One of Spider-Man’s first uses of his spider powers in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man appears to have been inspired by a similar scene in the debut of Spider-Girl. In a well-deserved moment of comeuppance for Flash Thompson, Peter Parker trounces him on the basketball court, using his cross-species physiology to make a spectacular slam-dunk. In Mayday Parker’s debut, she has a similar moment, though with more ominous implications for her two most important supporting characters.
Recently teased in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Mayday Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Girl, is the daughter of Peter and Mary Jane Parker, and, thanks to her inheriting her father’s spider-like superpowers, she becomes his successor as New York’s web-slinger. While Mayday was born with her powers, they didn’t manifest until her high school years, and a frequent source of conflict throughout her stories is her insistence on using her abilities to protect her home city just like Peter did as Spider-Man, much to her parent’s chagrin. Peter and Mary Jane are all too aware of the dangers that come with the life of a costumed crime-fighter, and they try to prevent Mayday from living the same lifestyle as Peter did out of a sense of protectiveness.
Spider-Girl, along with the MC2 Universe (Earth-982) debuted in issue 105 of What If…?, by Tom DeFalco and Ron Frenz, with her performance on the basketball court being the issue’s opening scene. Not aware of her superpowers or her father’s bygone superhero career yet, Mayday surprised herself and almost everyone else attending the game by delivering an acrobatic slam-dunk that shattered the backboard. While Mayday’s teammates celebrated her victory, Peter and Mary Jane watched with worry, holding onto false hope that Mayday isn’t developing the same powers as Peter, and giving the otherwise lighthearted scene an ominous undertone, not unlike its cinematic counterpart in The Amazing Spider-Man.
Mayday Parker grew up in relative normalcy with no obvious superpowers, allowing her parents to raise her, believing that they’d finally put Peter’s former life of crime-fighting behind them. When Mayday demonstrated enhanced strength and agility during her basketball game, Peter and Mary Jane, despite their dialogue, realized that it’d caught up with them, though they wouldn’t allow Mayday to take on the Spider-Girl mantle so easily. Over the course of Mayday’s stories, however, Peter and Mary Jane eventually support her decision to protect New York as Spider-Girl, as she’s living by the same principle that Peter Parker learned the hard way following his Uncle Ben’s death.
In The Amazing Spider-Man’s case, Peter Parker’s comedic use of his powers against Flash Thompson similarly comes back to haunt him. By humiliating Flash, Peter demonstrates an irresponsible use of his powers, and this same misuse leads to Uncle Ben dying later in the film. While their respective basketball scenes are triumphant in the moment, The Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Girl’s respective uses of their powers come with ominous bits of foreshadowing.