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Spider-Women
Jessica Drew
Alter Ego: Jessica Miriam "Jess" Drew
Notable Aliases: Arachne, Ariadne "Dee" Hyde, Childe of the Darkhold, Dark Angel, Drew Spawn, Enforcer (Delazny), Erin Dyker, Hestia-3, Hunter, Mistress of the Black Blade, Ms. Drew (Jessica Drew of Earth-001), Porcupine (Gocking), Red, Slaughter, Sybil Dvorak, Web-Lady, Webby, Webs
First Appearance: Marvel Spotlight #32 (February 1977)
The first and probably most well-known is Jessica Drew. She was created at the last minute when Marvel found out that Filmation animation studios were going to create their own superheroine by the name of Spider-Woman; since the comic version managed to come out first, Filmation was forced to change their character's name to "Web Woman". The character first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #32 (February, 1977), created by Archie Goodwin, Sal Buscema, and Jim Mooney. Jessica was the star of Spider-Woman vol. 1, which lasted for 50 issues (April, 1978-June, 1983).
When Jessica was little, she was infected with uranium radiation and was in danger of dying. Her father used an experimental spider serum to save her and put her in a tube to accelerate the serum's growth, saving her life but aging her rather rapidly to the point that she looks, and acts, much older than she is. She was raised in Wundagore by the cow-woman Lady Bova, eventually left to make her way in the human world, fell in love... then accidentally killed her first love with her latent superpower: bio-electric blasts. Accused of being a witch, Jessica fled Wundagore and was taken to HYDRA, tricked into thinking that it was a good place for refugees, even though it's actually a terrorist group. She was trained in martial arts and learned to harness her powers more effectively. These include the discovery of her other powers such as Wall Climbing and Pheromones, which attract men and women. Oh, and she was given her codename, first Arachne, but quickly changed to Spider-Woman (it should be noted that the preceding paragraph is the result of decades of Retconning with at least two complete origin changes, including one where she was a hyper-evolved spider. Jessica rivals Hawkman in the Continuity Snarl category).
On her first mission to assassinate Nick Fury, Jessica came to realize that HYDRA was wrong, so she rebelled and was left on her own to cope with her power and with her daily life. It was tough, but eventually, she managed to overcome her problems, especially after the Crossover with Spider-Man, who advised her to use her power for good; she later became a bounty hunter and a private detective. She also gained a Rogues Gallery, the most notorious being Morgan le Fay, whom she eventually finished in her book's finale, at the cost of her soul being separated from her body, and she requested her magician friend cast a spell that would erase her from the memories of everyone that ever knew her.
However, the spell was faulty, and eventually, her body was found by The Avengers, which led to a story arc where they tried to get her soul back to her body. They succeeded, but with a cost: Spider-Woman's powers were gone. Jessica later led a normal life with her friend Lindsay McCabe, moving to Madripoor and briefly getting involved with the adventures of Wolverine. Of course, her powers slowly started to come back, but they tended to be fluctuating and unstable. She was also attacked by Charlotte Witter, a supervillain taking the same code name, and for a time, along with the 2nd Spider-Woman Julia Carpenter, mentored the third Spider-Woman Mattie Franklin.
Over time, however, Nick Fury once again contacted Jessica in order to stabilize her power as Spider-Woman by infiltrating HYDRA. Unfortunately, that turns out to be a trap by the Skrulls, who ambushed and captured her. The Skrull Queen Veranke chose to replicate Jessica to kickstart her eventual invasion, while Jessica was held prisoner in the Skrull ship. Veranke joined the New Avengers, and participated in House of M, Civil War (2006) and even World War Hulk until it was time for the invasion of Skrulls. The Avengers defeated Veranke and she was killed by Norman Osborn, with the ship carrying Jessica and the other Skrull prisoners crashing on Earth. While there were a few who welcomed her back (such as Carol Danvers and in a way, Wolverine), the rest of the world's heroes looked at her funny, the image of her face seemingly becoming synonymous with Veranke, and she ended up being vilified by the world.
On Wolverine's suggestion, Jessica joined the New Avengers, despite some members still being highly suspicious of her. While she did her job as an Avenger well enough, she was still haunted by her time of capture and vilification by the world, causing her to take on jobs offered by SWORD in order to hunt down any remaining Skrulls, whom she now hated. An encounter with a particularly strong Skrull eventually overpowered her and revealed the reason why Veranke chose her as the person to impersonate: because she was completely alone and thought to be insignificant, so the rest of Earth's heroes wouldn't care about what would happen to her. Just in time for the New Avengers, even those who were formerly suspicious of her, to come to her rescue and remind her that people care about her, that she's got friends, and that she's not alone. With this, Jessica defeated that particular Skrull and resumed being a full-time New Avenger, declining further jobs by SWORD.
She participated in the Siege of Asgard and her efforts eventually cleaned her image of "having Veranke's face". Despite her doubts, she's handpicked as one of the members of the mainline Avengers and has fought on their side ever since.
In 2014, Jessica received another solo series again as part of the Spider-Verse Bat Family Crossover, written by Dennis Hopeless (of Avengers Arena and Avengers Undercover fame). After Spider-Verse, with a new lease on life (and a new costume), Jessica quit the Avengers and devoted herself to helping normal, everyday people.
In 2019, Spider-Woman would join the black ops team known as Strikeforce. This quickly became a notable transition, as Jessica returned to the classic costume she was most famous for starting with this series.
Comic volumes with their own pages:
Jessica has appeared in other media besides the Marvel comics:
Video Games
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance: Playable character in the first game, and NPC in the 2nd game.
- Marvel: Avengers Alliance: One of the recruitable heroes in the game.
- Spider-Man: Web of Shadows: Appears as an NPC.
- Super Hero Squad Online: Appears as a playable hero.
- Avengers Academy: A teenage version of Jessica Drew appears as a playable hero.
- LEGO Marvel's Avengers: Ultimate Jessica Drew appears as a playable hero.
Western Animation
- Spider-Woman: A 1979 animated series by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises starring her. Also features occasional appearances by Spider-Man himself.
- Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: Voiced by Issa Rae.
- Ambiguously Bi:
- In the mainstream universe Jessica's had a steady relationship with men but she's also had a lot of Les Yay with some female characters, especially her "best friend" Carol Danvers. Also with her long-standing live-in partner Lindsay McCabe. And her extreme foe yay relationship with known bisexual and hedonist Gypsy Moth. Blurring this further is that her Ultimate Marvel self is openly lesbian, though this is because her Ultimate Marvel self is actually a female clone of Peter Parker, thus possessing a lot of the same qualities (beyond being openly lesbian, she has the same types as Peter: redheads and Jewish girls).
- When Captain Marvel asks her opinion of the new Thor: "One word, Carol: hawt."
- Animalistic Abilities: Her flight and electric blasts are inspired by spider species that can fly using the planet's electric field. Her pheromone abilities are also things female spiders have. Finally, she has the standard spider strength, speed, and agility that is common among the Spider Family.
- Arch-Enemy: Back in the day, Jessica's was Morgan Le Fay. Now it's Madame Hydra, who is insane enough to believe she is her mother. She is not; Jessica's mother is dead.
- Berserk Button: Don't insinuate Jessica being a Skrull or try to control her mind. She'll try to kill you for that.
- Big Sister Mentor / Cool Big Sis: Towards Anya, see here
◊ and here◊. More recently she has been this towards Spider-Gwen and Silk - Bound and Gagged: Hoo boy, does Jessica get to this situation often in her early runs. Even Skrull Queen Veranke experienced this once while impersonating Jess.
