Who Is Madame Web’s Anya Corazon: Isabela Merced’s Spider-Girl Explained

Anya Corazon, aka Aña Sofia Corazón, obtains her powers on her first day of high school. The Brooklyn gymnast sacrifices herself to defend a stranger who turns out to be a sorcerer in the Spider Society — the same group that chased Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) across the Spider-Verse. The Spider-sorcerer, Miguel Legar, saves her life by marking her with a magical spider tattoo that also imbues her with some of his spider powers. Later versions of the story separate the tattoo and the superpowers by making the former a battle scar obtained through aiding Miguel. 

As Araña, Anya boasts the standard gamut of spider powers, including increased strength, heightened reflexes, and wall-crawling. At first, she cannot create organic webbing, so she creates a pair of thematic grappling hooks similar to the web bangles used by Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni) in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Additionally, Anya’s original toolset features a blue exoskeleton that manifests as part of her powers, like a much less aggressive version of what Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) deals with in “Blue Beetle.”

Anya’s look also varies from comic to comic.  As Araña, her costume is red and white. As Spider-Girl, it’s similar to Spider-Man’s venom suit. Also, she was originally a light-skinned young woman with red hair. Other versions depict her as even more white-passing with either blond or brunette hair, all but erasing any visual connection to her Latinx (Puerto Rican and Mexican) heritage.

Anya Corazon, aka Aña Sofia Corazón, obtains her powers on her first day of high school. The Brooklyn gymnast sacrifices herself to defend a stranger who turns out to be a sorcerer in the Spider Society — the same group that chased Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) across the Spider-Verse. The Spider-sorcerer, Miguel Legar, saves her life by marking her with a magical spider tattoo that also imbues her with some of his spider powers. Later versions of the story separate the tattoo and the superpowers by making the former a battle scar obtained through aiding Miguel. 

As Araña, Anya boasts the standard gamut of spider powers, including increased strength, heightened reflexes, and wall-crawling. At first, she cannot create organic webbing, so she creates a pair of thematic grappling hooks similar to the web bangles used by Pavitr Prabhakar (Karan Soni) in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Additionally, Anya’s original toolset features a blue exoskeleton that manifests as part of her powers, like a much less aggressive version of what Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) deals with in “Blue Beetle.”

Anya’s look also varies from comic to comic.  As Araña, her costume is red and white. As Spider-Girl, it’s similar to Spider-Man’s venom suit. Also, she was originally a light-skinned young woman with red hair. Other versions depict her as even more white-passing with either blond or brunette hair, all but erasing any visual connection to her Latinx (Puerto Rican and Mexican) heritage.