Marvel Spotlight #32 - Origin of the Spider-Woman

Spider-Woman's origin and first appearance, ever, occurred in 1978 in Marvel Spotlight #32. With the success of their Spider-Man character, Marvel Comics wanted to assure that the rights to the name, Spider-Woman, remained in their control. So, for no other reason, Spider-Man's female counterpart, Spider-Woman, was born. While the motive for creating Spider-Woman isn''t very elegant, in my opinion, the character is one of the coolest and sexiest female superheroes that Marvel has ever created. And, she's not anything like her male counterpart, Spider-Man.

One look at that first Spider-Woman cover and you know Spider-Woman is one pissed off, bad ass chick that, clearly, wants Nick Fury dead. Take a look...

On the first page, Spider-Woman is shown gliding through the sky along the Mediterranean coast towards a building that houses the Mediterranean branch of S.H.I.E.L.D (Supreme Headquarters International Law Enforcement Division). Her intent - attack S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters. The narrative reveals that she has few memories of her past life and she's not sure where her super human powers came from.

She lands on the face of the building just out of view of the an armed guard on the roof. The guard thinks he heard something, but convinces himself that he's just edgy and nervous because SHIELD's Director is in the building. Arachne (Spider-Woman) continues on with her mission...

The noise of the roaring jet engines passing overhead masks the loud thuds and she successfully gains entry into the ventilation shaft.

Meanwhile, high above the S.H.I.E.L.D. complex, hidden by clouds and ant-radar screens, a HYDRA air ship monitors Agent Arachne's progress. It's revealed that Agent Arachne is on a mission for HYDRA to assassinate Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. to further HYDRA's goal of world conquest.

While Arachne makes her way through the ventilation shaft, Nick Fury is attempting to interrogate a captured HYDRA agent. The HYDRA agent whacks Nick Fury in the face and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the room jump into action...

Fury answers back by cracking the HYDRA agent in the face knocking him to the ground. Meanwhile, Arachne, hearing the commotion, makes her way out of the ventilation shaft and towards the room that Nick Fury is in. But, first, she's got to take care of a few S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the hallway...

Arachne breaks the door of the interrogation room down to face off with Nick Fury and his entourage of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents...

The story shifts back in time to the day the Arachne girl made first contact with HYDRA.. In a small mountain village, residents attack the Arachne girl believing that she is a witch. She flees, but is forced to defend herself using a venom blast against an angry attacker. Just then, a limousine pulls up. It's Count Otto Vermis, a regional commander for HYDRA. He informs her that he's here to help and he takes her to HYDRA headquarters.

It's clear now that HYDRA is taking advantage of the Arachne girl to use her as a tool to achieve their devious plan of world domination. Unfortunately for her, she has no idea. The commander treats her like a daughter and promises to remove the dark cloud from her memory. Comforted by the commander, the Arachne girl agrees and the commander proceeds to give here a mind probe which he claims will do the job.

The commander tells the Arachne girl that the mind procedure was unsuccessful at opening the barrier in her memory. She promptly begins training under HYDRA's top combat agent.

The story shifts back to the S.H.I.E.L.D. interrogation room in which Arachne is about to blast Nick Fury with venom. It's now clear that the captured HYDRA agent is Arachne's lover, Jared, and she's on a double mission to free her lover and kill Nick Fury.

Just as Arachne fires a venom blast, Nick fury lunges out of the way and hides behind some furniture. Arachne leaps up onto the ceiling and shoots another venom blast which nearly hits him. Nick Fury runs to the chamber's control console,in an attempt to hit the alarm button hoping that other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents will come to his aid. Jared, the captured HYDRA agent, jumps on Nick Fury and prevents him from sounding the alarm. He holds on to Nick Fury to give Arachne a clear shot. Arachne fires a venom blast directly towards Nick Fury, but Fury's able to over power Jared and push him into the path of the blast. Fury, lunges to the control panel and sounds the alarm. Arachne tosses Fury onto the control panel triggering the chamber video playback system. Arachne grabs Fury and prepares to blast him with a fatal dose of venom. Just then, she realizes what's playing back on the video screen...

