Quick Answers
What is the origin story of Jessica Drew, the Spider-Woman?
How did Jessica Drew's parents' research influence her becoming Spider-Woman?
What is the significance of Wundagore Mountain in the story of Jessica Drew?
What role does uranium play in the story of Jessica Drew, the Spider-Woman?
How does Jessica Drew's story differ from other Spider-Woman characters in the Marvel universe?
History
Early Life
When Jessica Drew was about a year old, her parents moved from England to a small enclave in the outskirts of Wundagore Mountain in Transia. Her father, Jonathan Drew, geneticist and research partner to the man who would later become the High Evolutionary, found large amounts of uranium in their property, which gave them the financial resources to build a research facility to keep working on their controversial studies of evolution, genetics and cell regeneration.[citation needed]
Experiment
Jonathan Drew introduces the serum of his daughter
In the course of the next three years, life was good, until little Jessica became ill, poisoned by her long-time exposure to the Uranium that was so prevalent in their land. Jonathan, being an expert on the regenerative and immunological properties of arachnids' blood, injected Jessica with an untested serum made with the blood of several uncommon species of spiders, in the hopes of stopping the tissue damage and immunizing the girl from the Uranium radiation in her blood. Then, he sealed her in a genetic accelerator created by Herbert Wyndham a.k.a. the High Evolutionary to speed the process, but it only seemed to work at a very slow rate. In stasis for decades, her aging greatly slowed, she awoke with no memories of her past, to a world in which both her parents had disappeared mysteriously, and possessing powers that made everyone around her scared and resentful. Jessica lived in the Wundagore citadel until the High Evolutionary left Earth.[citation needed]
Hydra
Remaining behind in the area, Jessica eventually found work as a barmaid in a nearby village. She also experienced her first romance, which tragically ended when an innocent prank panicked the young woman and accidentally triggered a bioelectric blast that killed her boyfriend. Accused of witchcraft and murder, Jessica fled from an enraged mob into the clutches of Otto Vermis. The wealthy Vermis offered sanctuary to Jessica, who didn't know about his double-life as a high-ranking leader in Hydra, an international terrorist movement.[citation needed] Vermis trained Jessica in the use of her powers and taught her espionage, martial arts, and various killing techniques. Hydra wanted to mold Jessica into the perfect assassin. [citation needed]
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Brainwashing Jessica Drew
Mentallo used his powers to convince her that Hydra was an organization that fights the encroaching powers of corporations.[6]
However, she rebelled on a basic level against them, going so far as to deviate from their conformity by making her first costume red instead of green. In her first and only field assignment for Hydra, Jessica refused to assassinate S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury. Rebelling against Hydra, Jessica defeated Vermis in a battle to the death. Before he died, Vermis tricked Jessica into believing that she was originally an artificially evolved spider instead of a mutated human.[citation needed]
Spider-Woman
Jessica Drew as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Distraught by what she learned, Jessica wandered Europe until a clash with Hydra in London brought her into contact with the Thing and Modred the Mystic. Modred magically revealed the truth of Jessica's true origins, and she lived briefly in London. Meeting a mysterious sorcerer named Magnus, Jessica traveled to the United States to learn the truth about her father's fate. She and Magnus met up with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jerry Hunt, and the trio settled down in Los Angeles. During her first few months in L.A., Jessica ran afoul of immortal sorceress Morgan le Fay in her Spider-Woman guise and foiled her plans to acquire the Darkhold (a tome of dark magic).[citation needed]
Spider-Woman with Spider-Man
Eventually, she parted ways with both Jerry and Magnus, and struggled for a long time to find a sense of belonging and purpose in the world. Jessica met her first female friend, actress Lindsay McCabe, at a pop-psychologist's therapy group. The two became fast friends over their defiant departure from the group. While she looked for a steady job, Jessica began working as a bounty hunter as Spider-Woman. She worked alongside attorney Scotty McDowell until they parted ways over their different goals and methods.[citation needed]
Jessica accepted Lindsay's offer to be her roommate in San Francisco, and the two women started over in the City by the Bay. A period of personal success began in this time, beginning with Jessica's establishment as a private investigator. She quickly built a successful business and also fell in love with her landlord, David Ishima. Spider-Woman gained a reputation as the "Dark Angel of San Francisco", and even established ties with SFPD via Lieutenant Sabrina "Bree" Morrel.[citation needed]
