Family Values

Spider-Girl has been chasing Screwball across the city for twenty minutes after catching her trying to steal a Han Dynasty figurine from the Metropolitan Museum. Along the way, Spider-Girl has taken down the cameramen that Screwball hires to broadcast her exploits on the internet. She eventually knocks Screwball out with a single punch. Spider-Girl leaves Screwball with the police and takes off as she is running late for school.

Thirty minutes later, Anya Corazón has arrived for her classes at Milton Summers High School. In between classes, she answers texts from her father, Gil Corazón, who is checking to see if she is adjusting to school.

Four hours later, she returns home where her father has is still unpacking their apartment. Anya admits that school is boring compared to being Spider-Girl, particularly since she has no friends. Gil tells her everyone has secrets and they are not all boring if you give them a chance. He then talks about how he is investigating the suspicious death of a soldier today and will keep him busy at the Colin Powell Center. When Anya complains about having dinner alone, he tells her that Sue Richards is coming to take her out for dinner. Anya is worried about Sue seeing their apartment in its current state but Gil reminders her daughter that the Invisible Woman isn’t just a super-hero but a long-time family friend. Still, she wants to keep her identity as Spider-Girl a secret and when Sue comes knocking at the door, Anya quickly runs off to hide her costume.

Soon, Anya and Sue are heading to the restaurant for dinner. When they sit down, Anya admits that she is having a tough time meeting people. This leads to her asking how her father ended up meeting the Fantastic Four. Sue explains that her father has been the official/unofficial Fantastic Four interview reporter. Still, Anya can’t wrap her head around how her father could meet and get to know the world’s greatest super-heroes when she has trouble talking to new people. After dinner, the pair go for a walk and Anya asks questions about Sue’s ability to generate force fields when a pair of purse-snatchers try to make a run for it, but Sue quickly stops them with her powers. As the police take the crooks away, Anya gets a call from her father, who tells her he’ll be running a little later than planned. He promises that he will make it home early enough to set up the TV so they can catch a movie. However, when Gil ends the call, there is a loud thump on the other side of a shelf of books. When he sees what caused this noise he is shocked.

Overhearing that Gil will be running late, Sue invites Anya to come back to the Baxter Building, but she politely declines because she needs to do her homework. That’s when Sue gets a call rallying the Fantastic Four. When Anya offers to help whatever it is, Sue tells her that the team is being called to face a dangerous threat. As the Thing comes to pick Sue up in the Fantasti-Car, Sue tells Anya to get home safely since attacks like these cause felonies in the city go up by 38%.

Anya takes offense to this even though Sue doesn’t know she’s secretly Spider-Girl. Going up to the rooftops, she changes into her costume. She tries to text her father to find out what’s going on but he doesn’t respond. Swinging across the city, Spider-Girl stops at an apartment window to watch the news to see what’s going on. However, before the news can inform her who the Fantastic Four are fighting, a stray bullet strikes the television. Looking down on the street Anya sees a carjacking in progress. She then spends her time stopping various petty crimes from smash-and-grabs and even a woman trying to steal a cat. As time passes, Anya becomes concerned that her father is not responding to her calls and texts. When she is busting another carjacker, Spider-Girl overhears a radio report that the Fantastic Four’s battle has reached City College, making her worry for her father’s safety.

When she arrives on the scene and finds a mob of people trying to flee the scene. As the Fantastic Four are being beaten about by their foe. Rushing into the library, Spider-Girl saves people trapped inside while searching for her father. When she finally finds him, Spider-Girl is horrified to discover her father was killed by falling debris. Suddenly, one of the walls blasts open.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Girl, Screwball, Gil Corazón, Fantastic Four (Invisible Woman, Thing, Human Torch), Red Hulk (unidentified)

Continuity Notes

1. fffff

Topical References

• Sue invites Anya over to the Baxter Building to see the Playstation 6 Reed Richards made for Franklin and Valeria. This is a topical reference because it’s absurd. At the time this story was published Sony was still selling the Playstation 3. At the time of this writing (January 2021), Sony has since released the Playstation 5, and we’ll probably see an actual Playstation 6 in the next decade or so.

• Anya is depicted as using Twitter while she is acting as Spider-Girl to give her fans updated. This should be considered topical since Twitter is a real world business.

Four Shadowing

Several Years Ago[1]

Gil Corazón has arrived at the Baxter Building to interview the Fantastic Four. He has brought his daughter Anya with him, but asks her to wait in the lobby. There she sits quietly when the Thing happens by. When she introduces herself to him, Ben knows her father and he asks why she is waiting downstairs. She explains that her father is getting her security clearance. That’s when the receptionist tells Anya that she’s been cleared and the Thing offers to escort her to the upper levels of the building that serve as the Fantastic Four’s headquarters. On the elevator ride up, Ben decides to make a joke about how the elevator actually teleports them to the moon before sending them to the upper floors of the building.

