superhero brainrot

Who is Jessica Drew?

Well, to put it briefly, Jessica Drew was the child of a close associate of the High Evolutionary and raised on Wundagore Mountain. As a toddler, she was saved from uranium poisoning by being given a serum made from the blood of several different species of spiders. She was then put in cryogenic hibernation, while her body healed and her new genetics fused with the old. When she woke, she was ten years old, had spider-related powers, and her parents were gone. The High Evolutionary said he would be her father but was a very neglectful 'dad.' When he bothered paying attention to her at all, he treated her more like an interesting experiment than a child/person. The animals the High Evolutionary had evolved into more sentient/intelligent beings also ignored/rejected Jess because she wasn’t like them.

Important Takeway: Jess had a very isolated childhood where she faced a lot of rejection. This being rejected from a young age and her feelings of being an outsider are an important part of her character and something to keep in mind when examining the decisions she makes later. (Also, kinda important, unlike Peter Parker, she doesn't have any kind of spidey-sense to warn her of danger.)

But to continue, some time in her teens, Jess - driven by loneliness - left Wundagore to seek out other human beings. While this went fine for a bit, it ended disastrously. When startled by a prank, Jess accidentally unleashed a venom blast on the young man she was seeing. It killed him.

Jess was then rescued from a murdererous mob by a member of Hydra and manipulated into working for them. They trained her to be a fighter and a spy, but when she was sent to assassinate Nick Fury, he was able to show her evidence that Hydra was not as good as they claimed to be, and Jess left Hydra behind. (Marvel Spotlight #32 & Spider-Woman (1978) #37.)

Jess' First Solo Series 👊

(Spider-Woman #3/Writer: Marv Wolfman/Artist: Carmine Infantino/Published: March 7, 1978)

Jess's first solo series, Spider-Woman, follows soon after she leaves Hydra. She's now starving in London, because she is unable to find any kind of work. Both because she doesn't have any kind of normal experience and skills and because there is something about her presence that greatly unsettles people.

However, she does manage to make friends with an ancient sorcerer named Magnus, who becomes her mentor, and one of the first things she learns from him is that women and men can't be just friends. (Yep, she leaves isolation and bumps into comphet.)

Jess moves to L.A. (to find out information about her missing murdered father) where she runs into S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jerry Hunt. (She'd bumped into him before when she was not stealing food in London.)

I found the dialogue (from issue #6) between them interesting, so I am putting it down here:

Jess: Why do you keep calling me 'gorgeous?' Why have you followed me here?

Hunt: Don't ask me to explain any of this, but when I saw you in London something I didn’t know was in me - stirred. There's something about you. Something about you that makes me feel I know you. Something that makes me love you!

Jess: Love? Are you crazy, man? You don't even know who or what I am.

The emphasised 'what' is the writer Marv Wolfman's, not mine. Now Jerry Hunt already knows that Jess has superpowers. What I think Jess is talking about is the nature of her powers because she has been led to believe that the spider genetics in her body make her subhuman. She is ashamed of her nature, which she has come to see as dark and creepy.

Something about Jess both deeply attracts and disturbs most men, while most women are repulsed by her. Which is very distessing to Jess because she desperately wants other women to like her.

(Note: given that this was written by men in the US during the 1970s when the Comics Code Authority and Editor-in-chief of Marvel Jim Shooter expressly prohibited gay and lesbian characters, I do think this could be a metaphor for lesbianism, but there’s more to come.)

Jerry Hunt at least is not afraid of her. Jess starts a relationship with him. It quickly sours though, as he hates her double life as Spider-Woman, and by issue #9 (written by a new writer Mark Gruenwald) Jess is questioning whether she actually loves Hunt.

Then in issue #10 something interesting happens:

(Spider-Woman #10/Writer: Mark Gruenwald/Art: Carmine Infantino/Published: October 3, 1978)

For the first time in her life, Jess sees another person with powers in person, and she is mesmerized. Pulling away from a kiss she wasn’t into to begin with, Jess pulls on her 'gaudy raimant' aka Spider-Woman costume and takes off after the flying woman, 'a figure of unnatural beauty.'

However, even with her glider webs, Jess is unable to catch up because the winds are wrong. She laments, 'I don't think she even saw me!'

When she returns to Hunt, he is furious. He asks her if she is going to chase after 'every flying freak' she sees and then tells her he is taking her home. Jess is quiet, but in her head, she thinks about how Jerry Hunt doesn't understand what it's like to be different.

Later that night, Jess is (lonely) at a party when the flying woman from earlier starts vandalising the club and binding the party goers with their own clothing - using her mutant ability to control fibers.

Jess chases after her, but the flying woman (Sybil Dvorak) perceives this as an attack and starts unravelling Jess's Spider-Woman costume, using the threads to swing Jess hard and away from her. But Jess glides after Sybil again. She throws herself between the other woman's thighs and clasps onto her, pleading with Sybil to listen, saying that they ought to be friends because they have so much in common.

Sybil, however, rejects Jess (saying that she has no friends) and tries to drown Jess in the club's swimming pool. Jerry Hunt shows up when Jess is coming up out of the water, and he shoots Sybil, much to Jess' horror. Jess blasts Hunt (nonfatally) with her venom and carries the wounded Sybil away into the woods, so she won't be taken in by the authorities.

When Sybil regains consciousness, she (silently) rejects Jess again. Despite this, Jess still feels that she has more in common with this mutant she just met than with anyone else. She returns to Jerry Hunt, but they are both angry with each other.

The issue ends with the question: Jerry Hunt and Jessica Drew...two people...in love?

It's not surprising then that they break up three issues later, much to Jess' relief.

💞Enter Lindsay McCabe 💞

(Spider-Woman #14/Writer: Mark Gruenwald/Art: Carmine Infantino/Published: January 30, 1979)

After Jerry's departure, Jess concentrates her efforts even more into finding a stable job. She's been getting placements through a temping agency but no one is willing to give her a permanent position. Jess hears about a free trial at a psychiatric clinic and decides to see if the therapists can tell her why she can't get people to like her.

After the free session, she is asked to come again weekly. When she says she can't because she doesn't have a job or any means to pay, she is offered a job as a receptionist. (This is for an ulterior reason as the mutant Nekra, who is running the clinic, knows that it is Jess' powerful pheromones that are affecting people, and she wants to isolate that factor to create an immunizing pill against superpowered pheromone users.)

In addition to one-on-one interactions with a psychiatrist, Jess attends group therapy. However, the other participants are put off by Jessica's presence, except for one woman: Lyndsay McCabe.

Jess is surprised when Lyndsay asks to be her partner during a session. Afterwards, Jess wants to get closer to Lyndsay, but something always seems to get in the way.

Meanwhile, (Spider-Woman #17-18) a doctor at the clinic tells Jess that her problems with people seem more biological than psychological and gives her a pill to suppress the pheromones that are coming from body. He tells her to test it out in a vigorous social situation.

Jess goes to a disco/night club. She is happy to find that the woman who takes her cover charge shows no sign of dislike or disgust. However, Jess ponders her choice of a single's bar, wondering if her relationships with men have any meaning or if she is just trying to fill a void because she can't stand being alone with herself.

She lets these thoughts slide through when a man approaches who is 'not bad looking at all.' 'Eric' teaches Jess to dance, and they spend the evening together. However, she tenses up when he parks instead of taking her directly home. When Jess tells Eric that she has to work early the next morning, Eric complains that he is lonely. Then he goes on and goes on about how miserable he is, how he gets rejected all the time, how he just needs to be held, until Jess (out of pity and naivety) finally relents and lets him kiss her.

However, when he does, his flesh falls from his face and across hers like 'warm wet worms.' This doesn't kill Eric. It's just a condition he suffers from every time he gets, um, excited.

Horrified, Jess flees from Eric. Reflecting afterwards that it was 'the most repulsive thing that I've ever experienced.'

Note: I was too distracted by the body horror to think about this, but a male reviewer immediately saw this as a metaphor for ejaculation, which makes a lot of sense. The reviewer didn’t, however, understand why sex was being presented in such a disturbing way.

This same man noted in a review for an earlier issue of Spider-Woman that Jerry Hunt's great frustration with Jess never letting him drive her home had to do with him being denied opportunities to get physically intimate with her.

Strangely, this man noticed Jess' disinterest in having sex with her boyfriends/dates and the female homoerotism in the series, but never once connected the two. This man brushed Jess' aversion aside as prudishness - without taking into consideration that she might genuinely not want to be with a man. Whereas, he saw the homoerotism in the series purely as male fanservice.

But anyway, Jess later learns that 'Eric' smothered another woman to death with his flesh. When Jess goes to confront him about it, she ends up killing 'Eric' in self-defence.

This is shortly after Jess' boss attempted to murder her and wound up in a coma (when Jess lost control during their fight, entering a state of frenzied dissociation).

Reeling from these two back-to-back incidents, Jess can't hide her inner turmoil in group therapy. The other participants demand that she open up to them. Jess, however, just breaks down sobbing, repeating, over and over again, that she can't tell. (Because she can't tell without revealing her secret identity.)

Lindsay McCabe takes charge of the situation, ridiculing the other participants for picking on Jessica because 'some people have more things to work out than others.' She takes Jess back to her own apartment and makes her tea. The two of them talk for hours. Lindsay then offers to let Jess stay the night because she doesn't think Jess should be alone. Jess gladly accepts, happy to finally have a woman to call 'friend!'

(Spider-Woman #19/Writer: Steven Grant, Mark Gruenwald/Art: Carmine Infantino/Published: July 3, 1979.)

Jessica Drew: Bounty Hunter?💀

Before leaving Spider-Woman behind, writer Mark Gruenwald gave his successor a problem to solve: Jess is now homeless and unemployed (she lost her job because new magement didn't want her.) What will she do now?

New writer Michael Fleisher's very controversial decision was to make her a bounty hunter. The hate mail during this period of Spider-Woman (#21 -#32) was intense.