However, Jessica's pattern of bad luck struck again when Ishima broke up with her after discovering the truth about her super heroics. Not long afterward, Magnus recruited Jessica to travel back in time for a final strike against Morgan Le Fey. Jessica succeeded in destroying her archenemy, but not before Morgan cast a spell that separated her time-traveling soul from her body. Jessica falsely believed that she had died and asked Magnus to cast a spell which made everyone who ever met her forget about her.[citation needed]
Lucky for Jessica, the spell was broken when her friends Tigra and the Shroud discovered her body. The two performed CPR and revived her, although Jessica remained comatose. Tigra called her associates in the Avengers, who in turn called Dr. Strange. These heroes worked together to save Jessica from Morgan's act of vengeance. However, the process of Dr. Strange's spells and Jessica's physical ordeal temporarily left her powerless.[citation needed]
Powerless
Abandoning her costumed identity, Jessica still worked with Lindsay at their private investigator's agency. She even helped the X-Men by providing them a temporary home after an encounter with the Beyonder. Eventually, the two women traveled to Madripoor on a case that brought them into contact with Wolverine when he was using the alias of Patch. Remaining in the island nation for about two years, Jessica eventually returned to the States following an encounter with the criminal Charlotte Witter, who briefly stole her powers and used the alias Spider-Woman.[citation needed]
Jessica helped renowned psychic Madame Web mentor a teenage heir to the Spider-Woman title named Mattie Franklin. Over time, Jessica slowly regained her powers, although they were unstable. A case in New York involving a missing Mattie led Jessica to cross paths with another detective named Jessica Jones. After a brief misunderstanding wherein Drew repeatedly zapped Jones and Jones put her through a kitchen table, the two former super-heroines teamed up to save Mattie from Denny Haynes, a drug dealer who was using her to manufacture a super-drug derived from "Mutant Growth Hormone" (as well as from a misguided Speedball, who was attempting a sting operation against Haynes and who panicked when Drew and Jones barged in, releasing a barrage of kinetic energy that temporarily incapacitated Jones). Ultimately, Franklin was rescued, and with Drew's help, got cleaned up.[7]
New Avengers
Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) in New Avengers.
Later, Jessica sought a permanent solution to her fluctuating powers and thus accepted a deal with Hydra. In exchange, Jessica joined S.H.I.E.L.D. to spy on the counter-terrorist organization for Hydra. However, Nick Fury discovered this and thus used her to spread false intelligence. What neither Jessica or Fury knew, was that an enormous alien Skrull cell was in charge of the process to revive and stabilize her powers. After reviving her powers, Queen Veranke used her DNA to enable her to perfectly impersonate Jessica for at least a year before she and her vast Skrull army fell in the final stages of their preplanned invasion of Earth. After an undefined, extended period of time (potentially two years at the most), Jessica, along with numerous other individuals, were rescued by Iron Man after being held captive in a Skrull spaceship which was orbiting the Earth with the rest of the Skrull fleet.[citation needed]
Her return to Earth however, was not as well received opposed to others such as Mockingbird. A number of superhuman heroes and criminals were easily reminded of the Skrull queen Veranke, who had orchestrated the entire invasion against Earth. Their negative aspects on Jessica were immediately clear and threatening to her. Wolverine soon recruited her into the latest incarnation of New Avengers. Jessica was again, not well received by a few of her new teammates (Clint Barton (Ronin) in particular). She immediately began working to prove her worth to the group assisting Luke Cage and Jessica Jones in search for their newborn daughter Danielle. When Norman Osborn constructed his own "Avengers", the New Avengers arranged to trap, weaken, and duel Osborn and his "Dark" Avengers in order to expose the identities of his members. Jessica was to deceive Osborn and his government sponsored Avengers to a remote location in New York to ambush. Norman however, deduced her deception after his "broken" deal with her fellow Avenger Cage and instead sent the Hood and his gang which engaged Jessica and the New Avengers. Escaping from the fight, the New Avengers regrouped back at Captain America's safe-house angered and confused with Jessica feeling responsible for the setup and failing to deceive Norman Osborn.[citation needed]
Agent of S.W.O.R.D.
Feeling like the most screwed over person on Earth due to Veranke's actions, Jessica was approached with an offer to join S.W.O.R.D. by Abigail Brand, which she accepted. Her first mission took her to Madripoor where she took on a Skrull posing as Spider-Man. After run-ins with Hydra, another Skrull, and the new Thunderbolts, Jessica eventually found a wayward Skrull and she took it down with the help of her teammates in the New Avengers. After the mission was over, Brand offered her different, new opportunities for jobs to do with S.W.O.R.D.[8]
An Avenger
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Hawkeye and Spider-Woman.
