Real name: Jessica Drew
First Appearance: Marvel
Spotlight #32
Base of Operations: New York City, New York
Occupation: Adventuress
Place of Birth: London, England
Classification: Human
Marital Status: Single
Membership Status: Associate
Affiliations: HYDRA, Avengers, SHIELD, Spider Society
Powers:
The original Spider-Woman possessed superhuman strength and
endurance, an immunity to all toxic substances and radiations, and a
metabolism which produced excessive bioelectricity which could be
released in powerful discharges. These powers were the result of
body-wide adaptations to the accelerated spider's blood, which had
been injected in her as a child. Spider-Woman could lift (press)
about 7 tons, and exert her maximum strength for about a hall hour
before fatigue would begin to impair her performance. She was immune
to all forms of metabolism-altering chemical substances, including
non-corrosive poisons, alcohol, and other drugs. After a single
exposure to a given substance (which would induce in her a short
period of sickness or weakness), her body would metabolize and
immunize itself against the foreign substance. Similarly, she became
immune to radiation (at any wavelength higher than infrared) She
scarified these immunity factors during a blood transfusion to save
the life of Giant Man.
Spider-Woman's body constantly generated bioelectricity, which
usually discharged itself from her skin in neglible amounts. She
could, however, tap her body's total store of energy to emit a
directed, bioelectric beam she called her "venom blast." This
visible blast of electricity carded at maximum strength about 1/10
the charge of a lightning bolt of an equivalent length. After every
discharge, she would have to wait a period of time (dependent upon
the quantity and power of the "venom blasts" she had used) before
having sufficient strength to discharge another. The maximum
distance at which she ever could direct a bioelectric charge is
about 25 feet. At close range, she could release sufficient energy
to kill an average-sized man or woman. Her special wing-like costume
sections enable her to glide on air in the right weather.
History:
Jessica Drew was the daughter of American arthropologist Jonathan
Drew and his British wife Meriem. When Jessica was still under two
years of age, her parents moved to the small Balkan nation of
Transia. Her father and his colleague, geneticist Herbert Edgar
Wyndham, had purchased a parcel of land on Wundagore Mountain within
the Transian borders, and intended to build a small scientific
research center there. After discovering uranium on the property,
the two scientists became wealthy and poured their riches into the
building of a citadel of science. Coinciding with the completion of
the Wundagore citadel five years later, Jessica Drew became deathly
ill due to her exposure to the radioactive uranium. To save her
life, her father injected Jessica with an experimental serum
composed of irradiated spider's blood, since his experiments showed
that spiders possessed greater immunity to radiation than did human
beings. Jessica did not immediately respond to the treatment,
however, and Wyndham placed her in a genetic accelerator of his own
design for further treatment. Meriem Drew, distraught that her
daughter was now a "guinea pig" for her husband and friend, died
several days later. Jonathan, in turn, became so despondent that he
left Wundagore for his home in England. Jessica was raised at
Wundagore and continually subjected to the genetic accelerator,
effectively making her half-human, half-spider.
Jessica was led to believe that she was actually one of the
genetically accelerated animals of the High Evolutionary, but as the
other demi-humans shunned her, Jessica left to wander the world, but
was captured by the terrorist group HYDRA, and she became an agent,
given the title and costume of Arachne. When she was sent to kill
Nick Fury, head of the espionage agency SHIELD, she rebelled and
quit. However, she was captured and brainwashed by HYDRA again. When
the hero, the Thing, and his girlfriend Alicia Masters were visiting
Stonehenge, HYRDA ordered Jessica to kill him. The hero was actually
attacked by a group of elementals created long ago by Merlin to
capture Modred the Mystic, and Jessica, now as Spider-Woman, ended
up aiding the Thing and Modred in defeating the elementals. Modred
could sense that Jessica's memories had been tampered with and he
told her she was indeed human, letting her remember her true origin.
She soon battled the villain Excaliber and afterwards encountered
Magnus the Magician, who promised to help Jessica. She moved to Los
Angeles with Magnus in order to continue her search for her father
there. During the course of her investigation, she battled many
supervillains and was chased by a SHIELD agent Jerry Hunt.
