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Marvel Masterworks: Spider-Woman #1
Marvel Masterworks: Spider-Woman, Vol. 1
Jessica Drew debuts as Spider-Woman in her inaugural Marvel Masterworks! Raised within the arms of the terrorist group Hydra, Jessica was taught to see the world from their twisted point of view, and became a top agent in their international criminal network. But when her path crossed with Nick Fury and the Thing, she began to break the bonds of her indoctrination, becoming her own woman - and soon, an incomparable Marvel hero! COLLECTING: MARVEL SPOTLIGHT (1971) 32, MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE (1974) 29-33, SPIDER-WOMAN (1978) 1-8
272 pages, Hardcover
First published November 24, 2015
32 people are currently reading
95 people want to read
About the author
Marv Wolfman
2,308 books306 followersMarvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 16, 2022
Blimey, our beloved Jessica Drew got off to a bit of a shaky start, didn’t she? There’s some decent stuff in here but there are some real dog ends of stories, too.
I guess it doesn’t bode well when your origin story has been retconned once already before you even get your own title… Personally, I liked her original origin (heh) but they didn’t have the guts to stick with it; a shame.
I guess it doesn’t bode well when your origin story has been retconned once already before you even get your own title… Personally, I liked her original origin (heh) but they didn’t have the guts to stick with it; a shame.
November 1, 2020
Jessica Drew started out as a spider, “evolved up” by the High Evolutionary into humanoid form? And all she got from that genetic heritage was an ability to stick to walls (through gloves, that won’t also allow her “venom blasts” to transmit through)?
Let’s break this down - spiders have (a) lots of eyes, (b) eight legs, (c) spinnerets, (d) cilia or micro-hooks to cling to any surface - and out of all that, the most useful think H.E. thought to keep was (d)? He’s not even *trying* to use his knowledge of evolutionary mechanics to make something useful. Why not eyes on the end of four extra legs? Eyes on the end of mini legs like on a T. Rex? Spinnerets on extra legs? Spinnerets that shoot out webs with eyes on them?
And where do these venom blasts come from? How do venom sacs near your jaws turn into the ability to shoot life-draining energy at will from your hands? Does this energy vibrate on the same plane as the chemical venom? And if he’s got the ability to evolve animals with this many leaps of logic, why not be able to project hundreds of eyes around yourself with your mind? Or to project silky webs from your feet and hands and eyes? (Hmmm, that last one might be trademarked...)
All such questions that get thoroughly upended when we see what Hydra hath wrought of Alicia Masters with another magical vial of chemical serum.
Speaking of, Ben Grimm makes many appearances at the beginnings of Spider-Woman’s intro to the 616 - in these Spotlight and Two-In-One issues - and he has a ridiculous number of mental conversations with himself over how he’d make a relationship work with Alicia Masters. One imagined future in particular caught my eye, “Meet my husband, the orange monster! An our kids — rock-head and stone-face!”
Which brings up uncomfortable questions about sexual reproduction - if Ben’s covered in rocky orange growths, does that mean his privates too? Is he effectively “ribbed for her pleasure”?
And that has nothing on his ejaculate - is that stoney too? Or very small stones, like sand? Is it like a concrete slurry, or just lumpy bits like rabbit turds? And even if Alicia could endure that gynaecological nightmare, just how the hell would a rocky spermatozoa penetrate the egg without shredding it?
But back to Jessica’s evolutionary origins - turns out the High Evolutionary was a fabrication - Gerry Conway retconned that origin as soon as Jess got her own book.
This time her origin is in...lemme see if I got this straight: a polyamorous but platonic triad dedicated to combining the powers of evolution and arachnid sciences to evolve humanity “capable of living in tomorrow’s world of over-pollution and radiation”.
Then when Jessica is inevitably exposed to radiation sickness from nearby uranium (who in the early days of Marvel *wasn’t* a victim of super-powered radiation origins?) and can only be cured with a Spider Extract one of the men has dedicated his life to perfecting!
And somehow radiation-poisoned Jessica could be cured, but her hysteria-besotted mother just up and dies from the strain - in one panel, no attempts to spider-boost her or anything. (What does this say about the men in her idyllic life?) Immediately after which her father just up and disappears, and the other dude *becomes* the High Evolutionary.
Damn was continuity fungible in the 70’s.
As was scientific literacy: there’s a subplot where someone gets hit with “laser radiation”, then Jessica Drew donates her blood to aid his recovery, “to help you resist the laser radiation”. Sorry, but even if her blood resisted alpha, beta or gamma radiation, that has nothing to do with laser light (just well-tuned red light waves). Morons.
