| Spider-Woman | |
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.jpg) Three of the Spider-Women from Marvel's Multiverse; from left to right: Silk (Cindy Moon), Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), and Spider-Gwen (Gwen Stacy). Artwork for the cover ofSpider-Women Alpha vol. 1, 1 (April 2016 Marvel Comics) Art by Yasmine Putri | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance |
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| Created by | Archie Goodwin (writer), Marie Severin (artist)[1] |
| Characters | Jessica Drew Gwen Stacy Mary Jane Watson Julia Carpenter Mattie Franklin Charlotte Witter Veranke Erin Hasko Claire Parker |
| Spider-Woman | |
| Spider-Woman #1 (April 1978) Featuring the Jessica Drew version. Art byJoe Sinnott. | |
| Series publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| Format | (vols. 1, 3,5,6, 7) Ongoing series (vols. 2 &4) Limited series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | (vol 1) April 1978 – June 1983 (vol 2) November 1993 – February 1994 (vol 3) July 1999 – December 2000 (vol 4) November 2009 – May 2010 (vol 5) November 2014 – November 2015 (vol 6) November 2015 – March 2017 (vol 7) March 2020 – March 2022 |
| Number of issues | (vol. 1) 50 (vol. 2) 4 (vol. 3) 18 (vol. 4) 7 (vol. 5) 10 (vol. 6) 17 (vol. 7) 21 |
| Main character(s) | (vols. 1, 4, 5, 6, 7) Jessica Drew (vol. 2) Julia Carpenter (vol. 3) Mattie Franklin |
Spider-Woman is thecode name of severalfictionalcharacters incomic books published byMarvel Comics. The first major version isJessica Drew (and later impersonated byVeranke), the second major version isJulia Carpenter, and the third major version isMattie Franklin. Several alternate reality incarnations of the character have additionally received attention, including theUltimate Spider-Woman,Ashley Barton, andGwen Stacy.
Marvel Comics' then-publisherStan Lee said in 1978, shortly after Spider-Woman's debut inMarvel Spotlight #32 (Feb. 1977) and the start of the character's 50-issue self-titled series (cover-dated April 1978 – June 1983), the character originated because,
I suddenly realized that some other company may quickly put out a book like that and claim they have the right to use the name, and I thought we'd better do it real fast to copyright the name. So we just batted one quickly, and that's exactly what happened. I wanted to protect the name, because it's the type of thing [where] someone else might say, "Hey, why don't we put out a Spider-Woman; they can't stop us." ... You know, years ago we brought outWonder Man, and [DC Comics] sued us because they hadWonder Woman, and ... I said okay, I'll discontinue Wonder Man. And all of a sudden they've gotPower Girl [after Marvel had introducedPower Man]. Oh, boy. How unfair.[2]
Following that initialSpider-Woman series, more followed. Volume two was aminiseries published from November 1993 through February 1994; volume three was published from July 1999 through December 2000; andvolume four, featuring Jessica Drew, the original Spider-Woman, was published from November 2009 through May 2010.
Volume Five ran from November 2014 through the fall of 2015, featuring Jessica Drew as Spider-Woman. In the March 2015 issue ofThe Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 3 #13, Jessica boasts "I have never needed rescuing. Ever. See my wiki entry."[3] In November 2015,Spider-Woman Vol. 6 launched as part of Marvel'sAll-New, All-Different event with the same creative team asVolume Five:Shifting Gears. This volume saw her wearing the same costume as in Volume Five, but now she was pregnant and once again working as a private investigator. In October 2020,Spider-Woman #5, the fifth issue of Volume Seven, being written by Karla Pacheco, marked the 100th issue of the title and Marvel celebrated the occasion with a special giant-sized issue.[4]
Jessica Drew is the original Spider-Woman who left the role in the early 1980s and returned to her mantle by the late 2000s.[5]
Julia Carpenter is the second Spider-Woman, a former member of theAvengers andOmega Flight, and also used the Arachne andMadame Web mantles.
Mattie Franklin briefly impersonated the then-retiredSpider-Man before receiving her own short-lived comics series as well as also appeared inAlias #16–21, before going on to appear in the 2007–2008Lonersminiseries.
Charlotte Witter is asupervillain and the granddaughter ofMadame Web who used the Spider-Woman name.
Veranke is aSuper-Skrull and a queen of theSkrulls who impersonated Jessica Drew / Spider-Woman over a long period of time and was a founding member of theNew Avengers.
A gender-swapped clone ofSpider-Man appears in theUltimate Marvel imprint, the mind of Peter Parker, teenage boy, waking up in the body of a teenage girl and having to adapt to their ‘new’ body.
Gwen Stacy is Earth-65's version of Spider-Woman. She plays this role in the comic book seriesSpider-Gwen and its adaptations to film.
