If Spider-Man were Spider-Woman......

[littleredhat]

Peter Parker is instead Penny Parker. Same origin and personality. Same brown hair that curls in the front.

Same character only no Y chromosone. This is the only change.

How would the story be different? Who would be her true love?

[Stantheman23]

Mary Jane

[JaredMilne]

Good question. I'm going on the assumption that Penny would still face many of the same villains, and otherwise have a lot of the same problems. Chances are, however, her arch-nemesis would be Liz Allan rather than Flash Thompson, and she'd begin to attract Flash Thompson's interest, or he'd develop a crush on Spider-Woman. She'd also certainly have a rather vocal fanbase, mostly of horny teenage boys and young men, who'd otherwise oppose anyone like J. Jonah Jameson who criticized her. She might fall in love with Harry Osborn, who I'm assuming in this version remains the same gender, and end up in a love triangle with him and Mary Jane or Gwen Stacy.

She might still get a job developing pictures for the Daily Bugle, although I think it's more likely she'd get a job writing copy or something, or perhaps working in a lab, rather than taking pictures of herself. Even if she does continue taking pictures, I can still see Jameson making her Public Enemy #1, him being an equal-opportunity muckraker and all.

How her opponents will react to her is another question entirely. Some of Spider-Girl's enemies, notably Quickwire and Crazy Eight, remarked on the fact that they were fighting a teenage girl, although that didn't stop them trying to kill her. Guys like Doctor Octopus and the Vulture probably wouldn't react any differently to a female heroine, but cruder types like the Shocker, Electro or the Sandman certainly would, with all that that implies.

The Green Goblin is another question entirely. From an initial obsession with destroying Peter Parker in the official comics, Norman Osborn developed a sick paternal-type relationship with Peter, seeing in him all the qualities that would be a worthy heir to the Osborn legacy, and going so far as to convince Peter to take up the Goblin mantle himself. In this alternate universe, once he finds out that that bright girl his son Harry's been dating has also been the bane of his existence as the Green Goblin, he might encourage the same type of paternal relationship, or even go one step further, viewing her intellect and skill as complimentary to his own, and thinking that they'd make the perfect couple, so to speak.

Yeah. Ick.

[spiderman_rj]

a) it would be shame but the suit without cleaning would smell of fish
b) Ned Leeds, obviously.

[Grico]

Mary Jane

I like the idea, but if we are going that route my vote is for Black Cat.

[Craig T. Nelson]

a) it would be shame but the suit without cleaning would smell of fish

How crass.

I'd buy it. It'd be pretty cool, though obv not if they just erased spidey for this. But if Spider-Girl/Woman was created instead of Spider-Man it would still be a popular comic I'd say.

[ShadowSonic]

It would make a great what if? continuing series is Peter was born a girl.

Making Harry be her love interest certainly would've taken the Green Goblin relationship to new levels. I suppose here she'd be able to get Harry help for his emotional problems and end up married to him. Then if she ended up failing Harry and he became the Goblin it'd take the drama to a whole new level if he died that way too.

[Mister Mets]

The franchise would probably not have been as successful, but we might have more women reading comics.

I think love triangles would have changed...
Penny Parker would have competed with Liz Allen for Flash Thompson, Betty Brant for Ned Leeds, and Gwen Stacy for Harry Osborn.

And Anna Watson's nephew would have looked like James Dean.

The Human Torch and younger X-Men would also have hit on her. A lot.

She'd probably have become rivals with Crystal.

I also suspect there would have been more female supervillains.

[Grapeweasel]

Didn't Marvel publish 130 issues of this?

[Regulus B.]

Didn't Marvel publish 130 issues of this?

Not really. Spider-Girl isn't equatable to a female version of Spider-Man for a whole lot of reasons, including the overall tone of the series and the ways the character could interact with the overall MU.

Assuming the whole MU wasn't 63'ed, I like Mets' version and think they'd have probably done something like that, complete with the James Dean lookalike for the movie. Though I'd wonder what they would do with her and the older male cast, if they would go down that road (Penny and JJJ! Or, heck, Penny and Doc Ock) or if they would steer clear of that and have her keep to her own age bracket. There aren't that many 'mature' women in ASM, at least who aren't related or almost related to Peter, so it doesn't come up much if ever. If they wrote a Penny, it might be more of a possibility.

The Green Goblin is another question entirely. From an initial obsession with destroying Peter Parker in the official comics, Norman Osborn developed a sick paternal-type relationship with Peter, seeing in him all the qualities that would be a worthy heir to the Osborn legacy, and going so far as to convince Peter to take up the Goblin mantle himself. In this alternate universe, once he finds out that that bright girl his son Harry's been dating has also been the bane of his existence as the Green Goblin, he might encourage the same type of paternal relationship, or even go one step further, viewing her intellect and skill as complimentary to his own, and thinking that they'd make the perfect couple, so to speak.

Yeah. Ick.

You'd hope they wouldn't pull a "Sins Past" on a lead.

[_OM_]

Mary Jane

...Cue the "What if Spider-Woman were a lesbian..." thread

[OrpheusTelos]

When it comes to the FF, she'd probably have a closer relationship with Sue Storm. Heh, I can see the two having a rivalry of sorts, especially if Spider-Woman got along well with Reed.

I also like the idea of Norman seeing her as his potential mate. lol

[Regulus B.]

I also like the idea of Norman seeing her as his potential mate. lol

I think Otto would work better. He could see himself in her more than Norman could and I think that would make him just sympathetic enough to make some actual tension. Anything with Norman would be a lot more one-sided.

Or they could have their cake and eat it too and have a creepy Norman vs. Otto throwndown.

[ShadowSonic]

Norman Osborn vs Otto Octavius for the love of Spider-Woman.

That's pure Silver Age cover title, alright.

[JaredMilne]

You'd hope they wouldn't pull a "Sins Past" on a lead.

They wouldn't, really-Norman or Otto would have more of a sick lust, but Spider-Woman sure as hell wouldn't reciprocate.

Indeed, a fanfic series written by a friend of mine, that imagined what would have happened if Mary Jane had been bitten by the spider rather than Peter Parker, has Spider-Woman had exactly that happen, with the middle-aged Doctor Octopus making a romantic proposition to the teenage Spider-Woman, who was predictably disgusted at the notion of being involved with a guy old enough to be her father.