Upstairs, Anya meets Sue Richards who tells her that Ben plays that joke on everyone who comes to the Baxter Building for the first time. As Sue entertains Anya with her invisibility powers, she and Gil talk about the first time he met the Fantastic Four. It was during one of the team’s many battles with the Mole Man. When a Moloid was about to attack Sue from behind, Gil tackled the Subterranean creature. The Thing had to pull Gil to safety, and this led to them connecting on their mutual love of football. As a result, Gil gave the first interview with the Fantastic Four that painted the team as a family. Sue remarks that this really helped public opinion of the team, as prior to this everyone was paranoid the group was aliens or demons.[2]

Anya interrupts to ask where the bathroom is and when she goes down the hall she passes by Mister Fantastic’s lab. The Thing calls out to her because he and Reed are fighting a strange tentacled creature that is coming out of a portal. Red is knocked out and Ben is busy fighting off the tentacles. He tells Anya to hit the red button on a nearby control panel, shutting down the portal and saving them.

Twenty minutes later, Anya is back in the living room being entertained by Sue’s invisibility powers. The Thing comes in with a tray of cookies and offers one to Anya, and, speaking in code, gets her to agree not to mention the incident with the button earlier. When Sue tries to pry the truth out of Anya, Gil reminds Sue that little Anya is the daughter of a reporter, and they protect their secrets. Sue is amused enough to let it slide, telling Anya that she hopes they can become close enough friends to share their secrets. As they look out the window they happen to spot Spider-Man swinging by.

Recurring Characters

Anya Corazón, Gil Corazón, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Thing), Mole Man, Moliods

Continuity Notes

1. According to the Marvel Chronology Project this flashback takes place between the Fantastic Four’s appearance in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #89 and Thing #10 (just before most of the team was abducted by the Beyonder for the first Secret Wars) Placing this story as taking place roughly seven years prior to this story. I disagree, see below.

2. The Marvel Chronology Project does not have a placement for Gil’s first encounter with the Fantastic Four, even though it’s pretty clear that he first met them early in their career. I would place this encounter as happening shortly after Fantastic Four #4. See below.

Chronology Placement

Main Story

I would argue that the MCP is wrong in their assessment of where this story takes place (just prior to Secret Wars) The biggest indicator that this is wrong is the appearance of the Thing in this story. Also, the Fantastic Four are wearing their classing blue and black costumes.

The MCP’s placement can’t work because a Thing was back to his trademark look and the Fantastic Four had started wearing their white on black costumes they began wearing in Fantastic Four #256.

The Thing has his dinosaur-like skin instead of his trademark orange brick form. The Thing had this look twice: The first was when he first got his powers back in Fantastic Four #1 until about issue #10 or so. It could not be that far back, because in Spider-Girl #1, Anya is a senior in high school, in this flashback Anya is probably about 10 years old, going back that far wouldn’t mesh.

It would have to be the second period of time which took place between Fantastic Four #238 to 245 when an attempt to cure the Thing reverted him back to his dinosaur-hide form until Franklin Richards restored him to the status-quo. This works better because you have the Thing in an earlier form, the FF are still wearing their blue and black costume, and when you measure it up to the Sliding Timescale, the Thing’s temporary regression and Secret Wars happen in the same “year”.

I would actually place this flashback as happening between Fantastic Four #241 and 242. I place it here because shortly after the Thing’s regression the FF traveled for a bit to Benson, Arizona (issue #239), the moon (#240), and Africa (#241). Issue #242 has the team back in New York, but they end up getting in a length battle with Galactus that lasts until issue #244. In the following issue, Ben is restored back to his brick form, thus the best place to place the flashback in this story would be between issue #241 and 242.

Flashback

Later on in the story, Sue and Gil talk about when and how Gil first met the Fantastic Four. Recounting this situation, Sue states that Gil was the first person to see the Fantastic Four as a family and reported them as such. Sue even goes so far as saying that people thought the team was aliens or demons or something else.

I would place this as happening shortly after Fantastic Four #4. This is because in the flashback, the Fantastic Four are depicted as wearing their original costumes, which the group did not start wearing until issue #3. Placing it after issue #4 is after the group fought the Sub-Mariner for the first time. The team was still new and prior to this, in issue #2, the Skrulls tried to frame the FF for treason as part of an invasion scheme.