Jessica DrewSpider-Woman

Agent of Hydra. Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent of S.W.O.R.D. Bounty hunter. Private eye. Super powered. De-powered. Jessica Drew has been all of these things, but it seems no matter where her life takes her, it is her destiny to be the high-flying Super Hero known to the world as Spider-Woman.

A Childhood Lost

Born in 1924, Jessica Drew traveled with her parents, Jonathan and Miriam, to Mount Wundagore, in the small Balkan nation of Transia. There, Jonathan conducted genetics research with Dr. Herbert Wyndham, who would later become the armored man-god known as the High Evolutionary. At seven years old, Jessica contracted uranium poisoning from her father’s work, but Jonathan and Wyndham saved her life through a spider-derived serum and years of hibernation in a genetic accelerator. Jessica spent decades in stasis, receiving subliminal education via special tapes. When she was finally awakened, she was cured, and had aged only to her early teens. She also discovered that she now possessed super human powers—a result of the combination of the radiation exposure and the spider-serum.

Jessica eventually left Wundagore to start a new life and met a man with whom she fell in love. But by accident, she apparently killed him with her powers. In the aftermath, Jessica was chased by an angry mob before being rescued by Count Otto Vermis, a high-ranking member of Hydra, the worldwide subversive organization devoted to achieving global domination. Hydra trained Jessica as a field agent, and to control her more fully, Vermis subjected her to memory suppression. He also manipulated Jessica into believing herself to be a spider evolved into human form by the High Evolutionary, which devastated her psyche. Further, Vermis gave Hydra agent Jared Kurtz the task of becoming Jessica’s lover. Outfitted with a special gliding uniform and given the codename Arachne, Jessica was assigned to kill S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury. But, during the mission, Jessica learned from Fury the true nature of Hydra and Kurtz, which led her to abandon the organization.

Adopting the name Spider-Woman, and with her true memories eventually restored, Jessica embarked on a journey of both self-discovery and heroism—one that continues to this day.

Does More than a Spider Can

With her altered physiology, Spider-Woman has enhanced muscular density, granting her super human strength—she can lift at least 7 tons—endurance, speed, and reflexes. Her body produces fewer fatigue toxins than an ordinary human’s, enabling her to exert herself at peak capacity for hours at a time. While Spider-Woman is not invulnerable, she can endure, with only moderate discomfort, forces that would kill a normal human. She can stick to virtually any surface via a substance secreted from her hands and feet, and can crawl walls and cling to ceilings. Her tendons and connective tissues are twice as flexible as those of an ordinary human. Spider-Woman naturally produces bioelectric energy, which she can channel into “venom blasts” with a radius of at least 25 feet. These blasts can stun or kill even super human adversaries. Initially, Jessica required an hour for her bioelectrical charge to return following a venom blast, but over time, her powers developed to the point where she could fire multiple blasts within minutes of each other.

Jessica’s metabolism generates pheromones that, early on, caused major complications in her interactions with most people. The pheromones induce attraction or pleasure in men while invoking fear or revulsion in women—though a handful of people have proven immune to such effects. Spider-Woman can now nullify her pheromones by using suppressants or chemical “perfume.” Her heightened sense of hearing enables her to detect sound at virtually any frequency and across considerable distances.

Jessica can use her costume’s collapsible arm-wings to glide on air currents under optimal conditions. She is a trained hand-to-hand combatant and martial artist, an exceptional private investigator, and a reasonably skilled markswoman, having undergone specialized training by Hydra, S.H.I.E.L.D., and others. Early in her career, Spider-Woman possessed an immunity to radiation and a heightened resistance to poisons and drugs, enabling her to build up rapid immunity to any such substance following initial exposure, though she eventually lost that power. As an agent of S.W.O.R.D., the counter terrorism and intelligence agency that deals with extraterrestrial threats to world security, Jessica has used an "environmental bioscanner" that can detect non-humans within a radius of several feet.

Arachnid Enemies

Throughout her career, Spider-Woman encounters a wide variety of menaces—sometimes alone, sometimes in the company of her fellow Super Heroes.

Perhaps Spider-Woman’s most implacable foe is the centuries-old sorceress Morgan Le Fay. Jessica earns Morgan’s eternal wrath when she defeats the criminal Excaliber (Jason Struthers), whom Morgan sends to acquire the Darkhold, an ancient book of powerful mystical spells.

Spider-Woman also has several major run-ins with the terrorist called Viper—also known as Madame Hydra. Their relationship grows more complex when, on one occasion, Viper saves Jessica’s life from Chthon, the Elder God, who attemps to transform Spider-Woman into a demon. Later, as part of Hydra, Viper plays a crucial role in restoring Jessica’s faded super powers.

Over the years, Spider-Woman also battles the likes of the murderous, nostalgia-obsessive Turner D. Century, Hammer, and Anvil, the hallucination-inducing Angar the Screamer, the Juggernaut, Black Tom Cassidy, and the Asgardian known as the Enchantress.

Web of Life

In addition to her childhood association with the High Evolutionary, Jessica Drew knew another person in her youth who would become a prominent figure years later; as a child in Transia, her frequent playmate was Phillip Masters, who would grow up to become the villainous Puppet Master.

In 1958, as Jessica remained in hibernation, Chthon, who was trapped within Mount Wundagore, tried to escape. Jonathan Drew, who had become possessed by a centuries-old ghost named Magnus, joined the High Evolutionary and his Knights of Wundagore—evolved animals also known as “New Men”—to defeat Chthon. However, in response, Chthon forged a mystical bond with the sleeping Jessica.