Ultimately, she learned that her father died after being conscripted
by a paramilitary terrorist organization using the front of a
scientific corporation, Pyrotechnics. She and Hunt began a romantic
relationship, and Magnus began to make a life for himself,
eventually leaving the couple.
Jessica tried unsuccessfully to hold down a number of jobs until she
stumbled across the villain Nekra and her Cult of Kali. She defeated
the mutant and learned her body produced fear-inducing pheromones,
which led people to subconsciously dismiss her. As Spider-Woman,
Jessica continued a full-time crime-fighting career, much to the
chagrin of Hunt, who eventually left her. Later, Jessica met her
namesake, Spider-Man, and began a brief partnership with
criminologist Scott McDowell.
Later still, Jessica moved to San Francisco where she fought the
mutants Siryn, Black Tom Cassidy and the Juggernaut along side the
hero team X-Men. She became a licensed private investigator and
battled for the first time Magnus' archenemy, Morgan Le Fay. During
this time, she met and became fast friends with Lindsey McCabe.
On one adventure, Jessica battled the Viper and the Silver Samurai.
Viper tried to convince Jessica that she was her mother, and when
the power behind her latest plot was shown to be the demon Chthon,
Viper betrayed Chthon rather then hurt Jessica, and the two went
their separate ways. Later, Jessica would be attacked by the Viper,
who believed that Jessica had brainwashed her into thinking she was
her mother. With the help of Captain America, Jessica defeated the
Viper, who fled.
When an insurance company hired her to investigate a rash on
industrial robberies in San Francisco, she encountered the Atom
Smasher and his henchmen and traced the thefts to Los Angeles. Once
there she came across the Thing and Bill Foster (then, the third
Giant Man) from whom the Atom Smasher and his men had stolen
equipment from. The Thing didn't remember meeting her before but
knew she seemed familiar. Together they tracked them down and they
learned that Atom Smasher planned to use a neutron bomb to kill
everyone in the city and loot it, then blackmail the nations of the
world to prevent it from happening to any other city. During the
fight the Thing learned that Spider-Woman was immune to the Atom
Smasher's radiation blasts. He informed Giant Man, who was dying of
radiation poisoning. She donated in a massive blood transfusion to
save Giant Man's life, even though the doctor's told her she no
longer would possess her immunity to radiation by doing so.
Jessica was then contacted again by Magnus, who convinced her to
travel in astral form with him to sixth-century England to free
souls from the clutches of Morgan Le Fay. Morgan apparently died in
the ensuing battle, although her astral form survived. Morgan's
astral form placed a spell on Jessica's prone body, so that
Jessica's astral form could not return to it. The Avengers and
Doctor Strange traveled to the astral plane to battle Morgan Le Fay
and reunite Jessica's spirit with her body. They were successful,
but Jessica apparently lost her powers when she returned. She gave
up her Spider-Woman identity but resumed her private investigator
career.
At one point, Jessica set up operations in the east-Asian city of
Madripoor. She was later ensorcelled by the Black Blade to battle
the X-Man Wolverine, where it was revealed that Jessica's powers may
not have been permanently lost. She would then assist Wolverine on
several adventures.
Later still, having somehow become trapped in a magical dimension,
Jessica was rescued by Lindsey McCabe, Spider-Man, and the second
Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter.
Some time later, Jessica Drew was attacked by a costumed villain
calling herself Spider-Woman, stealing Drew's (apparently fully
regenerated) powers for herself. Drew joined with the second
Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter, a recently-rejuvenated Madame Web,
and a new heroine calling herself Spider-Woman to track down this
villain, who had been stealing powers from these women as well.
Ultimately, the newest Spider-Woman stole all the powers back from
the villain, leaving Jessica Drew without her powers yet again.
Drew remained in New York, and, alongside Madame Web, often helped
the new Spider-Woman, a youth named Martha "Mattie" Franklin, in her
nascent adventures. Eventually, Jessica Drew began to notice that
different aspects of her superhuman powers were returning.
Nevertheless, Drew remaines reluctant to return to full-time
costumed adventuring.