In the formative issues of Spider-Woman, Jessica struggles with her identity as a human-spider hybrid, whether her secret identity is an actual identity, and plenty of struggles not to laugh out loud at the ridiculously one-dimensional villains she’s up against.
Actually I shouldn’t give Brother Grimm short shrift - he’s a complex (or at least unpredictable to the point of resembling random ideas pulled from the junk drawer) guy. Sometimes threatening to kill you or steal all your valuables, other times entering a battle with a hearty “Tra-la!” - and sometimes just booking it for no reason conveyed on the page.
Hangman is retarded though - his gimmick is executioner of petty criminals, but if he’s gonna string them up for their crimes, either he needs to retrieve the noose each time, or needs to carry an assload of rope. Walking away ropeless after the first hung dude (snicker) is just short-sighted.
By issue 5, Stan or Marv hit on a new tag line for the cover: “To know her is to fear her”. This one comes out of nowhere but a sudden desire to hype the shit out of her (or maybe someone caught wind of the Man-Thing/Swamp Thing feud going on).
And it’s also in this issue that the art team steps it up - no more “solid black smudges” under S-W’s boobs (no matter where the light source), no more pointy black nipples in every second shot, and some actual shading to really make Carmine Infantino’s pencils pop!
Here too the villainry steps it up, so we see both and Werewolf by Night. This book provides quite a tour of the 70’s Marvel pantheon, doesn’t it? Bill Foster even cameos, appropo of nothing at all.
All in all an auspicious debut for a character who’s only become more interesting throughout the years, and while the 70’s-ish dialogue and laughable “falls in love with her pursuer” subplot’s a little “yeesh“, it’s still leagues better than Stan’s ham-fisted attempts at romance.
Honestly the most troubling thing about reading this book is Marvel Unlimited has only a handful of other random issues from the 78-83 run of this book, which is sorely disappointing. I’m dying to see how Jessica’s pursuit of her father’s murder, the PyroTechnics villainous corporation and Jess’s search for her identity as a woman would progress.
Let’s break this down - spiders have (a) lots of eyes, (b) eight legs, (c) spinnerets, (d) cilia or micro-hooks to cling to any surface - and out of all that, the most useful think H.E. thought to keep was (d)? He’s not even *trying* to use his knowledge of evolutionary mechanics to make something useful. Why not eyes on the end of four extra legs? Eyes on the end of mini legs like on a T. Rex? Spinnerets on extra legs? Spinnerets that shoot out webs with eyes on them?
And where do these venom blasts come from? How do venom sacs near your jaws turn into the ability to shoot life-draining energy at will from your hands? Does this energy vibrate on the same plane as the chemical venom? And if he’s got the ability to evolve animals with this many leaps of logic, why not be able to project hundreds of eyes around yourself with your mind? Or to project silky webs from your feet and hands and eyes? (Hmmm, that last one might be trademarked...)
All such questions that get thoroughly upended when we see what Hydra hath wrought of Alicia Masters with another magical vial of chemical serum.
Speaking of, Ben Grimm makes many appearances at the beginnings of Spider-Woman’s intro to the 616 - in these Spotlight and Two-In-One issues - and he has a ridiculous number of mental conversations with himself over how he’d make a relationship work with Alicia Masters. One imagined future in particular caught my eye, “Meet my husband, the orange monster! An our kids — rock-head and stone-face!”
Which brings up uncomfortable questions about sexual reproduction - if Ben’s covered in rocky orange growths, does that mean his privates too? Is he effectively “ribbed for her pleasure”?
And that has nothing on his ejaculate - is that stoney too? Or very small stones, like sand? Is it like a concrete slurry, or just lumpy bits like rabbit turds? And even if Alicia could endure that gynaecological nightmare, just how the hell would a rocky spermatozoa penetrate the egg without shredding it?
But back to Jessica’s evolutionary origins - turns out the High Evolutionary was a fabrication - Gerry Conway retconned that origin as soon as Jess got her own book.
This time her origin is in...lemme see if I got this straight: a polyamorous but platonic triad dedicated to combining the powers of evolution and arachnid sciences to evolve humanity “capable of living in tomorrow’s world of over-pollution and radiation”.
Then when Jessica is inevitably exposed to radiation sickness from nearby uranium (who in the early days of Marvel *wasn’t* a victim of super-powered radiation origins?) and can only be cured with a Spider Extract one of the men has dedicated his life to perfecting!
