Jessica Miriam Drew

Spider Woman was active mostly from the late ’70s through ’90s, then again from the late 2000s through 2010s.

–

Table of Contents:

1. Spec’s
2. History
3. Powers and Abilities
4. Paraphernalia
5. 2020 Update
6. 2022

–

–

Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) is a fictional superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #32 (cover-dated February 1977), and 50 issues of an ongoing series titled Spider-Woman followed. At its conclusion, she was killed, and though later resurrected, she fell into disuse, supplanted by other characters using the name Spider-Woman.

Publication History

Original series

Though by most accounts Spider-Woman was originally intended as a one-off character for the sake of simply establishing trademark, Marvel Spotlight #32 sold unexpectedly well and writer/editor Marv Wolfman was asked to take the character to an ongoing series.^[3]

In her first appearance, Spider-Woman was to be an actual spider evolved into a human as imagined by writer/co-creator Goodwin.^[4]Her debut was shortly followed by a four-issue story arc in Marvel Two-in-One in which Wolfman presented a different origin retcon as he felt her original origin was too implausible for mid-1970s readers.^[3] During this arc and the premiere issue of her own comic Spider-Woman was identified as the human Jessica Drew (combining the first name of Wolfman’s daughter and the last name of fictional detective Nancy Drew^[3]) who had memories of being a spider implanted into her by the terrorist group HYDRA. Her costume was also redesigned for her series so that her long hair was uncovered, becoming a prominent part of the character’s appearance.

Wolfman introduced Spider-Woman’s mentor Charles Magnus and archenemies Morgan le Fay and the Brothers Grimm. He left the series after issue #8, citing a heavy workload,^[5] but later admitted “If truth be told I never felt comfortable writing her. I never found a handle for her and kept trying until I finally decided to leave the book.”^[3] Neophyte Mark Gruenwald became the writer, while the series’ regular penciler, comics legend Carmine Infantino, remained on board, having developed a fondness for the character and her stories.^[3]Gruenwald continued with the macabre themes Wolfman had used, while putting more focus on Drew’s struggles to deal with her social awkwardness, shyness, and the negative reactions she produced in nearly everyone she met. The last of these is revealed to be caused by fear-inducing pheromones, a previously unrevealed ability. Gruenwald also introduced outgoing aspiring actress Lindsay McCabe, who became Drew’s best friend and the mainstay of her supporting cast.

Marvel had been heavily advertising the series from the start, and during Gruenwald’s run an animated TV series began airing. But Roger Stern, who replaced Wolfman as editor, recounted that Spider-Woman had already lost her status as a top seller by this time. Despite her differing origin and powers and Wolfman’s deliberate effort to avoid Spider-Man guest appearances or crossovers, readers still tended to see the character as a female Spider-Man. “They saw her, and later the She-Hulk,” Stern explained, “as running a good idea into the ground, much as DC had done in the ’60s with its then-ever-growing families of Super- and Bat-characters.”^[3]

Issue #20 saw the departure of Gruenwald, Infantino, and Stern. New writer Michael Fleisher gave Spider-Woman a career as a bounty hunter, abandoned both the series’ macabre tone and outstanding subplots such as Charles Magnus’ mysterious disappearance, and replaced them with such superhero standbys as criminal masterminds and a love interest who is enamored with the protagonist’s costumed guise but oblivious to her in her civilian identity. Many fans criticized that Fleisher had taken away everything that made the character special.^[6] Fleisher would be retained on the series up until #32, after which Chris Claremont, already a big-name writer for his work on Uncanny X-Men, took over and switched Jessica Drew’s occupation from bounty hunter to private investigator. Steve Leialoha was drawing the series by this time.

