Origins Spider-Woman was born Jessica Miriam Drew, daughter of Jonathan Drew and Merriam Drew, in
London,
England. At a young age, her family moves to a lab built by her father and
High Evolutionary near
Mount Wundagore in
Transia, where she becomes gravely ill from months of uranium exposure. To save her life, her father injects her with an experimental serum based on irradiated spiders' blood. Because the serum requires a month's incubation, Wyndham places her in a genetic accelerator. Shortly after, her mother dies and her father leaves for the United States, leaving Wyndham to care for her. While in the accelerator, she ages at a decelerated rate. When she is finally released, decades later, Drew is only 17 years old. Drew is ostracized by the other residents of Mount Wundagore, the High Evolutionary's
New Men, since she was originally human while they were animals. Because of this, she eventually leaves to seek human civilization. She is captured by a
Hydra reserve unit under
Count Otto Vermis's leadership who erases her memories, brainwashes her, and recruits her as a Hydra agent under the codename Arachne. While battling Fury, Jessica accidentally kills Jared and learns Hydra's true nature. She quits Hydra and assaults the unit's base, sending Count Vermis into a fatal crash, but not before he unlocks memory implants that she was actually an evolved spider and had killed a man before her association with Hydra.
Spider-Woman: Origin Origin does away with the spider-blood serum and genetic accelerator elements of the character's previous origin story. Instead, Jessica's powers derive from her mother's womb being hit by a laser beam containing the DNA traits of several different species of spiders while she was carrying Jessica (the Drews were trying to splice and harness spiders' environmental adaptive capabilities to graft them into the human genome). After Jessica's parents disappear under mysterious circumstances, Jessica is recruited into Hydra under false pretenses, where she is made into a formidable fighter and assassin. She is trained and mentored by
Taskmaster, who trains her in many martial disciplines and more than seven different fighting styles out of his own "arsenal". In this re-telling, Otto Vermis, originally recruiting her into Hydra, is rather an old, retired Hydra agent whom Jessica seduces to gain information that will lead her to her father. In addition,
Origin made the following modifications: • Merriam Drew was renamed Miriam Drew. She and Grimm then encounter
Modred the Mystic, who removes Hydra's memory implants and restores her memories. Jessica moves into an apartment in London, but finds it impossible to get a job due to her complete lack of background and her tendency to inspire dislike and even fear in other people. Following an aborted break-in, she is unmasked by
Scotland Yard officer (and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent) Jerry Hunt, who becomes obsessed with her. Magnus tutors her in the ways of civilization and informs her that her father was murdered, leading her on a hunt for his killer. She is distracted from this hunt when Morgan Le Fey's ghost again seeks the Darkhold, this time in person. During the battle, Hunt catches up with Jessica and they begin a romantic relationship. With his help, she identifies her father's murderer who dies immediately after confessing. For the time, Jessica chooses to keep her doings as Spider-Woman a secret. Her relationship with Hunt sours, and following a final battle with the
Brothers Grimm, he and Magnus part ways with her. For the next three months, she makes a hand-to-mouth living by working as a receptionist at the Hatros Institute while undergoing group therapy there. Though she ultimately loses the position due to a change in management, during her time there she received medication to suppress her pheromones so that she could exist among other people without producing any unwanted side-effects. Jessica formed a strong friendship with fellow patient and aspiring actress Lindsay McCabe and developed acquaintances with several other superheroes. The next few months of Jessica's life are not covered by published stories. During this time, she appears publicly as Spider-Woman, becomes a
bounty hunter working in partnership with
paraplegic criminologist
Scotty McDowell, acquires a full wardrobe of disguises for use in her work, and finds a police liaison in Captain Walsh. This situation lasts for several months. When her working relationship with Scotty fails, Jessica accepts an offer from Lindsay to move into an apartment with her in
San Francisco, where she begins a romantic relationship with their landlord David Ishima, and sets up a practice as a licensed private investigator. Her move there allows Lindsay to deduce her secret identity; she is unbothered by the danger involved in being Spider-Woman's friend, and the shared secret deepens the friendship between them. While working as a private investigator, Jessica battles Morgan once again. Not long after that, she gives up her immunity powers to save