- Broken Bird: Some incidents turned her into this, such as Skrull Queen impersonating her, among others.
- Brought Down to Normal: She loses her powers from the '80s and '90s. Outside of guest appearances as a private detective, her character had been retired and replaced by Julia Carpenter. Her character has since been revitalized and with her powers back, she's active again as Spiderwoman.
- Call-Forward: The Origin mini-series features one Miles Warren as a colleague of Jessica's father. Warren eventually leaves their project to pursue cloning research.
- Continuity Snarl: Poor Jessica has had at least three different origin stories over the years:
- Originally, she was one of the High Evolutionary's experiments in engineering new humanoid species from animal stock; in Jessica's case, she was a spider artificially evolved into a perfectly humanoid form. This was why she had abilities akin to, yet different from, those of Spider-Man, and also why she had the ability to attract men but repulse women with her pheromones.
- Then she became the daughter of a pair of scientists who were poisoned by the uranium deposits near their lab; her father injected her with a serum made from spider genes in an effort to cure her by infusing her with the resistance to radiation possessed by spiders. He then put her in a "genetic accelerator" to enhance the serum's progression, which caused her to A: gain spider-powers, and B: rapidly age until she was a child in the body of a young adult. The "spider evolved into a human" backstory was retconned as a false set of memories implanted in her.
- Another comic, "Spider-Woman: Origin", retconned it again, most notably stating that whilst her parents were experimenting on a way to graft useful genes from spiders to humans, Jessica's pregnant mother was zapped with a splicing beam and Jessica was imbued with spider-genes in her mother's womb.
- Dark Mistress: Earth-001's Jessica Drew is in relationship with Morlun. Earth-616's Jessica once impersonated her.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Subverted in Hawkeye #9; Jessica finds out that Clint cheated on her and slaps him twice, but when she tries to hit him a third time he stops her and tells her that she's not allowed to do that, no matter how mad she is. The ending does have Clint talking to a neighbor and strongly hints that he wants to get back together with her, but that apparently isn't happening.
- Dude Magnet: One of her powers is to produce pheromones that make men want her. Unfortunately, she can't really direct it; it's either on or off, so she relies on a perfume to correct it.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: During an incident in Spider-Gwen, Jessica tries to use her Avengers credentials to get take-out food delivered to an odd location. It didn't appear to work.
- Dye Hard: Jessica was naturally redheaded (though in the Bendis origin revision, she's blonde like her mother). She dyed her hair black. In fact, Jessica's villainous alternate reality counterpart from Earth-001 in Spider-Verse keeps her auburn hair.
- Expy: Jessica Jones, aka Jewel, began life as basically Jessica Drew in all but name. Alias was originally to star Drew, but that didn't work because over in Avengers, Drew was going to turn out to have been impersonated by Queen Veranke for some time, and she was just generally going in an entirely different direction. Brian Michael Bendis changed her last name and Alias went ahead as planned.
- Fan Disservice: While on a mission for S.W.O.R.D., Jessica is ambushed by a supervillain team known as The Intelligencia who take her as a prisoner. She later wakes up naked◊ and is interrogated while she's still naked. On the other hand, Skrull Queen Veranke also had similar experience while impersonating Jess.
- Flight: She can fly, although it is unclear as to the range and extent of this power.
- Head-Turning Beauty: Jessica ( or better, the Skrull Queen Veranke posed as her) gets this reaction from Iron Man and Luke Cage when she appears in her sexy red and yellow costume in New Avengers.Iron Man: "Well, Agent Drew, in the most P.C., non-threatening, professional way, I'd like to say..."
Luke Cage: "Damn, girl."
Iron Man: "Exactly." - Hero with Bad Publicity: Just to show just how messed up Jessica's life is, this is her past (being an ex-agent of HYDRA) and present life (still being thought of as the Skrull Queen). Who knows if that'll change in the future?
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Jess is this with Carol Danvers. Sometimes the "heterosexual" part
can be questionable. - Improbable Weapon User: In 2021's Spider-Woman #11, she attacks two sword-wielding bank robbers with a scooter!
- It's Personal: Jessica really hates Skrulls after Secret Invasion (2008). Part of the reason why she joins SWORD is because it gives her more opportunities to kick Skrull ass.
- Long-Lost Relative: It turns out Jessica's employer on the 2020 series Michael Marchand is actually her brother.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: In this case, mother. Merriem Drew, Jessica's mother, was supposedly killed in a werewolf attack decades ago. In Spider-Woman (vol. 1) #44 (June, 1982), Merriem is revealed to be alive and un-aging, in the person of Viper/Madame Hydra, the latter being a long-established super-villainess. Jessica and Viper were also stated to be "mirror images" of each other. This was retconned away in "Captain America" (vol. 1) #281 (May, 1983), "revealing" that both ladies had been manipulated by Chthon into thinking they were related.
- Male Gaze: Not so prevalent nowadays, but used to be that Jessica's butt was often seen just as much as her face. In fact, it even inspired a few controversies.
- Maternally Challenged: Jessica seemingly doesn't care for kids. When the other Avengers are cooing over the newborn Danielle Cage and Mary Jane tells her to "look at this baby", Jessica's only response is "That is a baby. Get it away from me." However, this was during the time Veranke was posing as Jessica. Getting pregnant caused her no small amount of soul-searching, but in the end, she decided she would make her best go of it.
- Most Common Superpower: Jessica is shown to be very busty.
- Ms. Fanservice: Jessica usually wears a very form-fitting costume that highlights her large bust, broad shoulders, long-toned yet shapely legs, and shapely buttocks.
- Muggle Best Friend: For many years, Jessica Drew's best friend was small time actress Lyndsay McCabe. It probably helps that Lyndsay figured out Jessica's secret identity on her own, and agreed not to tell anyone.
- Pheromones: Jessica involuntarily produces these, making men attracted to her. This power appears to be dormant.
- Platonic Life-Partners: This is something that has been quite consistent with Jessica across all eras: She and Peter are shown to be quite good friends, but never go beyond that. It helps that during their first encounter in comics, Peter was one of the first guys to give her a hand at her troublesome life.
- A video game made her joke they never dated, but she does find him cute.
- It helps that in the Ultimate universe, Jessica is Peter's clone, so of course they will never go beyond anything.
- Power Incontinence: Jessica had to learn to keep her pheromones in check, at first. She still can't quite do it.
- Pregnant Badass: Post-Secret Wars (2015), and then no longer so when she gives birth in the following series.
- Primary-Color Champion: Her original and most iconic suit is red and yellow.
- Red Is Heroic: Her suit's dominant color is red.
- Rescue Romance: In a platonic examples, her close friendship with Lindsey McCabe began after Lindsey stood up for her during a humiliating group therapy session.
- Ret-Gone: In the conclusion of the original comic series, this was supposed to happen to her. After being unable to return her soul to her body, she requests that her friend Magnus cast a spell that makes everyone forget that she ever existed. In the end... the spell is faulty, and she's Back from the Dead.
- Rogues Gallery: Jessica fought a surprising number of villains during her initial 50-issue series, including the Brothers Grimm, the Needle, Daddy Long Legs, Turner D. Century, the Flying Tiger, the Waxman, Gypsy Moth, Morgan le Fay, the Human Fly, Hammer and Anvil, the Hangman, Nekra and Dr. Karl Malus.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: In Marvel NOW! (2016), she fights the Hobgoblin, one of Peter Parker's old rogues.