Arachne's emotions shift from sadness to anger. She focuses all of her attention on her new mission - revenge.. She heads to the HYDRA air ship and flies it to an abandoned monastery in the Alps where Otto and several HYDRA agents are waiting for her to complete the mission. As she approaches, Otto is anticipating that the mission was a success. Arachne has no intention of landing the air ship. She steers the craft directly towards the building below, jumps out, and glides to safety. Needless to say, the ship crashes into the building causing a huge explosion.

Vermis and the HYDRA agents are stunned and confused. Suddenly, Arachne glides through the air attacking HYDRA agents. She soon finds Otto Vermis. Vermis attempts to flee...

Vermis again attempts to flee via an emergency escape system in the building. It leads him into the deepest vaults of the building to a gate which leads outside. Just as he's reaching to open the gate, Arachne grabs hold of him and demands that he tell her the secret of who she is. Suddenly, gunshots can be heard upstairs. Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. are attacking HYDRA agents.

Vermis makes it clear that he will not share the secret of her identity unless she lets him escape. She ponders the idea and, reluctantly, agrees.

Vermis goes on to explain that she made a life for herself and even fell in love. But, one fateful day, she was sitting with her lover enjoying the day and the sudden sounds of some nearby pranksters caused her to accidentally and uncontrollably blast her lover with a lethal dose of venom.

Just then, Vermis lunges to the cockpit of his nearby air ship and tosses a toxic gas pellet towards Arachne. He flies off thinking that he's safe, but Arachne, somewhat immune to the toxic gas, manages to glide to the flying aircraft. Vermis fires some shots at her. Knowing that she might get hit with one of the bullets at anytime, she realizes what she has to do...

The craft begins heading directly towards a cliff. Arachne glides off to safety while the plane containing Vermis crashes violently into the cliff killing Vermis.

So, that wraps up the story. Clearly, Spider-Woman is a tortured soul with a very dark existence. And, it's no wonder she seems so ticked off. With a past like that, who could blame her?

Spider-Woman received her own title in 1978 which lasted for 50 issues. In the first issue of that run, Spider-Woman's origin is retold, but it's very different from the origin told in Marvel Spotlight #32. In Spider-Woman #1, Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman) is exposed to radiation and her father injects her with a spider power serum to save her life. I prefer the Marvel Spotlight #32 origin because it's weirder and more fantastic than the origin told in Spider-Woman #1.

Arachne

Another major character deviation in the Spider-Woman series from 1978 is Spider-Woman's long dark hair - See image to the right. Recall that the Arachne girl in Marvel Spotlight #32 has short blondish/auburn hair - See image to the left. Spider Woman was actually a blonde for part of one issue in the 1978 series. In Spider-Woman #1, Spider-Woman is shown with long blonde hair, but later in that issue, she dyes her hair to conceal her identity. After issue #1, Spider-Woman is depicted as a natural brunette - no mention of hair dye whatsoever. Personally, I prefer the dark hair because it's representative of the dark and mysterious character that Spider-Woman is. Plus, the dark haired Spider-Woman is sexier.

I'm not going to get into details about the 1978 series or the modified origin story in Spider-Woman #1 from 1978. Perhaps, I'll save that for another post.

Real World Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman

One thing that comes to mind when I think about Spider-Woman is - What if Jessica Drew were a real person? If I walked into an elevator that she just happened to be riding on, what would she look like? My take on this is - If Jessica Drew lived in this world, she would be absolutely smoking hot. So. who fits that profile in the real world? Well, I've seen lots of posts about Vanessa Hudgens as a realistic possibility to play Spider-Woman in a movie. So, I'll give her a lookie-see. Here's Vanessa Hudgens...

There's no doubt that Vanessa Hudgens is as beautiful as Jessica Drew (a.k.a. Spider-Woman). And, while she definitely has a high level of sex appeal, she's not bodacious enough to match up with my perception of Jessica Drew.

I'm thinking a real world Jessica Drew would look like this woman, Lanny Barbie...

Not too shabby. Lanny Barbie is very close to my perception of what Jessica Drew would look like in the real world. And, I must admit, that if I did walk into an elevator and the real world Jessica Drew were in it, hopefully it would get stuck between floors for a few hours - that is, as long as she didn't blast me with any venom or anything like that.

Since I'm at the tail end of this post, I'll leave you with some fitting images...

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