While I can't say the writing was phenomenal, I did find some of the elements of this run interesting. First of all, Jess/Spider-Woman had already been dealing with cults and serial killers - we have that whole L.A. in the 1970s thing going on - so it makes sense that she'd move to getting paid to track down dangerous criminals when she literally had no money and no other job prospects.

Also, I liked the conflict between Jessica Drew and her bounty hunter partner, paraplegic criminologist Scotty McDowell. Basically, he was obsessive, and she wasn’t. He was doing all the research, but he needed her to physically get the crinimals. And she'd frustrate Scotty by prioritising getting victims to safety over getting the bad guy every time. Sometimes, she'd also blow off Scotty to spend time with Lindsay, as the two women became increasingly close. Which brings us to -

OKAY, BUT MAKE IT GAY-ER: CHRIS CLAREMONT

(From Spider-Woman #35 & 39/Writer: Chris Claremont/Art: Steve Leialoha.)

When Claremont took over the series from Fleisher, his first order of business was doing away with the bounty hunter angle. He also decided that Jess should move city to San Francisco, so she could stay with Lindsay, and they could be roommates in the gayest city in America. Once there, Jess does start a romantic relationship with their young and charming landlord David Ishima, but things quickly become more...blurred.

But before I get into that, I want to talk a little about Lindsay. Girl is a 20-something unknown actress who loves clothes and is an adrenaline junkie. She also has posters of the Chorus Line, and noted bisexual actress Marlene Dietrich up on her wall.

A lot else of Lindsay is left...vague. We know that Lindsay has opened up to Jess and told her all her secrets - it's one reason why Jess feels so guilty for not telling Lindsay about being Spider-Woman. Readers are, however, left in the dark about these secrets.

There is also a scene where Jess wakes up from dreaming that Lindsay is being burnt at the stake and goes to check on her. When she does, it's implied that someone is in bed with Lindsay, but the gender/identity of that person is not disclosed.

Interestingly, Lindsay also has a 'nightmare' (caused by a supervillian) that involves burning. She has become 'beautiful, like a living star.' She wants to share her joy with Jess, but when she touches Jess, her fiery touch consumes and destroys her best friend.

Meanwhile, Jess is finding that she's having to take more and more pills to suppress her pheromones effectively. Jess' other powers are also affected, making her adventures as Spider-Woman more dangerous. Jess also fears that the pills themselves might kill her. Still, she keeps taking them.

Then in issue #41, Morgan Le Fay shows up and tells Jess, 'You're not in love with your boyfriend. You're gay for your roommate, Lindsay McCabe, but you should be gay for me. Also, you're kind of demon possessed, and I'm your only hope, so swear you'll be mine forever?'

(Spider-Woman #41/Writer: Chris Claremont/Art: Steve Leialoha. Published: August 25, 1981)

Okay, so those aren’t her exact words, but what she is saying and acting out boils down to that. Morgan Le Fay, who is a recurring Spider-Woman villian, wants Jess to join her side and be her...um, love slave (Claremont is pretty into the whole BDSM thing in his writings.)

But instead of just saying this right off the bat, Morgan makes Jess and her two best friends - the term Jess uses for both David and Lindsay - play this Star Trek style role play game where they become the characters.

It's reenactment of a scene from Morgan's past. Jess plays Morgan, who is consumed with jealousy because Gweneviere (played by Lindsay) and Lancelot (played by David) are in love, and she wants Lancelot for herself. Jess, lost in the enchantment, casts a spell that allows the infedility to be discovered.

Because Guinevere is Queen, her crime is considered one of treason, and she is sentenced to be burnt at the stake. Now in the story Lancelot is the one who is supposed to save Guinevere, but it is Jess, snapping out of the enchantment, who runs to Lindsay's rescue - taking on the masculine role of Lancelot.

It also becomes apparent as the real Morgan holds Lindsay hostage that this 'triangle' that she's presenting has nothing to do with David. What Morgan is trying to convey is that she (Morgan) desires Lancelot (Jess), and if she can't have Jess, she will kill the woman Jess loves - Lindsay.

Jess almost yields to Morgan's wishes, both because she is afraid for Lindsay's life and because she's scared for herself, not knowing how to deal with the whole demon/elder god possession thing on her own. (I'll explain in brief later.) But she decides that she has fought too hard for her freedom (from Hydra, the High Evolutionary) to be controlled by anyone else.

She manages to distract Morgan with a venom blast and then stabs her through the chest, severing Morgan from her plane of reality. Morgan disappears and the spell is broken. Only Jess remembers what happened.

Confessions, the End, and After

(Spider-Woman #43/Writer: Chris Claremont/Art: Steve Leialoha. Published: December 29, 1981)

Back to reality, Jess has a case to work - oh, FYI, she's a private investigator now. A young woman comes to her asking to help find her father, who has disappeared. Jess leaves the young woman with Lindsay for safe keeping. Unfortunately, it was Hydra who took the father, and they're interested in the daughter, too. Viper, aka Madame Hydra, comes to Jess' house and winds up in a fight with Lindsay, who was trying to keep Jess' client safe. Both women end up falling from the roof, and while Viper escapes unharmed, Lindsay ends up in critical condition.

Jess races to see Lindsay in the hospital, blaming herself for putting Lindsay in danger. She then confesses to being Spider-Woman, to which Lindsay replies:

That's your dramatic revelation? Twit, I've known that one for months.

Filled with rage, Jess takes her still boyfriend David's motorcycle and tracks down Viper. The two woman fight and fall into the ocean. Jess grabs Viper's throat and starts choking her.

However, as she's losing consciousness, Viper smiles as if she wants to die. Jess stops strangling her. When Jess confronts Viper about why she's loyal to Hydra, Viper says that years ago, she was just as defiant as Jess. It's then revealed that Viper has been possessed by the demon/elder god Chthon, and Chthon is now coming for Jess to make her his so he can live through her on earth. (When Jess was in artificial hibernation as a child on Wundagore Mountain, Chthon, whose essence was trapped in the mountain, buried a part of himself deep in Jess' soul.)

In a twist that shocks Jess, Viper helps Jess break free from Chthon's hold and manages to banish Chthon temporarily from their reality. Viper laughs, and Jess realises that this woman is her mother. But then Viper vanishes into the night - leaving Jess alive but alone.

The following issue is more comedic, as we see Jess working a strange case and Lindsay recovering from the attack. Lindsay also looks at Jess like this when Jess tries on more P.I. 'appropriate' clothes:

(Spider-Woman #45/Writer: Chris Claremont/Art: Steve Leialoha. Published: April 27, 1982)

In Issue #49, written by yet another writer, Ann Nocenti, Jess runs into Sybil Dvorak again. Sybil is now the leader of a cult. (We do find out her backstory here. She was an undocumented immigrant, who had been living a miserable life - both controlled and neglected by her Hollywood husband. The reason why she had been attacking the party the first time she met Jess was because she was furious that her husband was living this life out in the world without her.)

When Jess confronts Sybil about drugging and controlling people, Sybil tries drowning Jess again. She feels guilty about it though, as Jess had offered her friendship before. Jess is able to escape from the water, by yanking hard at her hair, effectively cutting it short.

Later that day, when David is recovering from his girlfriend now having short hair, Jess confesses to him that she's Spider-Woman. David is shocked speachless.

Then in Issue #50, Jess is taking a shower while Lindsay makes them breakfast when Jess suddenly disappears. She wakes up in a prison cell in her Spider-Woman costume. She soon finds that her captor is a man named Locksmith who is locking up people with powers. When she demands an explanation, Locksmith says:

I am doing society a favor by eliminating all its deviants.

When Jess says she isn't a deviant, Locksmith insists that she and her ilk are. Others in the prison include people Jess knows like Tigra and Jack Russel, Werewolf by Night. Sybil Dvorak is also there, and Jess ends up teaming up with her to get them out. Afterwards, Jess brings the other super people back to her house.

David finally confronts Jess, telling her he thinks they should break up, as he wants to date a 'normal' woman. Jess mourns the end of their relationship, wondering if it was just 'a joke, nothing at all.'

But she is then distracted when her old mentor Magnus takes over David's body. Magnus reveals to her that he has always been a ghost and that the only way he can stay in Jess' world is through taking over other people's bodies. He tells Jess that Morgan Le Fay is planning to attack her and that they need to go astrally back in time to the 6th century to destroy Morgan's body before she can.

Jess agrees. During her fight with Morgan, Morgan encourages Jess to embrace her dark side, saying:

You are of my world. It will be your privilege to die by my hand.

Unfortunately for Morgan, Jess runs with this idea, embracing and accepting every part of herself.

She tells Morgan: Yes, I am dark! I'm unbeatable, unstoppable dark! Watch me, Morgan! A shadow you cannot get rid of!

Jess finally fully embraces her spider-side, seeing it as a strength rather than a weakness. She manages to destroy Morgan's physical body, but when she returns to her own physical body, she finds it cold and still - Morgan's last act of revenge.

And this, my friends, was meant to be Jessica Drew's final fate. Marvel had cancelled the series with no intention of picking the character up again. Because of this writer Ann Nocenti and former writer/now editor Mark Gruenwald decided it would be interesting and 'realistic' to kill her off.

So, Jess had her hair shortened, 'came out,' broke up with her boyfriend, finally accepted herself, and then immediately died.

However, there was a lot of backlash against Jess' death, and because of this, Jess was brought back. When she was brought back though in Avengers #241, someone decided that Jess' body should have radical changes in its chemistry and that she was now a 'normal' woman. The Avengers - who mostly don't know her - gather around Jess, smiling Stepford wives' smiles, while Lindsay is notably absent.

I'm sorry, but I do really think this was Marvel saying: she can be straight and alive, or dead and gay.

Pictured below: whatever the fuck this is:

(Above: Panels from Wolverine (1988) by Chris Claremont and John Buscema.)

Marvel was not going to give Jess another solo series. She did appear as a supporting character, along with Lindsay, in Claremont's Wolverine (1988) series. Jess had met the X-Men in her solo series, and they had extended an open invitation to join the team. Claremont, thus, writes Jess and Logan as if they already know each other, even though this was the first time they appeared together on page.