- Seductive Spider: She's an attractive spider-themed superheroine whose spider-based powers include pheromones to manipulative men...and sometimes some women.
- Shock and Awe: Jessica can fire bio-electric blasts from her hands.
- Single Substance Manipulation: One of her rogues, Gypsy Moth, was a mutant with the ability to manipulate cloths and fabrics.
- Status Quo Is God: Her costume getting changed from the iconic skin-tight bodysuit to a more modest costume in her 2014 series, which was the first time the costume was changed in 37 years. It also only lasted a comparatively brief five years, as Jessica would return to the old suit once again in Strikeforce.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
- When dating Hawkeye, Jessica fell into this. A woman connected to S.H.I.E.L.D., who is great at hand-to-hand combat, traumatized by Skrulls, and smarter than him? Does this describe Jessica or Bobbi Morse, Hawkeye's ex?
- For that matter, Bendis reinvented Jessica by emphasizing her early days with HYDRA, making her a spider-themed espionage character with a morally ambiguous past...which could all be said of Clint's other ex, Natasha Romanoff.
- Team Mom: Although later quite literal, Jessica was seen acting as a mentor and confidante to Spider-Gwen, who had popped over to Earth-616 to ask Jessica to help her remove some handcuffs she'd acquired during a confrontation with Earth 65's Captain America.
- Although she's not very maternal, even after becoming a mother herself (also see Maternally Challenged above). Comes across more like the cool wine aunt to the Spider kids.
- Troll: Tells Spider-Gwen that she'll have to melt off a pair of handcuffs that Gwen had acquired using her bio-electricity. Gwen initially protests, saying that as a former spy, Jess should know ways to just pop the locks. Jess points out that as a super-heroine, Gwen is going to have to expect the occasional flesh-searing electrical burn. Gwen closes her eyes to brace herself and then says she can feel her flesh beginning to burn when... Jessica pops the locks with a small screwdriver.
- Wacky Cravings: In Radioactive Spider-Gwen #3, Jessica eats several single-serving packets of butter.
- Who's Your Daddy?: She's yet to reveal who the father of her newborn son is; the only certainty is that it isn't Tony Stark (he was the only one who asked, and her reply was to dump a plate of food on him; clearly she has a reason to keep it secret). It's revealed she got pregnant through artificial insemination, though who donated the sperm remains unknown.
Julia Carpenter
First Appearance: Secret Wars #6 (October 1984)
The second Spider-Woman is a mother from Denver named Julia Carpenter. She first appeared in Secret Wars #6-7 (October-November, 1984), created by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck. She mostly appeared in team books, but was the star of Spider-Woman vol. 2, a 4-issue mini-series (November, 1993-February, 1994).
Carpenter got tricked into entering a program to create a superhero, under the guise of "Athletic Study", and was accidentally injected with a different spider serum, granting her super strength, wall-climbing, and the ability to project psychic webbing from her fingerprints. She was given the identity of Spider-Woman by the Commission on Superhuman Activities, although she preferred "Arachne" (suggestion overruled). Her first major involvement was the Crossover event Secret Wars when her corner of Denver was ripped out by the Beyonder to form the Battleworld, in which she met Spider-Man and gave him the inspiration for the design for his Alien Symbiote black suit (which would later become known as Venom). She was then roped into joining the newly-formed Freedom Force (Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, pardoned and given a government sanction, although other heroes would be added to the roster). Julia didn't make any friends on the team, however, when she helped free the Avengers from the Vault after the Force had arrested them on trumped-up charges. However, instead of locking her up, CSA director Valerie Cooper (Julia's college friend, who'd been responsible for turning her into Spider-Woman) gave her a second chance to serve her country, although she'd be officially classified as a rogue agent. Julia eventually got caught up with the West Coast Avengers, joining that team and severing her ties with the CSA. While with the Avengers, she was caught in a conflict with the criminal trio Deathweb, whose powers were derived from the same source as Julia's, and whom she defeated when they threatened her daughter Rachel and her parents. Soon afterward, when the Avengers shut down the West Coast branch, she joined Iron Man's new team, Force Works, but after that team folded, she retired from superhero activity to continue raising Rachel.
The retirement, however, was cut short when she, along with Jessica, was attacked by Charlotte Witter, and she was rendered wheelchair-bound. However, she still took a resistance and mentored the 3rd Spider-Woman, Mattie Franklin. Sometime later, she was involved with the Civil War (2006), joining Iron Man's Pro-Registration side, and taking the name "Arachne", but eventually she revealed that she was The Mole for the Anti-Registration side. Before she could change sides, however, she was beaten down by Ms. Marvel and was forcefully separated from Rachel as her punishment. The loss of Rachel caused Julia to nearly slip into insanity; she broke out of the prison in the Negative Zone and went to Colorado to search for Rachel. In a fit of rage, she attacked a superpowered girl named Arana, but her instability cost her victory and she was beaten, where she met Ms. Marvel again who apologized and promised to search for Rachel. But despite doing so, and even the success of reuniting with Rachel, it was clear that the friendship between Julia and Carol was strained.
Julia eventually moved to Canada and joined Omega Flight. She would end up unused for a while, until the Spider-Man story arc Grim Hunt, in which she was captured by Kraven the Hunter, who wanted to destroy every trace of the Spider family. Julia ended up being picked as the successor of Madame Web and the process of the inheritance made her blind. She eventually passed on her Arachne costume to Arana, who rechristened herself Spider-Girl.
Julia has appeared in other media besides the Marvel comics:
Video Games
- Marvel Ultimate Alliance: Appears not in person, but as an alternate skin for Jessica Drew, so she's fighting with Jessica's moveset.
- Super Hero Squad Online: Appears as a playable hero with her own dialogue and moveset.
Western Animation
- Iron Man: The Animated Series: Appears as a recurring main character. Voiced by Jennifer Hale.
- Ultimate Spider-Man: Appeared as Madame Web, voiced by Cree Summer.
- Action Mom: Harm Rachel at your own risk.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Julia goes around with orange hair, red hair, or blonde, depending on who drew her.
- Animalistic Abilities: Her strength, speed, and agility are derived from spiders. Her Projectile Webbing and Wall Crawling abilities are borderline cases since they do mimic spider abilities but are Psychic Powers.
- Antagonistic Offspring: To her father during and after Civil War (2006), as he considers her bringing the war to his front yard, forbids Julia from visiting Rachel to give Rachel a normal life (not helped that she lost Rachel's custody to him since she was arrested and is legally forbidden to visit her without his permission), and calls the police when Julia does visit Rachel unwelcomed and then takes Rachel away from her.
- Astral Projection: As Madame Web, she has the ability to project her consciousness outside her body and travel.
- Blind Seer: As Madame Web she's blind, but can see along the strands of the Web of Life to predict the future.
- Break the Cutie: In Civil War (2006), she's given a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown by Ms. Marvel and arrested right in front of her daughter.
- Brick Joke: In West Coast Avengers, when she's telling Rachel how she got her powers, she mentions that as a test of strength, she had to lift a car that was a Daytona Spider model, and wonders if it's someone's idea of a joke. Then in her Spider-Woman mini (Published a year later with the same writer) Val Cooper says that car was a visual pun, so it was a joke after all.
- Civvie Spandex: As Madame Web and after she gave her old costume to Anya Corazón, Julia wears a new spandex costume which is covered with either a Badass Longcoat or a shorter trenchcoat, such as this◊.