The series had already come under criticism for its rapid turnover of writers,^[7] and like all of its writers, Claremont had a fairly short stay on Spider-Woman. After 13 issues, both he and Leialoha were compelled to leave for other projects.^[8] Their final issue marked the return of Gruenwald, this time as editor. He was promptly informed that due to dwindling sales, Marvel was canceling the series, and issue #50 would be the last.^[9] Gruenwald hired comic book novices Ann Nocenti and Brian Postman as writer and penciler for the final four issues, under the theory that their inexperience in the medium would give them a unique perspective and perhaps take the series out with a bang.^[3] Under Gruenwald’s direction, the series returned to its macabre roots and resumed the long-abandoned subplot of Magnus’s disappearance. The final issue used a photo cover of Marvel staffers (including Gruenwald and Nocenti) in costume as the issue’s cast,^[3] and had Spider-Woman perish in a climactic battle with her nemesis Morgan le Fay. Nocenti reasoned “These are licensed characters and you want them to have a forever life. At the same time, they live in a violent world and occasionally you feel like someone has to die, otherwise it’s too unreal.”^[3]

Readers were outraged at the character being killed, and Nocenti and Gruenwald both came to feel remorse over their decision.^[3] Gruenwald took the readers’ reaction especially to heart, and became determined to fix what he saw as a major mistake. He and Stern had been paired up again on Avengers, but with their jobs swapped, and he instructed Stern to write a story reviving Drew.^[3] Less than a year after her death, Spider-Woman was resurrected in The Avengers #240-241 (Feb.-March 1984).

Decline

For the next four years she was limited to a handful of guest appearances. In 1988, she and Lindsay McCabe joined the supporting cast of Wolverine, appearing through the first 16 issues of the character’s series, followed by brief returns in issues #27 and 125-128. She was never depicted in costume during her appearances in Wolverine, sticking with her civilian identity, though she did often use her powers to aid Wolverine.^[10]

In 1996, Mark Gruenwald returned to the character with a short back-up feature in Sensational Spider-Man Annual ’96. Titled “The Return of Spider-Woman”, it put Drew back in costume for the first time in over a decade and ended with a teaser for further Spider-Woman adventures in Spider-Man Team Up. Gruenwald died, however, before these stories could be written, and subsequent appearances treated “The Return of Spider-Woman” as non-canon. In 1999, Drew was again placed in the role of non-costumed supporting character, this time to the third Spider-Woman, Mattie Franklin, for the first 11 issues of Spider-Woman volume 3.^[11]

Drew made an appearance in a 2003 story arc in Alias, a series written by Brian Michael Bendis. Bendis would write most of the character’s adventures for the next decade.

Revival through New Avengers

In January 2005, The New Avengers was launched, ostensibly with Jessica Drew as a member of the titular supergroup, back in costume as Spider-Woman. Though this Jessica Drew would later be revealed as an imposter, this prominent exposure of the character opened the door for new attention to her original adventures. Firstly, on 21 December 2005, Marvel released the first issue of Spider-Woman: Origin, a five-part miniseries co-written by Brian Michael Bendis and Brian Reed, illustrated by the art team of the Luna Brothers, Jonathan and Joshua Luna. It was largely an extended retelling of Marvel Spotlight #32, though some details were changed.^[4]

Secondly, the original Spider-Woman series was reprinted in its entirety, along with Marvel Spotlight #32 and all her contemporaneous guest appearances, in a pair of Essentials trade paperbacks, the first released simultaneously with Spider-Woman: Origin #1, the second in 2007.

In 2009, the “Secret Invasion” storyline revealed that, with the exception of some flashback scenes, all of Jessica Drew’s appearances in New Avengers over the past four years were actually made by a Skrull imposter. Writer Bendis said he had this planned since New Avengers #1.

You can go back to issue #1 and see hints. […] Now you know why the Spider-Woman series didn’t happen. We thought about doing it and having her revealed as a Skrull in the first issue of her series. […] I wrote it, but in the end I just thought it wasn’t selling somebody what they thought you were selling them.^[12]

Following this revelation, the real Drew supplanted her doppelganger as a regular member of The New Avengers.^[13] She was also featured in another solo limited series during this time, which was published both in printed form and as a motion comic. It was written by Bendis with art by Alex Maleev and lasted 7 issues.^[14]Following the cancellation of New Avengers, Spider-Woman appeared as a regular character throughout the 2010-2013 Avengers series, from issue #1 (July 2010) through its final issue #34 (January 2013). She appears as a regular character in the 2014 Secret Avengers.^[15]

Spider-Verse and a new solo series

In 2014, Jessica was a key player in the Spider-Verse event. Spinning out of that event, a new fifth volume Spider-Woman series was started, written by Dennis Hopeless. In issue #5 the series featured the first redesign of Jessica’s costume since it was created in the 1970s.^[16] This series was interrupted by Marvel’s 2015 Secret Wars event, and ended with issue #10. Spider-Woman Volume 6 was relaunched several months later with a new issue #1, still written by Hopeless and continues the story from the previous volume.^[17] Spider-Woman, Gwen Stacy and Silk were the protagonists of the Spider-Women event. Spider-Woman issues #6 and #7 were the tie-ins.^[18] The ongoing was cancelled after 17 issues.^[19]

Fictional character biography

Origins

Spider-Woman was born Jessica Miriam Drew, daughter of Jonathan Drew and Merriam Drew, in London, England. At a young age, her family moves to a lab built by her father and Herbert Wyndham near Mount Wundagore in Transia, where she becomes gravely ill from months of uranium exposure. To save her life, her father injects her with an experimental serum based on irradiated spiders’ blood. Because the serum requires a month’s incubation, Wyndham places her in a genetic accelerator. Shortly after, her mother dies and her father leaves for the United States, leaving Wyndham to care of her.^[20] While in the accelerator, she ages at a decelerated rate. When she is finally released, decades later, Drew is only 17 years old.

Drew is ostracized by the other residents of Mount Wundagore, the High Evolutionary’s New Men, since she was originally human while they were animals. Because of this, she eventually leaves to seek human civilization. She is captured by a HYDRA reserve unit under Count Otto Vermis‘s leadership who erases her memories, brainwashes her, and recruits her as a HYDRA agent under the codename Arachne.^[20] One of HYDRA’s top agents, Jared, is assigned to train her in combat and espionage, and to seduce her. Once Jessica has become his lover, he allows himself to be captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., so that she can be goaded into assassinating S.H.I.E.L.D. commander Nick Fury.^[21]

While battling Fury, Jessica accidentally kills Jared and learns HYDRA’s true nature. She quits HYDRA and assaults the unit’s base, sending Count Vermis into a fatal crash, but not before he unlocks memory implants that she was actually an evolved spider and had killed a man before her association with HYDRA.^[21] Despondent from these revelations, she wanders the woods where Vermis crashed until being recaptured and hypnotized by HYDRA.^[22]

Spider-Woman: Origin

Origin does away with the spider-blood serum and genetic accelerator elements of the character’s previous origin story. Instead, Jessica’s powers derive from her mother’s womb being hit by a laser beam containing the DNA traits of several different species of spiders while she was carrying Jessica (the Drews were trying to splice and harness spiders’ environmental adaptive capabilities, in order to graft them into the human genome).^[23][24]

After Jessica’s parents disappear under mysterious circumstances, Jessica is recruited into HYDRA (under false pretenses), where she is made into a formidable fighter and assassin. She is trained and mentored by Taskmaster, who schools her in many martial disciplines and more than seven different fighting styles out of his own “arsenal”.^[25]

In this re-telling, Otto Vermis, originally recruiting her into HYDRA, is rather an old, retired HYDRA agent who Jessica seduces in order to gain information that will lead her to her mother.^[26]

In addition, Origin made the following modifications:

• Merriam Drew was now Miriam Drew.^[23]
• 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 (human in appearance), as well as her mother.^[23]
• 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 is not clear what connection, if any, he had with Edgar Wyndham (who in the original Spider-Woman books was Jonathan’s best friend and research partner), nor with the High Evolutionary.^[23]
• Jessica’s father worked in large part with Miles Warren who later left the project because he felt that there was more potential in experimenting with the cloning of human cells.^[23]

Spider-Woman

Going by the “Spider-Woman” name, Jessica Drew is ordered to abduct Alicia Masters vacationing in London. During the resultant conflict with Ben Grimm, she recovers from her brainwashing and joins him in saving Masters.^[27] She and Grimm then encounter Modred the Mystic, who removes HYDRA’s memory implants and restores her memories.^[28]

Jessica moves into an apartment in London, but finds it impossible to get a job due to her complete lack of background and her tendency to inspire dislike and even fear in other people. Following an aborted break-in she is unmasked by Scotland Yard officer (and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent) Jerry Hunt who becomes obsessed with her.^[20]During this troubled time she is approached by the mysterious sorcerer Magnus, who offers help. After defending him from Excaliber who was sent by Morgan Le Fay to recover the Darkhold, he suggests she relocate with him to Los Angeles.^[29] Magnus tutors her in the ways of civilization and informs her that her father was murdered, leading her on a hunt for his killer.^[30] She is distracted from this hunt when Morgan Le Fay’s ghost again seeks the Darkhold, this time in person. During the battle, Hunt catches up with Jessica, and they begin a romantic relationship.^[31] With his help, she identifies her father’s murderer who dies immediately after confessing.^[32]