Claremont completely ignored the Jess has no powers thing. Sure, Jess is no longer Spider-Woman, but now she is living openly as a super powered person on Madripoor, and she's still living with Lindsay, who Logan refers to as Jess' partner, even though Jess and Lindsay are not working together. They have a sort of butch-femme dynamic going on, with Jess seeing herself as Lindsay's protector.

Eventually, Jess is beaten almost to death, so Logan can have a motive to get revenge, and she and Lindsay return to San Francisco. Jess appears sporadically in other series, most notably playing a supporting role again in a Mattie Franklin Spider-Woman series.

It wasn’t until Bendis did what he did to Jess, though, that the first Spider-Woman would emerge again as a character worth talking about.

Okay, so the thing that probably offended me the most is how Spider-Woman: Origin turned Wynham into just a nondescript Hydra General. The reason for this is because the High Evolutionary and the Drew family actually have a very tightly wound history, and Bendis obviously wanted to stress Jess's relation with Hydra. But even though the High Evolutionary doesn't have a lot of comic book appearances (under 200 as of today) he has been quite an influential character, playing an important part in the Maximoff twins, Adam Warlock, and Spider-Woman's backstories - and also making recurring appearances in X-Men, Avengers, Thor, and even Spider-Man comics.

Also, I just like him. Like yeah, the dude's a piece of shit, but I find him interesting as a character - so that is why I am starting with him and who he is in the main Marvel Universe.

Note: While I am not going to give specific dates, this was originally supposed to take place around the 1920s - 30s. The time period isn't vitally important, though, in my opinion. It was more just that this was supposed to take place some 30+ years before the main Marvel events (like the Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four forming).

Also, no, the High Evolutionary's whole "evolving" animals into more "advanced" versions of themselves isn't scientically accurate - but I like chewing on the thematic elements it creates.

So to begin, Herbert Edgar Wyndham was born in Manchester, England, into what was probably once a well-off family. However, his father’s passing (when Herbert was still young) seemed to have put financial strain on the family. Due to this, Herbert's dream of attending Oxford University to further his studies in genetics depended entirely on him getting a scholarship or sponsorship.

This didn't seem completely out of the realm of possibility - because young Herbert was something of a genius who was already pouring hours of his free time into obsessively studying the genetics of rats.

Herbert had become fixated on the idea of improving the world through accelerated evolution - and he wanted to be the one to do it. He'd even made a machine that he hoped would evolve the rats into later stages of rat evolution. Although all of his attempts so far - which had mostly been bombarding rats with radiation - had just ended with dead rats. But as much as their deaths saddened him, Herbert wasn’t one to give up.

Now Herbert was living with his mother, and she completely doted on him, so when Herbert got an invitation to attend a major genetics conference in Geneva, she was the one to go to all of their relatives to collect money, so he could go on his trip.

And this is where he bumped into a young American - Jonathan Drew, a student at Yale specializing in arthropods.

The two of them hit it off right away - Herbert seeing in Jonathan a fellow "visionary," as Jonathan Drew wanted to use the genetics of spiders to 'improve' the human race - making them less susceptible to toxins and disease.

During the convention, Herbert and Jonathan attended a lecture, where the speaker warned against the dangers of genetic tampering - saying that more theoretical research needed to be done into the long-term effects. Over dinner, an angered Herbert complained to Jonathan about this, when he suddenly felt dizzy and went out to get some air. There, he was approached by the inhuman geneticist Phaeder, who gave Herbert the genetic information he needed to perform his experiments.

(Although Phaeder didn't actually introduce himself as Phaeder, he just gave Herbert a stack of papers and then fucking left. Apparently, Phaeder gave out information like this to other human geneticists as well - like some weird fairy godmother or twisted Prometheus - but his reasons for doing so aren't relevant to this story).

Shortly after this, Herbert did end up getting into Oxford, but he blew the opportunity by spending all of his time working on a machine to turn animals into more "evolved" versions of themselves. When he couldn't even manage a demonstration on what he was working towards, he was kicked out of Oxford.

After getting kicked out, Herbert finally made a successful attempt with his machine - a machine which he had named his "genetic accelerator." He "evolved" his pet dalmatian - enhancing its intelligence to that of a chimpanzee and getting it to walk on its two back legs.

Herbert was estatic. However, the poor dog was accidentally shot by hunters, who then called it "a freak of nature." This led Herbert to believe that the only way for him to keep his "creations" safe was to keep them away from the rest of humanity.

So, he met back up with Jonathan, who had married a European woman and was now living in Europe.

Note: The nationality of Jessica's biological mother is inconsistent across sources, sometimes said to be English, sometimes French. Sometimes, she is listed as being born in Transia. Also, I guess she could have been born in Hungary, too, because of the whole Viper thing. (We'll get back to that.)

Jessica Drew's place of birth, however, is universally London, England.

Anyway, Herbert reconnected with Jonathan Drew, who now had a young daughter named Jessica. Jess seemed a pretty outgoing and affectionate child as she immediately climbed up on Herbert, something her mother scolded her for, but Herbert said he didn't mind.

Herbert and the Drews decided to pool their resources together to create "a citadel of science." Jess's mother, Merriem, had just inherited a tract of land in (the fictional Balkan country of) Transia - in the shadow of Wundagore Mountain. So that's where they decided to set up their base.

Herbert sold his mother's house (without fucking asking her!) for building money. (He'd already persuaded his mother to move into her sister's place so he could rent out the house for money for his experiments - which really demonstrates his complete but rather oblivious self-centeredness.)

With these plans in hand, Herbert, Jonathan, Merriem, and little Jessica all moved to Wundagore together to start their new lives.

Part 2: Wundagore

When Herbert and the Drews got to Wundagore, they immediately heard rumours from the locals that there was an evil spirit trapped in the mountain, and werewolves and vampires living close by. There was, in fact, an evil spirit trapped in the mountain - the evil elder god Chthon - but Herbert and Jess's parents (in a very Dracula moment) dismissed the nearby villagers as superstious simpletons.

Their arrogance grew when they found that the soil in the land they owned contained a lot of uranium ore. Now they would be wealthy! Interestingly, though, this turn in fortune did not cause any friction between Herbert and the Drews, as even though the land was technically Merriem's, Jonathan assured Herbert that they were all full partners in this venture.

Note: It's funny how especially compared to how Bendis and Reed wrote the Wyndham & Drew relationship (in Origin) as being pretty much purely professional - in Mark Gruenwald's hands, Herbert Wyndham and Jess's parents come across as having a rather unconventional closeness.

Herbert especially seems quite fond of Jonathan Drew (even though he often expresses waryness of humanity as a whole), and the fact that their finances are all so willingly tied together is very interesting to me. It would be more expected, particularly in a villain's origin story, for there to be more infighting around money. Instead, Jonathan and Herbert like each other enough that this never became a problem.

Herbert and Jonathan started working on their citadel of science, but because the engineer they hired to build it was obsessed with outerspace, they got a lab with space-faring capabilities. Jonathan was like "is this really necessary???" But he had bigger problems.

His young daughter had collapsed on the dirt she was playing in. Because even though Jonathan warned Merriem to keep Jess away from the dirt, they were both pretty neglectful in actually watching their daughter. Jess was now suffering from uranium poisoning that had been building in her little body for months. She was sick and quickly dying.

In a panic, Jonathan injected his young daughter with the experimental spider-blood serum he had been working on. However, Jess didn’t respond. Herbert then offered to use his genetic accelerator on Jess, but Merriem argued against it. She thought that it was too late for Jessica, and accused her husband and his partner of just using Jess as a guinea pig. Against her wishes, Herbert did put Jess in his genetic accelerator, merging Jess's genetics with those of the spiders.

However, Jess still seemed completely unresponsive, and Herbert put her in an induced coma/partial suspended animation in the hopes that the serum would slowly cure her over time. Angry and distressed that her daughter had been experimented on for what seemed to her no reason, Merriem rushed off into the night - and was killed by a werewolf.

Note: Okay, I wanted to pause here, because I actually highly prefer this version of Jessica Drew getting her powers to the one in Spider-Woman: Origin - where she accidentally gets spider DNA beamed into her body while she's still a fetus.

I just find it more interesting seeing these characters have this genuine fear and panic about their little girl dying - and maybe it resonates with me more because my little brother became very sick when he was three years old and eventually died (and I spent quite a bit of time in children's hospitals growing up) but there's also more nuance in this origin.

For some reason, Bendis and Reed made Jonathan and Merriem Miriam more black-and-white figures, with Jonathan being painted as a guy who secretly hated his daughter - because he's weirded out by her spider DNA - but still used her to advance his research. Whereas Jess's mother was presented as a much more sympathetic figure, as she was first taken in by her husband lies about her daughter being sick and thus the testing on her being necessary, and then later when she found out this wasn't true, she fought to defend her daughter from him.

But in the 2nd origin, especially in the parts penned by Mark Gruenwald, neither of Jess's biological parents was actually perfectly "right." Here, it is pretty clear that although Jonathan genuinely wanted to save his daughter's life, he also really wanted to see if his serum would work, and he very much wanted the glory of that success. However, Merriem was going to stand in the way of her daughter possibly surviving - because on principle, she didn't want her daughter to be used as a science experiment. Jonathan's motives were not close to being 100 percent pure, but if Merriem had gotten her way, Jess would have absolutely died.

Which is more unique for a Marvel backstory, because there are so, so many bad father/nicer mother narratives in Marvel. Which I am not saying this isn't a dynamic that doesn't occur often in real life, but I feel like Jessica's story was more about all her guardians failing her one-by-one.

But anyway, Merriem was killed by a werewolf, and it was Herbert who found her body. Not really believing in werewolves but also not wanting Jonathan to become biased against nonhuman life, Herbert staged the death to look like a fall.

Jonathan was absolutely devastated: first his daughter had become sick/comatose and now his wife was dead. Herbert tried to think of ways to console his despondent friend, but it wasn’t long after this that Herbert woke up to a note from Jonathan Drew, saying that he couldn’t stand being there anymore without Merriem, and he was going back to America. Jonathan left Herbert the citadel, and his daughter.

Part 3: The New Men and Recreating Camelot

So, Herbert found himself alone and lonely in his now completed citadel. The only person with him was his former partner's unconscious child. He decided that he would be a father to this abandoned little girl, and well, any daughter of his was going to have a world-class education. So he set up audio recorded lessons and lectures to play in her cryogenic chamber while she slept.

Herbert was (unsurprisingly) still lonely. He couldn’t really talk to Jessica (and she didn’t seem to be getting better), so he had this whole empty citadel to himself. To keep his mind busy, he set to work on making himself the perfect suit/armour to protect himself from environmental toxins. But also as a 'just in case' - even though he did not believe in werewolves or werewolf folklore or any of this crap about a demon living inside the mountain - he made the suit silver-plated on the outside.

When his perfect silver-plated hazmat suit was completed (after an intense process of trial and error), Herbert started wearing it all the time. It wasn't long, though, before his mind started itching to work on something else, and his thoughts drifted back to the evolved dog he had "created" before.

He started acquiring both domestic and wild animals from all over: lions and tigers and bears and pigs and cows and sheep. And he started putting them through his genetic accelerator. Those that survived and showed successful signs of intelligence, he called his "New Men" - though he would also more affectionately refer to them as his "children."

The New Men were absolutely bewildered by this whole process, but Herbert assured them they would adjust to this new way of existence. He had them watch educational tapes until they gained the ability to speak, and he started to feel a little less lonely.

Then, joy of joy, Jonathan Drew returned to Wundagore. Herbert was like, "I missed you. It hasn't been the same without you!" And Jonathan was like "Actually, I'm not Jonathan. I'm the ghost of 6th century wizard who took possession of your friend's body to warn you that you are in grave danger." And Herbert was like 😯 (Quotes aren't exact exact but pretty damn close).

Herbert didn't believe the whole ghost possession story, but he decided it was "a harmless mental disorder" caused by Jonathan's grief. So when "Jonathan" suggested they teach the New Men to be lance-wielding knights, Herbert decided to commit to some long-term LARPing to make his friend happy. Besides, this new code of honour would guide his New Men, make them civilised. Also, he did enjoy being the king of his castle. This is when Herbert started going by "the High Evolutionary" - a title that "Jonathan" encouraged.

Now Jonathan was, in fact, being possessed by a 6th century ghost. A guy named Magnus, who had come to Wundagore to warn Herbert that all his drilling into the mountain had awakened a dormant demon. Herbert - the High Evolutionary did not want to hear about this, though. He was like (paraphrasing):

"John, dear John, or Lord Magnus - however you want to be called, you can tell me all you want about how you used to work with Morgan Le Fay, before she murdered you with her bare hands, but don't speak to me of demons. I am a man of science™ There are no demons, and there is certainly no demon trapped in my mountain."

But like I said before, there was, in fact, an evil spirit in the mountain. He had been bound to it by Morgan Le Fay and her followers back in the 6th century - once she realised she couldn’t control the spirit she had summoned.

But back in the 20th century, time passed. A decade went by. The New Men, now called the Knights of Wundagore, kept training. Jessica Drew kept sleeping, and in her sleep, she aged very, very slowly. She had still not fully recovered from her sickness, and the High Evolutionary wondered if she ever would.

Then, one stormy night, a woman on the point of giving birth came to Wundagore and gave birth to twins. The mother slipped away in the night, leaving a note asking for the High Evolutionary to find her newborns a good home.

It was during this time that Chthon attacked, and Herbert/the High Evolutionary came face to face with a fucking Elder God. He and his knights fought back but were quickly overpowered, and Herbert watched in horror as many of his "children" were dashed to pieces in front of him. Luckily, Magnus ended up being able to put Chthon back into his dormant slumber, using a magic book called the Darkholde. However, not before Chthon put a piece of his essence into one of the twin babies: the girl who would grow up to be Wanda Maximoff, aka the Scarlet Witch.

Note: Not related to Spider-Woman: Origin directly, but I have seen other people bring up Bendis' erasure of Wanda's chaos magic (in his Avengers Dissambled Arc) and speculate that he was trying to write Chthon out of the Maximoff twins' backstory and out of the Marvel Universe. This is most likely true. For some reason, Bendis seemed determined to take all the magic away from Wundagore Mountain, which - is something I'm not a fan of.

Back to the story though, one of the surviving New Men, a cow-woman who Herbert named "Bova" (derived from a Latin word for cow) was tasked with taking care of the infants, while the High Evolutionary looked for a new home for them. He ended up placing the infants with Django and Marjya Maximoff, a Romani couple who were unable to have children of their own.

Note: Sorry, another complaint...it’s just super weird in Spider-Woman: Origin that the whole Bova in evolved cow is made out to be a delusion put in Jessica Drew’s mind by Hydra, and that Bova is actually a human woman named Bova????? I'm sorry, but why the fuck would that be her name? Did her parents hate her?

Also, it's just annoying because Bova doesn't have a purpose in the story other than to be a vehicle for the writers to be like "oh, yeah, we are retconning the High Evolutionary and his New Men! Yep, they never existed. Mhm, Hydra made them up entirely to mentally torture one child."

It seems evident that someone thought that this origin was too weird, but I just – aghhhhhhh. Okay, let’s move on.

After this, Magnus departed, saying that his duties there were done and that he had to relinquish Jonathan's body and return to his grave. But he also told the High Evolutionary that he would miss him and tasked Herbert with not neglecting the daughter of the man whose body Magnus had borrowed.

Part 4: Leaving 'Paradise'

It would still be years, though, before Jessica Drew finally woke up well from her prolonged sleeping beauty slumber. When she did wake up, her memories of her parents and her former life were very dim. She had been so young when she had gotten sick that she didn't remember anything clearly from before. So this strange world of talking, anthropomorphic animals and a knight's code of honour and all that - that was the world she really grew up in.

Note: I think that's part of what made me fall so hard for this backstory. Something about how casually and naturally Jess relayed it all to Nick Fury when looking back years later: the "High Evolutionary" promising to raise Jess like his own daughter, animals with the intelligence and faculty of human beings, the desire to recreate Camelot. They were all presented as the most normal things in the world, which is what really gripped me.

Because that is how a child raised in a bizarre environment would take it in - as their normal. And as someone who grew up in a cult, well, I really resonated with that. I mean, there are other ways that Jess's upbringing resembles being brought up in a cult (which I'll talk about a bit more soon) - but even the just talking about bizarre things as if they are completely straightforward (because that was your lived experience) is so interesting to me.

I also really like the idea of Jess being raised in a knight-centred culture, because this actually gives more context/insight into her character. Like why she has more negative emotions around being "a coward" than she does about killing people. Or why one of the things that pisses her off the most is seeing someone attack someone who is weak/defenceless, and why Jess would go in for the kill against the attacker in those situations. Of course, anyone would be upset about that, but there is a such level of anger there that we can see this goes against one of her core beliefs. An honourable knight is going to defend the weak, and hurting someone who is weaker than you is utterly despicable.

And it's just interesting that these values are following her even to this day, even though they were put in place by someone who was neglectful/abusive.

That's getting a little ahead of the story though:

So, when Jess woke up she had only physically aged to around 10 years old (or in some sources her early teens) - even though she had been asleep for over three decades. However, because she'd been in a coma-like state all this time, emotionally, she was still younger.

The High Evolutionary immediately placed Jess in Bova's care. He claimed he would be like a father to her, but he was preoccupied. His confrontation with Chthon had had a huge impact on him. For the first time, he had been come across something he couldn’t explain and was so much more powerful than him. That had rattled him, had shaken him to the core.

It's also possible that witnessing so much death and having his friend effectively abandon him a second time had resulted in Herbert becoming more emotionally detached. When he did interact with Jessica, it was mostly to examine the abilities he and Jonathan had given her.

One of the darker implications from around this time is that Jess has an ability to be resistant to toxins, but the way the power works is that she has to be exposed to a poison, endure the effects of it, heal from it, and then she will have an immunity to it. The fact that she already has a very clear understanding of how that power works in her first solo series suggests that multiple poisons were tested on her before it.

Looking back at this time in her life, Jess also expressed that she mostly felt like a labratory animal (which could be one reason why she has such a strong affinity towards characters like Logan/Wolverine or even the Hulk.)

Note: I will say that Spider-Woman: Origin does also have Jess be a test subject (although Jonathan is the perpetrator instead of The High Evolutionary.) I also do think the writers of the mini did enough research into Jessica Drew that they did try bring forward some of the same themes.

Sadly, one thing that was lost in this new origin was Jessica Drew seeing her father/father figure as a god/God. It's just one of my favourite things in stories where parental figures are lifted up onto this worshipful pedestal, and in this case, it makes a lot of sense. The High Evolutionary did save Jess's life, and he had cared for her even after her biological father abandoned her. He was her saviour.

Also, all these people around her - the New Men - they saw the High Evolutionary as God, because he was the one who had brought them to this new level of consciousness, and if he wanted to, he could also take that away. The New Men had also basically been taught that their whole purpose in life was to serve the High Evolutionary. This was readily accepted by most of them, and while others, like Bova, would go on to ponder if there was more to their existence, no one at this time was really questioning the High Evolutionary's authority. He was their king, their God, their everything.

And this does remind me of how cult members are "supposed to" and how many people in cults do view cult leaders. Add to this that the High Evolutionary did not allow outsiders (with very exceptions) into Wundagore, and that he forbade the New Men and Jessica Drew from ever leaving, and you have a very isolated and insular environment. Which is very, very cult-like.

There is also something about how the High Evolutionary can and later does devolve New Men - whether that be as punishment, or because he thought it was a mistake to evolve them up in the first place, or just because he was tired of a particular New Man - that makes me think of the dehumanisation that often takes place in cults. How personhood can be given or taken away.

Not that this is the only way to view the High Evolutionary, especially since he does eventually become more and more actually godlike in power and is even referred to as "God" at some points - you could also see the High Evolutionary as critique on God or how God is perceived, or well, something else entirely I suppose.

However you want to look at it, being "God" isn't always easy. Which Herbert was starting to realise.

Because the New Men saw him as this omniscient being, the High Evolutionary was getting flooded with questions. So, to bear the brunt of that barrage, the High Evolutionary recruited Jane Foster (yes, that Jane Foster) to be the New Men's new teacher. That way he could concentrate on what was really important to him.

Which, if you thought that would be spending some quality with his adopted daughter...well, no, that wasn't even on his radar. What he wanted to do was work on his genetic accelerator, with the hopes of making more advanced New Men.

It was just the hand that fate had handed him, his duty to make a perfect world, yada yada

Now Thor (Jane's love) happened to see Jane being taken off to an isolated location and thought she had been kidnapped. He came down to Wundagore, and basically walked into an ongoing battle.

The High Evolutionary had been making adjustments to his genetic accelerator, and had beamed a different type of isotope at the wolf he was evolving up. The wolf ended up coming out more "advanced" than the other New Men: smarter, more capable, but also filled with hate - towards the High Evolutionary and all of humanity. Declaring himself to be the "Man-Beast," the evolved wolf quickly took control of the genetic accelerator, and made new New Men - ones who would be loyal to him and help him overthrow the High Evolutionary.

A battle ensued, with Thor joining forces with the High Evolutionary, the Knights of Wundagore, and Jessica Drew to put down the Man Beast's rebellion. (This would be the first time Jess would use her venom blasts in a fight.) The Man-Beast and his underlings were defeated, but the High Evolutionary was again shaken. For the first time, he wondered if he had made a mistake tampering with evolution. Thor certainly thought so.

Finally, the High Evolutionary decided that humanity and his New Men couldn’t peacefully coexist. So, taking all but a handful of his New Men into his spaceflight-capable citadel, he took off for the stars.

Jessica Drew watched in Bova's arms, as her home lifted off the ground and disappeared into the sky.

Note: I don't know why, but I just find the image of Jess watching her home and her father/God disappear into outerspace never to return to her again particularly poignant. I especially ruminate on this when thinking about her and Carol, and how they see outerspace so differently. Carol having such positive connotations with it, and Jess such negative ones. It would just be interesting if it went all the way back to their childhood. (Even though, of course, a big reason why Jess hates/is scared of space is the whole being kidnapped/held captive by Skrull thing.)

But to return to the story, Jess and Bova and the rest of the New Men have to go on and adjust to life without their "God." Now none of the New Men, besides Bova, had really shown Jess any love or acceptance. They had tolerated her presence because the High Evolutionary had called her his daughter. However, now that the High Evolutionary was no longer there, well, things were different. The New Men started to become more and more vocal about their dislike for Jessica Drew.

The reason why they disliked her basically came down to two things. 1) at this point time Jess was instinctively/subconsciously giving off alarm pheromones that upset people around her 2) the fact that she had both human and spider DNA upset the New Men's sense of order. The High Evolutionary was fully human. They were animals brought up to personhood, but Jess was neither of those things, so they did not know how to view her.

Also, now that the High Evolutionary was gone, Jessica Drew was the only none New Man around, and though she begged and pleaded for their acceptance, the New Men just became more and more hostile towards her.

Finally, Bova decided that this was getting way out of hand, and she and Jess agreed maybe it would be best if Jess left and tried her luck among humankind. At this point in time, Jess was physically around seventeen, but because she was still catching up from spending a chunk of her childhood unconscious and had lived such an isolated existence, she came across as younger and was certainly very naive.

Despite this, Bova did not go with the child she had been ordered to take care of. Not that I actually exactly blame her in this situation. It had never been her decision to have or take care of a child. Also, she probably thought that Jess had a higher chance of being accepted if she weren't with a talking cow. Bova would have also wanted to stay with the people/community she knew and cared about, and would not want to go to some stranger place where she knew she would be shunned.

This did lead, however, to Jess going out into the world alone, a child among strangers. And in very mutant backstory fashion [even though Jess is not mutant - well, at least, not as of yet] Jess ended up accidentally killing a human man with her powers. (She was suddenly startled and hit him with a venom blast.) This led to the village turning against her, and a terrorist organisation - Hydra - coming to her "rescue."

Part 5: Hydra

After this point, this origin and Spider-Woman: Origin become a lot more alike. In both origins:

Jess joins Hydra when she is physically seventeen but emotionally/mentally younger (because in both origins she spends a sizable chunk of her childhood unconscious.) She is lied to/brainwashed in some way. She is then trained to be a spy/fighter/assassin. A guy named Jared starts a manipulative relationship with her, as he becomes her boyfriend and handler. Jared allows himself to be captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., so that Jess will come and rescue him and kill Nick Fury. Jess breaks into Fury's location, but while she is there, it is revealed to her that Hydra - and Jared specifically - have been attacking innocent/defenceless people. Jared tells Jess that their relationship was fake/that he never loved her/that he found her disgusting - before he ends up dying by her hand. Jess then ends up killing Otto Vermis. Fury tries to recruit her to S.H.I.E.L.D., but she slips through his fingers.

Some differences include:

1.

In Spider-Woman: Origin Taskmaster is shown to the one who trained Jessica Drew. This is more an addition than a contradiction to anything that was previously canon. And it's something I do actually like/have no problem with.

Well, the one nitpick I have is Taskmaster taunting Jess's costume - which would not bother me in isolation. It's just that Bendis put her back in this costume, only to have multiple people make fun of it, so whenever I see a character doing that, I hear it in Bendis' rather than the character's voice.

I also would have kind of preferred if Chris Claremont's addition to the costume's history was included. Basically Claremont had it be Jess's idea - that she fought for - to have the costume be not the usual Hydra green.

The brightly coloured costume is not great for stealth work, but I would say that it could speak to Jess's character. The colours are interesting because they are typical of poisonous animals, so the costume is like a warning sign. It could speak to Jess's sense of fairness or even her cockiness to go after her enemies in red and yellow and black.

It would also make a lot more sense to why she kept using the costume after leaving Hydra, even though that wasn't the smartest decision. If she chose the colours and felt like this was her first successful rebellion after being controlled all her life, yeah, that would give a lot more emotional/sentimental value to the costume.

I also like this idea because the person who designed Spider-Woman's original costume was actually a woman, the Marie Severin.

2.

In previous versions Otto Vermis was the Hydra general Jess was serving under, and who she killed by bending the wing of his plane and making it crash. But because Spider-Woman: Origin plays musical chairs with the characters, Wyndham (instead of being the High Evolutionary) is the Hydra general, and Vermis (instead of being the general) is just a Hydra guy Jess sleeps with for information about her father's whereabouts and then kills after he tries to kill her.

Now I don’t think it's totally out-of-character for Jess to start a sexual relationship with someone she is not attracted to in order to save/protect someone she loves, because the upper limit to what she would do to protect the people in her life is very high, but I still thought this was well, unnecessary.

3.

In Spider-Woman: Origin, Jonathan Drew is killed by Viper because he finally decides he doesn't want to be involved with Hydra anymore. In Spider-Woman (1978) after finally returning to America, Jonathan Drew is killed by an American congressman because Jonathan uncovered the motives of this group he was doing research for.

I will say that Spider-Woman: Origin is neater - is that the word? - more contained with Jessica Drew's parents' deaths. Miriam Drew is killed by her husband in front of her daughter, and then Jonathan Drew is killed by Hydra, specifically Viper. But in my opinion, the addition of having Jess see her father kill her mother in front of her doesn't really add anything to her character. And because earlier in Origin, they also had Jonathan Drew not like Jess from birth, it just kept making me think of Brian Banner, and how this backstory fits Bruce Banner better.

For some reason, it also really irritates me that Merriem/Miriam is made out to be the vastly better parent, and I don’t like how this has continued into newer comics. Maybe this is an overreaction, but I feel like I'm being spoon-fed this idea that all biological mothers are instinctively more loving and nurturing.

Speaking of biological mothers though, I did say I would get back to Viper. So, basically, the story behind Viper and Spider-Woman is just that Chris Claremont wanted Viper to be Jessica Drew's mother, so he made that retcon in Spider-Woman (1978) #44. However, J. M. DeMatteis, who was writing Captain America comics parallel to this, apparently didn’t like this idea, or someone didn't like it, so the retcon was retconned a year later (in Captain America #281.) So now Viper wasn't actually Jessica Drew's mother. Morgan Le Fay had just planted false memories in Viper's mind to make her believe that she was Jessica Drew's mother.

Which I mean I don’t really mind either scenario. I would be cool with Viper being Jess's biological mother, but also Morgan Le Fay did want to be the one to kill Jessica Drew (after Jess refused to swear eternal fealty to Morgan Le Fay and instead skewerd Morgan with her own sword), so I could totally see Morgan fucking with Viper's mind/memory just so that Viper would hesitate and not beat her to killing Jess.

4.

Okay, I am just going to make note of one other difference, and then I'm done, I'm through.

Weird thing: Jessica Drew unexplainably attending San Francisco State University in Origin takes me out of the story more than the not-scientifically sound explanation of being "extensively educated by the High Evolutionary during stasis." I actually find it pretty easy to accept the story logic of Jess learning languages and the contents of books subconsciously.

But not only does Jess attending university not fit with Spider-Woman (1978) or any of Jess's earlier appearances, but it leads to so many unanswered questions, like (if she wasn’t learning anything in the ten years she was in a coma) what was her schooling like up to this point? How did she get into university without a prior education, or transcripts? Like maybe she's just sitting in on a class, but that is not explained either. Nothing is explained.

Okay, I'm finally done now. Thanks for reading, and if you'd like, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject too!

Sources:

Thor #134-135 (Stan Lee/Jack Kirby)

Marvel Spotlight #32 (Archie Goodwin/Sal Buscema)

Marvel Two-In-One #29-#33 (Marv Wolfman/Ron Wilson)

Spider-Woman (1978) #1, #5, #6, #20, #35, #37 (Marv Wolfman/Carmine Infantino; Mark Gruenwald/Carmine Infantino; Chris Claremont/Steve Leialoha)

Avengers #187 (Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant, David Michelinie/John Byrne)

The Saga of the High Evolutionary (Mark Gruenwald/Paris Cullins & Ron Lim), found in:

X-Factor Annual #3, The Punisher Annual #1, Silver Surfer Annual #1, New Mutants Annual #4, Fantastic Four Annual #21, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22, X-Men Annual #12, Web of Spider-Man Annual #4, West Coast Avengers Annual #3

Scarlet Spider Unlimited (Glenn Herdling/Tod Smith)

Quicksilver #9 (John Ostrander, Joe Edkin/Ivan Reis)

Marvel Atlas #1

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol 1 #5

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol 1 #14

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol 2 #15

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Avengers 2005

All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #5

FF: Fifty Fantastic Years

History of the Marvel Universe (2019) #4 (Mark Waid/Javier Rodriguez & Alvaro Lopez)

There is an interesting dichotomy here because while this hyperfocus is centred on keeping her loved ones safe, it can also be boundary pushing/crossing, kinda controlling, and condescending at times. It’s not out of character for Jess to think that she knows better than the people in her life about their own needs. Which...is (unfortunately) true in a lot of cases – but it does take away choice.

Additionally, Jess often ignores her own needs to focus on her friends’ and uses other people’s problems as a distraction from her own. Making her both a mother hen and a hot mess.

The High Evolutionary, Hydra, and High Anxiety

So, why is she like this?

Well, I am going to start with one important point. Even though Jessica Drew technically falls into the ‘child assassin’ camp, unlike most Marvel child assassin characters Jess was never taught to not care about anyone. We have a lot of characters – like Natasha Romanoff, Kwannon, Laura Kinney, Daken/Akihiro – who were specifically taught to be cold and detached from other people, but that’s not how Jess was trained.

I say this because a lot of times with these characters there is a focus on them forming bonds despite the conditioning they went through, but I guess even Hydra didn’t want to deal with a violent sociopath with superstrength, because Jess was always pushed more to be a protector.

But let’s start from the beginning (again.)

Jessica Drew grew up with The High Evolutionary as her ‘Godfather.’ He was raising her, because her parents were either dead (mom) or absent (father). Not that THE was a particularly attentive parent either - though to be fair he did stick around while she spent a sizable chunk of her childhood in a coma, so kudos for that?

Anyway, before Jess’s Godfather was The High Evolutionary, he was one Herbert Wyndham – a British scientist who had moved with the Drews to the Balkans, so they could conduct risky and morally questionable science experiments together.

Herbert turned regular animals into anthropomorphic beings and to civilise them he decided to ‘recreate Camelot.’ So, the world that Jess woke up to (from her coma because she was sick for most of her childhood) was one isolated from the rest of the world and running on an old-fashioned chivalric code.

Herbert was also now going solely by the title The High Evolutionary and everyone around him (aka the above-mentioned anthropomorphic knights) treated him like God. Jess also saw THE as her saviour. Which…he did literally help cure her/save her life, but she went as far as considering him the height of humanity.

In short, Jess grew up in a cult, but the ideals the High Evolutionary taught her and which she full heartedly embraced weren't terrible. Things like: bravery, loyalty, fairness, and protecting the weak/defenceless. (She does seem to think it's okay to kill as long as it's 'necessary' - but that's probably fine.)

This moral set is one she’d continue to hold onto long after her 2nd father abandoned her, and one that would prove a headache for Hydra.

Hydra got a hold of Jess after The High Evolutionary had taken off for the stars and the knights that he had left behind in Wundagore Mountain didn’t want Jess around. At this point in time, Jess’s pheromones were completely out of control, and they made everyone around her uneasy. Hydra, however, saw her powers as an asset for their terrorism. They offered her a place to stay and protection from the outside world. They also trained her to be both a spy and an assassin.

Although…

I don’t think Jess was ever an effective assassin – fighter/killer, yes 👍 assassin, mmm, no 👎 Because like I said in my fear analysis for Jess, (when alone) she tends to run away from foes that are stronger than her. And (in addition to this) she also doesn’t believe it’s right to kill those that are weaker than her (unless they are all ganging up on her at once in which case it’s fair play.)

Hydra’s work around for this was to have her bond with her handler and then have that handler get captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. – to give Jess a reason to kill Nick Fury.

When Jess does go rescue her handler though, she finds out from Fury that Jared was targeting defenceless people, and this infuriates her enough to not just turn against her handler but all of Hydra. She kills her commanding general and runs off, choosing a new path for herself that eventually leads to her becoming a superhero.

While she left Hydra behind, their training had still shaped her, and she continued to be brutally effective and relentless in her pursuits.

Though some of this probably comes down to her individual mind as well. So let’s talk about that.

I spoke at length in my ‘Fear’ analysis about Jessica Drew’s anxiety and how this isn’t a passive emotion in her, and I will continue to speak of it here. Though more specifically about her anxiety around being abandoned.

As stated previously, Jess’s mother died when she was young, and her two fathers left. This along with the rejection she experienced in her youth (because of her fear-causing pheromones and the odd behaviour she displayed due to having grown up in an isolated cult) makes Jess anxious about losing the people she does have.

Jess’s way of dealing with this fear is becoming an ultra-protective bodyguard – one who will use whatever means she has at hand to keep those closest to her from dying (and thus leaving her.)

The tactics Jess uses include: bribery, diplomacy, flattery, seduction, and deceit. However, her go-to (especially with enemies she doesn’t know) is force/threats. If she considers someone a hazard to those ‘under her protection,’ she will strong-arm them into backing off, or if someone she cares about has been kidnapped/captured she will force answers out of people through threats or even (light) torture. (She does have built-in electric shocks.)

Her own body is also often impacted violently because of her actions. For example, she has a worrying habit of using her body like a shield – even though she’s not Wolverine. Yes, she does have a healing factor, but it’s nowhere close to Logan’s, and she’s definitely been dealt damage and decommissioned herself by doing things like using her body to collect bullets or letting herself catch on fire.

Now I wouldn’t say this comes from a place of wanting to be hurt or thinking she’s deserving of pain. (While she does often worry she's not good enough, she doesn't hate herself in that way.) She just acts instinctively and impulsively to prevent outcomes she fears - before she can think through the consequences.

But while I could expand more on this, I think we have done 'cause' long enough - so let's move onto:

Relationships

The High Evolutionary 🛐⚔️🌌

To me this relationship is gold in understanding a lot of Jessica Drew’s behaviour. The culture of knighthood Herbert created in Wundagore does give context to the way Jess often acts in service to other people. Also, her intolerance for hurting the weak/defenceless.

Jess didn’t leave Hydra for political reasons (she didn’t understand politics at the time). She left because their method of attacking the defenceless filled her with righteous rage.

It was thus the High Evolutionary's influence on Jess that led her to leave Hydra. Although...she wouldn't have been involved with them in the first place if he had acted like the father he promised to be and actually looked out for the girl...

Jared Kurtz & Hydra 🟢💀

Okay, I am not going to dive deep into this right now, but Jess was physically 17 when she joined Hydra, but mentally/emotionally younger - because of the years she had spent in a coma. Which makes her relationship with her handler even more disturbing.

Her handler Jared was an agent of Hydra who was ordered to get into a ‘romantic’ relationship with Jessica Drew, to control the young girl. Jess was surprised by his (false) kindness and became very protective of him.

Hydra tried to use her care for him to eliminate one of their greatest foes – Nick Fury. However, like I mentioned before, this backfired, and Jess ended up turning against Hydra instead.

Nick Fury 👁

I will talk more about this guy in another part. For now, I am just going to say that Jess did feel appreciative/in debt to him because he was the one who showed her the truth.

Her Boyfriends

Jess is protective of anyone close to her, including the men she’s dated – men who all just happen to be physically weaker than her.

Unfortunately, this caused problems when she was dating S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jerry Hunt, who felt emasculated because she would swoop in and save him. They had other problems in their relationship and it while lasting longer than it probably should have didn’t last long.

David Ishima was another guy Jess dated in her first solo series. He’s probably my favourite of Jess’s boyfriends, even though...he dumped her three times in the span of 11 issues. The first time he broke up with her was because she was stalking him to look after him while he was a murder suspect. Him dumping her did nothing to deter her from continuing to be – as she put it – ‘his guardian angel.’ They ended up ending things permanently because of lifestyle differences, but the relationship did inspire David to grow/become more altruistic.

Next was Clint Barton. I feel like I cheated: the image I chose was actually from Jonathan Hickman & Nick Spencer’s (Art by Marco Checchetto) Avengers World - because when Bendis was writing this 'couple' he went with Jess being obsessively jealous instead of overly protective - which was different for the character. Then again, Jess had just spent the last several months in solitary confinement with the only interactions being with enemies who told her repeatedly that no one cared about her...and Clint did end up cheating on her twice.

Roger Gocking was Jess’s latest boyfriend, and out of Jess’s boyfriends, he was the best at providing emotional support. But I think Hopeless relied too much on Jess being protective of Roger as an indicator of romantic interest - which (especially) does not work for a character who is anxious/protective of EVERYONE in her life. It wasn't that surprising then that Roger broke things off (in Pacheco's run) because he didn't think that Jess felt the same way about him as he did about her.

Lindsay McCabe

Lindsay McCabe was a struggling actress (later turned stunt double) who Jess met in group therapy. Lindsay defended Jess when the other members of the group tried to pressure Jess into opening up (which had caused Jess to break down crying.) Jess would never return to therapy, but she did develop a close relationship with Lindsay – a turn of events which delighted Jess as she really wanted (but struggled to get) other women to like her.

Lindsay allowed Jess to open up in her own time and fully accepted Jess for who she was. Lindsay basically ended up filling the role of superhero girlfriend, grounding and supporting Jess. The two of them also lived together for years and even moved house together a few times.

Lindsay had no powers of her own but was free-spirited and excitenent-seeking. And unlike the men in Jess’s life, she had no objections to Jess swooping in and saving her. Jess came to identify strongly as Lindsay’s protector – though both women were willing to put their lives on the line for each other.