And somehow radiation-poisoned Jessica could be cured, but her hysteria-besotted mother just up and dies from the strain - in one panel, no attempts to spider-boost her or anything. (What does this say about the men in her idyllic life?) Immediately after which her father just up and disappears, and the other dude *becomes* the High Evolutionary.
Damn was continuity fungible in the 70’s.
As was scientific literacy: there’s a subplot where someone gets hit with “laser radiation”, then Jessica Drew donates her blood to aid his recovery, “to help you resist the laser radiation”. Sorry, but even if her blood resisted alpha, beta or gamma radiation, that has nothing to do with laser light (just well-tuned red light waves). Morons.
In the formative issues of Spider-Woman, Jessica struggles with her identity as a human-spider hybrid, whether her secret identity is an actual identity, and plenty of struggles not to laugh out loud at the ridiculously one-dimensional villains she’s up against.
Actually I shouldn’t give Brother Grimm short shrift - he’s a complex (or at least unpredictable to the point of resembling random ideas pulled from the junk drawer) guy. Sometimes threatening to kill you or steal all your valuables, other times entering a battle with a hearty “Tra-la!” - and sometimes just booking it for no reason conveyed on the page.
Hangman is retarded though - his gimmick is executioner of petty criminals, but if he’s gonna string them up for their crimes, either he needs to retrieve the noose each time, or needs to carry an assload of rope. Walking away ropeless after the first hung dude (snicker) is just short-sighted.
By issue 5, Stan or Marv hit on a new tag line for the cover: “To know her is to fear her”. This one comes out of nowhere but a sudden desire to hype the shit out of her (or maybe someone caught wind of the Man-Thing/Swamp Thing feud going on).
And it’s also in this issue that the art team steps it up - no more “solid black smudges” under S-W’s boobs (no matter where the light source), no more pointy black nipples in every second shot, and some actual shading to really make Carmine Infantino’s pencils pop!
Here too the villainry steps it up, so we see both and Werewolf by Night. This book provides quite a tour of the 70’s Marvel pantheon, doesn’t it? Bill Foster even cameos, appropo of nothing at all.
All in all an auspicious debut for a character who’s only become more interesting throughout the years, and while the 70’s-ish dialogue and laughable “falls in love with her pursuer” subplot’s a little “yeesh“, it’s still leagues better than Stan’s ham-fisted attempts at romance.
Honestly the most troubling thing about reading this book is Marvel Unlimited has only a handful of other random issues from the 78-83 run of this book, which is sorely disappointing. I’m dying to see how Jessica’s pursuit of her father’s murder, the PyroTechnics villainous corporation and Jess’s search for her identity as a woman would progress.
December 3, 2020
The 1970s was a weird and wondrous time for Marvel comics. They did some interesting thing with existing heroes and a whole batch of new superheroes came out. Of course you had the whole supernatural/horror thing going on and the martial arts fever running through 1970s culture (odd that no one ever combined these into a Kung Fu Zombie comic). Then there are some cool and odd SiFi influenced comic heroes appearing. Spider-Woman is one of the. Good solid SiFi origins that make her not just a opposite gender version of the flagship Spider-Man title. Good different read. Recommended
August 25, 2022
For a collection about a female super hero, she is in it less than the male super heroes. And of course, all the women hate her :eye roll:
March 29, 2016
Honestly it's mediocre material given star treatment. Still, it is essential reading if you're a fan of Spider-woman but she didn't really get a chance to shine until well after the Dark Ages of Comic Books.
January 13, 2025
Spider-Woman suffers the most from Marvel's 70s policy of "quick, do a female version of a character before someone steals the copyright." Her origin focuses more on SHIELD and HYDRA than her and then gets retconned in her third story because she had amnesia and now remembers it differently, and she then follows The Thing around aimlessly for 5 issues of his comic that are the worst kind of "Marvel Manner" draw it first and write a story later filler. But once she gets her own title the stories settle into an intriguingly different mixture of angst, murder mystery and the supernatural and are better than the easy "Spider-Man but a woman" approach would have been. Even with the weird stalkerish boyfriend and cor blimey, guv'nor, what a pea souper depiction of 70s England!