For the time, Jessica chooses to keep her doings as Spider-Woman a secret. Her relationship with Hunt sours, and following a final battle with the Brothers Grimm, he and Magnus part ways with her.^[33] For the next three months she makes a hand-to-mouth living by working as a receptionist at the Hatros Institute while undergoing group therapy there. Though she ultimately loses the position due to a change in management, during her time there she received medication to suppress her pheromones so that she could move effectively among people without producing any unwanted side-effects, formed a strong friendship with fellow patient and aspiring actress Lindsay McCabe, and developed acquaintances with several other superheroes.^[34]

The next few months of Jessica’s life are not covered by published stories. During this time, she goes public as Spider-Woman, becomes a bounty hunter working in partnership with paraplegic criminologist Scotty McDowell, acquires a full wardrobe of disguises for use in her work, and finds a police liaison in Captain Walsh.^[35]This situation lasts for several months. When her working relationship with Scotty fails, Jessica accepts an offer from Lindsay to move into an apartment with her in San Francisco,^[36] where she begins a romantic relationship with their landlord David Ishima,^[37] and sets up a practice as a licensed private investigator.^[38] Her move there allows Lindsay to deduce her secret identity; she is unbothered by the danger involved in being Spider-Woman’s friend, and the shared secret deepens the friendship between them.^[39]

While working as a P.I., she battles Morgan once again.^[40] Not long after that, Jessica gives up her immunity powers to save Giant-Man.^[41] Her relationship with David Ishima develops to the point where she reveals her Spider-Woman identity to him, only to have him break up with her because he wants to be with an ordinary woman.^[42]

Jessica travels in astral form with Magnus to Sixth Century England to free her friends’ souls in a showdown with Morgan le Fey in the 6th century. She manages to vanquish Morgan, but her human body dies while her spirit was gone.^[43] At her request, Magnus places a spell over humanity to remove all memory of Jessica’s existence. This spell is faulty; when Tigra and the Shroud discover Jessica’s dead body, they contact the Avengers and Doctor Strange. The Avengers and Strange travel to the astral plane to battle Morgan Le Fay, who was trying to claim Jessica’s body so she could return to the physical realm. Eventually, Doctor Strange and Magnus reunite Jessica’s spirit with her human body, though Magnus’s life and Jessica’s powers are sacrificed to do so. She thus abandons her Spider-Woman identity^[44] and continues her life as a private investigator in San Francisco, assisted by Lindsay McCabe and, for a time, by Tigra.^[45]

Jessica and Lindsay take a job delivering the Black Blade to Japan, but while passing through Madripoor she is ensorcelled by the blade. By this time her superhuman strength and agility, and ability to cling to walls, have returned. She is freed from the blade’s power by Lindsay and an underworld figure called Patch,^[46] who she immediately recognizes as the X-Man Wolverine.^[47] Following the incident, she and Lindsay set up new business lodgings in Madripoor, with Patch as a frequent ally and information source.^[48]

Jessica Drew’s life settles down until Charlotte Witter, a villainess going by the Spider-Woman name, steals her powers and leaves her near death.^[49] Jessica is taken from the hospital to New York City by Madame Web who directs her and Mattie Franklin (yet another woman who has assumed the Spider-Woman name) to track down Witter. Under Madame Web’s guidance, Franklin absorbs from Witter the powers of all four Spider-Women.^[50] Afterwards, Jessica remains with Madame Web for a time, helping her to watch over Mattie.^[51] Jessica’s powers gradually return to her during this time,^[52] but are now unreliable, failing her unexpectedly on occasion.^[53]

For untold reasons, Jessica moves back to San Francisco, resuming her private investigator practice there.^[54] When she hears that Mattie Franklin has gone missing, she goes to New York to find her. With the help of local P.I. Jessica Jones, she rescues Mattie from a drug dealer who had abducted her and was cannibalizing her tissue to make the Mutant Growth Hormone.^[55]

