Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Spider-Woman

Cover to New Avengers #14. Art by Frank Cho.
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
First appearance Marvel Spotlight #32 (February 1977)
Created by Archie Goodwin
Sal Buscema
Jim Mooney
In story information
Alter ego Jessica Drew
Team affiliations Mighty Avengers
S.H.I.E.L.D.
HYDRA
Secret Avengers
Heroes For Hire
New Avengers
Notable aliases Arachne, Ariadne Hyde, Sybil Dvorak
Abilities Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, senses, and durability
Flight
Pheromone generation
Ability to adhere to walls through bio-electric attraction
Ability to shoot beams of bio-electric energy from her hands,
Immunity to all poisons and radiations

Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) is a superheroine, a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. The character first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #32 (February 1977), and 50 issues of an ongoing series titled Spider-Woman followed. After its conclusion she was depowered, and fell into disuse, supplanted by other Spider-Women.

Comics creator Brian Michael Bendis, unabashed in his enthusiasm for the character (Wizard #171; Jan 2006, p. 82), added Spider Woman to the roster of the high profile New Avengers.

Contents

[edit] Publication history

After her debut in Marvel Spotlight #32 (February 1977) Drew was featured in her own self-titled on-going series which lasted 50 issues, from April 1978 to June 1983.

On December 21, 2005, Marvel released the first issue of Spider-Woman: Origin, a five part miniseries co-written by Brian Michael Bendis (New Avengers, Daredevil, Ultimate Spider-Man) and Brian Reed (Ms. Marvel, Ultimate Spider-Man: The Video-Game), illustrated by the art team of the Luna Brothers, Jonathan and Joshua Luna.

Spider-Woman's 1970s adventures were collected in an Essentials trade paperback (released December 21, 2005); she is the first female character to be published in this series.

[edit] Fictional character biography

Originally, Spider-Woman was a spider evolved to human form by the High Evolutionary. Publisher Stan Lee was disgusted with the interpretation of the character and insisted her origin be changed.

[edit] Origins

Jessica Miriam Drew, daughter of Jonathan and Miriam Drew, was born in London, England. At a young age, Jessica was lethally poisoned by radiation whilst living near Mount Wundagore in Transia. In an attempt to save her life, her father injected her with an experimental serum based on irradiated spiders' blood. Because the serum did not have any apparent effect on her, the man who would come to be known as the High Evolutionary (Herbert Wyndham) placed her in a genetic accelerator. While in the accelerator, she aged at a decelerated rate. When she was finally released, decades later, Drew was only seventeen years old.

Jessica grew up on Mount Wundagore under the care of Lady Bova, one of the High Evolutionary's New Men. She eventually left when she did not appear to fit in. Her first few years were confusing as she adjusted to life among other humans. Eventually, HYDRA, under the control of Count Otto Vermis, found and recruited her.

Through brainwashing and manipulation, she was convinced she was not human but actually an evolved spider. During this time, she went by the alias of Arachne. Finally, on a mission against S.H.I.E.L.D., Jessica learned HYDRA's true nature and turned on them.

[edit] Spider-Woman: Origin

Origin does away with the spider-blood serum and genetic accelerator elements of the character's previous origin story. Instead, Jessica's powers derive from her mother's womb being hit by a laser beam containing the DNA traits of several different species of spiders while she was carrying Jessica (the Drews were trying to splice and harness spiders' environmental adaptive capabilities, in order to graft them into the human genome).

After Jessica's parents disappeared under mysterious circumstances, Jessica was recruited into HYDRA (under false pretenses), where she was made into a formidable fighter/assassin. She was trained and mentored by Taskmaster, who schooled her in many martial disciplines and more than seven different fighting styles out of his own "arsenal".

In this re-telling, Otto Vermis, who had originally recruited her into HYDRA, is rather an old, retired HYDRA agent who Jessica seduces in order to gain information that will lead her to her mother.

In addition, Origin made the following modifications:

  • Merriem Drew was now Miriam Drew.
  • The Drews moved to Wundagore Mountain prior to Jessica's conception, establishing without a doubt that she was born on the European landmark. Afterwards, she was raised by her nanny Bova (who was human in appearance), as well as her mother.
  • Jessica's father, Jonathan, never found uranium on their land. Instead, their research was funded by HYDRA, and their direct liaison/financier from the group was General Wyndham. It isn't clear what connection, if any, he had with Edgar Wyndham (who in the original Spider-Woman books was Jonathan's best friend and research partner), nor with the High Evolutionary.
  • Jessica's father was never possessed by the spirit of the Sixth Century magician Magnus; no reason exists for Magnus, decades later, to help Jessica in many of her adventures.
  • Jessica's father worked in large part with Miles Warren, who later left the project because he felt that there was more potential in experimenting with the cloning of human cells.

[edit] Spider-Woman

Cover to Spider-Woman #1. Art by Carmine Infantino.
Cover to Spider-Woman #1. Art by Carmine Infantino.

Now going by the name Spider-Woman, Jessica used her new identity to track down her father's killer, starting her search in London. During this time, Jessica was recaptured by HYDRA and brainwashed into working for them again. This brought her into direct conflict with Ben Grimm.

After breaking free of HYDRA's brainwashing, Jessica came into contact with the sorcerer, Magnus, who would become one of her strongest allies, and his arch nemesis, Morgan Le Fay. Magnus provided information that would lead Jessica to relocate to Los Angeles where she began her career as a costumed crime fighter.

Jessica was pursued at this time by S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jerry Hunt, who followed her to Los Angeles to begin a romantic relationship with her.

In her early days as Spider-Woman, Jessica chose to keep her presence in Los Angeles a secret. She met super-powered foes such as the Brothers Grimm, Hangman, the Enforcer, The Needle, Hammer and Anvil[1], Nekra, the Silver Samurai, Viper, Gypsy Moth, and the Waxman, as well as allies such as Werewolf by Night and the Shroud. Jessica also sought to discover the true nature of her pheromones, which appeared to produce a strong sexual attraction from men and repulsion from women.

Her search led her to the Hatros Institute and her first true job. Working as a secretary, she was able to gain free medical treatment to suppress her pheromones so that she could move effectively among people without producing any unwanted side-effects. The culmination of her time at the Hatros Institute led Jessica to her encounter with the above mentioned Nekra, and the loss of her job.

Unemployed, Jessica briefly considered stealing, but at the last moment decided against it. She came into contact with Spider-Man, who advised her to use her unique talents to help others in need. Jessica chose to heed his advice and become a bounty hunter. She worked closely with former FBI specialist, Scotty McDowell, who later became the Hornet. When their working relationship failed, Jessica moved with her best friend Lindsay McCabe to San Francisco where she set up a practice as a private investigator.

While working as a P.I., Jessica encountered the Viper in a battle. Two main revelations came out of it. The first was that Lindsay McCabe finally learned that Spider-Woman and Jessica were one and the same (although Lindsay claimed that she had known all along). The other was Viper's claim to be Jessica's real mother. Whether this meant she was actually Miriem Drew remains unknown, but the resemblance between the two was uncanny and even fooled other HYDRA agents. This revelation was later retconned in the Captain America comic to simply be a delusion of Viper.

Jessica engaged in a showdown with Morgan le Fey in the 6th century. She managed to vanquish Morgan, but Jessica's human body was destroyed. Jessica was believed dead and the sorcerer, Magnus, placed a spell over humanity to remove all traces of Jessica's existence. However, this spell was faulty, and Tigra and the Shroud discovered Jessica's dead body and contacted the Avengers and Doctor Strange. It turned out that Jessica was in fact trapped on the astral plane, and was attempting to make contact with her body again. Morgan Le Fay (also trapped on the astral plane) attempted to foil the Avengers' attempts to revive Jessica, bringing Morgan in direct conflict with both the Avengers and Dr. Strange. Eventually, Doctor Strange was able to restore Jessica to her human body and trap Morgan, but it was not without a cost: Jessica appeared to lose all her super powers.[2] Jessica was nevertheless grateful for returning to the land of the living, and continued her life simply as a private investigator in San Francisco, assisted by Lindsay McCabe and occasionally by Tigra and the Shroud.

Jessica Drew frequented Madripoor as a private investigator, partnered with Lindsay McCabe. During this time she had lost her ability to discharge bioelectricity, but found that her super powers were slowly returning. She still possessed superhuman strength and agility, and the ability to cling to walls. She was an ally and confidante of Patch (an alter-ego of Wolverine), and developed a friendship with pilot Archie Corrigan, who helped her return to San Francisco, where Jessica worked to sort out her life.

Jessica Drew's life settled down until Charlotte Witter, a villainess going by the name of Spider-Woman, stole her powers. After the theft, Jessica returned to her life as a private investigator and served as a teacher and mentor to Mattie Franklin, a young woman who had assumed the Spider-Woman identity. Jessica began to regain her powers at this time; while investigating two cases with Mattie, she made use of her restored superhuman strength and agility. Although she regained the bulk of her spider-powers, they were unstable. For example, her "venom blasts" worked efficiently in one fight, and then would fail her unexpectedly on another occasion.

When Mattie Franklin was drawn into an highly abusive and parasitic relationship with a New York-based drug dealer who cannibalized her tissue to make the "Mutant Growth Hormone" (commonly known as "MGH"), Jessica didn't hesitate to investigate (despite the instability of her powers). An initial misunderstanding with local P.I. Jessica Jones—who shared many surprising similarities to Drew—turned into an alliance when the women teamed up to rescue Mattie from her captors.

[edit] New Avengers and the Civil War

One day, a Hydra agent known as Connely attacked her and offered her powers back as long as she rejoins S.H.I.E.L.D. and acts as a double agent. Knowing Connely would kill her if she said no, Jessica agreed and contacted Nick Fury, who confronted her securely and urged her to accept the offer as he will feed her limited info until S.H.I.E.L.D. can analyze the Hydra cell and take it down.

Jessica then underwent the seventeen-month process to regain her powers, which were better than before, as she could now fly. However, her life was then characterized by constantly lying and double crossing. She began to accustom to this life until the Secret War, which ended with Fury going underground and cutting all ties with Jessica, leaving her trapped with Hydra. Since he was the only one in S.H.I.E.L.D. who knew of her activities, she could not reveal her problem to Director Maria Hill. Then she was fired because she was a Fury loyalist.

Three months later, Fury showed up and asked her to return to S.H.I.E.L.D. even in lower end activities, so she could report him if she sees something strange. When she asks for more details, he tells her about the Skrull threat and wants her to be on guard for any information regarding the alien presence on.

Jessica was appointed to working at the Raft, and then she joined the New Avengers the day of the big breakout. However, when Captain America offered her membership by going to S.H.I.E.L.D. first, Hydra found out and forced her to join.

Later Jessica confesses to Captain America that she is a double agent, revealing that she reports directly to Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., while also feeding information to HYDRA.

Soon after Spider-Man reveals his identity to the world, Iron Man discloses Jessica Drew's triple agent status to acting S.H.I.E.L.D. director Maria Hill. Troubled by Drew's potentially treasonous allegiance to Nick Fury, Hill orders Drew apprehended. After a struggle, Spider-Woman is captured and taken aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier.

Deploying an electro-magnetic pulse device, a HYDRA commando team disables the helicarrier and rescues Jessica. At a HYDRA base in the Southern Hemisphere, Connely tries to convince her to take up the mantle of Madame Hydra, overthrowing the "unstable" Viper.

Jessica declines the offer and dispatches Connely, setting off an explosion that destroys the compound. She makes her way to the hidden base of Captain America's Secret Avengers. Having lost her connection to S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury, she tearfully pleads to join the resistance.

Following the conclusion of the Civil War, Jessica is a member of the New Avengers, under the leadership of Luke Cage, accompanied by Spider-Man, Wolverine, Echo, Iron Fist, and Ronin. The team operates as an outlawed organization with secure accommodation provided by Doctor Strange. The New Avengers are driven by two goals: to save people "the way [they] want to", and investigate the world's recent changes. During a rescue of Echo, the team discovers that Elektra has been replaced by a Skrull.

On the flight back to New York, Jessica suggests that they take the Skrull's body to Tony Stark, reasoning that they will know for certain that Tony Stark has been replaced by a Skrull's if Stark destroys the corpse and tries to prevent the team from telling anyone else. The team refuses to follow her suggested course of action. An electrical disruption released by the battle between Ultron and the Mighty Avengers causes the New Avengers' plane to crash. Wolverine throws Jessica from the plane, assuming that she will be able to fly to safety. Landing at the crash site, she knocks out Wolverine and carries away the body of the Skrull. Her teammates conclude that she genuinely thinks turning the body over to Stark is the right thing to do, and assume that she is not a Skrull.

[edit] Mighty Avengers

Jessica takes the body to Stark in secret, informing him of what had happened in Japan. Stark demands to know where Nick Fury is because he would know what to do, but she does not know. Stark convinces her to join the Mighty Avengers, even though she absolutely refuses to sign the Superhuman Registration Act, since it will throw the Skrull off guard. Stark assumes that one of the Mighty Avengers is a Skrull sent to kill him, and with Jessica on the team the Skrull will know that the Avengers are now aware of the Skrull threat. Jessica convinces the others that she merely wanted to get back to doing something useful, and does not tell them what happened in Japan. Her friend, Ms. Marvel, is quietly angry with Stark for not consulting her, but accepts Jessica back in to the team. Black Widow is not so convinced. [3]

Jessica is quickly reunited with her former New Avengers teammates, on their way to warn the Mighty Avengers of The Hood's impending attack on Stark Tower. The New Avengers witness the other team's emergence from the Tower to confront hundreds of Symbiotes who have initiated attacks on civilians on the streets below. The teams join forces.[4]

Following the discovery that the Venom bomb originated from Doctor Doom's labs, the Mighty Avengers launch a full assault on his castle, but half the team are eventually captured by Doom. Spider-Woman shows an unprecedented display of power in enabling the Avengers' escape from their restraints; later on in the hot tub, Natasha remarks that this is inconsistent with her SHIELD files, only to be brushed off by Jessica who explains that her powers "react differently to different types of attacks".

Skrull Empress Veranke. Art by Leinil Francis Yu.
Skrull Empress Veranke. Art by Leinil Francis Yu.

[edit] Secret Invasion

Tony Stark informs Jessica of the crash-landing of a Skrull transport ship in the Savage Land. Unbeknowst to Tony, she in turn tips off Luke Cage about this information, telling him that she trusts him over Stark. However, it was recently revealed that when the Skrull Empress, Veranke, decided to play a direct part in the infiltration of Earth as a mole, Jessica was recommended as the prime choice for replacement. [5] A meeting among the Skrull agents on Earth is held where "Jessica" is in attendance, referred to as "Empress" by the Skrull posing as Edwin Jarvis.[6]

After the Skrull invasion of Earth begins, Spider-Woman is seen in the Savage Land, where she confronts and attacks Echo, repeatedly blasting her with venom blasts and then slamming her into a nearby tree trunk [7]. She then finds Tony Stark and informs him that he will go down in history as one of the greatest Skrulls in the Armada. When Tony denies being a Skrull, she informs him that this is because he is a sleeper agent and his memory of being a Skrull was erased. She kisses him, informing him that he has "earned the queen's love."[8]

"There are quite a few people on my message boards and the CBR ones who are gigantic Spider-Woman fans and they’ve loved me for bringing her back. With her being in a number one book, she’s had a wave of good fortune that she hasn’t seen since her heyday. And the whole time I was writing her I’d think those fans are going to fucking lose their shit because we’ve had this planned since New Avengers #1. You can go back to issue #1 and see hints. There’s not a segment of the readership that I haven’t felt worse about doing this to than the Spider-Woman fans. I want to express publicly that your love of the character will not be lost.

Now you know why the Spider-Woman series didn’t happen. We thought about doing it and having her revealed as a Skrull in the first issue of her series. Last year, we we’re going to do the series and at the end of the issue she’d do something wrong, go off somewhere private and revert to Skrull form. It would be like, 'Woah! The lead character of the book isn’t who she thought she was!' I wrote it, but in the end I just thought it wasn’t selling somebody what they thought you were selling them. But if you did it as part of a team book it’s much less bullshitty. You expect things to happen in a team book but if you’re buying Spider-Woman, you want Spider-Woman."

—Brian Michael Bendis[9]

[edit] Powers and abilities

Jessica possesses superhuman strength, endurance, reflexes, and speed. She can focus her bioelectric energy into "venom blasts" sufficient to stun or kill normal humans, and she can also adhere to almost any surface. Jessica rapidly forms an immunity to all poisons and drugs, and is totally immune to radiation. Her metabolism generates pheromones which attract human males while repulsing females, though she uses a chemical "perfume" that can nullify this effect. Jessica has lost and regained her powers more than once, but has recently emerged with her powers restored greater than ever.

