WHO'S GOT A SECRET IN SECRET INVASION? – Episode #3.2 – Spider-Woman PART II
by Bruce! MacIntosh

Spider-Woman was, but back in 1978 her form-fitting red bodysuit was all that was needed to make her an instant hit with teenage male readers, so she was soon awarded her own series. The comic lasted four years, but the Arachnid Avenger has endured to this day, and plays arguably the most important role in Secret Invasion. In this Episode, we'll look at the second half of Jessica Drew's superhero career – from when she rose from the dead to how she came to work for Hydra, S.H.I.E.L.D., the New Avengers, the Mighty Avengers, Nick Fury and maybe even the Skrulls – all at the same time.


FIRST TWO ORIGIN STORIES
Did you know that the first Spider-Woman was originally not human, but an evolved spider? That was the conceit of her origin story in Marvel Spotlight #32 (Feb 1977), which created the character simply so Marvel could secure the rights to the character name before a cartoon stole it away. That first story showed Spider-Woman (no civilian name, but code-named "Arachne") sent by Hydra to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and assassinate Nick Fury. She came to her senses before killing the secret agent, and then went to hang out with the High Evolutionary.

The only male character besides Cosmic Boy who could get away with wearing pink, the High Evolutionary could identify with Arachne, since he had his own nasty habit of synthesizing half-animal, half-human creatures. Unfortunately, High E's other "New Men" ostracized the girl, causing her to flee to the neighboring countryside of Wundagore. The evil organization Hydra took her in and reprogrammed her to use her abilities for its own nefarious purposes.

In Marvel Two-In-One #29 – 33 (Jul – Nov 1977, the Thing's team-up book) Mordred the Mystic revealed to the now-named Jessica that was actually human and the notion that she was merely an evolved spider had been the result of Hydra brainwashing. In Spider-Woman #1 (Apr 1978), we learned that by the time she was eight, she had been radiation-poisoned by the Uranium-rich soil of Wundagore. Her scientist father then used his spider-derived regenerative formula to cure her, and attempted to intensify the curative effects with a genetic accelerator invented by Dr. Herbert Wyndham. Jessica was in stasis for over four decades until she emerged having aged only to apparently 14 years old. Wyndham – now calling himself the High Evolutionary – took care of her. Something about her really "bugged" her fellow Wundagorians, and they banished her to the cold, cruel world alone.

One of her first foes was the sorceress Morgan LeFay, from the 6th Century Arthurian legend. LeFay's disciple Magnus befriended Jessica and eventually played a role in several of her adventures. Magnus early on advised her to move from London to Los Angeles, where she learned that not only could she fire bioelectric "venom blasts" to battle her foes, but also emanated unique pheromones that attracted men while it disgusted and repelled women. (This is the power I suspect "she" is using against Tony Stark in Secret Invasion #3, but for what purpose is currently a mystery.)

She learned that her father's killer was from the Hatros Institute, so she got a job as a secretary there. From Hatros, she was able to obtain the medications necessary to suppress the pheromones that are making half the population want to jump her and the other half want to, well… jump her. She lost that job and was about to resort to a life of crime to survive, until encountering Spider-Man, who advised her to use her abilities to help people. So she went to work at the FBI as a bounty huntress, and then moved to San Francisco to work as a private investigator.

Avengers Connections

Although she had her own series, looking back it seems that Marvel didn't know exactly what to do with Spider-Woman. As reader interest – and sales – of her series dwindled in the early 80s, she crossed over into the Avengers universe several times, thus establishing her connection with the team which would become so important a quarter-century later.

Spider-Woman played a key role in Avengers Annual #10 (1981), helping the team defeat the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. This story was actually supposed to be a spotlight for Ms. Marvel, which was supposed to take place after Ms. Marvel #25. Unfortunately, that title was cancelled with Issue #23, but would have been really good – because it told how Rogue stole Ms. Marvel's powers. (Which is why the two were duking it out in the current Ms. Marvel title, a couple of years ago… if you follow these things.)

In Avengers #221 (July 1982), Jessica was called by the Wasp to take in the amenities at the Avengers Mansion. The roster was depleted and it was time for the team's periodic membership drive. Wasp wanted to inject more of a feminine presence in the squad, so she invited Jessica to try out – along with Dazzler, Sue Richards and Black Widow.