Secret Invasion

One day, a HYDRA agent known as Connely offers her powers back if she would rejoin S.H.I.E.L.D. as a double agent.^[56] Knowing Connely would kill her if she says no, Jessica Drew contacts Nick Fury who confronts her securely and urges her to accept the offer. He tells Jessica that he will feed her limited info until S.H.I.E.L.D. can analyze the HYDRA cell and then use the info to take it down.^[57] The HYDRA cell is in fact a team of Skrulls who made the offer as a trap to abduct Drew, so that their current Queen Veranke could take her place in the New Avengers and assume her role as Fury’s spy in preparation for the upcoming invasion.^[58]

After the invasion is repulsed, Tony Stark finds a Skrull ship in orbit with all the replaced heroes, including Drew.^[59]

Avenger and agent of S.W.O.R.D.

Jessica Drew joins the New Avengers, claiming she has nowhere else to go.^[60] She also joins the Lady Liberators along with the Invisible Woman, Storm, Valkyrie, Thundra, Tigra, Black Widow, She-Hulk and Hellcat who are trying to discover the identity of the Red Hulk.^[61] Alongside her work with the Avengers, Jessica Drew joins S.W.O.R.D., under an invitation by Abigail Brand. Her membership in the organization takes her on a number of missions eliminating hostile aliens operating on Earth.^[62]

Before the Siege of Asgard, Ronin attempts to assassinate Norman Osborn but is captured by the Dark Avengers. Jessica Drew teams up with Ms. Marvel, Mockingbird and Jessica Jones to rescue him. After he is saved, the New Avengers relocate to a safehouse in Brooklyn where they meet up with Steve Rogers.^[63]

Jessica is then paired with Spider-Man to do reconnaissance on Avengers Tower, where she reveals to him she is an agent of S.W.O.R.D. The duo are then found by Mandrill and Griffin who proceed to attack them. During the fight Mandrill gets close enough to Jessica and controls her into attacking Spider-Man.^[64] Spider-Man appears to be on the losing end of the fight but manages to lure Jessica away from Mandrill and the effects of his control begin to wear off. The duo trick Mandrill and Griffin into thinking Jessica has beaten Spider-Man and when they approach Spider-Woman to give her new commands, Jessica punches Mandrill in the face and shoves her hand in his mouth, firing off a venom blast and knocking him out. Furious, Jessica wants to kill both villains for what they have done but is stopped by Spider-Man. The duo heads back to the safehouse where they head off with the Avengers to help the Asgardians.^[65] Upon arriving in Asgard, Jessica and the rest of the heroes engage Iron Patriot‘s forces and witnesses the insane Sentry‘s defeat.^[66]

Jessica is asked by Steve Rogers himself to join his team of Avengers. During their first meeting, Jessica expresses her doubts to Wolverine about being on the team, feeling she has not earned the role. Wolverine advises her if she feels that way, she will then have to work towards earning it then. Suddenly Kang the Conqueror appears in the middle of the meeting with a dire warning about the future and all of reality, blaming the children of the Avengers.^[67] After recruiting the Protector and building a time machine, the time machine is destroyed by a furious Wonder Man. Once the dust has settled, an alternate version of Apocalypse and his Four Horsemen appear.^[68] After Apocalypse’s defeat, Jessica and a few of her teammates are sent into New York City to protect its citizens from the attacks coming from the timestream.^[69] While in Washington Square Park, they come across Killraven and join forces to help the citizens.^[70] Once their mission is completed and all the attacks have stopped, Jessica is the first to realize Killraven has not been returned to his proper future.^[71]

Later Jessica is present when Red Hulk comes to warn the Avengers that the Hood is seeking to collect the Infinity Gems.^[72] She is present along with the rest of the Avengers when they confront the Illuminati in Attilan about their existence and goes with a team of Avengers to the ruins of the Xavier Institute to get to Professor Xavier’s Infinity gem.^[73]

During the Fear Itself storyline, Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel and Protector arrive in Brazil to help Red She-Hulk fight Hulk, who was transformed into Nul: Breaker of Worlds.^[74]