- Continuity Snarl: Originally Spider-Man's symbiote costume was derived from hers', specifically the emblem, however, other comics have shown that the Venom symbiote had the emblem before he bonded with Spider-Man, and Donny Cates' Venom reveals the spider emblem is a different variation of Knull's dragon emblem. How her original costume just happens to have an emblem that is similar to Knull's and identical to the Venom symbiote's is not explained even with the retcon that Venom isn't the first symbiote to have come to Earth, since Grendel had no emblems.
- Cool Shades: After she became Madame Web, she wears sunglasses most of the time.
- Costume Copycat: Inverted. It was Spider-Man who copied her costume when he needed a new one in Secret Wars.note
- The Friend Nobody Likes: A downplayed case but it's still there. After she became Madame Web, the vague ways she talks about her visions lead to other characters occasionaly mentioning it's incredibly frustrating to talk with her. This is a big contrast when compared with Cassandra, since she was pretty open about her visions and their meaning, so Spider-Man never expressed frustration towards her.Spider-Man: Really?! That's how you use your look-into-the-future powers? To mess with me? Really?!
Doctor Strange: You know, I deal with clairvoyants and prophecy all the time, and I still find your methods infuriating.
Spider-Girl: Trust me, you're not the only one, Snape.
Captain Marvel: Yeah, Madame Web, you keep saying that in a variety of obnoxiously vague ways. - Forgot About Her Powers:
- The last time she used her Psi-Webs was in Grim Hunt, and ever since she became Madame Web, she didn't use them even on the few times she fought. She eventually used them again to cushion Jessica's fall in Spider-Woman (2023), 13 years after Grim Hunt.
- For whatever reason her being a telepath is mostly ignored, as she never uses telepathy during Spider-Island and instead communicates with the other heroes via Astral Form, and during Sins Rising she's communicating with the other Spiders while observing Spider-Man in a way that could be just simple telepathy, but she's using the more convoluted method of using their souls' connections with the web of life to observe Spider-Man. She eventually used her telepathy again a few times during End of the Spider-Verse Infinity Comic tie-ins, and then again in Spider-Woman (2023), but that's still 13 years after she first got them back in Grim Hunt.
- Godzilla Threshold: When she and other Spiders were losing badly to Sin Eater with Morlun's powers, she deliberately lets him take her powers, and her precognition makes him learn that he was being lied to by Kindred, which makes him become desperate enough to commit suicide.
- Happily Married: Averted. Her husband didn't take her superhero career well, and they were eventually divorced. He's eventually killed by Deathweb.
- Healing Factor: Julia is able to recover from mild to moderate injuries somewhat faster and more efficiently than an ordinary human. She is capable of fully healing on her own in a matter of days which would require an ordinary human to undergo surgery. Julia is also physically immune to all known types of poisons.
- Insistent Terminology: Call Julia Spider-Woman or Spider-Girl after she gets to use her intended alias, and she'll correct you that "It's Arachne."
- Legacy Character: Julia gives her old costume to Anya so she can continue her superheroing as Spider-Girl, as Julia succeeds the late Madame Web.
- Was one to Jessica, but it wasn't her intention, originally she wanted to go by Aradine or Arachne, and she started to use the latter during Civil War (2006).
- Mama Bear: Harming Julia's daughter means you put a "Please Kick Me" sign on your butt.
- Ms. Fanservice: Similar to Jessica, Julia usually wears a very formfitting costume that highlights her very voluptuous yet muscular body, large bust, broad shoulders, and long-toned yet shapely legs.
- Downplayed after she took over as Madame Web, while still beautiful, she's mostly shown with her trenchcoat and almost never takes it off.
- Most Common Superpower: Just like with Jessica, Julia is very buxom.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: Iron Man#214, Spectacular Spider-Man#125 and 126, and are this for her benefit, as they're setting up a comic book she'd star in, that was cancelled before even the first issue came out. She's even a Spotlight-Stealing Squad in Spectacular since she gets half of the emotional development, while Wrecker, the villain's issue, gets the other half, and she is responsible for "defeating" Wreckernote while Spider-Man is sidelined.
- Psychic Powers: Her webbing is psychokinetic. As Madame Web, she has the ability to perceive aspects of the future, sensitivity to psychic energies in her environment allows her to see her immediate area and events taking place far away, teleportation, and telepathic ability to read minds and project thoughts.
- Same Character, But Different: Ever since she became Madame Web she's practically a different character.
- As Spider-Woman/Arachne she initially became a super-hero because she was a bored housewife who found super-heroing thrilling, eventually got involved with Freedom Force because the payment was good, but then got in trouble with the government because she betrayed Freedom Force to save the Avengers who had been unjustly arrested. After all of that was solved she was just a straightforward super-hero who gets pissed off if her daughter is in danger.
- As Madame Web she's a cryptic clairvoyant who inexplicably almost never fights, despite having the powers to do so, and very little else. It doesn't help that since becoming Madame Web, Julia is isolated to the Spider-Man side of comics, when before she was more involved with the Avengers, so she never interacts with her old friends anymore, which also makes her feel like another character. What's more she doesn't even have to act in this cryptic way, because Marvel has other precogs who speak more clearly, which even includes Cassandra. And when Julia was explicitly depowered during Prowler's tie-in to Clone Conspiracy she's acting like a straightforward hero again. All of this makes Julia's personality change both baffling and unnecessary.
- Story-Breaker Power: Has Madame Web's powers on top of her own. Once she had a sparring match with Spider-Man after he was practicing The Way of Spider for weeks, and she could keep up with him, despite not being formally trained, thanks to her precognition. Whenever Spidey remembers about using The Way of Spider, he generally trounces his opponent, so Julia keeping up with him is no small feat. Naturally, she has more of a supportive role whenever she shows up so she doesn't upstage everyone else, and one of the few times she decided to fight was against Sin Eater with Morlun's powers during Last Remains, which didn't help much because he's so much stronger than her and the other Spiders.
- It is worth noting that when she shows up without either of her power sets in Prowler's tie-in to Clone Conspiracy, she's far more proactive in stopping the villains, something she avoided doing since becoming Madame Web, making it clear the potential story-breaker capacity she has that makes her not fight.
- Superior Successor: Zigzagged when talking about her succeeding Cassandra. Power-wise Julia is above her by having her usual powers on top of Madame Web's powers, however, despite having more powers and being far more capable in a fight, she mostly takes a supportive role. She's also prone to misunderstanding her visions, something Cassandra never had a problem with."My visions aren't always right, you know. Sometimes I misunderstand them. Sometimes something unseen changes... It's always a risk."
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Julia during her stint with Freedom Force. She was also the Token Good Teammate, at least until they added Crimson Commando, Stonewall, and Super Sabre to the team.
- Teleportation: Just like the original Madame Web, she can teleport herself to any location.
- Unexplained Recovery:
- Lost her Madame Web powers in Spider-Verse, and Prowler's tie-in comic to Clone Conspiracy confirms she lost her other powers too (Which makes no sense, those powers were unrelated and all other Spiders kept theirs'). Her eventual return in The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) has her with both power sets again and no explanations over how she got them back.
- Julia getting her Spider powers back after Charlotte stole them can look like this, but actually isn't the case. Ms. Marvel#8 (2006) explains she was crippled after losing her powers, Shroud's company managed to recreate the formula that gave Julia her powers, and after months they came back, and she managed to walk again after weeks of physiotherapy too.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- After losing a fight against Anya in Ms. Marvel#14 (2006), she wakes up to Carol telling her she wants to help, thing is, Carol had arrested Julia issues before, so Julia is understandably pissed and calls her out for it.
You take away my daughter. You send me to prison. You completely destroy my life... And now you want to tell me you feel really bad about it? That's disgusting.- When the heroes construct a Spider-Sense jammer to cut off the Queen from the mutated New Yorkers, they cut off Julia's precognition in the process. She teleports in, verbally lambastes them for doing so, and then teleports away leaving them confused.
- The Worf Effect: She loses to Anya offscreen in Ms. Marvel#14 (2006), and this is after Anya lost her carapace. It gets worse when later comics revealed/retconned that Anya lost all of her powers after losing her carapace, so Julia lost to a powerless teenager... To justify that fight a bit, she was clearly not thinking straight since she was desperate to find her daughter, and it was made clear that Anya is still a competent hero even without powers.
Martha "Mattie" Franklin
First Appearance: The Spectacular Spider-Man #262 (November 1998)
The third Spider-Woman is less known and more into the mythos of Spider-Man. Martha "Mattie" Franklin is the niece of J. Jonah Jameson, who thinks Spider-Man is cool. Mattie first appeared in Spectacular Spider-Man #262 (November, 1998), created by John Byrne and Rafael Kayanan. She assumed the Spider-Woman identity in Amazing Spider-Man vol. 2 #5 (May, 1999).
Mattie attended the Gathering of Five - a mystical ceremony that bestows the five people gathered with power, insanity, immortality, knowledge, or death - in place of her father, giving her superpowers when she was chosen to receive power. Later, Spider-Man had a 10-Minute Retirement, so Mattie donned a costume similar to his and called herself Spider-Woman, taking his place in crime-fighting. Spider-Man realized this and helped her a bit after he returned. Initially arrogant and dismissive towards Spider-Man, Mattie later attempted to initiate a romantic relationship with him when Mary Jane was assumed dead but was turned down.
Mattie became the star of Spider-Woman Vol. 3, which lasted for 18 issues (July, 1999 - December, 2000). Charlotte Witter made regular appearances as an opponent for Mattie, who defeated her by absorbing her powers and those of the other Spider-Women. With the blessing of Jessica Drew, Mattie officially took up the mantle of Spider-Woman, but her life took a dark and depressing swerve. She briefly appeared in Jessica Jones's comic Alias, where it was revealed that her boyfriend was drugging her to harvest Mutant Growth Hormone from her body, and was rescued by Jones and Jessica Drew and returned to her uncle. Becoming an amateur detective, Mattie took it upon herself to investigate the Slingers, a group of four superheroes wearing the costumes Spider-Man had once used to clear his name. When she was caught by Ricochet, she had sex with him in order to waylay his suspicions, an act she later regretted.
She was listed as a potential recruit for the Initiative during the Civil War, but the next time Mattie appeared was during the Grim Hunt arc, and she was less lucky than the rest. She was one of the first characters sacrificed by the Kravinoffs, with her dying words being a message to Madame Webb, to tell Spider-Man she forgave him for not saving her and not to blame himself for her death.
- All Your Powers Combined: Mattie absorbed Charlotte Witter's powers, as well as those of Jessica Drew and Julia Carpenter.
- Amateur Sleuth: Possibly inspired by Jessica Jones, Mattie Franklin investigated the Slingers for a while.
- Ascended Fangirl: In contrast to her uncle, Martha was a Spider-Man fangirl. After teaming up with him she initially deems him to be a Broken Pedestal, but she later comes to respect and admire him again.
- Back for the Dead: After being absent for much of the 2000s, Mattie came back for the Grim Hunt arc, where she was sacrificed by Sasha Kravinoff to resurrect her son Vladimir. It backfired and Vlad was resurrected as a leonine monster.
- Back from the Dead. In Silk she's cloned by New U in Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy. She succumbs to cellular degeneration after saving Silk from Carrion-virus afflicted clones, a la Ben Reilly.
- Combat Stilettos: Mattie wore a set of high heels in one of her many outfits.
- Costume Copycat: Her first costume was a version of Peter's red-and-blue without the webbing pattern.
- Costume Evolution: Mattie went through multiple costumes, starting with a version of Spider-Man's costume without the webbing motif and finishing with a black uniform with a stylized red spider emblem and underarm webbing.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: At the end of Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy, she sacrifices herself to save Silk and dies in Cindy Moon's arms, crumbling to dust.
- Flying Brick: Martha's original powerset to an unknown level sans the spider-powers, until she got them.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: We never saw Jameson or Marla's initial reactions to Mattie's death; the former never even referenced it until Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy and the Go Down Swinging arc, both of which came out around a decade after Mattie's murder, and in Zdarsky's Spectacular Spider-Man#6 (Published a few months before Dan Slott's ASM started to build up to Go Down Swinging), Jameson remembers Marla's death, including her clone's death in Clone Conspiracy, but not the death of Mattie's clone from the same story, which's especially jarring since both happened at the same time, and he did react to Mattie's death there (Admittedly, his reaction was only shown on Silk's tie-in to Clone Conspiracy, not the main event).
- Spider-Man himself almost never remembers her after Grim Hunt, it's only ASM#655 where she is remembered, as the main story in that issue is him having a dream where he sees and talks with the people who died around him. Even then, Mattie's appearance is just a cameo and she's not name-dropped, but to be fair there were way too many characters there, and even more known characters like Ben Reilly and Kaine were just cameos and not named too.
- This trope reaches a ridiculous level in The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) during Last Remains. In it Kindred unburies the corpses of those who died around Spider-Man and puts them around a dinner table, to rub their deaths on his face and say he's the reason they're all dead. And despite the story having other Spiders, in which Kindred mentions how Spider-Man being an influence on them will only get them killed because of him, despite Peter's brief recap about Julia in ASM#48 including how she got Madame Web's powers, which happened during Grim Hunt, the same story where Mattie got killed, despite Mattie's death and her becoming a hero because of Spider-Man both being things Kindred could use to torment Peter further and despite the story including George Stacy, a fellow Forgotten Fallen Friend, Mattie's corpse is not at the dinner table. She isn't even indirectly referenced too.
- Hand Blast: She can shoot bolts of crimson energy from her hands, derived from Jessica Drew's powerset.
- Heroic Seductress: Mattie ends up playing this card when Ricochet catches her digging through his apartment as part of her secret investigation into the Slingers, having sex with him to waylay his suspicions. After leaving the team, she says she regrets this.
- Hopeless Suitor: In The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2 #14, Mattie tries to take advantage of Mary Jane's apparent death to seduce Peter despite the age difference between them - with Peter being in his 20's and Mattie being 15. It doesn't work, but the cover shows her yanking his mask off to initiate a Forceful Kiss.
- Human Sacrifice: She's turned into one by the Kravinoff family in order to resurrect Vladimir Kravinoff, the Grim Hunter.
- Kid Hero: Like her idol Spider-Man, Mattie was 15 when she got her powers.
- Leotard of Power: One of her costumes was a purple leotard with a spider emblem on the chest, gloves, and high-heeled shoes.
- Let's You and Him Fight: She gets into a fight with Silkworm, but after bonding over their shared suspicions over New-U and closeness to J. Jonah Jameson, they become friends.
- Spider Limbs: Originally belonging to Charlotte Witter, Martha possessed four psionic spider legs growing from her back. Having them grown out was their natural state, but Martha could conceal them in her back with concentration, though this left her with feelings of pressure. On occasion, Martha was shown firing brilliant bursts of energy from the legs that left her enemies stunned.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Mattie went through nine costumes before settling on one.
