web. Spider-Man manages to free them and she assists him in taking down the Kravinoffs. After the experience, Julia, who received the powers of Madame Web, decides to give Anya her old costume, despite the fact that Anya has no powers. She is referred to as Spider-Girl, much to her chagrin.

Young Allies

Araña was next seen teaming up with the new Nomad (Rikki Barnes) to investigate the Secret Empire. Although information Araña obtained from her father turned out to be a trap, the pair nonetheless bonded, and shared secret identities. Both she and Rikki join the superhero group Young Allies together.

Anya joins the superhero group Young Allies along with her friend Rikki Barnes despite being depowered. During the team's first storyline, Anya and Rikki are kidnapped by a team of teenaged supervillains known as the Bastards of Evil. The Bastards link up a video feed of the bound and gagged heroines across televisions, computers, and cell phones throughout New York City, with the intent of executing the girls in order to build up their reputations. After having the duct tape ripped from her mouth by Electro's daughter Aftershock, Anya cleverly divides the villains by informing them that Aftershock has lied about her parentage in order to get a spot on the Bastards. With their captors distracted, Anya and Rikki escape and ultimately defeat the Bastards once the rest of the Young Allies arrive.

Spider-Girl

Anya accepts the moniker "Spider-Girl" and begins operating solo, although she frequently interacts with her Young Allies teammates such as Rikki Barnes as well as Spider-Man and the Invisible Woman. When Anya's father is killed she initially believes that Red Hulk is responsible and fights him. He eventually convinces her that he did not kill her father, but rather he was also a target of the assassination attempt that killed her father. She eventually is able to stop the organization that killed her father, and in the intervening time she fought Ana Kravinoff, the new Hobgoblin, and Screwball.

Later, the Young Allies and several members of the Avengers Academy are kidnapped by Arcade. Anya manages to escape, and works with Reptil to rescue the remaining captives. The two teens flirt with one another, and Anya ends up giving Reptil her phone number once Arcade is defeated.

During Fear Itself, Anya, X-23, Amadeus Cho, Power Man, and Thunderstrike are teleported to a station in the middle of the Pacific Ocean where they fight samurai Shark Men. Later, Anya and the Young Allies are almost beaten by Hydro-Man until Spider-Man shows up.

Spider-Island

During Spider-Island she is attacked by The Sisterhood of the Wasp. She ends up getting an unlikely ally in the Hobgoblin who then flies her to see the Kingpin. When Spider-Girl asks why Kingpin wants her help, Kingpin reveals that he and his men have developed Spider Powers and ended up targeted by the Sisterhood of the Wasp. He tells Spider-Girl where he has found the location of the Central Wasp Nest. Spider-Girl refuses his help and tries enlisting the help of the Young Allies and other heroes, but they are too preoccupied with the outbreak of spider powers to help. The new Madam Web approaches Spider-Girl and tells her that for better or for worse, she has to team up with her enemy. As they battle against the Society of Wasps, their queen reveals that they have developed a venom to kill all spider-powered people in Manhattan. Spider-Girl, Hobgoblin, the Kingpin, and the Hand fight against the Society of Wasps until Spider-Girl realizes what Madam Web really meant by teaming up with her enemy. She gets everyone fighting the Wasps to temporarily assist the Wasps in fighting the spider invasion so the spiders cannot help the Queen. This allows Spider-Man and the Avengers to defeat her without being overrun by the spiders.

Avengers

Anya is part of the new class of students when the Avengers Academy moves to the former headquarters of the West Coast Avengers.

During the Inhumanity crossover Anya gets help from various Avengers (Spider-Woman, Black Widow, the Hulk, and Wolverine) when trying to track down her social studies teacher, who has entered an Inhuman cocoon, is kidnapped.

Powers and abilities

As Araña

Araña originally possessed enhanced strength of 3 tons, speed, reflexes/reactions, agility, coordination, balance, and endurance. She had the ability to cling to walls, and to sprout a spider-like exoskeleton around her body which enhanced these abilities and protect her from damage. While her exoskeleton was later ripped out by Doomsday Man, she retained her primary powers. Araña invented spider-like grappling hooks, which she uses to swing from buildings, or as whip-like weapons, though she has found these to be harder to use since losing her abilities.