While on a mission for S.W.O.R.D., Jessica is sent to locate an unusual alien energy surge in Wakanda. Upon finding the remains of a Spaceknight, Jessica is ambushed by the Intelligencia who take her as a prisoner. Abigail Brand approaches the Avengers for help and a team is put together to help locate Jessica. Jessica wakes up naked and is interrogated by two members of the Intelligencia. While the Intelligencia study the Spaceknight, the Avengers interrupt their attempts and the body activates, revealing it was containing Ultron‘s consciousness. The new Ultron escapes and Jessica is reunited with the Avengers.^[75]

Jessica Drew becomes a member of the new Secret Avengers.^[76]

Spider-Verse and Post-Avenger life

During the Spider-Verse storyline, Spider-Woman joins Spider-Girl and Spider-Man 2099 in confronting Spider-Man about Spider-Man 2099 witnessing his counterpart being killed by Morlun. She is among the spider-themed superheroes brought to Earth-13 by Spider-UK, Spider-Girl of Earth-982, and Spider-Ham, to form a resistance against Morlun and his family, the Inheritors.^[77] When the resistance was visiting Earth-928 and encountered a past version of Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus’ mind in Peter Parker’s body) with his own army, they attracted the attention of the Inheritors.^[78] Spider-Woman followed Silk with Spider-Man Noir to an unknown reality where they were being tracked by the Inheritors Brix and Bora. Spider-Man Noir was wounded and the trio escaped to his home world to allow him to recover from his injuries. After this, she was sent by Spider-Man to the Loomworld, home of the Inheritors to gather more information on the Inheritors.^[79] After encountering and replacing her doppelganger from Loomworld, who was Morlun’s lover, she was able to gather intelligence in regards to the Master Weaver and his role in the conflict, which helped the Spider Army ultimately win the battle against the Inheritors.

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.^[80] Jessica decides to help common people solve crimes, and enlists Ben Urich and the Porcupine.

Secret Wars

Knowing the universe will end soon, Reed Richards and Susan Storm choose Jessica and Natasha Romanoff to copilot a ship that will contain a handpicked few to restart humanity and escape the destruction of the universe. Their ship is shot down when the Children of Tomorrow from the Ultimate Universe invade, and she and the ship’s passengers are killed in the ensuing explosion.^[81] This timeline and the resulting deaths were later undone.^[82]

Post-Secret Wars

In the debut issue of the new volume set after the Secret Wars, Jessica is in the second trimester of pregnancy and still works as a private investigator.^[83] Although there were various debates about the father’s identity, after the baby’s birth, Jessica admitted that, while she had been in a relationship over nine months ago that started her interest in a family, the man left before she could bring it up directly, prompting her to go to a sperm bank instead.^[84] She eventually gives birth to a son whom she names Gerry. Gerry also inherited her power set. After Porcupine is nearly killed by the Hobgoblin, Jessica and Roger fall in love and start dating while continuing to raise Gerry.

During the “Secret Empire” storyline, Spider-Woman is among the heroes that are trapped in the Darkforce dome that surrounds Manhattan following a fight with Hydra’s Army of Evil.^[85] Spider-Woman was attracted to a signal flare fired by Jennie Sheldon and J. Jonah Jameson as she saves them from Kraven the Hunter. Jennie Sheldon took pictures of the fight.^[86] She, along with Ben Urich and the Kingpin, also helped Doctor Strange reclaim his Sanctum Santorum from Baron Mordo, who had also captured Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke Cage and Cloak.^[87]

During the “Spider-Geddon” storyline, Spider-Woman comes together with the Spider-Army again as she is part of Kaine Parker‘s group on their mission to claim the crystal containing Solus’ lifeforce before Verna claims it. She was able to escape with it during the fight with Verna and the Hounds.^[88] Spider-Woman makes it back to Earth-616 where she has the crystal. Unfortunately, she arrived at New U Technologies where she is grabbed by Jennix. After being hit by Spider-Woman’s venom blasts, Jennix instructs Daemos to share his food with Brix and Bora. As Daemos starts to feed off of Spider-Woman, she states that she got her powers from a radiation blast which Daemos notices the radiation in her lifeforce. Jennix has a change of plans and instructs Daemos to place Spider-Woman in stasis so that Jennix can study her later. Right now, Jennix places the crystal in the cloning machine enabling Solus to live again.^[89] In the end, the Spider-Army manages to free Jessica and defeat the Inheritors, by using the cloning technologies to revert them into babies.^[90]

