Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)
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Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, 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.
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 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, 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 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. 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 (who had assumed the Spider-Woman identity at the time).
After regaining her powers from the mysterious HYDRA agent, Mr Connelly, Jessica became a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., and later joined the latest team calling themselves the Avengers. HYDRA's doctors had restored Jessica's powers through a 17 month-long ordeal of operations that repaired her refined genetic make-up. (The operation resulted in her ability to actually fly, instead of just glide.) However, HYDRA placed Jessica 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. She is currently the only active Spider-Woman.
Powers and abilities
Jessica Drew possesses superhuman strength and can lift roughly 10 tons. Her agility, reflexes, endurance, and speed are likewise enhanced. Her hearing is hyper-acute.
She can cling to walls and other surfaces, and her enhanced musculature and stamina allow her to easily lift and carry an undetermined amount of weight while clinging to walls and has flight as well.
She is immune to all forms of non-corrosive toxins, and radiations. After an initial exposure that usually just makes her dizzy, her metabolism quickly develops an immunity to whatever toxin she came in contact with. She also has the ability to store bioelectricity in her body, which she can release at will in powerful discharges that she calls "venom blasts." She can control the amount of discharge of her "venom blasts" to the degree that they can be enough to stun a person, or if she chooses, she can use lethal force at close range.
Her metabolism generates certain types of pheromones that elicit attraction and/or repulsion in others, Jessica has stated that the release of her pheromones is due to her being nervous, but it is still unknown if other factors may also affect her.
Jessica is a highly experienced fighter in many forms of armed and unarmed physical combat including boxing, judo, karate, capoeira, fencing, and many other disciplines, learned from her training under the Taskmaster as a HYDRA assassin and later on as a SHIELD agent. She is also extensively trained in espionage, covert operations, stealth and use of weapons. She is a superb athlete and an Olympic-level gymnast. Due to her HYDRA espionage training, she is fluent in several languages, including Russian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and German.
Recently, Jessica has shown the capability to engage in self-powered flight, without using her collapsable glider-wings. It is still unclear as to the range and extent of this power.
Spider-Woman:Origin
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 brothers Joshua and Jonathan Luna.
The mini attempted to streamline, condense and clean up Spider-Woman's backstory, which was widely regarded as convoluted. Some of the basic details of her initial origin had been diluted and made confusing by subsequent stories that contradicted previously written ones.
In the Origin, these things were modified:
- 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 made clear what connection, if any, he has with Edgar Wyndham, who in the original Spider-Woman books was Jonathan's best friend and research partner.
After her mind is tampered with, Jessica has brief flashes of her memory in which she sees the High Evolutionary, as well as the cow-lady version of Bova, sometimes with Bova's face replacing those around her.
Origin gets rid of the entire spider-blood serum and genetic accelerator element. Instead, Jessica gets her powers while still an unborn child, when her mother's womb is hit by a laser beam containing the DNA traits of several different species of spiders. (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 are taken out of the picture under mysterious circumstances, Jessica is recruited into HYDRA (under false pretenses), and she is made into a formidable fighter/assassin. She is trained and mentored by Taskmaster, who schooled her in many martial disciplines and more than seven different fighting techniques out of his own "arsenal".
In this re-telling, Otto Vermis didn't recruit Jessica into HYDRA, he is just an old, retired HYDRA big shot who at some point Jessica seduces in order to gain information that will lead her to her mother, who had disappeared.
Other continuity problems include the apparent death of the Taskmaster by Jessica's hand, at a time which would invalidate countless confirmed later appearances, for instance the time he spent training the replacement Captain America turned USAgent John Walker. It also goes beyond the usual bounds of the retcon tool by blatantly changing events that were clearly depicted in previous issues, rather than simply working around the previously established material. Thus, it strongly appears to break continuity by making one set of depicted events false or the other, as they clearly contradict and thus cannot both have occurred in the same unbroken timeline.
It is also notable that the women of the "Athena project" all seemed to or would be implied to have similar powers to Jessica herself, and considering that she survived the explosion of the oil rig laboratory that supposedly wiped them all out, it is at least possible that one or more of them may have survived as well. It remains to be seen at the time of this writing whether that is an element that was overlooked or a possibility deliberately left open to provide later story hooks.
