Along Came a Spider…

In Century City, attourney Henry Drummond is packing it in for the day when the power suddenly goes out. That’s when he becomes aware of the presence of three individuals in his office. Panicking, he attempts to reach for the phone to call security, but one of the intruders covers the phone in webbing. Drummond is then cornered and pricked in the throat by a sharp object on the wrist of one of the assailants. Drummond screams of agony draw a security guard who enters the office to check on him and is shocked to see Drummond’s dead body webbed up on a wall.

The following morning in New York City, Spider-Man stops at a news stand to see what is making headlines that morning. He sees that the New York Daily Globe is promising to release dirt on a third party Presidential candidate that it will be releasing to the public during a press conference that day. While the web-slinger thinks the Globe spins nothing more than tabloid trash, he has to attend the press conference to take photos for the Daily Bugle as Peter Parker and, as usual, needs the money. The candidate in question is Michael Galvan, who is the leader of the Liberty Party, a third part that is competing for the presidency next to the usual Democrat and Republican parties.

Changing into Peter Parker, the web-slinger joins the press gallery at a nearby hotel. They wait for a reporter named Walt Weston to reveal what he has uncovered. Unfortunately, before Walt can come out and make his exposé, the three individuals who killed Drummond the night before teleport Weston out of his dressing room. He suddenly appears out on the stage disorientated. Weston explains that his notes were stolen and how he doesn’t know how he suddenly appeared on stage. As he is trying to make sense of what’s going on, Weston’s neck swells up from some kind of poison that was injected into him and he collapses dead on the ground. As paramedics arrive on the scene to remove the body, Peter Parker wonders what dirt the dead reporter had on Galvan. Since the Liberty Party is headquartered in California, Peter figures that’s the end of his involvement. However, his curiosity is so strong he ultimately ends up hopping on the next plane bound for Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the Avengers West Coast are sitting down to breakfast and catching up on the news. Hawkeye is reading about the deaths in Century City and about their connection to Galvan and his running mate Wilson Lambert. This leads to an argument between Clint and US Agent. While the bowman sees Galvan’s law-and-order platform as fascism, it appeals to the Agent’s conservative upbringing. As the two bicker back and forth, the Scarlet Witch reminds them that this is why they don’t argue politics at breakfast. They are interrupted when Miguel Santos — aka the Living Lightning — comes in with his girlfriend Mona who stayed over night. When catching Miguel up on the day’s political news, Santos is disinterested, telling the team that he doesn’t vote anyway. This gets a rebuke from the Avengers’ maid Consuela Sanchez who tells Miguel that it is his duty as a citizen of the United States to exercise his right to vote. That’s when Hawkeye decides to turn on the radio to hear if there have been any other developments recently. That’s when the team hears about the murder of reporter Walt Weston and how both killings involved spider webs. The incident has left the Daily Globe unable to respond to alligations that Galvan’s party is connected with the mob. That’s when Iron Man and Wonder Man arrive and tells the others to get suited up as they are going to investigate the killings.

Meanwhile, Julia Carpenter — aka Spider-Woman — arrives at the home of her ex-husband, Larry, to pick up their daughter Rachel for the day. Due to an accident on the freeway, Julia is late much to Larry’s annoyance.[1] He explains that he has important work to do as he was signed on to do public relations for the Liberty Party and the days murders has him trying to do damage control. Julia is soon back on the freeway with her daughter. There, Julia tells her daughter that they are going to the same convention that Larry is going to because she has work to do as Spider-Woman with the Avengers. Rachel is excited and on the car ride there she asks her mother to explain just how she got her powers and became Spider-Woman.

Julia explains that it all began with her friendship with Val Cooper when they attended college. Cooper was working on her PhD while Julia was just an undergrad. The two formed a friendship by playing tennis with each other. Soon after, Julia met Larry and the two quickly fell in love and got married. Julia dropped out so she could work and support Larry’s way through school so he could get into public relations. They had Rachel and Larry was always busy with work. Julia filed for divorce when Rachel was five after she discovered that Larry was cheating on her with multiple women. A few years after that, Julia got a surprise visit from Val Cooper who was passing through the Denver area one day and wanted to visit. Val then offered Julia a good paying job with the government. With Rachel to raise, Julia agreed to take a job with Val’s organization, the Commission on Superhuman Affairs.

There, she was used for experiments to give superhuman powers to individuals. Julia was injected with a formula extracted from spiders and eventually Julia developed the abilities of one. Not only did she become super strong, but she also gained great agility. Most amazingly of all, Julia also discovered that she could mentally project psi-webs. With the experiments a success, Julia became the new Spider-Woman.[2] Not long after that, Julia had her first adventure as Spider-Woman when Denver was stolen by the Beyonder and used as one of his components for Battleworld. There she joined an army of heroes that were brought there to fight their foes. Julia assisted in winning this “Secret War” and returning Denver to Earth.[3] Back on Earth, Spider-Woman was assigned to join Freedom Force, a government backed team made up mostly of former members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. They did not get along. Having to move to Washington for this job, Julia ended up in a custody battle with Larry.[4] Since Julia couldn’t reveal what her job really was, Larry won the case and took Rachel.

