Origin

Early Life

Jonathan Drew was a bioengineer working for Dr. Herbert Wyndham, High Evolutionary during the early 1930's. When his young daughter Jessica was accidentally exposed to uranium radiation, Jonathan injected her with an experimental "spider serum". He placed her in a genetic accelerator pod that slowed her metabolism, hoping to give her body enough time and mutagenic DNA to fight her cancer. About forty years later she was released from the chamber, a disoriented but healthy 17 year old.

Growing up on Wundagore Mountain under Bova’s care, Jessica discovered she had developed unusual, spider-like powers. But she couldn't quite fit in with the highly mutated animal creatures on Mt. Wundagore, and she left Bova to find a place for herself in the world of humans.

The subversive organization Hydra became aware of Jessica and recruited her as a special operative, taking advantage of her immaturity. She took the code name Arachne. During a mission against SHIELD, Jessica discovered the evil nature of HYDRA and changed sides.

Retcon

Jessica and HYDRA

Spider-Woman’s origin was Retcon in 2005 by Brian Michael Bendis and Brian Reed in an attempt to clean up the confusing back story Jessica originally had and bring her back into the mainstream.

As an adult Jessica has flashes of memory about the High Evolutionary and Bova as a cow, this seems to be an attempt to show the original origin. Her parents moved to Mt. Wundagore when HYDRA funded her father’s project which he desperately wanted to do but had no money. When Jessica was still in her mother’s womb, she was hit by a laser that had DNA of a mixed species of spider. She would eventually be born and seem to have no side-effects. Her father starts doing tests which exhausts Jessica greatly. Jessica eventually starts displaying new abilities which caught the eye of HYDRA. They take Jessica away from her parents and place her in the genetic accelerator. Jessica would reawaken 17 years old roughly ten years later. As her psyche was still reflective of a child's, Jessica was very easily manipulated by HYDRA, who make themselves out to be a very benevolent and philanthropic organization; she even finds herself a lover that is the one who reveals these "aspects" of HYDRA to her (although later it's revealed he in fact was forced to pursue a relationship with her to strengthen her faith in HYDRA; he reveals his true colors ethically, by explicitly saying Jessica was "practically a retard", in reference to her initial stint out from her coma). Subsequently, she receives training from Taskmaster and works for HYDRA as an assassin.

Life as Spider-Woman

Jessica Drew

Jessica took the code name Spider-Woman and began tracking her father’s killer. While in London she was recaptured by HYDRA and brainwashed again into working for them. When she escapes the brainwash, Jessica befriends a sorcerer named Magnus. He told Jessica to relocate to Los Angeles, there Jessica begins fighting as a crime fighter. Jessica also learns what her pheromones really do, it gives off a smell that sexually attracts other men to her. She still continues searching for the killer, she gets a lead at Hatros Institute. Jessica was also land a job at this place, working as a secretary. She took this to her advantage by taking free medication to help suppress the pheromones so she doesn’t keep attracting men. Jessica would eventually lose her job. While unemployed she has considered stealing in order to survive but at the last moments she would change her mind. Jessica would meet Spider-Man who advises her to use her talents to help people. Jessica did just that and became a bounty huntress working with the FBI. She worked with Scotty McDowell who would become Hornet in the future. After they stopped working with each other Jessica moved to San Francisco with her best friend (Lindsay McCabe) and started a private investigator.

While working as a P.I. Lindsay discovers that Jessica was actually Spider-Woman. Jessica would later battle Viper, Viper would claim to be Jessica’s real mother (Whether Viper really is Miriem Drew has still not been answered). This was later retconned in a Captain America comic which made Viper delusional. Later when Jessica fought Morgan Le Fay in the 6th century, she beat her but her body seemed to have been destroyed. Magnus erased all traces of Jessica’s existence on Earth but Tigra and Shroud discovers that Jessica is not dead and alerts the Avengers. Doctor Strange finds out that she was trapped in the astral plane along with Morgan Le Fey. They would eventually succeed in reviving Jessica, but Jessica’s powers seemed to have mysteriously disappeared after returning to life.

Spider-Woman and the New Avengers

Afterwards Jessica would continue work as a P.I. while she was powerless. She eventually discovers that her powers are slowly returning and she would regain her super strength and agility, and the ability to cling on walls. Later Charlotte Witter, a villain, would steal her powers. Jessica would return to work as a P.I. and mentored Mattie Franklin who was currently the Spider-Woman. Her powers were slowly returning to her again but some of her powers would go on and off unexpectedly. When Mattie gets into deep trouble with drug dealers, the dealers took tissues from her to create the “Mutant Growth Hormone”. Jessica would investigate and eventually meet up with another P.I. named Jessica Jones. They would team up to save Mattie from the dealers. Jessica regains all her powers when a HYDRA agent named Mr. Conelly had HYDRA doctors restore them. It was a 17 month long process of repairing her genetic make-up. They even gave her the ability to fly instead of just glide. HYDRA has placed an on and off switch for her powers and threatens to take her power if she turns on them, Jessica would continue working for them. After Jessica joins the New Avengers, she confessed to Captain America that she was a double agent that reports to Nick Fury, while working for HYDRA to gain knowledge about their motives.

