Lifeline

Awoken by a nightmare, Jessica Drew believes that the recent disappearance of super-humans she has encountered has to be part of some larger plan. While running a shower, she also disappears, much to the horror of her friend Lindsay McCabe who had come to check on her. Jessica, now in her Spider-Woman costume, finds herself the prisoner of the Locksmith and his assistant Ticktock. The Locksmith was an escape artist who believed that super-humans had made his amazing feats irrelevant, and so had began targeting super-humans who associated with Spider-Woman, capturing them all after their defeats at her hands and incarcerating them in a specially built prison of his own making. Spider-Woman finds that the Shroud, Tigra, the Werewolf, Poltergeist, Angar the Screamer, Daddy Longlegs, Dansen Macabre, Gypsy Moth, Hangman, Killer Shrike, Needle, Nekra, Flying Tiger and Tatterdemalion are all prisoners of the Locksmith. Tigra and Spider-Woman try to come up with ways to break out of their cells (each one specially designed to contain its particular occupant). When trying to rouse the Shroud fails, Tigra is able to utilize Poltergeist's telekinetic abilities to break them all free. Before the Locksmith and Ticktock can gas the room to sedate the escapees, Spider-Woman switches costumes with Gypsy Moth.

When the Locksmith thinks he has everything back under control, Spider-Woman breaks out of Gypsy Moth's cell and easily defeats the Locksmith and frees all his prisoners. After turning over the Locksmith, Spider-Woman takes Shroud, Tigra, Poltergeist, Gypsy Moth, Daddy Longlegs, and Jack Russell back to her home to celebrate their freedom with her friends David Ishima and Lindsay McCabe. However, the celebrations take a tragic turn when Spider-Woman is plagued by morbid images, and David tries to break up with Spider-Woman, being unable to deal with her status as a superhero. As David is telling her this, he is possessed by her old friend Magnus, who warns Jessica that Morgan LeFey has orchestrated everything in an attempt at stealing her soul.

Spider-Woman then agrees to have her soul sent back to the 6th century to take on Morgan LeFey once and for all. After a battle against Morgan, her forces and various magical illusions and tricks, Spider-Woman manages to best Morgan in combat and knock her out of her castle, causing her body to disintegrate. Returning back to her own time, Jessica tries to re-enter her body when she realizes, to her horror, that it is dead. Realizing that Morgan LeFey still won, Jessica agrees to accompany Magnus to the Spirit Realm. However, before going, Jessica realizes that her friends will never know what happened to her. As such she convinces Magnus to erase all memory of Spider-Woman from the minds of the people she knew so that they don't worry about her. With the task done, Jessica says goodbye to the mortal world and walks off into the Spirit Realm with Magnus.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Woman, Shroud, Tigra, Werewolf by Night, Poltergeist, David Ishima, Lindsay McCabe, Magnus, Locksmith, Ticktock, Angar the Screamer, Daddy Longlegs, Dansen Macabre, Enforcer, Flying Tiger, Gypsy Moth, Hangman, Killer Shrike, Morgan le Fay, Needle, Nekra, Tatterdemalion

Continuity Notes

• Locksmith begins plotting Viper as his next prisoner. The narrative states that she was last seen in Captain America #281.

• Magnus apologizes for abruptly leaving Jessica as he "had business" to attend to. That happened in Spider-Woman #17, this story misattributed it to the previous issue.

• Although this appears to be the end of Spider-Woman, her "death" and the memory wipe done to everyone who met her is ultimately erased during the course of Avengers #238-241. Morgan le Fay also cheats death and appears in those issues as well.