Jess and Lindsay were separated because of the events of Secret Invasion but recently reunited when Lindsay moved across the country – from L.A. to New York – to help take care of Jess’s son Gerry after Roger broke things off.

Mentees, Gerry Drew, and young people in general

Like a lot of Marvel superheroes who were hurt as children, Jess is very protective of children and has casually fallen into the role of mentor a few times. She also has similar (maternal isn’t the right word - but a desire to make sure they don’t get hurt the way she did) feelings towards young women. In terms of fictional mentors, she is actually pretty helpful, comforting, and supportive – however she isn’t really suited (narratively) to be a long term mentor, as she would try to solve her mentee’s problems for them.

Unsurprisingly, Jess is also very protective of her own kid. I know the decision to make Jess a mother was ‘controversial,’ but I think Hopeless did a good job of writing her as an anxious and overwhelmed new parent.

Logan/Wolverine

Jess & Logan probably met during the time Jess was letting the X-Men use her apartment as a safe house, and she became a supporting character for the beginning of his 1988 solo series. The dynamic between Jess and Logan is interesting to me, because most of the time other characters just let Logan leave when he’s pushing them away (which is quite sensible), but Jess stalks him to make sure he’s okay. Something he actually seems pretty touched by.

Then again, Logan also stalks his friends (for ‘training’ purposes), and I do think it makes sense that the two of them get on/feel affinity for each other. They both really value personal loyalty (they're very 'i've-got-your-back-if-you've-got-mine' kind of characters) and veer towards the more violent side of ‘heroism.’

They also both get pissed off at other heroes for making sacrifice plays, and I think it’s for twofold reasons. 1) because the hero is 'abandoning' them, and 2) because both Jess and Logan identify foremost as protectors, not being able to protect the person they care about is a blow to their identity.

Jess is a bit 🤏 healthier than Logan in this regard, because she’s at least able to communicate/be open about it somewhat.

Example, Logan was so upset at Piotr Rasputin for sacrificing his life (to keep others from dying from the Legacy virus) that he refused to go to his funeral, and didn’t talk about this with Piotr even after his friend and fellow X-Man came back from the dead.

In a similar vein, Jess gave Carol the cold shoulder after Carol sacrificed all her own memories in order to save 8 million lives. Although Jess felt she was being petty and self-centred, she did eventually admit to Carol that she had taken this personally and demanded Carol apologise. Carol did not apologise. However, just being able to say the words out loud helped Jess to process/move on.

🕷 Natasha Romanoff is also someone Jess bonded with and became protective of – but I am gonna talk more about her/their relationship in a different part.

The Hulk/Bruce Banner

Jess met the Hulk/Bruce Banner when she was going after organ thieves in her bounty hunter days. The thieves wanted to lobotomise Bruce Banner to figure out what made him the Hulk, but Jess saved him. Later, the two of them were in the Avengers together, and Jess advocated for/defended the Hulk - adamant that despite the danger he might pose, he still deserved to be treated like a person.

While Jess considered both the Hulk and Bruce Banner to be good friends, they actually haven't spoken to each other since Civil War II.

Carol Danvers

There is something almost comical about the Jess & Carol dynamic, because of how much stress there is put on Carol being this invulnerable power, and yet this woman – that Carol could effortlessly rip limb from limb if she wanted to – is always fretting over her and trying to keep her safe.

Though Jess did meet Carol when she was in an extremely vulnerable position, and Carol is kind of terrible at taking care of herself.

Carol is another superhero Jess met through saving them. While working in San Francisco as a private investigator, Jess found an unconscious woman in the bay and dragged her back to shore. Carol had just been stripped of her powers and memories by then villain Rogue, so Jess – who knew the X-Men – contacted Charles Xavier, with the hope that he might be able to restore Carol’s memories. Thus, beginning Carol short-lived stint with the X-Men.

This initial meeting was written by Chris Claremont, but it was Brian Michael Bendis who established Carol and Jess as close friends. And following Spider-Woman and Captain Marvel series writers (like Kelly Sue DeConnick, Dennis Hopeless, Margaret Stohl, Karla Pacheco, and Kelly Thompson) would develop the relationship further, making it one of the most important – if not the most important relationship – in both women’s lives.

Because loyalty is one of Jess’s strongest traits, she very easily slots into the role of supporting character. She is reliable, encouraging, and would do anything for her friends. And it is this fierce loyalty that Carol admires/is drawn to in Jess.

Now Carol tends to be overly self-reliant. She has a habit of pushing people away and self-isolating when she’s in distress – and given her history, that’s understandable. She grew up with a withholding father: who saw her as lesser just because she was a girl. She got on a team of superheroes, only for them to fail her by carelessly handing her back to her captor/rapist (the infamous Avengers #200.) Then she got on another superhero team only for them to choose Rogue – her attacker – ‘over her.’ (The X-Men wanted to help Rogue, but Carol felt betrayed because she didn’t want to serve on the same team as the person who mutilated her mind and tried to kill her.)

Carol would continue to climb the ranks of super herodom – more or less out of spite. She would also run off to outer space to escape from everything or use things like sex and alcohol as coping mechanisms. While she did have friends, she struggled to feel like she could depend on them.

So, Carol – like Jess – is a runner. It’s just that the people she runs from are more often her allies than her enemies. However, the thing about Jess is she’s fully willing to give chase and force herself into people’s lives no matter how many walls they put up. She has literally broken into Carol’s apartment, because Carol would not answer her phone.

This has led to a relationship where Carol complains about Jess’s behaviour and describes her as ‘drama' - but still loves Jess, wants to be the most important person in her life, and feels that she ‘needs’ her. ‘Luckily’ for Carol, Jess has an insistent need to be needed.

One problem Jess and Carol do run into is priorities. Like I said in the previous section when comparing Jess to Logan, Jess was upset when Carol sacrificed her own memories – including her memories of Jess – to save 8 million lives. Another fight that occurred between Jess and Carol was when Jess was dying because her childhood illness had come back. At the same time, earth was being attacked by a deluge of vicious alien symbiotes, and Carol asked Jess to help her defeat them.

While Jess charged (recklessly) into the fight, she took Carol’s request as Carol not caring about her at all. Due to past experiences, Jess does sometimes worry that people are just using her/don’t actually love her, but I think this also stems from the fact that if Carol were sick and dying, Jess’s top priority would be helping Carol find a cure – even if there was an apocalypse going on.

Carol has more of a traditional hero/military mindset: the mission/saving the world takes precedence over personal relationships. Because of this, I do feel Carol and Jess can have quite different pitfalls. For example, because Jess places so much importance on protecting those closest to her, she’d be a much easier character to coerce into doing things (if a loved one was being used as leverage.) We have seen this early on in Spider-Woman comics, and also with an alt version of the character – though I am a bit surprised they haven’t played with this more.

Carol though would more easily fall into the trap of doing things ‘for the greater good.’

And yes, I’m going to talk about Civil War II.

I’ll be honest and say I don’t hate this event as much as some people do. I don’t think the main comic was written in a particularly compelling way (sorry, Bendis), but I do like a Greek tragedy, and Carol’s connection with the stars ties nicely with future prediction. I would also say that this event changes the dynamic between Carol and Jess in an interesting way.

Before Civil War II, there is more of a gap between Carol and Jess, with Carol in an elevated position in Jess’s eyes. As I said in ‘Fear’ analysis, Carol has the courage that Jess aspires towards but feels like she doesn’t have, and this comes across in the Carol and Jess dynamic in New Avengers. Jess considers herself as ‘lesser’ than Carol, which...is reinforced by Carol’s attitude towards her. For example, when Jess asks if she can stay at Carol’s apartment, Carol asks if Jess would room with herself, to which Jess just agrees with Carol’s negative opinion of her. So, it’s interesting that following the disastrous decisions Carol makes during CW II, Carol ends up being the one crashing at Jess’s apartment.

Civil War II does serve as ‘I can finally see you're as fucked up as me’ moment for Jess. Carol’s actions led to Bruce Banner’s death. This hit Jess hard, and she (quite dramatically) broke things off with Carol. However, ultimately, Jess ends up choosing Carol, and they are actually drawn closer together. The ‘Kirk’ and ‘Spock’ nicknames that Jess and Carol use for each other actually come out of this era. In Star Trek, Spock has an unwavering loyalty to Captain Kirk, so these names seem to cement Jess’s place at Carol’s side, even when she doesn’t agree with Carol’s decisions. The definitive ride-or-die.

I do think it’s kind of insane though that all it took for Carol to win Jess back over was texting at 3 a.m. admitting that she needed Jess. And Jess beat Carol to the meet up location. (Like girl, you have a baby. Did you wake your colleague [Roger] up in the wee hours of the morning, so that he could babysit? Probably…) So, before I close off, I did want to talk a little bit about Jess’s need to be needed.

This is bit tricky because – and I probably should have mentioned this earlier – Jess is not a super self-aware person, so she often does not know why she does the things she does. Also, while the people around her push back when Jess becomes overbearing, they mostly appreciate that she is so caring. And I’m not saying being nurturing is a bad thing. In fact, it’s one quality that Carol seems to envy Jess for, but Jess’s persistent need to care for everyone in her life – to the point where she can become completely overwhelmed by it – may stem from a subconscious belief that she needs to earn love.

Animal instinct

It’s no secret that Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman (like She Hulk) was created as a copyright thing – so that DC or any other Marvel competitor wouldn’t be able to use the name Spider-Woman for a character. Her first appearance was in Marvel Spotlight #32 (Written by Archie Goodwin & pencilled by Sal Buscema in 1976) where she was a brainwashed ‘kid’ working for Hydra sent out to save her handler Jared by killing S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury.

In this story, the character’s only name was the codename Arachne, and at the end of the issue, she was revealed to not actually have been born a human being but a spider that the High Evolutionary had ‘evolved’ into a person. (An origin that was also toyed around for another character: Logan/Wolverine – although obviously in that case he would have been born a wolverine and not a spider.)