Giant-Man. Her relationship with David Ishima develops to the point where she reveals her Spider-Woman identity to him, only to have him break up with her because he wants to be with an ordinary woman. Jessica travels in
astral form with Magnus to 6th century England to free her friends' souls in a showdown with Morgan le Fey in the 6th century. She manages to vanquish Morgan, but her human body dies while her spirit was gone. At her request, Magnus places a spell over humanity to remove all memory of Jessica's existence. This spell is faulty, however; when
Tigra and the
Shroud discover Jessica's dead body, they contact the
Avengers and
Doctor Strange. The Avengers and Strange travel to the astral plane to battle Morgan Le Fay, who was trying to claim Jessica's body so she could return to the physical realm. Eventually, Strange and Magnus reunite Jessica's spirit with her human body, though Magnus's life and Jessica's powers are sacrificed to do so. She thus abandons her Spider-Woman identity and continues her life as a private investigator in San Francisco, assisted by Lindsay McCabe and, for a time, by Tigra. Jessica and Lindsay take a job delivering the Black Blade to
Japan, but while passing through
Madripoor, she is enchanted by the blade. By this time, her superhuman strength and agility, and ability to cling to walls have returned. She is freed from the blade's power by Lindsay and an underworld figure called Patch, whom she immediately recognizes as the X-Man
Wolverine. Following the incident, she and Lindsay set up new business lodgings in Madripoor, with Patch as a frequent ally and information source. Jessica Drew's life settles down until
Charlotte Witter, a villainess going by the Spider-Woman name, steals her powers and leaves her near death. Jessica is taken from the hospital to New York City by
Madame Web who directs her and
Mattie Franklin (yet another woman who has assumed the Spider-Woman name) to track down Witter. Under Madame Web's guidance, Franklin absorbs from Witter the powers of all four Spider-Women. Afterwards, Jessica remains with Madame Web for a time, helping her to watch over Mattie. Jessica's powers gradually return to her during this time, but are now unreliable, failing her unexpectedly on occasion. For untold reasons, Jessica moves back to San Francisco, resuming her private investigator practice there. When she hears that Mattie Franklin has gone missing, she goes to New York to find her. With the help of local P.I.
Jessica Jones, she rescues Mattie from a drug dealer who had abducted her and was cannibalizing her tissue to make Mutant Growth Hormone.
Secret Invasion One day, a Hydra agent known as Connely offers her powers back if she would rejoin S.H.I.E.L.D. as a double agent. Knowing Connely would kill her if she says no, Jessica Drew contacts Nick Fury who confronts her securely and urges her to accept the offer. He tells Jessica that he will feed her limited info until S.H.I.E.L.D. can analyze the Hydra cell and then use the info to take it down. The Hydra cell is in fact a team of
Skrulls who made the offer as a trap to abduct Drew, so that their current Queen
Veranke could take her place in the New Avengers and assume her role as Fury's spy in preparation for the upcoming
invasion. After the invasion is repulsed,
Tony Stark finds a Skrull ship in orbit with all the replaced heroes, including Drew.
Avenger and agent of S.W.O.R.D. Jessica Drew joins the New Avengers, claiming she has nowhere else to go. She also joins the
Lady Liberators along with the
Invisible Woman,
Storm,
Valkyrie,
Thundra, Tigra,
Black Widow,
She-Hulk and
Hellcat who are trying to discover the identity of the
Red Hulk. Alongside her work with the Avengers, Jessica Drew joins
S.W.O.R.D., under an invitation by
Abigail Brand. Her membership in the organization takes her on a number of missions eliminating hostile aliens operating on Earth. Before the Siege of Asgard, Ronin attempts to assassinate Norman Osborn but is captured by the Dark Avengers. Jessica Drew teams up with
Ms. Marvel,
Mockingbird and Jessica Jones to rescue him. After he is saved, the New Avengers relocate to a safehouse in Brooklyn where they meet up with
Steve Rogers. Jessica is then paired with
Spider-Man to do reconnaissance on Avengers Tower, where she reveals to him she is an agent of S.W.O.R.D. The duo are then found by
Mandrill and
Griffin who proceed to attack them. During the fight Mandrill gets close enough to Jessica and controls her into attacking Spider-Man. Spider-Man appears to be on the losing end of the fight but manages to lure Jessica away from Mandrill and the effects of his control begin to wear off. The duo trick Mandrill and Griffin into thinking Jessica has beaten Spider-Man and when they approach Spider-Woman to give her new commands, Jessica punches Mandrill in the face and shoves her hand in his mouth, firing off a venom blast and knocking him out. Furious, Jessica wants to kill both villains for what they have done but is stopped by Spider-Man. The duo heads back to the safehouse where they head off with the Avengers to help the
Asgardians. Upon arriving in Asgard, Jessica and the rest of the heroes engage
Iron Patriot's forces and witnesses the insane
