Paul Tobin's Spider-Girl: Family Values collects Amazing Spider-Man no. 648 and Spider-Girl nos. 1-8. Anya Sofia Corazon, previously Araña, now fights crime as Spider-Girl after the loss of her powers. She struggles to balance school and friends while trying to make a difference. At the beginning of this story, a shadowy military group called Raven poisons the Red Hulk and, in the ensuing chaos, Anya's father dies. She must learn to live without the figure that guided her since the earliest Araña stories and find justice for her father.
The overall story is enjoyable and fans of Anya Corazon will have plenty to enjoy here. Her father's death was unexpected and leaves the character somewhat adrift since he'd been part of her story since the beginning. This end of this volume also intersects with the Spider-Island storyline, but not to an extent that one would need to be familiar with that to enjoy this story. The biggest issue is probably all the different artists involved in this story. The main artist, Clayton Henry, does a good job crafting realistic art, but he's joined by Ray-Anthony Height, Walden Wong, Roland Paris, John Livesay, Tim Seeley, Sergio Cariello, Matthew Southworth, and Paul Azaceta. All of these different styles prevents the volume from feeling very coherent and can be distracting when there are sudden shifts between collected issues or even within issues. Otherwise, this is a fun story with some good introspection. ( )

This book strikes an interesting balance between the usual "superhero outlook" that most costumed characters have and the "ordinary guy viewpoint" from books like Marvels and Front Line. I like the blend; it reminds you that Anya is, after all, a non-powered teenager who's generally fighting above her weight class.

Well done, and I hope to see more of her in the future. ( )