Hey ComicAttack.net faithful! Welcome to another great character spotlight right here in Marvel Snapshot! In this week’s spotlight, we’ll be looking at one of my favorite female characters – Spider-Woman! The original herself, Jessica Drew, will be taking the main stage this week, and she is quite a hand full, so strap on your seat-belt!
All right, well, for those of you that don’t know about Jessica, she’s not a Spider-Man rip-off. I can’t say it more clearly than that. She has a very different origin, and also wasn’t brought up in a loving household like Peter was. Jessica was created by Archie Goodwin, Sal Buscema, and Jim Mooney and made her debut in Marvel Spotlight #32 in 1977. She was the daughter of a scientist that moved his family to Wundagore to conduct experiments with one Herbert Edgar Wyndham. The experiments were also being monitored and funded in part by Hydra. You see, Jessica ‘s parents were both in the employ of the terrorist organization before she was born, and gave their lives over to advance the scientific research for Hydra.
From being around heavy deposits of uranium, Jessica grew ill and was placed in a stasis chamber for a while. Jessica’s father then decided to inject her with a serum that contained blood from some rare species of spiders (thought to have been affected by the uranium and also mystical properties of Mount Wundagore). This serum gave her powers that consisted of a “venom blast” and superhuman speed, strength, etc. She was at first a pawn of Hydra, but quickly realized the organization was up to no good. She was also shown this fact by her enemy at the time, Nick Fury. Secret agent supreme, Fury, convinced her to join SHIELD and fight against terrorists like AIM and Hydra. Jessica eventually wanted to go her own way, though, and broke it off with SHIELD.
Jessica was usually in the backdrop after her solo series ended, but the retelling of her origin showed her for the great character she really is. If you recall, she was the sleeper agent for the Skrulls in Secret Invasion. Her work in New Avengers was really cool as well. Her personality fit in perfect with that team. She did get her own ongoing again, but it was abruptly canceled after only seven issues (for shame, Marvel). Check below for my recommended reading list and great pics, as usual!
Recommended Reading
Essential Spider-Woman vol. 1 & 2 – Tpbs
Spider-Woman Origin – Tpb
Spider-Woman #1-7 (ongoing-2009)
Marvel Two-in-One #’s 29-33, 85 (1974)
New Avengers #’s 48-64, Annual 3 (2005)
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net
I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Spider-Woman and have actually enjoyed her character growth over the years.
Me too. I really became a huge fan with Origins. It was a great book and made me think of her as someone that is more than “B” material. Oh, and she’s hot too. 😀
I really enjoyed her story line in Civil War. I remember tearing up a little bit.
I just started to get into her recently. I’m really liking her character the more I’m reading about her.
@ Kristin – Civil War huh… I’ll have to check that out.
@Kristin- Yeah, she really came into her own in the Avengers books.
@Eli- Dude, definitely check out her Origins Tpb & her series from a year or so ago. That was a short lived series but it had a T-Bolts appearance, and some good spy stuff as well. 😀