After the Siege on Asgard and the fall of Osborn, Steve Rogers took the place of Norman as USA's top cop. Jessica joined the Avengers. During the first day of this Avengers team's establishment they came under attack by two foes. The first was the rogue Wonder Man, who was convinced the Avengers were detrimental to the world. The second was longtime Avengers foe Kang the Conqueror. After the situation with Kang was resolved, the Avengers fought against the Hood, who was attempting to retrieve the Infinity Gems.[citation needed]
During the Serpent's invasion of Midgard, Jessica realized her feelings for her fellow Avenger Hawkeye, with who she started a relationship. This blossoming romance came under some stress when a returned Norman Osborn and a resurgent H.A.M.M.E.R. attacked the Avengers. H.A.M.M.E.R. now included Hydra, and Jessica attempted to fool some agents by claiming to still be part of the organization, but she failed.[citation needed]
When the coming of the Phoenix Force led the Avengers into conflict with the X-Men of Utopia, Spider-Woman was there to invade the island. [citation needed]
After the war against the X-Men, Spider-Woman was called upon to join the primary Avengers squad, as part of Tony Stark's plan of expanding the Avengers.
Spider-Verse
Jessica was one of the Spider-Heroes from Earth-616 recruited into the Spider-Army after defeating Looter and the Spiderlings, along with Spider-Girl, Spider-Man, Silk, and Scarlet Spider.[9]
When the resistance was visiting Earth-928 and encountered Spider-Man (Otto Octavius) with his own army, they attracted the attention of the Inheritors.[10] Spider-Woman followed Silk with Spider-Man Noir to an unknown reality where they were being tracked by Brix and Bora. Spider-Man Noir was wounded and the trio escaped to Earth-90214 to allow him to recover from his injuries. After this, she was sent by Spider-Man to Earth-001 to gather more information on the Inheritors.[11]
Pregnancy
Pregnant
After the battle with the Inheritors, Jessica decided to quit the Avengers in order to start a new life and to focus on helping ordinary civilians.[12]
Over the following year, Jessica got pregnant via artificial insemination,[13] but continued her crime fighting life, enlisting Ben Urich and the Porcupine to help with her investigations while she was on the sidelines.[14] She was invited by Captain Marvel to visit a maternity ward run by Alpha Flight, but the hospital was taken over by Skrulls. Jessica hatched a plan with the other mothers in the maternity ward and together, they defeated the Skrulls. However, when she called Carol for assistance, Carol revealed that the maternity ward was in fact inside a black hole.[2] The fight with the Skrulls continued, Jessica winning by a large margin. Before she could finish them off, however, she unexpectedly went into labor.[15] She had an emergency C-Section, and just seconds after the procedure was completed and she was handed her new baby boy, she got up from the operating table and defeated the last wave of Skrulls. Carol arrived just in time for Jessica to collapse from the immense postoperative pain she was experiencing.[16]
Jessica returned to her apartment to care for her newborn baby. She tried to go out with Carol, Clint, Patsy, and Jennifer, her friends, on multiple occasions, but all she could think about was her baby at home with the babysitter (Roger, who was in reality more than equipped to handle the child). She complained to Carol that she couldn't think about returning to superheroics now that another life depended on her. In the end, she concluded that the best thing she could do for her baby would be to show him how to be a hero.[13]Attributes
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Powers
Spider-Woman's Venom Blasts
Spider-Woman possesses several superhuman powers derived from the genetic experiment that granted her spider-like abilities.
Nick Fury's intel classified her as Power Level 8.[17]
Her powers include:
- Superhuman Strength: Spider-Woman's muscular density and strength have been extraordinarily enhanced and enable her to lift about 7 tons.
- Superhuman Speed: Spider-Woman is capable of running and moving at speeds much greater than even the finest human athlete.
- Superhuman Stamina: Spider-Woman's musculature generates less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of an ordinary human. She can exert herself at peak capacity for several hours before fatigue begins to impair her.
- Superhuman Durability: Spider-Woman's body is somewhat tougher and more resistant to injury than an ordinary human's, although she is far from invulnerable. She is capable of withstanding impact forces that would severely injure or kill an ordinary human with only mild to moderate discomfort.
- Superhuman Agility: Spider-Woman's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels beyond the human body's natural limits.
- Superhuman Reflexes: Spider-Woman's natural reaction time and reflexes are enhanced to levels beyond the human body's natural limits.
- Superhuman Flexibility: Spider-Woman's body is extraordinarily limber and her tendons and connective tissues are twice as flexible as the average human being's, despite the augmented musculature and its enhanced strength.
- Superhuman Hearing: Spider-Woman's hearing is superhumanly acute and enables her to detect sound at virtually any frequency, and she's been known to detect, sort out, and correctly identify sounds through thick steel doors, and across considerable distances.
- Contaminant Immunity: Spider-Woman's metabolism rapidly creates powerful immunities to all forms of toxins, poisons and drugs, after an initial exposure that usually makes her dizzy. Her body is totally immune to radiation.
- Wall-Crawling: Spider-Woman's limbs can adhere to surfaces via electrostatic attraction. Spider-Woman can hold and carry a considerable amount of extra weight while sticking to walls without falling off; it's safe to assume that the weight she can carry is dozens of times her own, and the limits of how long she can do this before fatigue sets in are still unknown.