Things continue going south from there, as the Avengers were framed for crimes by their former teammate, Quicksilver. Spider-Woman then assisted the heroes in breaking out of the Vault prison. Although the Avengers were cleared of all wrong doing, Julia became a fugitive of the law.[5] Spider-Woman was on the run until Iron Man stepped in and convinced Val Cooper to give her a second chance. Unfortunately, this was a sour deal as she was paired up with Mike Clemson a Commission agent that thought Spider-Woman would operate better if her criminal status was maintained. After a mission to stop the Wrecking Crew with Spider-Man,[6] Spider-Woman relocated to California when Larry moved himself and Rachel into the area. It was from here that she ended up joining the Avengers West Coast when the team clashed with the Pacific Overlords.[7]

Speaking of Clemson, Julia explains that she has to meet with him to settle things before they meet up with the Avengers. She meets up with Mike at an abandoned factory, where the Commission agent is not happy that Julia brought her daughter to the meet up. When he tries to get rough with Rachel, Spider-Woman tosses Mike into a wall and tells him that she is no longer working for him effective immediately. Clemson tells Spider-Woman that she’ll regret this and retreats into the factory. There, he reports to the Conclave, a secret government agency that manipulates US politics to serve their own ends. Seeing that Spider-Woman is now a threat to their plans, Mike promises them that Julia will soon learn that death has eight legs.

Soon, Spider-Woman arrives at the convention center and after putting a spare mask on Rachel’s face to hide her identity she meets up with the other Avengers. They aren’t happy that Julia has brought her child, but Spider-Woman says she had no other choice and promises to keep her out of trouble. After getting Rachel settled in a back room, the Avengers then head out to the main hall where Michael Galvan is giving a booming speech about law and order. Suddenly, the lights go out and suspecting this might be another attack, Iron Man takes to the air an illuminates the stage with his uni-beam light. When Galvan and Lambert try to run back stage, US Agent follows after them and is ambushed in the darkness.

When the rest of the Avengers catch up they discover that the Agent is fighting with Spider-Man. The web-slinger insists that he wasn’t behind the blackout and is also trying to protect Galvan and Lambert. That’s when they are ambushed by the true attackers a trio of arachnid themed super-villains — Arachne, Therak, and Antro — who call themselves Deathweb.[8] Seeing these spider-themed villains, Spider-Man jokingly insists that they are no relation to him.

Recurring Characters

Avengers West Coast (Iron Man, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, US Agent, Living Lightning, Spider-Woman), Spider-Man, Deathweb (Arachne, Therak, Antro), Rachel Carpenter, Larry Carpenter, Consuela Sanchez, Michael Galvan, Mike Clemson, (in flashback) Val Cooper, Carter Napier

Continuity Notes

1. Larry and Julia’s join custody of Rachel has been incredibly strained due to Julia’s double-life as Spider-Woman. Frequently called away and having to keep her identity a secret, Julia’s duties as Spider-Woman have not meshed very well with the life of a divorcee who has joint custody. This has been a problem since Iron Man #214. However, Julia has since revealed her identity to Rachel as we saw in Avengers West Coast #75.

2. Spider-Woman’s origins are expanded upon and told in greater detail in Spider-Woman (vol. 2) #1-4.

3. This was, of course, in Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars #1-12. Julia popped up in issue #6 of that series.

4. Spider-Woman’s tenure with Freedom Force was chronicled in Uncanny X-Men #206 and X-Factor #8-9. Mention is made how Freedom Force was formerly the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. This is true. The Brotherhood’s leader Mystique — in order to grant immunity for her group from increasingly discriminatory laws targeting mutants — set up her team as superheroes officially sanctioned by the US government. See Uncanny X-Men #199.

5. Quicksilver framed the Avengers in Avengers Annual #15 and West Coast Avengers Annual #1. At the time, Pietro had been driven mad by Maximus as explained in X-Factor Annual #2. His mind was later restored in Fantastic Four Annual #21.

6. Julia was given her second chance after the events of Iron Man #214. Spider-Woman and Spider-Man fought the Wrecking Crew in Spectacular Spider-Man #125-126. Why Clemson has it out for Spider-Woman is detailed in Spider-Woman (vol. 2) #1-4. TL;DR version, Clemson was once romantically interested in Julia’s mother and is bitter when she chose another man over him.

7. Spider-Woman helped the AWC against the Pacific Overlords and later joined the team in Avengers West Coast #70-74.

Topical References

• In this story, Julia states that she became Spider-Woman “a few years ago”. Assuming that she got her powers shortly before her first appearance this would be a factual assessment of time. Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #6 (published October, 1993) and this story (published July 1992) take place about two years apart per the Sliding Timescale.