April 15, 2021
Updated Review:
I reread this because I finally received volume 2 and wanted to refresh my memory on what happened. Still stand by the original rating though. Her origin is tweaked a few times in the first two issues, as if they had an idea and then changed their minds. The middle stories are "out there", bringing in "ghosts" and magic. One odd character is the Hangman, who is basically an early version of the Punisher, but has this very strange idea of protecting women by tying them up and kidnapping them.
I know it was the time period, but the way women are referred to is very dated and sexist. The relationship between Jessica and Jerry is forced without any explanation and very ridiculous. Here's hoping that's explained in the next volume.
Because of her origin, Jessica doesn't know much about the world and she is also riddled with self-doubt and a questioning nature of who and what she really is. While this gives her some depth, it gets brought up a lot. Thankfully, by the end of this volume, much of that is resolved.
Original Review:
There's a lot of potential in this first material for Spider-Woman, but Wolfman admits in the foreward (and he's correct) that it's a little directionless. The initial overall arc is SW trying to figure out who she is as well as who murdered her father and it eventually gets there but feels very rushed. Each issue just feels like a "lets try this!" to see if it works but ends up with varied success and none of it really outstanding. Her initial origin is pretty good and fits the Marvel formula but it needs a better job developing her character over time. Apparently the next volume does it much better.
I reread this because I finally received volume 2 and wanted to refresh my memory on what happened. Still stand by the original rating though. Her origin is tweaked a few times in the first two issues, as if they had an idea and then changed their minds. The middle stories are "out there", bringing in "ghosts" and magic. One odd character is the Hangman, who is basically an early version of the Punisher, but has this very strange idea of protecting women by tying them up and kidnapping them.
I know it was the time period, but the way women are referred to is very dated and sexist. The relationship between Jessica and Jerry is forced without any explanation and very ridiculous. Here's hoping that's explained in the next volume.
Because of her origin, Jessica doesn't know much about the world and she is also riddled with self-doubt and a questioning nature of who and what she really is. While this gives her some depth, it gets brought up a lot. Thankfully, by the end of this volume, much of that is resolved.
Original Review:
There's a lot of potential in this first material for Spider-Woman, but Wolfman admits in the foreward (and he's correct) that it's a little directionless. The initial overall arc is SW trying to figure out who she is as well as who murdered her father and it eventually gets there but feels very rushed. Each issue just feels like a "lets try this!" to see if it works but ends up with varied success and none of it really outstanding. Her initial origin is pretty good and fits the Marvel formula but it needs a better job developing her character over time. Apparently the next volume does it much better.
May 23, 2016
I always loved this character but never read a single issue of Spider-Woman before reading this volume. Why did I like her? Her visual design is amazing, no pun intended. Looks a little lame before they changed the head gear and let out her hair, since then Marvel has changed the design a few times and each time was a mistake. Anyway, the stories are cool too once you get past the Marvel Two in One issues which, frankly, read like a group of people put the plots together as a continuous game of mad libs. Although I like the ongoing series, I can only recommend them to someone who is a fan of 1970's Marvel superhero comics. Marv Wolfman's writing distinguishes this from other team comics going on at the same time.
November 25, 2023
This was quite a task. Marv Wolfman as a comic book writer has had a stellar run that includes such powerful hits as The New Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and a ton of other series that have resonated for so long. And then there's these Maverl Two-in-One and Spider-Woman runs-- They were painful to read. It was verbose, repeating over and over ideas like an echo, even jokes that weren't even funny the first time around. His Ben Grimm had some endearing moments, but then there was this "Alicia is the only good thing in my life, I'm worthless" thing that went on and on and on ad nauseum. Such things have changed with the times, but in 2023 it gets hard to relate with such a pitiful character. With Spider-Woman, there was this insistence of other characters calling her "gorgeous" that made me constantly cringe. And then, plots that kept on going without a pace, without a care, even giving you the idea that some of the ideas simply got lost in the way (at this point I don't know if some of those threads will get addressed at some point; so far, it doesn't look like it). And don't get me started on the "horror" feel that got forced into the title at some point just because it was the cool thing at some point in the 70s.
Anyway. All things considered, there was also this thing about Spider-Woman that set her apart and that made her resonate so strongly that even today, she's still around. She was a brooding, independent female super-hero that didn't rely on her beauty or her flirt or her constant fainting to earn a place in the macho Marvel Universe of those days. I think this is what made her relevant and why she kept coming back, no matter how many other Spider-Women we had through the years.
The latest version of Jessica Drew, in the series by Karla Pacheco and Pere Pérez, gave us a much different and way more developed character, but all the roots of this character were planted back in those weird 70s.