Jessica initially had only limited gliding ability, enhanced by the small wings that are part of her costume. After losing her powers, Hydra further tampered with her metabolism, providing her with self-powered flight. The range of her flying capabilities is still undetermined.[10]

Jessica displayed unusual powers that helped her and the other Avengers escape from Doctor Doom's technological device by creating a Venom blast explosion — supposedly this use of her powers is inconsistent with her S.H.I.E.L.D. files.[11]

In addition to her powers, Jessica is also a superb hand to hand fighter, and has trained in several styles of fighting including boxing, judo, karate, and capoeira, learned under the training of the Taskmaster. She has also had training in fencing and the use of many other weapons. Jessica was trained by HYDRA (and later on by SHIELD) in covert operations, stealth, and information gathering and is a superb athlete. She speaks several foreign languages, including Korean, Russian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Japanese.

[edit] Other versions

[edit] MC2

In the MC2 reality, Jessica never regained her powers after losing them. She got married and had a child, Gerald (or Gerry for short). However, she learned that her radioactive blood caused Gerry to develop a crippling illness. She attempted to use the same genetic treatments her father gave her to save him. As Gerry "incubated" in a genetic accelerator, Jessica's husband blamed her for Gerry's health and divorced her. When Gerry emerged from the genetic accelerator, Jessica found that her son had gained spider-like powers (superhuman strength and agility, as well as the ability to organically produce webs), but still had his disease. Teenaged Gerry decided to use his powers to become Spider-Man, and had several run-ins with the real Spider-Man's daughter, Spider-Girl. However, it was eventually discovered that he was pushing his body far beyond its limits, and would have eventually burned himself out, had not Jessica contacted Spider-Man, and asked him to convince her son to give up his "career" as Spider-Man. Peter Parker has attempted to find someone capable of finding a cure to Gerry's disease, and apparently succeeded (at least that is suggested in the Spider-Girl comic series).

[edit] Ultimate Spider-Woman

In Ultimate Spider-Man #98, Spider-Woman is introduced, and in issue #102 it is revealed that she is a clone of Peter Parker whose chromosomes were manipulated to make her female. She resembles Peter, and appears to be the same age (approximately sixteen). Created to act as an agent for the CIA (code name: Spider-Woman), she retains Peter Parker's memories. Cassandra Webb is preparing to erase and supplant those memories in order to create her identity as "Jessica Drew," but she escapes before the process can be carried out.

Doctor Octopus reveals himself as the mastermind of the cloning experiments. Jessica and Peter fight him together, and eventually prevail. Peter surrenders to Nick Fury, while Jessica opts to flee. At the close of the storyline, Jessica decides to leave New York and embrace her identity as a super-powered Jessica Drew. She takes her leave of Peter after what she calls "the most awkward hug in history."

Her powers include heightened agility, strength, reflexes, and the ability to stick to walls. Although she lacks venom blasts, Ultimate Spider-Woman can discharge organic webbing from her fingertips.

The costume worn by Ultimate Spider-Woman incorporates elements derived from the costumes worn by Julia Carpenter (Arachne) and Jessica Drew in the main Marvel continuity.It is also worth noting the character of Ultimate Spider-Woman, more or less plays the same role that Ben Reilly from the original Clone Saga did.

[edit] In other media

[edit] Television

[edit] Video games

  • Spider-Woman is a playable character in the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, voiced by Tasia Valenza. She possesses all of the powers she has in the comic book except super-strength. She has a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent variant costume (a navy blue and black maskless version of her classic costume, with white glider webs and a silver belt). In addition, she also has unlockable Julia Carpenter (Secret War edition) and Spider-Girl costumes, and faces the Wrecker in her simulator disc mission. If a player were to ask her a question revolving around Spider-Man, she tells the player that she's not related to Spider-Man. Spider-Woman has special dialogue with Black Widow, the Grey Gargoyle, and the Enchantress.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Spider-Woman #34
  2. ^ Spider-Woman #50
  3. ^ Mighty Avengers #7
  4. ^ New Avengers #34
  5. ^ New Avengers #40
  6. ^ Mighty Avengers #14
  7. ^ http://www.wizarduniverse.com/060508secretroundup3.html
  8. ^ Secret Invasion #3
  9. ^ CBR News: Spoilers of War: Secret Invasion #3, Comic Book Resources
  10. ^ New Avengers #14
  11. ^ Mighty Avengers #11

[edit] External links