Spider-Girl

Creator: Marvel Comics

Ship: Spider-Man/Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, Spider-Girl/May “Mayday” Parker and various.

Spider-Girl is a line of comics from Marvel that asks, “What would happen if Spider-Man and Mary Jane had a daughter, and their daughter inherited her daddy's superpowers?” The answer, of course, is “take names and slam heat as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Girl.” The series was actually canceled multiple times but brought back due to high demand from fans, which just goes to show: you can't keep a good web-slinger down.

It's an excellent comic for girls to enjoy, since our protagonist is a well-written high-school girl with more personality than cleavage. It's also an excellent comic for shippers, since we get both the coziness of seeing Mr. and Mrs. Parker in domestic bliss and the excitement of young May's romantic prospects. Of course, the romance isn't the entire point of the comic: rather, it's balanced out with May's crime-fighting, her relationships with her parents and her friends, and the occasional pulse-pounding tangle with a deadly supervillain, meaning that this is just an excellent comic, period.

  If you're looking for a gift for someone who wants to get into comics...don't give them this one. It will set the bar too high, and they'll just be disappointed when they discover what most other comics are like. However, if you're looking for a comic for someone who just wants something good to read, then this is perfect.

Excelsior!