Civil War

Aftermath of the Civil War

After Spider-Man revealed his identity, Iron Man exposed Jessica’s triple agent status to Maria Hill, current director of SHIELD. Hill felt Jessica’s allegiance to Nick Fury could lead to treasonous acts. She orders the arrest of Jessica and she is captured and taken on the SHIELD Hellcarrier. HYDRA would come to rescue Jessica from SHIELD. Jessica meets up with Conelly and he tries to convince her to take the mantle of Madame Hydra and overthrow the unstable Viper. Jessica declines the offer and blows up the HYDRA compound. Jessica escapes away and with no where to go since losing connection to Fury and SHIELD, she was able to locate Captain America’s resistance group. She would join Captain America to help him fight against the anti-registration act.

Now that the pro-registration side has won the Civil War, and with the recent death of Captain America, Jessica continues working with the Secret Avengers. Along side with Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Wolverine, Iron Fist, and Dr. Strange they continue to fight evil without registering with the Government.

Secret Invasion

However, one of their teammates Ronin (Maya Lopez) was captured by Elektra and The Hand in Japan. They plan to go rescue her when Clint Barton shows up, he decides to use the Ronin mantle to help the Secret Avengers retrieve their teammate. Jessica and the Secret Avengers arrive in Japan and are confronted by Elektra and the Hand. Among the Hand was Maya Lopez, who was under their control. During the fight, the Secret Avengers were able to free Maya from the Hand's control and she stabs Elektra in the stomach. They quickly discover that it wasn't really Elektra, it was a Skrull. On the ride back to the United States, everyone became wary of the Skrull's presence on Earth and that anyone of them could be a Skrull. They go through scenarios of other possible high positions that the Skrull could have taken already. Hawkeye tells them about their previous encounters against the Skrull and what kind of proud race they are. Jessica then comes up with a theory that the Super-Human Registration Act, the Civil War, and The Fifty State The Initiative might have been caused by the Skrull in order to weaken the superhero community by separating them. Jessica also suggested that they take the Skrull body to Tony Stark, and what he does with the body would determine if he was a Skrull or not. All of a sudden, their plane loses power and are headed for a crash. Wolverine tosses Jessica out of the plane since she could fly while everyone else tried to balance the plane for a better landing. However, the plane crashes and knocks everyone out except for Wolverine. Jessica comes to the crash site to take the body, Wolverine tries to stop her but she shocks him unconscious with her venom blast. After these events, Spider-woman takes the dead Skrull body to Tony Stark. Tony Stark commends for her great job and allows her to join The Mighty Avengers.

Spider-woman is now seen as a traitor by her former Secret Avenger team-mates, especially Wolverine.

At the beginning of the Secret Invasion, Spider-Woman, now a member of the Mighty Avengers, receives a call from Iron Man who informs her that a Skrull ship has just landed in the Savage Land. Instead of informing the rest of the Mighty Avengers who are all out on separate missions, she calls Luke Cage and the Secret Avengers, informing them of the Skrull ship. After Luke Cage angrily asks her what she expects the Secret Avengers (who are still considered criminals because of their failure to comply with the Superhuman Registration Act) to do, Spider-Woman states that she trusts them more than her current team, The Mighty Avengers.

The skrull queen assumed the identity of Jessica Drew for the invasion.

Powers

Jessica has superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, stamina, and hearing. She also has the ability to shoot bioelectrical venom blasts. It's power can range from stunning an opponent to killing the opponent. She can cling to pretty much any surface just like a spider by emitting electro-static out of her hands. Jessica can glide by using little wings that are on her costume, and has recently developed self-propelled flight. She can also excrete pheromones that attract males and repulses females. Her costume has collapsible wings which allow her to fly by gliding on air currents. Jessica is also immune to many poisons and toxins.

Characteristics

Other Spider-Women

Other people that has used the name Spider-Woman include:

Alternate Universes

Ultimate Universe - Jessica as the clone of Peter Parker

Jessica Drew of the 1610 universe is actually a clone of Peter Parker. When they cloned Parker, they adjusted his chromosomes to make him born a female. They accelerated her aging and she would turn out to be the same age as Peter. Her purpose was to be their weapon but with a different memory since she retained all of Parker’s memories. Cassandra Webb tries to erase her memories to create a new identity for Jessica Drew. Jessica escapes and goes off to find Peter. They eventually discover Doctor Octopus was the one that was doing the cloning and they would beat Doc Ock together. After the fight Jessica flees away before SHIELD arrives, she ends up leaving New York in order to start a new life as Jessica Drew.

In the MC2 universe, Jessica Drew was never able to regain her powers. Therefore, forcing her to settle down and eventually got married. The couple had a son named Gerry, whom inherited Jessica's spider powers. However, Jessica's radioactive blood also gave Gerry a disease. Her husband blamed her for their son's condition and the couple would divorce soon after. Gerry decides to use his powers to become the next Spider-Man. He would eventually meet Spider-Girl. However, with his disease, it caused him to weaken quickly. Jessica would ask Peter Parker to convince Gerry to stop being Spider-Man. Peter would also later find a cure for Gerry.

In 1931 Jessica Drew was poisoned by uranium radiation and was put in suspended animation until a cure would be discovered. They finally developed a Spider serum and used it to cure her, then put her in a genetic accelerator. However, the world that Jessica wakes up in belongs to Magneto. Jessica eventually discovered she had super powers and is recruited to SHIELD. Jessica would eventually work her way up to an active role on Wolverine's Red Army Squad. House of M would eventually crumble when a girl named Layla Miller was discovered to have the ability to restore memories. After the battle with Magneto at the House of M, everything was turned back to normal.

The Spider-Woman in the reality known as Legacy Planet was actually Mary Jane with Spider-Man's powers. The Exiles visited this reality and she began a relationship with Mariko Yashida - Sunfire of the Exiles.