Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)
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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). While briefly popular in the 1970s (she has had a regular series named Spider-Woman of fifty issues), she was depowered and fell into disuse for years, supplanted by other Spider-Women, but has recently been revived as a member of the New Avengers.
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[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 is the first Marvel female solo star to get her own Essentials trade paperback, released December 21, 2005.
[edit] Fictional character biography
At a young age, Jessica Miriam Drew, daughter of Jonathan and Miriam, was lethally poisoned by radiation. 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 Bova. 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.
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 fought super-powered foes such as the Brothers Grimm, Hangman, the Enforcer, The Needle, Hammer And Anvil, Nekra ,the Silver Samurai, Viper,Gypsy Moth, and the Waxman, while forming 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 huntress. 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 be simply a delusion of Viper.
In the last adventure of her comic book, 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 trace of Jessica's existence. However, this spell was faulty, and Tigra and the Shroud discovered Jessica's dead body and contacted the Avengers and Dr. 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, Dr. 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. 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 (a former alter-ego of Wolverine).
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's 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.
After regaining her powers from the mysterious HYDRA agent, Mr. Conelly, Jessica became a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., and later joined the latest team calling themselves the Avengers. HYDRA's doctors restored Jessica's powers through a 17 month-long ordeal of operations that repaired her refined genetic make-up. (The operation provided her with the ability to fly, instead of just glide.) However, Jessica's complicity with HYDRA placed her under constant threat of having her powers stripped from her if she did not comply with their wishes. In recent issues of the Avengers, Jessica confessed to Captain America that she was actually a double agent, reporting directly to Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., while also acting for HYDRA.
[edit] Civil War
Shortly after Spider-Man revealed his identity to the world, Iron Man disclosed 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 ordered Drew's apprehension; after a struggle Jessica was captured and taken aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier.
Deploying an electro-magnetic pulse device, a HYDRA commando team disabled the helicarrier and rescued Drew. She was taken to a HYDRA base in the Southern Hemisphere, where Conelly tried to convince Jessica to take up the mantle of the new Madame Hydra, overthrowing the "unstable" Viper.
However, Jessica declined the offer and dispatched Conelly. She managed to set off an explosion which utterly destroyed the HYDRA compound. Jessica made her way to the hidden base used by Captain America's Secret Avengers. Having lost her connection to S.H.I.E.L.D. and Nick Fury, Jessica had no one else to turn to: she tearfully begged to join the resistance.
[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.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Jessica possesses several superhuman abilities, all derived from the original experimentation that granted her her powers:
- Superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility, and reflexes.
- Superhumanly acute hearing.
- Adhesive touch that allows her to cling to walls and other surfaces via electro-static attraction.
- Immunity to all forms of non-corrosive toxins and poisons after an initial exposure to them. These initial exposures make her dizzy, but her metabolism quickly recovers and develops an immunity.
- Immunity to all forms of radiation.
- Venom blast: Spider-Woman can discharge a powerful toxin with her body's excess bio-electricity, which she focuses through her hands. These blasts affect the nervous system, and their intensity can be regulated to deliver a minor shock, render someone unconscious, or even kill. (Their concussive force is powerful enough to puncture metal.)
- Pheromones: Jessica generates chemicals that make her extremely attractive to men and tend to repulse women. If she concentrates she can direct this power, making men susceptible to her will.
- Flight: Jessica initially had only limited gliding ability, enhanced by the small wings that are part of her costume. As revealed in New Avengers # 14, Hydra further tampered with her metabolism, providing her with self-powered flight. (The range of her flying capabilities is still indeterminate)
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 also) in covert operations, stealth, and information gathering and is a superb athlete. She speaks several languages, including Russian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and German.
[edit] Alternate 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). But 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 and 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, that universe's Spider-Woman was 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 was preparing to erase and supplant those memories in order to create her identity as "Jessica Drew," but she escaped before the process could be carried out.
After Doctor Octopus revealed himself as the mastermind of the cloning experiments, Jessica and Peter fought him together, and eventually prevailed. Peter turned himself in to Nick Fury, while Jessica opted to flee. At the close of the story-line, Jessica decides to leave New York, intending to embrace her identity as a super-powered "Jessica Drew."
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.
[edit] Appearances in other media
[edit] Television
A Spider-Woman cartoon, featuring Jessica Drew, launched on ABC's Saturday Morning Cartoon block in 1979 (produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and Marvel Comics Animation).
- Spider-Woman has made two live action appearances on TV:
- A cameo role on the short-lived TV series, Once A Hero, about a comic strip hero who leaves his "world" to find his creator. Near the end of one episode Captain Justice returns to the "Real Earth", and a crowd of comic book characters can be seen cheering him on, including Spider-Woman.
- The Saturday Night Live sketch, "Superhero Party", originally broadcast March 17, 1979. The sketch featured Margot Kidder as Lois Lane, with Superman, Flash, Lana Lang, Hulk, The Thing, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Ant-Man, and Invisible Woman.
[edit] Video games
- Spider-Woman is a playable character in the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. 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 Arachne and Spider-Girl costumes.
[edit] External links
- Marvel Database:Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)
- The Women of Marvel Comics Spider-woman Page
- Spider-woman's Profile at Spiderfan.org
Categories: Marvel Comics superheroes | Marvel Comics mutates | Marvel Comics characters who can move at superhuman speeds | Spin-off comic book superheroes | Fictional private investigators | Marvel Comics martial artists | Marvel Comics characters with superhuman strength | Fictional secret agents and spies | Fictional women in war
