Debra Whitman

Gallery

Real Name

Debra Whitman

Aliases

Deborah, Deb, Debby, Debbie, Debso

Relatives

Mark Whitman (ex-husband); Mister Whitman (uncle in law)

Status

Citizenship

American

Marital Status

Divorced

Occupation

Writer, former head secretary for Dr Morris Sloan (chairman of ESU Biophysics Department)

Characteristics

Gender

Female

Height

5' 6"

Weight

120 lbs (55 kg)

Eyes

Green

Hair

Blonde

Origin

Universe

Earth-616

Place of Birth

Elk Rapids, Michigan

Created by

Marv Wolfman, Al Milgrom

First appearance

Amazing Spider-Man #196
(September, 1979)

HistoryEdit

Debra Whitman was a secretary in the biophysics department of Empire State University. While there, she met a student, Peter Parker, and they started dating. But things kept coming up in his secret life as Spider-Man and he kept giving her lame excuses to get out of the date. Because of Peter's rejections she started to date Biff Rifkin for emotional support, but her infatuation with Peter did nothing but grow all the more.^[1]

Debra also suffered from a mental instability that led to her idealize people and invert values. With Peter it grew into her hallucinating that he was Spider-Man. When she told her shrink about her hallucinations, he looked for Peter and asked him to wear the suit. His plan was to give her a shocking confrontation with reality to get her out of the hallucination. Peter refused. He then talked to Doctor Sloan and he indicated Biff Rifkin as a more reliable source of information. As it turns out Biff already knew her when she was married to one Mark Whitman. One day he asked her about her black eye and she gave evasive answers. That night he went to their house and saw Mark beating her. He rescued her and took her to the hospital, but she insisted Mark was a kind and gentle husband, locked in denial.

Peter then wore the suit and told her he was Spidey. The shock made her come to her senses and decided to leave New York to get a divorce.

Debra made her return recently after Peter's "Coming out", where she's seen on the phone speaking to her co-writer about her new book, titled "TWO FACED: How Spider-Man Ruined My Life." She seems discouraged about the title and tone of the book, but is committed to a book signing later in the day. Enraged, she then hurls items around the room to get out her anger before the signing. At the book signing, Spider-Man and the newly-released Vulture are both seen planing to crash.

Spidey defeated Toomes, and Debra revealed to Betty Brant that the editors had forced her to exaggerate the mental damage that Peter had "done" to her in order to make for a better book. Debra's mother had been sick and the medical bills were far more than she could pay for, so when the Daily Bugle dug up all of Peter Parker's past relationships to get dirt on him, she jumped on the chance to write the book. Betty talked Debra into telling the truth to the Daily Globe, confidentially.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

LinksEdit

• 58 Appearances of Debra Whitman (Earth-616)
• 2 Images featuring Debra Whitman (Earth-616)
• Quotations by or about Debra Whitman (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Debra Whitman (Earth-616)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Debra Whitman (Earth-616) 
• Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol 5 #Spider-Man: Back in Black (March, 2007)

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Footnotes