SPIDER-WOMAN
(ABC, September 22, 1979-January 3, 1980)
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, Marvel Comics Animation
There have been several heroines in Marvel Comics that have donned the mantle of
Spider-Woman. But, without Jessica Drew, there would have been none (at least
as far as Marvel was concerned).
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| Marvel's original Spider-Woman? Valerie the Librarian from Spidey Super Stories. |
Then-publisher Stan
Lee realized that the name was fair game for anyone who wanted to use it.
In 1964, when Marvel debuted the character of Wonder Man
in the pages of The Avengers, rival publisher DC Comics sued them due to the fact they
owned Wonder Woman, resulting in that character
begin dropped from the books for a time. However, in 1976, DC would go on to
introduce their character Power Girl while
Marvel had already had a Power Man in play since 1972. Wanting to ensure the trademark for any kind
of Spider-Woman would be Marvel’s, Lee rushed production of a character with
the name. Although, it should be noted that a Marvel book did feature a character called Spider-Woman
in Spidey Super Stories #11 (1975).
That version was a non-powered character named Valerie the Librarian (Hattie Winston) from the
children’s show The Electric Company.
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| Marvel Spotlight #32. |
Fleshed out by Archie Goodwin
and designed by Marie
Severin, the new Spider-Woman made her debut in Marvel Spotlight #32 (1977). Only intended to be a one-off, the
issue sold incredibly well and Marv Wolfman was
tasked with bringing the character into her own series. Goodwin had envisioned
her to be an actual spider evolved into a human. Feeling that concept too
implausible for 1970s audiences, Wolfman retconned Goodwin’s origin to be false
memories implanted by the terrorist group Hydra. Instead, she became Jessica
Drew (named after Wolfman’s daughter and the fictional detective Nancy Drew) whose scientist
parents worked in a lab at Mount
Wundagore with their partner, Herbert Wyndham, who would go on to become
the High Evolutionary.
When she was exposed to lethal doses of uranium over time, Jessica’s father
injected her with a serum based on irradiated spider blood and is placed in a
genetic accelerator to allow the serum proper incubation time.
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| Modred the Mystic helps Jessica learn the truth about herself. |
She ends up remaining there for decades, aging at a
decelerated rate, and emerged only 17-years-old with her new spider powers. Her
new abilities initially included superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility
and reflexes, the ability to cling to surfaces and glide on air currents,
enhanced pheromone projection that can cause a variety of effects on others,
and bio-energy discharges from her hands she dubbed “venom blasts.” Wundagore
had become populated by Evolutionary’s strides in genetic manipulation known as
New Men; animals who were
transformed into human hybrids. Ostracized for being originally human, Jessica
left for the human world where she was captured and brainwashed by Hydra to be
their agent, Arachne. She escaped and was recaptured by Hydra again until their
brainwashing was ultimately removed by Modred the Mystic.
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| Ad for Spider-Woman. |
Spider-Woman returned to comic pages in Marvel Two-In-One #30-32,
1977, before winging her way over to her own series with the first Spider-Woman #1. There, her costume received a minor tweak by Carmine Infantino, opening up her enclosed
mask to allow her hair to flow freely. Wolfman established a macabre theme for Jessica’s
world, which writer Mark
Gruenwald continued upon inheriting the book from Wolfman with issue #8. Gruenwald
focused on Jessica’s struggles to assimilate into society while her
fear-inducing pheromones worked against her by producing negative reactions in
people she met. Gruenwald also introduced Jessica’s friend and social opposite Lindsay McCabe;
an outgoing aspiring actress that would remain Jessica’s close friend for years
to follow.
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| Gives a new meaning to the term "sticky fingers." |
With Spider-Woman’s popularity high, Marvel decided
to try their hand at making her their next animated star through DePatie-Freleng
Enterprises. The series was developed by Stan Lee and took tremendous
liberties with the source material. Outlined in the opening titles by narrator Dick
Tufeld, Jessica Drew (Joan Van Ark) was bitten by a poisonous spider as a child,
and her father saved her life with an experimental serum that also granted her
powers. While still possessing her comic powers, she was made closer to Spider-Man (whom she
originally had no connection to beyond the similar name) by being given a
clairvoyant spider-sense that allowed her to see dangers no matter where they
happened (shown in an image outlined by a spider web), and the ability to
produce webs from her hands or individual fingers. Her ability to glide was
upgraded to actual flight (which would later make its way into the comics) and
use of her venom blasts was dictated by how much strength she possessed at the
time. She would gain random abilities as situations arose that required them;
such as a sonic scream or the ability to communicate with spiders. Taking a cue
from the then-popular Wonder Woman series, Jessica was
able to don her costume by spinning around.
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| Jeff Hunt, Billy and Jessica Drew on a story and in peril. |
Unlike the comics, Jessica lived a relatively normal
life as the editor of Justice Magazine. Her
supporting cast included photographer Jeff Hunt (Bruce Miller), a cowardly braggart
who fancied himself the heroic-type, and her teenaged nephew, Billy (Bryan
Scott). While not exactly following the macabre setting Wolfman established,
Jessica did encounter demons including Dr. Strange villain Dormammu, ghostly Vikings, Dracula and the other Universal Monsters,
and a variety of aliens. Then-Spider-Man villain Kingpin made an appearance as
well, although not quite in his capacity as a kingpin of crime. Spider-Man made
a couple of appearances on the show with Paul Soles reprising the role
from his 1967
series, something which the comic series tried to avoid for as long as they
could in order to allow Jessica to stand apart.