A D-List nutcase in a robotic exo-suit appeared and started tearing up the flower beds outside, and the group of invited heroines took off rather than break a nail against the kook. (It really was an odd scene – they really didn't even help the Wasp!) She-Hulk showed up late and made short work of the menace, and for her troubles was appointed the new female initiate to the team. (Hawkeye also rejoined the team at this time.)


Down and Out, and Back Again
The Spider-Woman series lasted for only 50 issues until it was canceled in 1982, due to plummeting sales - partially caused by a revolving door of creators and inconsistent storytelling. Marvel editorial appointed Ann Nocenti the task of killing her off – but with the same dignity that Marv Wolfman gave the character when he wrote her series' first stories. To complete the circle, Nocenti brought back the villain Wolfman created as Spider-Woman's first foe, Morgan LeFay. In the Spider-Woman series' final adventure, LeFay was defeated but Spider-Woman was seemingly killed.

Magnus erased all traces of Jessica Drew and Spider-Woman from comics, but not from the hearts of fans – who clamored for the character's return. So, in Avengers #240-241 (Feb – Mar 1984) Tigra and the Shroud discovered that Jessica was not actually dead, but a disembodied specter floating in the Astral Plane. They frantically notified the Avengers, who enlisted the help of Dr. Strange and the Scarlet Witch. The two Masters of Magicks tried to preserve Jessica's moribund body in a hospital bed, while helping her defeat the sorceress LeFay in the Astral realm. In the end, it was Magnus – also trapped in that mystic dimension - who sacrificed himself to defeat LeFay and return Jessica's spirit to her body. Jessica Drew was again alive – but her Spider-Woman powers had mysteriously disappeared.


Spider-Women Everywhere, but Nary a Web to Weave
Jessica Drew puttered around in the background of the Marvel Universe, but without powers she was pretty useless. In one story, the Black Blade possessed her and forced her to go up against Wolverine (Wolverine #2, Dec 1988). It was here we learned that Jessica's powers would return. She would then assist Wolverine on several adventures early in his own comic (through Wolverine #16, Dec 1989) in exotic locations such as the east-Asian country of Madripoor. (She also dropped in to Wolvy's title a decade later – with a few dozen other guest-stars – just to make sure we didn't forget about her.)

While Jessica Drew was essentially out of the limelight, Marvel certainly didn't want to let the code name go to waste, so everyone and their Entomologist got to be Spider-Woman. Jessica got trapped in a magical dimension and was sprung by the second Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter. Later, just when Jessica started to get her powers back, they got stolen by a costumed villain who called herself Spider-Woman (Charlotte Witter). Jessica, the second Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter), and a third Spider-Woman (Mattie Franklin) went after the villain Spider-Woman to get the powers back. Unfortunately, it was Mattie who absorbed the powers, which left Jessica merely human once again. (Spider-Woman vol. 2, #1 - #18, 1999 – 2000.)

Spider-Woman: Origin
Brian Michael Bendis and Brian Reed wrote, and Jonathan and Joshua Luna did the artistic chores on the 2006 five-issue series, Spider-Woman: Origin. This series re-told and revised the Spider-Woman origin, bringing it into the 21st Century. (Remember that her second origin – the one that "stuck" for three decades prior to this – told of her birth some time in the 1930s, and then being held in suspended animation for 40 or more years.)

In this new story, Jessica's parents were scientists working for Hydra in the vaguely Balkan country of Wundagore, to isolate and graft onto human genes the adaptive powers of spiders. While Jessica was still in the womb, her mother was struck by a laser blast with the genetic traits of different species of spiders. Jessica began exhibiting special abilities as a child, and then fell into a coma after accidentally blasting her parents.

Hydra put her in a sensory deprivation tank that accelerated her powers, until she arose 11 years later - with the mind of a 7-year-old in the body of a superhuman teenager. Jessica was trained and her spider-derived powers were cultivated, under the care of the seemingly benevolent Otto Vermis, a retired Hydra agent. (Her parents were inexplicably missing.)


One day, Nick Fury and some other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents busted into the Hydra compound where Jessica trained under the Taskmaster. She flipped when Fury punched out her boyfriend, but the Howling Commando was able to calm her. He then give her a tour of the real Hydra base behind the scenes of the virtual movie set that was her life. Fury showed her that her boyfriend was really only following Hydra orders when he hooked up with her, and that Hydra was really a terrorist group and not a charitable relief organization.