As Spider-Girl

In an interview with Newsarama, writer Paul Tobin stated that as Spider-Girl, the character initially lacks superpowers, but Tobin will be "staying away from having her feel crippled by any power loss; it's for sure on her mind, but Anya is a character that wants to focus on what she can do...". However, Tobin revealed that she regains her powers in the "Spider-Island" storyline. Anya is given a copy of Spider-Man's powers by Jackal, along with the entire non-superhuman population of New York, in the story arc Spider Island. Anya submits to the island-wide cure, but it is shown that she still retains her copy of Spider-Man's powers as she is later seen webslinging using organic webbing.

Other versions

Marvel Team-Up: League of Losers

Araña features in an arc of Robert Kirkman's Marvel Team-Up vol. 3 featuring a group of C-list heroes dubbed "The League of Losers". A group of heroes including Araña, Darkhawk, Dagger, Gravity, X-23, Sleepwalker, and Terror go to the future to prevent the villain Chronok from stealing Reed Richards' time machine, (Chronok comes to the present after killing all of Marvel's major heroes). Araña however, dies in an explosion while the team searches for a time machine so that they can travel to the future. The rest of the team succeeds however, and Chronok is defeated. Due to the Marvel Universe's method for resolving time travel paradoxes, this story takes place in an alternate timeline.

What If Grim Hunt

In the What If? Spider-Man: Grim Hunt, an alternative possibility for the events of Grim Hunt begins with the decision of Spider-Man to kill Kraven. Araña, scarred by things that she should not have seen is transported by the new Madame Web to her residence. Later Madame Web appears in her room in the middle of the night asking Anya to be Spider-Girl. Anya refuses the proposal because she is worried that if she fights against Peter she will make the same decision he made. In the middle of the battle Madame Web teleports herself to get Araña to confront and defeat Peter. Peter ends up blinded by a shotgun he was attempting to use on her. Araña takes over as the head Spider while Peter is left permanently blinded and distant from Mary Jane.

MC2

In the MC2 continuity, an adult Araña, accompanied by a man called Michael, tests Spider-Girl, then covers for her, posing as a fake seer to throw the Hobgoblin off track when he tries to find her weaknesses. She later takes over Spider-Girl's body in an attempt to take down the Black Tarantula, but the two end up trapped in each other's bodies. Using Spider-Girl's body Araña is able to get close to Black Tarantula and kisses him. However, Black Tarantula, who had been kissed by Araña once before, recognizes and attacks her, using his powers to reverse the mind-switch. It is later revealed Araña and The Black Tarantula have a personal history with one another, and they bond once more when the Tarantula is attacked by Mayday's symbiotic clone April.

Status as first Latina superhero

The promotional copy on the digest collection extols Araña as Marvel's first Hispanic superhero. However, she was preceded by El Aguila, Cecilia Reyes, Feral, Firebird, Living Lightning, Skin, Spider-Man 2099, White Tiger, Angela Del Toro, Sunspot, and La Bandera.

Collected editions

• Araña Collections
  • Araña Vol. 1: Heart of the Spider (collects Amazing Fantasy #1-6, softcover ISBN 978-0785115069)
  • Araña Vol. 2: In The Beginning (collects Araña #1-6, softcover ISBN 978-0785117193)
  • Araña Vol. 3: Night of the Hunter (collects Araña #7-12, softcover ISBN 978-0785118534)
• Spider-Man: Grim Hunt crossover event (collects Amazing Spider-Man: Extra! #3, Web of Spider-Man #7, and Amazing Spider-Man #634-637, hardcover ISBN 978-0785146179, softcover ISBN 978-0785146186)
• Young Allies: Volume 1 (collects Young Allies #1-6, Firestar #1, and material from Age of Heroes #2, softcover ISBN ISBN 0-7851-4868-X)
• Spider-Girl Vol. 1: Family Values (collects Spider-Girl #1-8, and Amazing Spider-Man #648, softcover ISBN 978-0785146940)
• Spider-Island: Companion (collects The Amazing Spider-Girl #1-3, Spider-Island: Cloak & DAGGER #1-3, Spider-Island: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1-3, Herc #7-8, Spider-Island: Avengers #1, Spider-Island: Spider-Woman #1, Spider-Island: I Love New York City, Black Panther #524, Spider-Island: Heroes For Hire #1, hardcover ISBN 978-0785162285, softcover ISBN 978-0785162292)

References

External links

• Araña at Marvel.com
• Araña at the Comic Book DB
• Araña at the Marvel Directory
• Araña at SpiderFan.org
• Spider-Man/Araña: The Hunter Revealed at SpiderFan.org
• Fiona Avery on Araña: The Heart of the Spider at UGO