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| Behind every good Spider-Man is a Spider-Woman. |
Spider-Woman debuted
on ABC on September 22, 1979, becoming the
first female superhero to lead her own animated series. It was written by Jeffrey Scott
and Tom Swale,
with music by Eric
Rogers. The series only lasted a single season of 16 episodes before it was
cancelled. Jessica’s comic wasn’t faring much better. The series saw a high
turnover rate of writers, which raised a red flag with readers. Fans of the
series were turned off when the macabre elements and various plotlines were
dropped after Michael
Fleisher took over writing with #20, making her a more
cookie-cutter superhero. And, despite their best efforts to avoid it, Jessica
was ultimately viewed as derivative of Spider-Man and dismissed as such.
Jessica’s sales steadily slipped, dropping out of the top spot by the time the
cartoon premiered, and her series was ultimately cancelled with her death in
issue #50.
Gruenwald, the book’s editor by the series’ end, came to regret that decision
and had the series’ former editor and then-current Avengers writer Roger Stern resurrect
Jessica in Avengers #240-241 (1984).
 |
| Firestar decked out as Spider-Woman in Amazing Friends. |
Jessica made other appearances on television in the
form of a costume
worn by the fire-powered Firestar
(Kathy Garver) on an
episode of Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends and in a live-action cameo
appearance on the short-lived comedy, Once a Hero. In the
comics, she was relegated to a number of guest appearances and a status as a Wolverine supporting character
in the early issues of his first ongoing series, working as a
non-costumed private eye. It wouldn’t be until 2005 that Jessica returned as
Spider-Woman in the pages of New Avengers that the
character gained new exposure. After a short-lived 2009 revival series that
later became a motion
comic, Jessica returned
to her own series in 2015 (complete with a new costume) spinning out of the
“Spider-Verse” event.
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| Legion of Spider-Women: Jessica with her modern costume, Julia with her Arachne costume, Mattie in one of her many costumes, Charlotte, Ultimate Jessica and her Black Widow guise, and Gwen. |
As for those other Spider-Women mentioned? While
Jessica was out of the costume, several others stepped up to fill the void. The
first was Julia
Carpenter, who was accidentally given spider-like powers by the government
when they were trying to create their own superhero. She had her own
mini-series and was part of Force Works
and later Omega Flight as
Arachne before becoming the new version of Madame Web. Next was Mattie Franklin, the niece
of J. Jonah Jameson
who gained hers through a mystical ritual called The Gathering of Five. An
evil version who fought Mattie, Charlotte Witter,
was a fashion designer and granddaughter of Madame Web who was mutated by the female Dr. Octopus in
order to destroy Spider-Man. In recent years in the alternate universe pages of
Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Woman
was the female clone of Peter Parker. She took up the name Jessica Drew, but
also called herself Julia Carpenter and eventually became Black Widow as part
of The
Ultimates, that world’s version of the Avengers. And, although she’s
marketed as Spider-Gwen, an alternate version of
Peter’s deceased girlfriend Gwen Stacy
was bitten by the irradiated spider instead and became Spider-Woman during
“Spider-Verse.”
As for the animated series, it has yet to see a
release in the United States. In 2008, Liberation Entertainment
planned to release the series to DVD in the United Kingdom, but their
bankruptcy ended those plans. In 2009, Clear Vision finally
released the complete
series. In 2019, it became one of the launch titles for the streaming
service Disney+.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“Pyramids of Terror” (9/22/79) – The Mummy Khufu leads an alien
invasion of Egypt.
“Realm of Darkness” (9/29/79) – Dormammu appears and attempts to
enslave mankind.
“The Amazon Adventure” (10/5/79) – Shanna, the leader of the Amazons,
plans to take over the world.
“The Ghost Vikings” (10/12/79) – Spider-Woman journeys back in time to
stop Vikings who came to the present to steal the world’s wealth.
“The Kingpin Strikes Again” (10/19/79) – A scathing article about him
leads Kingpin to steal an invisibility ray to get revenge on Jessica, but he
ends up discovering her dual identity instead.
“The Lost Continent” (10/26/79) – An investigation into the loss of
Air Force plans in the Bermuda Triangle strands the reporters in another
dimension.
“The Kongo Spider” (11/2/79) – A giant spider threatens a movie
production.
“Games of Doom” (11/9/79) – Jessica goes undercover to discover who is
replacing athletes with android doubles.
“Shuttle to Disaster” (11/16/79) – Steeljaw hijacks a space shuttle to
the moon in order to control humanity and have it dig for valuable gems for
him.
“Dracula’s Revenge” (11/23/79) – Dracula plots to turn the populace
into vampires, werewolves and Frankenstein’s monsters.
“The Spider-Woman and the Fly” (11/30/79) – Jessica’s father’s former
research assistant is mutated into a human fly, but he’s still able to figure
out a formula to rob her of her powers.
“Invasion of the Black Hole” (12/7/79) – A UFO attempts to absorb
Earth into a black hole to ready it for an invasion.
“The Great Magini” (12/14/79) – A crooked magician sets his sights on
the world’s famous landmarks.
“A Crime in Time” (12/21/79) – Jessica has to choose between her
secret identity and saving the world from an invasion of bestial creatures from
a time machine.
“Return of the Spider-Queen” (12/28/79) – Alien humanoid spiders
believe Spider-Woman is their long-lost queen.
“The Deadly Dream” (1/3/80) – An alien’s sleep powers allow her to
take over the world.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2019.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2019.
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