Jessica escaped, to be found by Hydra months later living La Vida Loca in London. When they tried to retrieve her, she blew up their entire local operation. Two years later, Fury tracked her down at an unnamed college (Wundagore U?) and offered her a job with S.H.I.E.L.D. and promised to take care of the nightmares caused by her Hydra brainwashing. He also revealed that her parents were still alive, and offered to help her locate them.

She located her mother – but not before Hydra could kill her. In her mother's apartment, she finds Hydra research papers about the "Athena Device", an apparent reference to the experiments that gave her spider powers and ruined her life. Then, before blowing him up, she seduces the disgusting old vulture, Otto Vermis to find the whereabouts of her father.

She tracked Daddy down, still working for Hydra, but he is only concerned about her genetics. So she also blew up that Hydra base. Naturally, S.H.I.E.L.D. was there to pull her out of the wreckage, and when she recovered Fury again offered her work in their spy group. Jessica refused the official invitation, but gave him her private investigator business card and told him she would never refuse if he asked for a favor.

New Avengers
In 2005, Brian Bendis started writing the new Avengers comic, appropriately entitled New Avengers. With sexy covers and interiors by David Finch and eventually even sexier art by Frank Cho, fanboys suddenly remembered what they always liked about Spider-Woman and the title rocketed to a permanent spot in the Sales Top 10. But if you think her background was complicated before, this is where things started to get really weird.

As the series began, we found out that Jessica's powers had faded at some time in the past. She finally accepted Fury's offer work for S.H.I.E.L.D, and was appointed to security detail on The Raft, the super-level security prison for metahuman bad guys.

Next, she was seduced by an offer by Hydra to repair her genetic make-up and restore her Spider-Woman powers. (For more details about the operation, see the Spoiler Warning, below.) To ensure her loyalty, Hydra built in a switch that could shut off those powers. They assigned her to spy on S.H.I.E.L.D.

After a multi-part story involving a super prison riot on The Raft, Jessica pulled the Spider-Woman costume out of mothballs and joined with Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Luke Cage to form the New Avengers. (The others probably would not have approved of her affiliation with the terrorist group Hydra, had they known.)


But wait! In a recent issue of Mighty Avengers (#12, Jun 2008) we learned that it was really Nick Fury who had encouraged her to go undercover with Hydra. Fury himself had been missing for months following the events of the previous event, Secret War, and wanted Drew to spread false intelligence to both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra.

Civil War
Jessica was starting to feel the weight of being a triple-agent, especially when the team encountered the Viper (former Madame Hydra) in Japan, and her cover was almost blown six ways from Sunday. She broke down and revealed her Hydra affiliation to her teammate on the New Avengers, Captain America. This mutual trust (and the fact that she was screwed without the support of Fury, now gone from S.H.I.E.L.D.) was the impetus for Jessica's siding with Captain America's underground group in Civil War.

Well, there was also the fact that Tony Stark (Iron Man) found out about the deception and ratted out Jessica to Maria Hill, Fury's replacement as Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Hill arrested Jessica, who would still be rotting in the Negative Zone had Hydra not busted her out. Her contact in Hydra tried to persuade Jessica to overthrow the unstable Viper and replace her as Madame Hydra. Naturally, Jessica declined the offer and – you guessed it – blew up the Hydra compound.

When Iron Man's pro-registration side won the Civil War and Captain America was killed (oops – spoilers!) Spider-Woman continued to fight crime and terror with the rest of her compatriots with the Secret Avengers: Wolverine, Luke Cage, Dr. Strange and Iron Fist.

Secret Invasion
The Secret Avengers found out that their former compatriot Ronin (Maya Lopez, f.k.a. Echo) had been kidnapped in Japan by the crime organization, The Hand. So, they scooted off to the Land of the Rising Sun to rescue her. Upon arriving, the team learned that Ronin had already been killed and resurrected by Elektra, to convert her to the evil organization. During an epic ninja battle, Ronin was momentarily freed from her mental thrall, and killed Elektra. But the body that falls to the ground was not the human Elektra, but a Skrull!

