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SPIDER-WOMAN

I love Spider-Woman! Created by writer Archie Goodwin with a perfect costume designed by Marie Severin, Spider-Woman came about simply because Stan Lee wanted to copyright the name before somebody else did (the cartoon show WEB-WOMAN was originally going to be called SPIDER-WOMAN) and Goodwin intended her to be an actual spider mutated into a human woman. That was abandoned and instead she was born Jessica Drew, the daughter of the High Evolutionary's friends who helped start Wundagore, sick from radiation and saved only by being infused with spider qualities while she spent a long time in a coma. Her parents died and the High Evolutionary left Earth, and she found herself taken in by the terrorist organization Hydra. She got her own series in 1978, hunted by authorities and shunned by men and hated by women due to her off-putting spider pheromones. She moved to Los Angeles and her first twenty issues had her face creepy villains (and romantic interests the Shroud and Werewolf by Night) in a slightly creepy Los Angeles, with wonderful stories mostly by writer Mark Gruenwald and artist Carmine Infantino--a run that I absolutely love and re-read every year or two. The series took an abrupt turn with a new creative team that had her working as a bounty hunter with a wheelchair-bound assistant, and then X-MEN scribe Chris Claremont came in and sent her to San Francisco for another abrupt X-Men-ish turn. Finally, the series was cancelled with issue #50...and she was killed! Mark Gruenwald regretted this fate, and, as editor of THE AVENGERS, had her brought back there. Badly treated through the years by editorial, she lost her powers and the Spider-Woman name was given to a long list of less interesting characters, while powerless (but thankfully alive) Jessica Drew became a private detective and continued to make appearances. Brian Michael Bendis created ALIAS about a depowered private detective named Jessica...though her last name was Jones and the two were established as separate characters, and eventually Jessica Drew became Spider-Woman once again (though the JESSICA JONES streaming show "felt" like Spider-Woman to me). Bendis brought Spider-Woman into AVENGERS membership proper for an acclaimed run and wrote an exceptional mini-series for her, and then she was given her own regular title again...and a movie is planned. You can't keep Jessica Drew down.

Description

SPIDER-WOMAN

I love Spider-Woman! Created by writer Archie Goodwin with a perfect costume designed by Marie Severin, Spider-Woman came about simply because Stan Lee wanted to copyright the name before somebody else did (the cartoon show WEB-WOMAN was originally going to be called SPIDER-WOMAN) and Goodwin intended her to be an actual spider mutated into a human woman. That was abandoned and instead she was born Jessica Drew, the daughter of the High Evolutionary's friends who helped start Wundagore, sick from radiation and saved only by being infused with spider qualities while she spent a long time in a coma. Her parents died and the High Evolutionary left Earth, and she found herself taken in by the terrorist organization Hydra. She got her own series in 1978, hunted by authorities and shunned by men and hated by women due to her off-putting spider pheromones. She moved to Los Angeles and her first twenty issues had her face creepy villains (and romantic interests the Shroud and Werewolf by Night) in a slightly creepy Los Angeles, with wonderful stories mostly by writer Mark Gruenwald and artist Carmine Infantino--a run that I absolutely love and re-read every year or two. The series took an abrupt turn with a new creative team that had her working as a bounty hunter with a wheelchair-bound assistant, and then X-MEN scribe Chris Claremont came in and sent her to San Francisco for another abrupt X-Men-ish turn. Finally, the series was cancelled with issue #50...and she was killed! Mark Gruenwald regretted this fate, and, as editor of THE AVENGERS, had her brought back there. Badly treated through the years by editorial, she lost her powers and the Spider-Woman name was given to a long list of less interesting characters, while powerless (but thankfully alive) Jessica Drew became a private detective and continued to make appearances. Brian Michael Bendis created ALIAS about a depowered private detective named Jessica...though her last name was Jones and the two were established as separate characters, and eventually Jessica Drew became Spider-Woman once again (though the JESSICA JONES streaming show "felt" like Spider-Woman to me). Bendis brought Spider-Woman into AVENGERS membership proper for an acclaimed run and wrote an exceptional mini-series for her, and then she was given her own regular title again...and a movie is planned. You can't keep Jessica Drew down.