Powers and Abilities

After her mother was struck with a beam of radiation containing the DNA of several different types of spiders while she was in-utero, Jessica Drew developed superhuman powers patterned after several different types of spiders when she was born. Jessica is superhumanly strong and is able to lift around seven tons at her peak. She also possesses superhuman speed, stamina, agility, and reflexes. Jessica’s body is more resistant to injury than an ordinary person, allowing her to take far more physical punishment compared to an ordinary human. Jessica also possesses superhuman hearing and smell, the latter of which allowed her to distinguish a life-model decoy from the real Nick Fury.^[91] Jessica’s palms and soles secrete a special fluid that allows her to cling to solid objects, like a true spider. Jessica’s physical makeup also makes her highly resistant to all terrestrial poisons, toxins, and completely immune to radiation. While she is typically rendered dizzy by the initial dose, she is completely immune to it after being exposed again. She also exudes a high concentration of pheromones that elicit pleasure and attraction in men and revulsion in women, although she typically uses a chemical “perfume” that renders these pheromones inert. Jessica’s body also produces an inordinate amount of bio-electrical energy, which she can discharge from her hands. She refers to these discharges as “venom blasts” although they actually have nothing to do with poison and typically cause pain and unconsciousness, and Jessica can kill a man in the same way that a lightning bolt would and can pierce solid metals like steel by using her blasts at their greatest intensity. Jessica was also able to glide through unknown means using the web-like extensions of her costume, but seems to have gained the power to fly after being replaced by the Skrull Queen Veranke.  Jessica has lost her powers in numerous ways and on several occasions, but after returning to Earth at the end of the Secret Invasion, Jessica’s powers were restored and are greater than ever.

In addition to her powers, she is also a superb hand-to-hand combat fighter, and has trained in several styles of fighting including boxing, judo, karate, and capoeira, learned under the training of the Taskmaster. She has also had training in fencing and the use of many other weapons. Jessica was trained by HYDRA (and later on by S.H.I.E.L.D.) in covert operations, stealth, espionage, and information gathering and is a superb athlete. She speaks several foreign languages, including Korean, Russian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German. Jessica has also received vocational training in undercover detective work and sometimes carries a Walther PPK handgun.

Details here.

–

Spider-Woman

–

Early Life

When Jessica Drew was about a year old, her parents moved from England to a small cottage 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.^[15][16][17]

Experiment

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, until the treatments finally finished in recent years. Now a full grown woman with little life experience, Jessica found herself unwelcome among the New Men of Wundagore, who sensed the difference of her hybrid nature.^[15][18]

Hydra

Jessica eventually set off on her own, leaving the Citadel of Science and 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 she 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 as a high-ranking leader in Hydra, an international terrorist movement. 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. Her mind already in a state of shock after the death of her boyfriend, Jessica lost all memory of her life before meeting Vermis, even her name.^[15][6] Mentallo used his powers to convince her that Hydra was an organization that fights the encroaching powers of corporations.^[19]

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.^[6]

Spider-Woman

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.^[20] She was approached by the mysterious sorcerer named Magnus. Magnus tutored her in the ways of civilization and informed her that her father was murdered, leading her on a hunt for his killer. Jessica traveled to the United States with Magnus. She and Magnus met up with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jerry Hunt (who started a romantic relationship with her), 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). With Hunt’s help, she identified her father’s murderer who died immediately after confessing.^[21]

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.

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.

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.^[9]

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.^[22]

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.^[23] 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.^[24]

Remaining in the island nation for about two years, Jessica eventually returned to the States. She had an encounter with Jillian Woods and the current Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter) that seemingly restored her full powers.^[25] However, an encounter with the criminal Charlotte Witter led to Witter stealing Jessica’s powers to become the new Spider-Woman, Jessica helped renowned psychic Madame Web mentor a teenage heir to the Spider-Woman title named Mattie Franklin, who had defeated Witter to claim the mantle herself.^[26]

Over time, Jessica slowly regained her powers, although they were unstable, during this time she teamed up with Heroes for Hire and Wolverine in Madripoor.^[27] Having returned to America 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.^[28]

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.^[29]

Her return to Earth however, was not as well received as most of the other freed captives. 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. A few of her new teammates were suspicious of Jessica at first (Ronin and Luke Cage 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.