Charlotte Witter
First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2 #5 (May 1999)
The granddaughter of Madame Webb, Charlotte Witter was a fashionista with connections to the black market. This got her involved with Doctor Octopus, who abducted her and experimented on her to activate her latent psychic abilities. Tortured into being his slave, Charlotte stole the abilities of Jessica Drew, Julia Carpenter, and Mattie Franklin, before being sent to kill Spider-Man. She succeeded in capturing him, but he escaped. Charlotte was defeated by the three depowered Spider-Woman and her powers were drained by Mattie Franklin. Charlotte was placed in the care of her grandmother, who foiled her attempts to assassinate Spider-Man using her connection to Mattie's new spider legs and returned her powers to dormancy. Charlotte hasn't been heard from again.
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Although Charlotte wasn't a saint to begin with as she's also involved with black markets, what really drives her into villainy is Doctor Octopus conditioning her through torture, sensory deprivation, and starvation until she obeys his every command so long as he provided her with a steady diet of human blood. She initially refused his order and even attempted to kill him.
- Blood Lust: Thanks to Otto's torture and conditioning, Charlotte has an almost vampiric thirst for blood.
- Brought Down to Normal: Charlotte's power has been absorbed by Mattie, and what little power she had left was suppressed by her grandmother. She's not dead, but she's never been heard again afterward.
- Combat Stilettos: Charlotte's boots are high-heeled.
- Dark Action Girl: Charlotte is a villainous Spider-Woman.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Charlotte was just a fashion designer and practitioner of black markets until Doc Ock kidnapped her and conducted genetic testing using spider DNA, altering her physical appearance and transforming her into a spider-human hybrid.
- Green and Mean: The only Spider-Woman who dresses in green and the only one who's villainous.
- High-Class Gloves: Charlotte wears green ones on both of her arms.
- Impossibly-Low Neckline: Charlotte's costume.
- Leotard of Power: Charlotte is easily the least modest of all Spider-Women.
- Mind Rape: Charlotte can hypnotize males using eye contact.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Witter had psionic spider legs that emanated from her back.
- Power Parasite: Charlotte can absorb the powers of other Spider-Women, until Mattie Franklin absorbed all her powers and the powers she had absorbed.
- Psychic Powers: Charlotte has strands of psionic force that could be woven into adhesive "psi-webs" and psionic spider legs that emanated from her back. She also has inherent precognitive abilities, telepathy and psionic detection.
- Shock and Awe: Charlotte has the ability to generate bio-electric "venom blasts", stolen from Jessica Drew.
- Wall Crawl: Witer had the ability to adhere to almost any surface.
Spider-Woman Allies
Lindsay McCabe
Alter Ego: Lindsay McCabe
First Appearance: Spider-Woman #14 (May, 1979)
Jessica Drew's best friend. In fact, she was her first female friend, since it turned out that Lindsay was immune to the pheromones that Jessica exuded that made women hate her (a power that Jessica now can consciously control). Lindsay was a B-movie actress who met Jessica during a group therapy session and they ended up bonding and eventually moving in together. When Linsday was injured and couldn't work, she became Jessica's secretary and then business partner, creating Drew and McCabe Private Investigations.
Later on, she and Jessica helped Wolverine in Madripoor. She and Jess ended up moving to Madripoor and buying the Princess Bar, still working as private detectives.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Ever since Jessica Drew became popular again in the pages of New Avengers, Lindsay has remained missing. Before 2021, her last appearance was in 1996. That said, in 2021, she showed up again in Spider-Woman (2020), but she hadn't been on the page for 25 years.
- Fiery Redhead: Red hair and a fiery personality.
- Private Detective: Was one with Jessica.
Rebecca Marchand
First Appearance: Spider-Woman (Vol 7) #1 (2020)
Rebecca is the daughter of Aeturnum (Michael Marchand) and an ally of Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew). She has now become a superhero herself, following in her aunt's footsteps.
- Clothes Make the Superman: Her special suit is what allow her to fight alongside her aunt, making her capable of Wall Crawling and coming with an electrified staff.
- Fangirl: She's a fan of Captain Marvel, who happens to be one of the best friends of her aunt Jessica.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: She's blonde haired and a pretty nice and sweet person who doesn't take too long to bond with her aunt and kid cousin.
- Handicapped Badass: She might need crutches to walk without her suit, but she has trained to be as skilled as she didn't need them.
- Missing Mom: Her mother Alison Jones died shortly after giving birth to her.
- Morality Pet: She was what kept her father from going off the deep end, at least for a time.
- Unknown Relative: Until she revealed her relationship to Jessica, she had no idea she had a niece.
Scotty McDowell
Notable Aliases: Hornet
First Appearance: Spider-Woman #21 (December, 1979)
A wheelchair-bound criminologist, who was later mutated by Karl Malus, becoming the Hornet.
- Handicapped Badass: After being mutated by Karl Malus, he gained super-strengh and grew wings that allowed him to fly. However, it didn't cure his paraplegia.
- Mission Control: He provided this role for Spider-Woman while she was a crimefighter and bounty hunter, performing research for her and letting her know about high worth villains.
- Psycho Serum: He was injected with a formula composed of human and insect DNA, that on top of giving him superpowers, made him more aggressive and chauvinistic.
- Shock and Awe: As the Hornet, he was able to shoot bio-electricity from his body.
Shroud
Alter Ego: Maximillian Quincy Coleridge
First Appearance: Super-Villain Team-Up #5 (April, 1976)
After witnessing the murder of his parents in front of him, Maximillian Coleridge vowed to fight crime in any way he could. Initially undercover with a group of villains known as Night Shift, he worked alongside the Avengers, Spider-Woman and Moon Knight.
- All-Encompassing Mantle: The Shroud has one of those capes, which along with his Darkforce projection abilities, allow him to blend into the darkness.
- Black Cloak: As the Shroud, Maximillian Coleridge wears a black bodysuit adorned with a black cloak with a spider insignia on the hood.
- Dark Is Not Evil: The Shroud is a a dark and brutal vigilante, wearing all black and having the power to generate darkness thanks to a connection to the Darkforce, but he is ultimatly on the side of good.
- The Infiltration: The Shroud pretends to be a villain to to reach criminal operations, even forming his own team of occult themed villains called the night shift.
- Legacy Character: For reasons as yet unknown, he's taken up the identity of Moon Knight in the pages of Vengeance of the Moon Knight (2024)
- Terror Hero: The Shroud invokes this intentionally as a violent vigilante.
Spider-Woman Enemies
Brothers Grimm
Alter Ego: Percy and Barton Grimes
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Iron Man #187 (July, 1984)
Brother 2: "...we tell fairy tales. Here's one of our favorites. 'Four an' twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie..."
Brother 1: '"Switch the birds with dynamite, and watch the people die!"
The Brothers Grimm were initially two full-size mannikins who were brought to life by the life essence of Nathan Dolly. Barton and Percy Grimes acquired the theater and discovered the costumes of the Brothers Grimm. The two brothers would don the costumes and become the current and most popular version of the Brothers Grimm. The Brothers Grimm have performed criminal acts on their own but are most remembered as a member of the Night Shift. After Night Shift disbanded, the Brothers Grimm were recruited by the Hood and have come into conflict with the Avengers on a few occasions, including as members of Max Fury's Masters of Evil.
- Always Identical Twins: The Grimm brothers dress identically, and Jessica even confuses one for the other.
- Cool Mask: They wear skull-shaped masks.
- The Dividual: Always together and are characterized together.
