Who is Anya Corazon, AKA Araña?

Who is Anya Corazon/Araña?

Araña and Spider-Man 2099: Dark Tomorrow by Alex Segura

She is a teenage Latine girl who lives in Brooklyn with her dad, Gilberto Corazón, an investigative reporter. She’s a gymnast and passionate about her school work and friends. But she’s got pain in her life: her mother mysteriously disappeared years ago.

Anya ends up getting her powers to save her life after an encounter with the Sisterhood of the Wasp. She has a spider tattoo, which gives her super-strength, incredible agility (on top of her abilities as a gymnast), and web slinging.

But the road is hard for her. “She has been gifted these powers or stricken with these powers,” Segura explains. At the very beginning of the book, her mentor, Miguel (not Miguel O’Hara) has left her so “… rudderless. She’s feeling a little resentful that she’s kind of saddled with these powers, and not really sure how to use them. But she also has a great sense of justice and right and wrong, and wants to make a difference,” he explains.

Why is Araña so Important?

“It’s important in terms of the Spider-Verse and just showing that a diverse cast of characters have Spider powers,” Segura explains, “I think it’s really important to show diverse protagonists, as protagonists as opposed to supporting cast or villains or comedy, really, comic relief.”

Segura described seeing Spider-Man 2099 for the first time as a “seminal moment” when he was 12 years old. He’d collected Amazing Spider-Man but when he saw a Spider-Man could be Latine, he “really felt a great sense of identity and identification with that. Realizing that yes, you too can be spider man or a spider hero is a huge, hugely impactful.”

But Segura is not the first person to have written Araña. She’s been around for almost 20 years!

Incidentally, Segura also contributed to the story “The Hero Within” in Edge of Spider-Verse Vol 2 #1.

How Do You Write Araña?

So how does a writer incorporate all of these storylines (or not) into a single novel? It’s a challenge. Segura explains, “I think as writers, especially in shared universes, you don’t want to break anybody else’s voice. You want to leave them in good enough shape, but you also want to be additive. So I wanted to come in and not retcon anything.”

To write her, Segura had to figure out what was her essence, drawing on her drive, dedication, and loyalty. He decided to start from her beginning when she’s lost and confused as a new superhero.

How does Araña Fit into the wider Spider-Verse?

Segura explains that some people find the Spider-Verse a little confusing, but “it’s not really confusing, as long as you’re aware that each of these heroes has their own unique areas.” You’ve got Araña in present day-ish Brooklyn and then there’s Spider-Man 2099, the Spider-Man of New York in the future. “Peter Parker can’t be everywhere,” Segura says. He sees all the different Spider-Man characters as a kind of family, calling it a “universe of heroes that support each other.”