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.^[19]

An Avenger

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.

During the Serpent‘s invasion of Midgard, Jessica realized her feelings for her fellow Avenger Hawkeye, with whom 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.

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. 

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.^[30]

When the resistance was visiting Earth-928 and encountered Spider-Man (Otto Octavius) with his own army, they attracted the attention of the Inheritors.^[31] 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.^[32] After encountering and replacing her doppelgänger from Loomworld, who was Morlun‘s lover, she was able to gather intelligence in regards to the Master Weaver and his role in the conflict, which helped the Spider Army ultimately win the battle against the Inheritors.

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.^[33]

Secret Wars

Knowing the universe would end soon, Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman chose Jessica and Black Widow to copilot a ship that would contain a handpicked few to restart humanity and escape the destruction of the universe. Their ship was shot down when the Children of Tomorrow invaded, and she and the ship’s passengers were killed in the ensuing explosion. This timeline and the resulting deaths were later undone.^[34]

Pregnancy & Motherhood

Over the following year, Jessica got pregnant via artificial insemination,^[35] but continued her crime fighting life, enlisting Ben Urich and the Porcupine to help with her investigations while she was on the sidelines.^[36] 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.^[7] The fight with the Skrulls continued, Jessica winning by a large margin. Before she could finish them off, however, she unexpectedly went into labor.^[37] 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.^[38]

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.^[35]

–

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Spider-Woman possesses several superhuman powers derived from the genetic experiment that granted her spider-like abilities, ultimately stemming from her status as a totemic avatar.^[30]

Nick Fury‘s intel classified her as Power Level 8.^[39]

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.

• Regenerative Healing Factor: She possesses a regenerative healing factor because during a battle with Wolverine, she was stabbed by his claws in the shoulder, but made a complete recovery in a matter of minutes.

• Extended Longevity: Her regenerative healing factor also extend to her longer lifespans and slowed aging.

• 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.^[40]

• Self-Propelled Glide: Jessica has the ability to glide through the air, which most people confuse with flight, despite her constantly stating she can’t fly, only glide.^[41]

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 sword-fighting.

• 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.

• Skilled Investigator: Jessica is a seasoned private detective.^[40]

Strength level

7 tons

Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Dimensional Travel Watch: Jessica possesses a wristwatch-sized device that grants her access to alternate universes with the push of a button.^[40]

Transportation

• Motorcycle Jessica’s preferred mode of transportation is a classic American motorcycle.^[40]

Notes

• She was a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Level Seven.^{[42][43][44][45]}
• Black Widow believes Jessica leaving the Avengers was due to PTSD brought on by Spider-Verse.^[46]

Details here.

–

2020 Update:

She’d be in her 60s now, based on when information about her first round of heroism was first released.  Superheroes age well, though, and this is especially true when they make it to Inisfree.  “Jess” once again looks to be in her prime.

In that great polar city, the gentle people there helped her make sense of all her actual and implanted memories, along with the true motivations her manipulators had kept so compartmentalized from her.  They helped her find peace and a sense of family.  They helped her heal.  That’s what their race and realm are all about, after all.

It would take some time, but eventually she’d enjoy climbing up the outsides of their skyscrapers (even the shapeshifting ones, and those deep underground).  Having been a natural climber, himself, when he was growing up, and having been bullied relentlessly to stop climbing, Auz took a special liking and concern to Jess when she climbed in his territory, ensuring no one ever bothered her or misunderstood.  Sometimes you’ll even find him climbing right along with her –though her abilities at that sport are, of course, far greater than his.

She has also started climbing up the walls of the main tunnel and side-caves of the Underway.

–

2022:

Three years into her Inisfree experience, and she’s agreed to marry its maker in her fourth.  The two have enjoyed many dates and discussions together, and her trust for him is boundless now, he and his people having helped her so much, just the way she always needed.  One of the only people he doesn’t mind sneaking up on him, she frequently uses her abilities to slowly lower herself down behind him when he is outside, smiling as she hangs there, waiting for him to turn around and notice with a start –and this has meant they’ve shared more ‘inverted French kisses’ together than he has with anyone else, even though he was the man who largely pioneered such a technique.

–