Depictions in other media
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). The cartoon differed somewhat from the comic book and lasted for one season of sixteen episodes. The animated Spider-Woman retained the ability to fire bursts of energy from her hands called "venom-blasts," but they were white instead of green and could apparently be used an unlimited number of times (which was originally the case in print, but was retconned to work only once per hour). She also generated strands of webbing from her fingertips, an idea apparently borrowed from Spider-Man's mechanical web-shooters. The animated Spider-Woman also had the ability to change into costume merely by spinning around, an idea borrowed from the Wonder Woman television series starring Lynda Carter. (Not to be confused with the animated superheroine Web Woman, a Filmation superheroine cartoon launched at around the same time, which reportedly prompted Marvel into creating a Spider-Woman character to secure the copyright.)Jessica Drew, (voiced by Joan Van Ark) is editor of Justice Magazine, a publication which had its own skyscraper and helicopter yet showed only two other employees - photographer 'Jeff' and Jessica's teenage nephew 'Billy'. When trouble reared its ugly head, Jessica would come up with an excuse to slip away and change into her Spider-Woman secret identity.
Spider-Man also guest starred in the series.
| Episode Name | Airdate | Synopsis |
| Pyramids of Terror | Sept 22nd 1979 | Guest stars Spider-Man. The Justice Magazine crew investigate an alien invasion in Egypt. |
| Realm of Darkness | Sept 29th 1979 | A powerful demon emerges on a Pacific island, threatening to enslave mankind. |
| The Amazon Adventure | Oct 5th 1979 | Stolen gold from Fort Knox leads the Justice Magazine team into the Amazon, where they uncover a plot to take over the world. |
| The Ghost Vikings | Oct 12th 1979 | A 'ghost' Viking ship emerges off the coast of Norway. The crew plan to steal the riches of the world, before returning to their own time. Spider-Woman travels back to 952 A.D. to defeat them. |
| The Kingpin Strikes Again | Oct 19th 1979 | Angered by a recent Justice Magazine article, the Kingpin steals an experimental invisibility ray and seeks revenge on its editor, Jessica Drew. However, while invisible, he oversees her transform into Spider-Woman, and opts for a blackmail plot instead. |
| The Lost Continent | Oct 26th 1979 | After US Air Force planes vanish in the Bermuda Triangle, the team from Justice Magazine investigate. They soon find themselves thrown into a hidden dimension, where dinosaurs roam the Earth. |
| The Kongo Spider | Nov 2nd 1979 | Guest stars Spider-Man. While covering the filming of a movie, the Justice Magazine team encounter a giant spider (in a plot inspired by King Kong). |
| Games of Doom | Nov 9th 1979 | Athletes in the World Athletic Games in Moscow are being kidnapped and replaced by android doubles. Jessica Drew goes undercover as a Long Jumper to investigate. |
| Shuttle to Disaster | Nov 16th 1979 | The Justice Magazine team find themselves on a hijacked space shuttle, heading towards the moon, where the villain 'Steeljaw' intends to enslave mankind and put it to work digging for valuable gems. |
| Dracula's Revenge | Nov 23rd 1979 | The world's population are threatened with being turned into werewolves. |
| The Spider-Woman and the Fly | Nov 30th 1979 | Jessica confronts a former research assistant to her father, who has been mutated into a human fly after a lab accident. Deducing her secret identity, he creates a formula which will rob Jessica of her spider powers. |
| Invasion of the Black Hole | Dec 7th 1979 | A UFO attempts to swallow the Earth in a black hole, in readiness for an invasion. |
| The Great Magini | Dec 14th 1979 | Magician, the Great Magini, attempts to steal the World's most famous landmarks. |
| A Crime In Time | Dec 21st 1979 | An experimental time machine unleashes an invasion of Wookiee-like creatures. Jessica is forced to reveal her secret identity to her fellow magazine crew, in order to save mankind. |
| Return of the Spider-Queen | Dec 28th 1979 | Spider-Woman is brainwashed by an alien race of human spider creatures, who believe she is their long lost queen. |
| The Deadly Dream | Jan 3rd 1980 | An alien threatens the World with her sleep inducing powers. |
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, Thing, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Ant-Man, and Invisible Woman.
External links
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