On the Quinjet ride back to the U.S., the team considered all the possibilities: If Elektra-Skrull's subterfuge was undetectable, then any hero could be a Skrull! In fact, anyone on their own team could be one of those stinkin' green aliens. There could be hundreds, if not thousands of Skrulls in all official and unofficial capacities. It could be a full-scale invasion – one that no one knew about. Sort of a… Secret Invasion!

Jessica suggested that they take the body to Tony Stark, which didn't go over well with the rest of the members in their underground operation. The plane lost power and crashed, knocking out everyone except Spider-Woman and Wolverine. Jessica then venom-blasted Logan and knocked him out, leaving her free to take the body of Elektra-Skrull to Stark.

Tony then realized how deep this thing could go. He believed Jessica's actions warranted his confidence in her, but beyond that he doesn't know who else he could trust – even on his team of the New Avengers. Tony re-installed Spider-Woman on that "official" group of Avengers, to keep an eye on the other members.

At the beginning of the Invasion proper, Tony Stark called Jessica to tell her that a Skrull ship has crashed in the Savage Land, the Antarctic oasis that is the go-to site for unusual activity. Rather than notifying the official Avengers, Jessica rang up her former team of Mighty Avengers and advised Luke Cage to grab an Avengers Quinjet and get to the Savage Land, pronto! Although the Secret Avengers stole the Quinjet right off the Avengers' rooftop, the two teams – including Jessica with the registered Avengers – somehow arrived in the Antarctic almost simultaneously to confront a ship full of retro versions of themselves and other Marvel heroes.

CONCLUSION
So, now's a good time to get out our Spider-Woman scorecard: First, she joined Hydra. (Agent) Then she joined S.H.I.E.L.D., ostensibly to spy on them for Hydra. (Double Agent.) Then Nick Fury went into hiding and Drew continues to secretly work for him, because he knew something was rotten in Denmark, er - S.H.I.E.L.D. (Triple Agent.) Then she got her membership card to the New Avengers. (Quadruple Agent). Then she went underground with the Mighty Avengers in Civil War. (Quintuple Agent). Then she went back to Tony Stark with a Skrull body, and he re-installed her into the New Avengers. (Sextuple Agent.) Does your head hurt as bad as mine?

It gets better. But beware of the…

***SPOILER WARNING*** (If you haven't read Secret Invasion #3, or New Avengers #42, or just like surprises.)

Is Spider-Woman a Skrull? Secret Invasion's writer, Brian Michael Bendis wants you to think Jessica Drew herself is actually a green-skinned baddie in disguise. As we learned in Episode #2 of Who's Got a Secret in Secret Invasion?, the last page of New Avengers #40 was a doozey, because it seemed to reveal that Spider-Woman was really the Skrull Queen, who had been planted in the superhero community early on in the Skrull Infiltration.

As mentioned above, in Mighty Avengers #12 Nick Fury encouraged Jessica Drew to go really undercover and let Hydra restore her powers. Unfortunately for her, the Hydra agents were really disguised Skrulls! (New Avengers #42, now out.) When they put her under anesthesia, the Skrull surgeons dropped their disguise and started extracting her Spider-Woman powered DNA to instill in their Queen. So, the point is now, this Spider-Woman has been a double-secret Skrull since soon after going to see Nick Fury. In Issue #3 of Secret Invasion, Spider-Woman put the moves on Tony Stark who was "feverishly" attempting to build a new set of armor. (Skrull-Jarvis immobilized the Iron Avenger by planting a computer virus in all Stark technology.) With her mask down, revealing the face of Jessica Drew (not a Skrull) Spider-Woman keeps going on to the febrile Stark that his "work is done" on Earth and that he now has her undying love as his Skrull Queen. Is Iron Man a Skrull, too – just waiting for the key words to unlock his hidden identity? Or – since New Avengers #42 did not show the ultimate fate of the "real" post-op Jessica Drew (dead or alive?) – is this the human Jessica Drew – who is using her spider-pheromones to test the weakened Tony Stark? Or are they both Skrulls? Or both human – and this entire exchange is just another red herring by Bendis to throw readers off the trail? We'll have to keep buying Secret Invasion and the cross-overs and minis to find out. But unlike some of the other recent Marvel events, I'm actually enjoying putting this jigsaw puzzle together, because each issue truly seems to be building towards the big picture. I just hope when we're done piecing together this puzzle, it isn't a picture of Mephisto.

***END SPOILER WARNING***