- Edible Ammunition: The weapons they have summoned have included corrosive-filled pies.
- Knockout Gas: They have shown the ability to shoot gas, powder, "twinkle dust" and high-tensile gold thread from their gloves.
- Murderous Mannequin: The Brothers Grimm were initially two full-size mannikins that were brought to life by the life essence of Nathan Dolly.
- Siblings in Crime: They are a villainous pair of brothers.
Bruin
Alter Ego: Unknown
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Superior Spider-Man #24 (December, 2013)
A small time thug given the old armour belonging to the Grizzly by Roderick Kingsley.
- Animal Themed Super Being: Bruin uses a strength-enhancing exo-skeleton covered with a grizzly bear-inspired costume.
- Legacy Character: A small time thug given the old armour that used to belong the Grizzly.
- Powered Armor: Bruin uses a strength-enhancing exo-skeleton covered with a grizzly bear-inspired costume.
- Super-Strength: Bruin uses a strength-enhancing exo-skeleton.
Daddy Longlegs
Alter Ego: Ramsey Kole
Notable Aliases: Crazy Legs
First Appearance: Spider-Woman #47 (August, 1982)
An aspiring dancer, Kole was unable to get work because he was too short. Entering the lab of Bill Foster (aka Giant-Man), he implored the superhero to lend him some of his growth formula. Foster refused, and Kole knocked him out. Unfortunately, he did not know which of the beakers contained the formula so drank them all. He started to grow and was delighted, until he realizes that he was not only getting taller, but also increasingly more spindly. He stopped around 13 feet, “a freak” with a consuming desire to avenge himself on the dance world.
- Animal Themed Super Being: His alias derives from his resemblance to the spider of the same name. (Has a double meaning as Daddy Long Legs is the title of a musical which, as a dancer, Kole would be aware of.)
- Cane Fu: He normally fought with a sharpened cane.
- Classy Cane: As part of his white tie and tails tap dancer costume, Daddy Longlegs carries a steel cane that doubles as a weapon.
- Dance Battler: Kole is a trained dancer, with great agility and speed. His long reach, dancing ability and narrow frame made him a difficult target to hit in battle.
- Dream-Crushing Handicap: Ramsey Kole was a talented dancer, but his short stature (he appeared to be 4'6" or shorter) prevented him from getting work.
- Gone Horribly Right: Kole drank Foster's growth formula hoping to become taller. It worked but he wound up becoming 13 feet tall but possessing only half the mass he should have had at that height.
- Super-Strength: Daddy Longlegs possessed superhuman strength: displaying the ability to lift about 10 tons.
- Sword Cane: Kole carried a steel cane with a sharp end that he used as a weapon.
Dansen Macabre
Alter Ego: Unknown
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up #93 (February, 1980)
Dansen Macabre is an exotic dancer and a devoted worshiper of the god Shiva. Her dance can hypnotize and even kill those who watch it.
- Dance Battler: A skilled dancer she is also skilled in martial arts.
- Invisibility: Dansen Macabre can also make herself undetectable by another person's senses, even Spider-Man's "spider sense", when she dances.
- Mind Control: Dansen Macabre has the ability to hypnotize those who watch her dance.
- Musical Assassin: By unknown means, Dansen Macabre can kill a victim who watches her dance.
Death Web
Members: Antro (Hashi Noto), Arachne (Dr. Sylvie Yaqua), Therak (Theodore Davros)
First Appearance: Avengers West Coast (Vol. 2) #82 (May, 1992)
Death Web is a group of three super villains. Each member uses an artificial venom as a weapon. Death Web first appeared while under the control of the Manipulator. He used them in the kidnapping of a U.S. politician. There were also hints that their origins may be tied to Julia Carpenter.
- The Big Guy: Therak is about eight feet tall, with six arms, 6-8 eyes, and generally a hairy, spider-like appearance.
- Dumb Muscle: Therak's role on the team.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Therak has 6 arms.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Therak has super-human durability, and has gone toe-to-toe with Wonder Wan without taking appreciable damage.
- Poisonous Person: Arachne is capable of physically generating neuro-toxins from glands in her wrists.
- Projectile Webbing: Arachne is capable of physically generating webbing from glands in her wrists.
- Super-Strength: Therak is super-humanly strong; strong enough to overpower and Wonder Man and knock him out.
- Teleportation: Antro's power. Originally capable of "trapdooring" (teleporting) himself and others near him, he can now teleport objects from a distance as well.
Enforcer
Alter Ego: Charles L. Delazny, Jr.
Notable Aliases: Charles Delazny, Carson Collier Jr.
First Appearance: Ghost Rider (Vol. 2) #22 (November, 1976)
A criminal mercenary and assassin for hire, operating mainly on the West Coast of the United States. He was killed by the Scourge.
- Disintegrator Ray: The Enforcer wore a disintegrator amulet, later a disintegrator ring that could disintegrate matter by weakening its molecular bonds. It was efficient, although only at short range.
- Killed Off for Real: The Enforcer became the first supervillain killed outside his hotel room by the Scourge of the Underworld.
- Legacy Character: The nephew of the original Enforcer Charles L. Delazny Jr., Mike Nero decided to continue on the family legacy during Norman Osborn's Dark Reign and learned how to kill werewolves, zombies, vampires, and other villains.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: The Enforcer fought Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, the Ghost Rider, and the Werewolf by Night.
- Silver Bullet: The Enforcer used special silver-treated gear, including silver bullets, in order to fight the Werewolf.
- Trick Bullet: The Enforcer carried two .45-caliber guns loaded with special ammo, including silver bullets, tranquilizer pellets and a "tingler" that implanted a post-hypnotic suggestion in the victim, that could be used to make them burst into flames.
Excaliber
Alter Ego: Jason Struthers
Notable Aliases: 'Slappy' Struthers
First Appearance: Spider-Woman #2 (February, 1978)
Slappy Struthers was possessed by Morgan Le Fay's personal Knight and used to attack her enemies, including Modred the Mystic and Spider-Woman.
- Artifact of Power: Struthers only had his powers though as long as he held onto his sword, and would be rendered powerless as soon as he let go of it.
- Demonic Possession: After stealing the sword, Struthers was possessed by the spirit of Morgan's Le Fey's personal knight.
- Enhanced Archaic Weapon: Amongst its other powers, the sword can fire energy blasts.
- Evil Weapon: Struthers stole a sword that he believed to be King Arthur's legendary sword Excalibur. However, the sword was actually a magical copy of Excalibur created by Morgan Le Fey to use against Arthur. When Struthers took hold of the sword, he became possessed by one of Morgan's knights.
- Flaming Sword: The sword can fire, then strike with magically-enhanced power. This was enough to halt a subway train.
- My Nayme Is: That's Excaliber with an 'e', not a 'u'.
Flying Tiger
Alter Ego: Unknown
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Spider-Woman #40 (June, 1981)
A former football player, Flying Tiger first appeared as an enemy of the original Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew.
- Animal Theme Naming: A Flying Tiger, as strange as it sounds.
- Berserk Button: He hates being mocked. Spider-Woman combines this with her new tai chi training to drive him crazy during their rematch so he lowers his guard.
- The Faceless: He has never been seen without his mask. A few close-up panels that show his face through the mouth of his mask indicate that he's a black man.
- Fangs Are Evil: His mask has a wicked-looking set of fangs on it.
- Faux Affably Evil: He's friendly when he's beating up Spider-Woman. When she starts to get the better of him, he flips out and shouts about how he'll kill her.
- Flight: Via his suit.