Sentry's defeat. Jessica is asked by Steve Rogers himself to join his team of Avengers. During their first meeting, Jessica expresses her doubts to Wolverine about being on the team, feeling she has not earned the role. Wolverine advises her if she feels that way, she will then have to work towards earning it then. Suddenly
Kang the Conqueror appears in the middle of the meeting with a dire warning about the future and all of reality, blaming the children of the Avengers. After recruiting the Protector and building a time machine, the time machine is destroyed by a furious Wonder Man. Once the dust has settled, an alternate version of
Apocalypse and his
Horsemen appear. After Apocalypse's defeat, Jessica and a few of her teammates are sent into New York City to protect its citizens from the attacks coming from the timestream. While in Washington Square Park, they come across Killraven and join forces to help the citizens. Once their mission is completed and all the attacks have stopped, Jessica is the first to realize Killraven has not been returned to his proper future. While on a mission for S.W.O.R.D., Jessica is sent to locate an unusual alien energy surge in Wakanda. Upon finding the remains of a
Spaceknight, Jessica is ambushed by the
Intelligencia, who take her as a prisoner. Abigail Brand approaches the Avengers for help and a team is put together to help locate Jessica. Jessica wakes up naked and is interrogated by two members of the Intelligencia. While the Intelligencia study the Spaceknight, the Avengers interrupt their attempts and the body activates, revealing it was containing
Ultron's consciousness. The new Ultron escapes and Jessica is reunited with the Avengers. Jessica Drew becomes a member of the new
Secret Avengers. When the resistance was visiting Earth-928 and encountered a past version of
Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus' mind in Peter Parker's body) with his own army, they attracted the attention of the Inheritors. Spider-Woman followed
Silk with
Spider-Man Noir to an unknown reality where they were being tracked by the Inheritors Brix and Bora. Spider-Man Noir was wounded and the trio escaped to his home world to allow him to recover from his injuries. After this, she was sent by Spider-Man to the Loomworld, home of the Inheritors to gather more information on the Inheritors. After encountering and replacing her doppelganger from Loomworld, who was Morlun's lover, she was able to gather intelligence in regards to the Master Weaver and his role in the conflict, which helped the Spider Army ultimately win the battle against the Inheritors. After the battle with the Inheritors, Jessica decided to quit the Avengers in order to start a new life and to focus on helping ordinary civilians. Jessica decides to help common people solve crimes, and enlists
Ben Urich and Roger Gocking, the
Porcupine.
Secret Wars was the first costume change in more than 35 years since the character's creation.
Spider-Woman (vol. 5) #9. Cover art by
Javier Rodríguez. Knowing the universe will end soon,
Reed Richards and
Susan Storm choose Jessica and
Natasha Romanoff to copilot a ship that will contain a handpicked few to restart humanity and escape the destruction of the universe. Their ship is shot down when the Children of Tomorrow from the
Ultimate Universe invade, and she and the ship's passengers are killed in the ensuing explosion. This timeline and the resulting deaths were later undone.
Post-Secret Wars In the debut issue of the new volume set after the Secret Wars, Jessica is in the
second trimester of
pregnancy and still works as a private investigator. Although there were various debates about the father's identity, after the baby's birth, Jessica admitted that, while she had been in a relationship over nine months ago that started her interest in a family, the man left before she could bring it up directly, prompting her to go to a sperm bank instead. She eventually gives birth to a son whom she names
Gerry. Gerry also inherited her power set. After Porcupine is nearly killed by
Hobgoblin, Jessica and Roger fall in love and start dating while continuing to raise Gerry. During the "
Spider-Geddon" storyline, Spider-Woman comes together with the Spider-Army again as she is part of
Kaine Parker's group on their mission to claim the crystal containing Solus' lifeforce before Verna claims it. She escapes with the crystal during the fight with Verna and the Hounds. After returning to Earth-616, Spider-Woman is captured by Jennix, who takes the crystal and uses it to resurrect Solus. In the end, the Spider-Army manages to free Jessica and defeat the Inheritors, using cloning technology to revert them into babies. In the storyline "
End of the Spider-Verse", Spider-Woman is attacked by Spider-Man Noir, who had been controlled by
Shathra. She is severed from the Web of Life and Destiny, effectively killing her. The Web is later cleansed of Shathra's corruption, resurrecting Spider-Woman. In the storyline "
Gang War", it is revealed that Gerry Drew was kidnapped by Hydra during the period that Jessica was dead, rapidly aged into an adult, and manipulated into serving Hydra as Green Mamba. ==Powers and abilities==