- Venom Blasts: Her body possesses an inordinate amount of bio-electricity that she has learned to channel and discharge through her hands, in controlled bursts of what she calls "Venom Blasts". These energy projections vary in power; they mostly affect the nervous system in humans. Spider-Woman can regulate them from simply a stun to potent enough to kill an average-sized man in the same way that a lightning bolt could kill him.
- Pheromone Secretion: Her metabolism generates certain types of pheromones that can create fear, elicit attraction and/or repulsion on others, depending on unknown factors which might include gender and mood. This ability appears to be dormant at the moment.[18]
- Self-Propelled Flight(?): When Jessica submitted to Hydra to augment her powers, the process allegedly enhanced her limited flight powers, making her capable of full flight.[19] However, it was eventually revealed that the Skrull Queen Veranke replaced Jessica immediately following this procedure, so it was the disguised Veranke who actually demonstrated flight powers. Since her return, it has not been made clear whether Jess also received this enhancement, or merely retains her old gliding abilities.
Abilities
- Master Martial Artist: Jessica is a highly experienced fighter trained in armed and unarmed combat under the Taskmaster. Her tactics integrate different methods utilized in Karate, Boxing, Capoeira, Judo and swordfighting.[citation needed]
- Skilled Spy: She is also extensively trained in espionage, covert operations and stealth.
- Skilled Acrobat: She is a superb athlete and an Olympic-level gymnast.
- Multilingual: Due to her Hydra espionage training, she is fluent in several languages, including Russian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and German.[citation needed]
- Skilled Investigator: Jessica is a seasoned private detective.[18]
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Dimensional Travel Watch Jessica possesses a wristwatch-sized device that grants her access to alternate universes with the push of a button.[18]
Transportation
- Motorcycle Jessica's preferred mode of transportation is a classic American motorcycle.[18]
Notes
- She was a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Level Seven.[20][21][22][23]
- Black Widow believes Jessica leaving the Avengers was due to PTSD brought on by Spider-Verse.[24]
Trivia
- Spider-Woman was created in response to the animation company Filmation's proposal to create a Spider-Woman character for their Tarzan/Batman Adventure Hour. Upon hearing about Filmation's plans, Marvel rushed the character into publication, forcing Filmation to rename their character as Web-Woman. Because of the rush, the creators used an origin that was originally developed for Wolverine, although this was later abandoned.[25]
- Jessica Drew was born on December 7th, 30 years prior to publishing year.[citation needed]
- Jessica's S.H.I.E.L.D e-mail address is jdrew@superop.shield.gov.[citation needed]
- Jessica's New Avengers e-mail address is arachnophilia@newavengers.stark.net.[citation needed]
- Spider-Woman is afraid of rats.[26]
- Jess used Instagram.[2]
- Jessica loves butter and once while pregnant ate 16 individually wrapped butter packs in one sitting.[27][18]
See Also
- 701 appearance(s) of Jessica Drew (Earth-616)
- 29 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Jessica Drew (Earth-616)
- 83 minor appearance(s) of Jessica Drew (Earth-616)
- 79 mention(s) of Jessica Drew (Earth-616)
- 18 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Jessica Drew (Earth-616)
- 1031 image(s) of Jessica Drew (Earth-616)
- 59 quotation(s) by or about Jessica Drew (Earth-616)
- 3 item(s) used/owned by Jessica Drew (Earth-616)
Links and References
- Marvel Directory
- Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #4
- Spider-woman's Profile at Spiderfan.org
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Women of Marvel: Celebrating Seven Decades Handbook #1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Spider-Woman (Vol. 6) #2
- ↑ New Avengers #23
- ↑ New Avengers #48
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 6) #7
- ↑ Spider-Woman Origin #2 5
- ↑ Alias #19–21
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 4) #1–5
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3) #9
- ↑ Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 3) #10
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 5) #1
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 5) #4
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Spider-Woman (Vol. 6) #5
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 6) #1
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 6) #3
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 6) #4
- ↑ Secret War From the Files of Nick Fury #1
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 Spider-Gwen (Vol. 2) #7
- ↑ Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1
- ↑ New Avengers #4
- ↑ New Avengers #6
- ↑ Mighty Avengers #7
- ↑ Avengers (Vol. 4) #19
- ↑ Spider-Woman (Vol. 5) #10
- ↑ Brian Cronin, "Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #28!", Comics Should Be Good, ComicBookResources.com: December 8, 2005.
- ↑ Captain Marvel (Vol. 8) #10
- ↑ Spider-Gwen (Vol. 2) #3
- ↑ Spider-Gwen (Vol. 2) #7
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 11