After she awakened, Jessica grew to young adulthood under the care of Bova, an evolved cow, but most other New Men around her regarded her with suspicion.

After Jessica took on the identity of Spider-Woman and moved to the United Kingdom, Magnus, in a new host body, befriended her but kept his connection to her father a secret. Magnus accompanied Jessica to the United States, where she then learned of her father’s death. As Jessica, Magnus, and Jerry Hunt traced Jonathan Drew’s death to a company called Pyro-Technics Inc., they discovered and thwarted the firm’s plot to irradiate the U.S. with a neutron device and conquer the country with soldiers mutated via Drew’s scientific work. One of Pyro-Technics’ heads, Congressman James Wyatt, confessed to Drew’s murder before dying. A short time later, as Jessica’s relationship with Hunt came to an end, Magnus, troubled by his own growing love for her, also departed.

Jessica sought treatment for the social interaction problems caused by her pheromones and entered therapy at the Hatros Institute for Emotional Research, where she met fellow patient Lindsay McCabe. After learning that the Institute was a cover for the Kara-Kai, AKA the Cult of Kâli, Spider-Woman defeated the cult’s leader, the hate-empowered mutant Nekra, in combat. She subsequently received pheromone suppressants from Hatros’s Dr. Mark Leaman, enabling her to better interact with other people.

After moving to California, Jessica became a bounty hunter based in Los Angeles, with the aid of her neighbor, criminologist Scotty McDowell. But Jessica ultimately proved too independent-minded for McDowell, and the pair dissolved their partnership. She then relocated to San Francisco, obtained a detective license with Nick Fury’s help, and opened a private investigation firm, with Lindsay as her assistant.

While investigating crimes committed by Atom Smasher (Michael English), Spider-Woman encountered the Thing, who hoped that Atom Smasher could cure his radiation-poisoned friend, Giant-Man (Bill Foster). When the villain proved unable to help, Spider-Woman offered a transfusion of her own blood, to extend her radiation/toxin immunity power to Foster. The procedure worked—but caused Jessica to lose the power for herself.

Some time later, Spider-Woman was invited to join the Avengers, but declined the offer. Shortly after Jessica’s breakup with David Ishima, Magnus possessed Ishima’s body to enlist Spider-Woman’s help against a returning Morgan Le Fay. In astral form, Spider-Woman accompanied Magnus to the sixth century to destroy Morgan’s physical body, but when she and Magnus returned to the present, they found her own body seemingly dead, a result of a vengeful spell cast by Le Fay. Wanting Spider-Woman’s body for herself, Morgan was preventing Jessica’s spirit from returning to it. After the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange, discovered Morgan’s plot, the Avengers and the Shroud battled her on the astral plane. Magnus sacrificed his own ghostly existence to break Morgan’s spell, returning Spider-Woman to life—though her super powers were gone.

Jessica returned to her detective business, and on one occasion, she and Lindsay delivered the infamous Black Blade of Muramasa to Madripoor. But the Blade, imbued with a portion of Muramasa’s spirit, transformed Jessica into a savage warrior called the Mistress of the Black Blade. Wolverine, then operating in Madripoor under his “Patch” identity, prevented Jessica from killing Lindsay and was himself possessed by the sword until the Silver Samurai, the blade’s apparent predestined master, broke the spell. Jessica and Lindsay subsequently relocated their firm to Madripoor, where Jessica realized that her powers were gradually returning, starting with her strength and wall-crawling ability.

During a period when Jessica was no longer active as Spider-Woman, another woman, Julia Carpenter, took on the name. At some point, Jessica was captured by the demonic Void-Eater and was rescued by Lindsay, along with the new Spider-Woman and Shadowoman (Jillian Woods). Jessica apparently joined S.H.I.E.L.D. soon afterward, but she eventually returned to work as a private investigator in Madripoor.

Later, Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius) empowered and brainwashed a woman named Charlotte Witter to become a new Spider-Woman. Witter attacked Jessica, Julia Carpenter, and yet another Spider-Woman (Mattie Franklin), absorbing each one’s powers. After helping Spider-Man and others defeat Witter, Jessica became Mattie’s mentor.

Jessica continued to slowly regain her powers. While she tried to remain committed to her private investigation business, she jumped back into crime fighting. However, her powers again became unstable, endangering herself and others. Racked with severe depression and self-doubt, Jessica was in a vulnerable enough state of mind to seriously consider an offer from Hydra to restore and enhance her powers—as long as she rejoined S.H.I.E.L.D. as a double agent. With Nick Fury’s encouragement, she agreed to the terms. But unbeknownst to Jessica, Hydra had been infiltrated by the shape-shifting alien Skrulls, as part of their secret invasion of Earth. Hydra indeed restored Jessica’s powers, but immediately thereafter, she was replaced by an imposter, Skrull Queen Veranke, who, posing as Spider-Woman, joined the Avengers and, in the process, pursued both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra interests. Meanwhile, Jessica spent months imprisoned on a Skrull ship with other abducted super humans. Awakened following the Skrulls’ defeat, Jessica joined an outlaw incarnation of the Avengers at Wolverine’s invitation.

Coping with psychological issues after her liberation from the Skrulls, Spider-Woman accepted an offer to join S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation and Response Department) and hunt down Skrull operatives remaining on Earth. After achieving some closure, Jessica joined the now more formally recognized Avengers.

More recently, Spider-Woman quit the Avengers, settled in New York, started wearing a new costume, and took on probably her all-time greatest challenge: being a mother to her baby son.