In the pages ofOld Man Logan, Ashley Barton is the daughter of Tonya Parker and Hawkeye who did not like the way thatKingpin was running Hammer Falls. She becomes "Spider-Bitch", allying herself with a new Punisher and Daredevil, and plans to take back Hammer Falls, only for the group to be captured and Daredevil and Punisher to be fed to the carnivorous dinosaurs.[6] Hawkeye breaks his daughter out of her cell, whereafter Ashley immediately beheads Kingpin which avenges Daredevil and Punisher's deaths.[7] Then she attempts to kill her father, before taking over Hammer Falls as the new Kingpin.[8] Old Man Logan rescues Hawkeye as Ashley sends her men after them.[9] The character appears in the "Spider-Verse" andSpider-Geddon storylines, now referred with her father's surname as Ashley Barton, and alternately referred to as "Spider-Girl" and "Spider-Woman" due to the family-friendly nature of the narrative, and is among the spider-powered characters who are recruited bySuperior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus's mind in Peter Parker's body) to help fight theInheritors, before returning to the Wastelands in "Venomverse" and "Old Man Quill".[10][11]
InSpider-Man: Life Story, Peter and Mary Jane have twins named Benjy andClaire Parker (physically designed as acomposite character ofMayday Parker and theUltimate Spider-Woman). For the first ten years of their lives, the two were solely raised by Mary Jane in Portland, Oregon after she left Peter following a traumatic incident. In 1995, Peter letsBen Reilly take over his life as Spider-Man and CEO of Parker Industries so he could return to his family. In the mid-2000s, Claire convinces Peter to return to New York and become Spider-Man once more shortly afterMorlun kills Ben Reilly so he could stopTony Stark from taking over Parker Industries and to lure Morlun away from his family. Despite his efforts, Morlun attacks the twins and Mary Jane in Oregon as Peter gets involved inthe superhero Civil War. When Benjy discovers that Morlun is vulnerable when he is feeding off someone, he uses himself as bait to allow Claire the chance to impale him on a splintered log of wood. Benjy survives the assault, but is crippled for life. By 2019, Claire has become Spider-Woman (now wearing a costume the same as theUltimate Spider-Woman's), and is instructed by her father to stay behind to protect her brother and mother as he goes to space to end Doctor Doom's reign of terror on the planet withMiles Morales (actuallyOtto Octavius).[12]
OnEarth X, a character namedSpidra appears. She was one of the last survivors of theMicroverse followingPsycho-Man's attempt to drive the entire realm mad. Escaping with the rest of the Ant Men, who were formerly known as theMicrons, Spidra and the rest of the Ant Men are charged with watching Immortus. They are later present at the wedding ofKing Britain andMedusa.[13]
During theWeb Warriors ongoing series, on accidentally coming across actors Felix Lifson andErin Hasko, in a world where Spider-Man is fictional, shooting aSpider-Man movie (in which Erin is playingGwen "Spider-Gwen" Stacy / Spider-Woman), Octavia Otto and the Web Warriors invite the duo to join the team, initially not noticing the pair to be actors shooting the film. On clearing up the misunderstanding, Octavia nonetheless makes the offer again, if either of them would be open to it, and excitedly noting that she learned three different types of martial arts for a previous role, Erin joins the Web Warriors and ventures into the multiverse with them, leaving her shocked crew behind, as Felix asks if they were still filming.[14]
Erin returns in the video gameSpider-Man Unlimited, now wielding a specialized set of web-shooters made for those lacking spider-strength as a "real" Spider-Woman. After the Spider-Queen escapes from Spider-Force custody, the game's protagonist Spider-Man realizes that since Erin isn't a Spider-Totem, the Queen cannot control her, and sends her on a mission toHorizon Labs to collect a device to suppress the Queen's control over other spiders and Spider-People. Listed as "Spider-Gwen (Erin Hasko)"; in her character description, Erin is revealed to have been acting since she was three years old, with the film she was filming on her recruitment having been titledSpider-Woman: Goblin's Revenge.
An unrelated earlier Spider-Woman was published byHarry "A" Chesler's Dynamic Comics in 1944. She wasHelen Goddard, a non-superpowered crime-fighter who made her first and only appearance in theGolden Agecomic bookMajor Victory #1.[15]
In the unifiedMarvel 2099 reality of Earth-2099, a Spider-Woman with the real name ofSivern Dru appears as a member of the2099 version of the New Avengers. She is a member of an unidentified alien species.[16]
There are several alternate versions of Mary Jane Watson known as Spider-Woman. The first version is aninja of the Spider-clan in theMarvel Mangaverse, and another version is featured in theExiles series.
Mayday Parker, Peter and MJ's daughter from the alternate futureMC2 who is commonly known as Spider-Girl, began calling herself Spider-Woman after her father's death.[17]
A character called Spider-Woman (Valerie the Librarian) appears in the recurringlive-action skit "Spidey Super Stories" on the 1970sPBSchildren's television seriesThe Electric Company, portrayed byHattie Winston, who originated the character as the girlfriend of Easy Reader (portrayed byMorgan Freeman) before she become Spider-Woman.[18] She also appears as Spider-Woman in thespin-off comic book seriesSpidey Super Stories #11 (August 1975) where she has no superpowers.
In theSquadron Supreme series,Nell Ruggles was a young troubled girl, who upon gaining her powers killed her classmates, who had bullied her in the past. However, her superhuman powers allowed her to be traced back to a device which the Icarus One astronauts brought back from the Moon. Running away from home, she was captured by the Blur and turned over toNick Fury'sS.H.I.E.L.D. Thanks to an electroshock collar, she has been prevented from leaving, though she appears to be making the best of the situation, having made friends and eventually falling in love with Tucker Ford, Biogeneral.[19]
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