Now when there was more interest in the character than Marvel initially anticipated, ‘Arachne’ was handed over to another writer – Marv Wolfman – and her origin was immediately changed. The whole ‘she is actually a spider’ was retconned to be a lie that Hydra told Jessica Drew to make her feel more isolated from the rest of humanity (and thus more dependent on them.) The High Evolutionary was still part of her backstory, but now Jessica was the daughter of his intimate friend/lab partner. THE later ‘adopts’ Jessica when her mother dies & her father leaves in despair. In this version, Jessica's DNA was spliced with spider DNA when an experimental serum made from spider blood was administered to heal her from a childhood illness (caused by uranium poisoning.)

This spider serum saved Jessica Drew’s life and gave her powers like: projectable bioelectricity, aka her venom blasts; containment immunity (her body rapidly creates powerful immunities to poisons, toxins, and drugs); ‘spider strength’ (though she’s notably not as physically strong as Peter Parker or others of the ‘spiders’); and powerful pheromones (which though they cause fear in other people thus adding to the motif of fear in Spider-Woman comics will not be discussed in this particular post.)

Along with these powers though, the spider DNA caused another change in Jess. It rewired her brain, causing her amygdala (aka her ‘lizard brain’) to become overactive, upping her survival instinct and making her a much more reactive person. One who scares easily.

This is interesting, because a lot of times when people think of spiders, they think of them as predators, but spiders are actually very small animals and though they kill and consume they are far from the top of the food chain. Who hasn’t seen a spider scurry for cover when startled? Or heard about a spider biting someone when they felt threatened? Which brings us to the section –

Flight or Fight

Captain Marvel leads with her heart and her chin: she sees a problem and her response is to march in and hit it. Her best friend Spider-Woman on the other hand leads with her hips: her first response to a problem is to get up and walk away. She has to try very hard to be a hero. – Kelly Sue DeConnick

I am going to argue with Ms. DeConnick here. I think Spider-Woman’s first response to a problem is not to walk but to run away. She gets a hit of that adrenaline, and she’s ready to take off. We see this in particular when Jess is faced with a foe who is stronger than her or is unpredictable in some way – she is more prone to turn tail than a lot of superheroes. *

However, things change and take a drastic turn for the worst for whoever Jess is up against, if Jess feels like she can’t get away. If she feels trapped, if she feels threatened, if she feels like the only way to get out is through, she’s going to do that. Which is something that some of her enemies have learned the hard way.

Jess is often underestimated because a visibly frightened woman running or backing away does not appear to be a difficult opponent. However, it is her fear that motivates her to strike out for survival.

Now Jess is not one of Marvel’s top violent heroes. Generally speaking, she is not going around executing people. She’s no Frank Castle, and in terms of body count, she’s no Deadpool, Elektra, or Wolverine either. But she was trained by Hydra to be a brutally effective fighter – and killer, and when instinct takes over and adrenaline gives her a massive energy spike, she becomes dangerous like a cornered animal. She has broken bones, beaten people into comas, and yes, killed people.

Killing isn’t something she takes pleasure in though, and maybe that’s a reason why Jessica Drew doesn’t have a lot of long-lasting guilt about the people she has put in the ground. She usually kills out of self-defence, so she can see it as the other person forcing her hand.

Also, even though she can be a brutal fighter, she is not a sadistic one. Her hurting others is a means to an end rather than something she relishes in. She is not going to snap someone’s humerus if she can just shove them aside, so the level of threat determines how violently she will react. If her opponent is stronger than her and an imminent threat or if she has multiple opponents attacking her all at once, her fighting style is a lot different than if she is fighting one-on-one with someone on or below her strength/power level.

*A pretty big asterisk here. Jess is not going to just up and run away when she has people to protect. This is just how she acts when she is by herself. I thought I should just clear this up before Ms. Drew’s defence team get on my case about it.

Foils

Okayyy, I’m starting to understand why they went with ‘she’s a good friend.’ I’ve basically just said that Jessica Drew runs away from danger and kills people – which begs certain questions...

Like why the hell is she considered a hero?

The problem is fear is one of Jess’s two or three most long-lasting, consistent, and defining traits. And I would say though Jess isn’t purely defined by fear, it is foundational to (understanding) her character.

What I mean by this is: a good bit of her fiercely protective nature comes from fear – her anxiety about losing the people close to her. Even the depth of her empathy probably stems from having such a visible and persistent ‘flaw.’ She is better able to understand and have compassion towards other people’s frailties and failings.

The visibility thing is important. Like I said near the beginning, her fear isn’t something she can hide. Its physical. It’s noticeable. It’s commented on – both by her and others around her (allies and enemies alike.) She has an ‘exaggerated’ startle response. Her heart races. She looks scared. She sounds scared. It’s just not something she can deny or pretend isn’t there – as much as she might want to.

Which makes her an interesting foil for other superheroes and a way of showing the danger they are all in. It also further establishes the other character(s) as being these brave, brash, or reckless people, because they are in the same situation as her, but not having panic attacks.

Particularly interesting to me in this regard are her relationships with Logan Howlett and Carol Danvers, because these are characters who are noted for their fearlessness and their unwillingness to back down from a fight. When juxtaposed with Jess who doesn’t value her pride over avoiding a kill or be killed situation, these characters can come across as more rigid. Whereas Jess could be seen as the wuss in this comparison.

Though, neither Carol or Logan view Jess as a coward – rather they seem touched/inspired that she would follow them into danger even if it freaks her the fuck out. To be fair, Jess’s fear can prove to be an asset when teaming up with other heroes. She notably does not have a ‘spidey sense’ like Peter Parker, Cindy Moon, or Miles Morales – but she can ‘act’ as a spidey sense to others. She is perpetually scanning the environment for threats, and is often the one to scream out warnings or otherwise save the people around her from danger.

But why would she want to be a hero?

Well, while she did quit the Avengers saying that it was too stressful, and she does question whether she can be a hero when she’s trembling in her booties, and she can easily be cast in the role of ‘reluctant hero,’ she does keep going back to it.

I think there are two big contributing factors:

1. I may have mentioned that Jess was raised by the High Evolutionary – who is a villain, but I would say that a good portion of her moral code actually comes from him. As a way of civilizing his newly made anthropomorphic animals, THE attempted to ‘recreate’ Camelot, and so Jess grew up in an environment where things like loyalty, serving others, and courage were valued.

2. But because Jess feels like she lacks courage herself, she is perpetually drawn to it in others.

We can see this with two of her longest lasting relationships: Lindsay McCabe and Carol Danvers. Both of these women are (to put it frankly) adrenaline junkies. They crave excitement and tend to be daring and put themselves in danger. Especially with Carol, there’s this fascinating and almost vicious dynamic where Jess is drawn to Carol because of her lack of fear, but then because Carol is reckless/severely lacking in the self-preservation department, Jess obsessively worries about her and tries to keep her safe. It’s the kind of addictive, co-dependent dynamic which would probably be considered unhealthy in real life but is hella fun to see on page.

But this is moving towards talking about Jess-as-a-protector territory, which I have plans to make an entirely separate post about, so I think it’s about time to wrap things up.

Some Extras:

A list of fears that Jessica Drew has been shown to have:

Dying, dying alone, being abandoned, the people she loves dying, rats, rape, rejection, people she cares about just pretending to like her, high heights, large bodies of water, outer space, Natasha Romanoff’s sadistic methods of operating, Flerkens (or at least Chewie), being controlled, losing control, telepaths

I am not going over her interpersonal/social fears here, but Jess in general tends to be anxious in situations where she feels isolated, doesn’t have any kind of control, or where she is faced with something unpredictable – thus her fear of small animals (although she is not afraid of spiders.)

She does have an intense fear of outer space, which contrasts sharply with Carol loving space and seeing it as an exciting place to explore. Jess does have some space-related trauma because she was held prisoner on an alien ship, but even without that experience, I don’t doubt she would be terrified of being in a metal container where stepping outside would mean instantly suffocating. Despite this she has gone to outer space on multiple occasions after the whole the Skrull-captivity thing, she just never has a good time.

'Villain’ version of the character that illustrates this same trait:

The Jessica Drew of Earth-001 is driven by fear/survival instinct when she becomes (‘Spider’-hunter) Morlun’s ‘lover’ to avoid becoming one of his victims. This version of the character is only looking out for herself and is not above sacrificing others to ensure her own survival.

This self-serving version of Jess actually reminds me of Karla Soren aka Moonstone – with her ‘realist’ approach of fucking people over so she doesn’t get fucked over herself. I wouldn’t say that Karla is primarily driven by fear – but like Jess she does seem to be attracted to superheroes because of qualities she sees as lacking in herself: like altruism. For this and other reasons, I think seeing more interactions between Karla and the main universe Jessica Drew would be interesting: either as enemies or uneasy allies.

Another thing I thought about with Earth-001’s version of Jess though is that the relationship between her & Morlun reminded me of the offer that the villain Morgan Le Fay made (main universe/616) Jessica Drew in her first solo series: that in exchange for Morgan’s protection from greater enemies Jess would pledge herself to be Morgan’s forever. While this offer wasn’t explicitly sexual in nature, there were definitely undertones – especially in Jess being paralleled with Sir Lancelot (a knight that Morgan greatly desired.)

Jess does (violently) refuse this offer, but not before a moment’s hesitation – so it’s not surprising that despite finding her counterpart’s actions appalling, Jess can still see herself in this other woman.

Jess describes the encounter as looking at herself naked in a funhouse mirror. She does try to find the good in her counterpart and encourages her to serve as a positive leader for her world (after Morlun and the other tyrannical Inheritors are removed from power.) But then when she goes back to her own world, (616) Jessica Drew immediately quits the Avengers – leading Natasha Romanoff to confront her, asking if something happened in that other world to make Jess question her place on the team. Jess refuses to comment.

(I do also personally think Logan’s death at around the same time probably played a part in Jess leaving the Avengers, as he was the one who first encouraged her to be an Avenger - but I will leave talking about Jess’s relationship with grief for another post.)

Anyway..