- Lightning Bruiser: He's incredibly fast and strong, and shrugs off Spider-Woman's venom blasts without flinching.
- Mysterious Past: Other than his past as a football player, neither his name nor even his face are known.
- No Name Given: His real name has never been revealed.
- Powered Armor: Wears body armor under a tiger costume and is capable of powered flight.
- Psycho for Hire: When he's viciously beating Spider-Woman, he says that murdering people is even more thrilling than football was.
- Scary Black Man: From what we can see of his face, he's black. He's also a sadistic killer.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: Like an actual tiger, his suit is mostly orange. It was also green at one point.
- Wolverine Claws: His gloves have claws mounted in the fingertips.
- Would Hit a Girl: He has no problem going all-out against Spider-Woman.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: When their battle puts an innocent family in danger of falling off a bridge, Flying Tiger lets Spider-Woman rescue them. He then immediately knocks her off the bridge before she can recover.
Grinder
Alter Ego: Brute Bashby
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Spider-Woman #26 (February, 1980)
Brute Bashby was a petty criminal who was recruited by the sensationalist newspaper publisher Rupert Dockery. He outfitted him with a costume and special weaponry so that he could battle Spider-Woman, so that Dockery's newspaper could cover their battles.
- Alliterative Name: Brute Bashby
- Chainsaw Good: Wears a titanium saw-tooth blade that can cut into steel bank vaults.
- Deadly Disc: Throws circular saw blades as weapons.
- Hat of Flight: Grinder is outfitted with a circular saw-like device on his helmet that he uses as a weapon, to deflect attacks and even to fly.
- Have a Gay Old Time: When the character was created, 'Grinder' was associated with a power tool and not a gay sex app.
- Weaponized Headgear: Grinder is outfitted with a circular saw-like device on his helmet that he uses as a weapon.
Hangman
Alter Ego: Harlan Krueger
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Werewolf by Night #11 (August, 1973)
Harlan Krueger was a psychopathic vigilante who dressed like an executioner, used a scythe and hangman’s noose, who murdered those he saw as criminals and kidnapped women to protect them.
- Knows the Ropes: Wielded a traditional executioner's noose, measuring thirty-feet in length, and woven from half-inch hemp rope. The Hangman typically wore the rope around his waist as a makeshift belt when not in use, but as a weapon, he often used it for ensnaring and subsequently hanging his prey.
- Sinister Scythe: The Hangman wielded an eight-foot harvesting scythe. The top of the scythe was capped by a curved four-foot long single-edged steel blade.
- Straw Misogynist: The Hangman believes women are all innocent and defenceless, and must be under his complete control so as to be protected from the evils of the world.
- Vigilante Man: Played the role of judge, jury and executioner of those he found preying on the innocent.
Karl Malus
Alter Ego: Dr. Karlin Malus
Notable Aliases: Carnage, Superior Carnage
First Appearance: Spider-Woman #30 (June, 1980)
Fascinated by superhuman powers, the mad genius known as Doctor Malus will go to any lengths to satisfy his curiosity. He has personally created many superhumans, and is responsible for much of the Power Brokers' work in giving people superpowers.
- Mad Scientist: He is a brilliant surgeon with great knowledge in the fields of biology, chemistry, genetic manipulation, and radiology. Malus even has a working knowledge of Pym Particles and ionic energies.
- Meaningful Name: His surname is a homophone for 'Malice'.
- Super-Empowering: Malus is highly experienced at instilling superpowers in others, especially strength augmentation. He played a part in the origins of Armadillo, Hornet, Falcon II, and many other characters.
Locksmith
Alter Ego: Unknown
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Spider-Woman #50 (February, 1983)
The man who became the Locksmith was once a world famous escape artist. As a child he was always obsessed with locks and turned that passion into a career. However, his fame was short lived and as people stopped coming to his shows he blamed the super humans. He lashed out by purchasing a building and converting it into a prison especially equipped to imprison superhumans.
- Escape Artist: Was once a world famous escape artist.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Is adept at creating locks and prisons incorporating drugs, gas and restraints in order to neutralize superhuman individuals.
- The Jailer: Captured and imprisoned supervillains.
- Master of Unlocking: Locksmith is especially adept in picking and designing locks.
Needle
Alter Ego: Josef Saint
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Spider-Woman #9 (September, 1978)
After being mugged one night while leaving work, elderly tailor Josef Saint loses an eye and his ability to speak. However, he also discovers that he has the power to paralyze with his gaze. Seeking revenge, he assumes the guise of the professional criminal the Needle.
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: While his powers were enhanced by Satannish, his weapon was rendered sharp enough to rend cinder block.
- Evil Old Folks: An elderly tailor who murders people with a a giant needle that is over three feet long.
- Improbable Weapon User: Needle carries a giant needle that is over three feet long as his weapon of choice.
- Lean and Mean: The Needle is lean to the point of being emaciated.
- The Paralyzer: Needle has the ability to hypnotically paralyze a victim with his gaze.
- The Speechless: Josef Saint lost his ability to speak after being mugged.
Turner D. Century
Alter Ego: Clifford Michaels
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Spider-Woman #33 (September, 1980)
Clifford F. Michaels who was the son of a millionaire's chauffeur. His father's employer was Morgan MacNeil Hardy who was responsible for rebuilding San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake. Morgan was disturbed by the degeneration of manners in the subsequent decades and retreated with Clifford after his father had past away. Morgan took Clifford and raised him as a surrogate son and taught him to idealize the earlier times. As an adult, he discovered how far his ideas were from the real world, and he soon began to hate the social changes. He then tried to impose those values in the modern world using the alias of Turner D. Century.
- Disco Dan: He idealizes the 1890s, dressing in fashion typical of that era, and most of his plans revolve around his attempts to return society back to that era.
- Evil Reactionary: Featured on the trope page's image. His plans involve remodeling society after the turn of the century.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: Carries an umbrella that conceals a flamethrower.
- Flying Car: Rides a tandem bicycle that can fly.
- Green and Mean: Wears a green suit and is a villain.
- Parasol of Pain: Carries an umbrella that conceals a flamethrower.
- Sword Cane: Carries an umbrella that conceals a flamethrower.
Waxman
Alter Ego: Unknown
Notable Aliases: Dr. Andrea Sterman, Jessica Drew, Bill, Eric
First Appearance: Spider-Woman #17 (May, 1979)
A scientist with a rare skin condition, an experiment meant to cure him instead turned him into the Waxman. He appeared at popular clubs in LA disguised as handsome men and seduced women. Bringing them someplace alone, his body turned into a waxy form during a moment of passion and smothered them to death.
- The Ageless: The Waxman has an indefinite lifespan.
- Alternate Company Equivalent: Of DC Comics' Clayface.
- Characterization Marches On: Coupled with Took a Level in Jerkass. In his original story, he came off as genuinely mentally unstable to a psychotic degree, unlike in later appearances, where he is just an evil and fully-cognizant Sadist.
- Literal Maneater: A rare male version, he appeared at popular clubs in LA disguised as handsome men and seduced women. Bringing them someplace alone, his body turned into a waxy form during a moment of passion and smothered them to death.
- The Needless: Waxman does not require air or food, and has an indefinite lifespan.
- Pulling Themselves Together: If the Waxman's malleable body is scattered, it will gradually reassemble itself.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: He returns as a foe of Moon Knight during his 2021 series.
- Serial Killer: Murdered multiple women.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: The Waxman's body is totally malleable. He can reshape his body to appear as anyone, male or female.
