Spider-Girl takes on comic book boys’ club

A new teenage superhero called Spider-Girl has been launched in the UK with the aim of attracting more young women into the male-dominated world of comic books.

The series follows the story of a Latino New Yorker called Anya Corazon, 16, who has been chosen by a secret sect called the Order of the Spider to be trained in the noble art of crime-fighting. 

Sporting a black latex suit, defined abs and a mean right hook, Spider-Girl is more like Stieg Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander than the voluptuous Amazons and helpless girlfriends who have appeared in comics in the past. 

Marvel Comics and writer Paul Tobin said that they had intentionally shied away from portraying Spider-Girl in a "sexualised" way, or as a "trophy" girl in order to appeal to a young female audience.

"People want to read stories with characters they relate to," said Spider-Girl editor Tom Brennan in an interview with the BBC. "We certainly hope that young women will pick this up and enjoy it."

As a thoroughly modern young woman, Spider-Girl even has her own twitter feed, which is run by Tobin and his illustrator wife Colleen Coover.

Spider-Girl's tweets include such gems as "Dear Everyone. Spider-Man is NOT my dad/brother/boyfriend/evil twin" and "New apartment has our own washer/dryer. Important for superheroes. We can’t let people see us washing our uniforms."

It is not the first time Marvel have created a character called Spider Girl.  The first was an offshoot from the Spider-Man comics in the 1990s, which featured May Parker, the daughter of Peter Parker (Spider-Man’s alter ego) and Mary Jane Watson.  ·