Anyway. All things considered, there was also this thing about Spider-Woman that set her apart and that made her resonate so strongly that even today, she's still around. She was a brooding, independent female super-hero that didn't rely on her beauty or her flirt or her constant fainting to earn a place in the macho Marvel Universe of those days. I think this is what made her relevant and why she kept coming back, no matter how many other Spider-Women we had through the years.
The latest version of Jessica Drew, in the series by Karla Pacheco and Pere Pérez, gave us a much different and way more developed character, but all the roots of this character were planted back in those weird 70s.
April 10, 2023
I'm not familiar with Spider-Woman but she was on sale so here I go. After several origin stories we get to the gist of things. Jessica Drew is a woman with no memory, which allows her to be manipulated by the evil organization of Hydra. As she starts to figure things out, Jessica turns against her former masters and goes in search of her past. Is she now a hero? Well, she's not trying to kill anybody anymore. If your bar is that low then yes, she's a hero.
What are her powers? Her breasts defy gravity (a Marvel staple) and her hair seems to have a mind of its own. She can stick to walls but really she does more gliding. She never uses webbing but her hands can shoot bolts of venom. As spider people go, she isn't very spidery. I was going to say how I didn't see any real purpose for the character. Then I read how this comic was just a placeholder so no one else could create a Spider-Woman comic.
What are her powers? Her breasts defy gravity (a Marvel staple) and her hair seems to have a mind of its own. She can stick to walls but really she does more gliding. She never uses webbing but her hands can shoot bolts of venom. As spider people go, she isn't very spidery. I was going to say how I didn't see any real purpose for the character. Then I read how this comic was just a placeholder so no one else could create a Spider-Woman comic.
May 16, 2021
I had picked up the individual issues of the early days of Spider-Woman some time back and only go around to reading them now. And beyond my initial encounters with Jessica Drew in the animated TV series, I really wasn't expecting the particular tone of this original comic series.
Beyond her being based in England, what was particularly surprising was how her early stories had a distinct magical slant to them including her working with Morgan, who really felt like he could be Merlin, at least in this first volume. These early stories had her fighting all sorts of supernatural threats and seem so far away from what we would encounter with her later on as some top-notch agent of SHIELD and other things. Her original hair wasn't even black! What sorcery is this?
The writing feels a little archaic by modern standards, but it still makes for interesting reading.
Beyond her being based in England, what was particularly surprising was how her early stories had a distinct magical slant to them including her working with Morgan, who really felt like he could be Merlin, at least in this first volume. These early stories had her fighting all sorts of supernatural threats and seem so far away from what we would encounter with her later on as some top-notch agent of SHIELD and other things. Her original hair wasn't even black! What sorcery is this?
The writing feels a little archaic by modern standards, but it still makes for interesting reading.
April 7, 2020
Eh, rather mediocre Bronze Age Marvel. Wolfman is wordy as hell and writes so much the artwork gets covered up in places. Then there is a bizarre plot involving her father's murder that is resolved in a quick, sloppy manner.
Infantino's art is serviceable but missing the sleek touch from his early Silver Age DC work on Flash and Adam Stranger.
Infantino's art is serviceable but missing the sleek touch from his early Silver Age DC work on Flash and Adam Stranger.
June 1, 2017
Spider-Woman
Enter a very different kind of spider hero.. this lengthy collection delves into Spider-woman's confused past and early adventuring days..
Enter a very different kind of spider hero.. this lengthy collection delves into Spider-woman's confused past and early adventuring days..
August 29, 2021
Solid comic-book plots and scripting. Carmine Infantino's arwork is beautiful.
January 4, 2022
Fantastic!!!
A great look at the origin and early adventures of my favorite Marvel hero. The art work and writing are awesome.
A great look at the origin and early adventures of my favorite Marvel hero. The art work and writing are awesome.
June 19, 2022
A rough beginning for Spider-Woman. There's not much to say here. What little promise it started with was quickly squandered.
November 15, 2020
I think it's so weird to introduce a Spider-Woman and never even mention Spider-Man. Regardless, this is a pretty fun set of issues. Jessica's background is convoluted and these issues begin to see it untangle. I'd read more.
We go a little deeper over on the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/ep...
We go a little deeper over on the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/ep...
April 9, 2024
Loved the origin story and the overall thing, but some of the side quests I did not care for
April 3, 2017
I love the character of Spider Woman, but these stories were all over the place. It's decent if your a fan, but if you're reading for interest, pick something else.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews