Issue(s): Spider-Woman #34, Spider-Woman #35
Published Date: Jan-Feb 81
Title: "The wildfire express!" / "Farewell to L.A.!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Stephen Leialoha - Penciler
Al Milgrom & Bruce D. Patterson / Alan Gordon - Inker

Review/plot:
Chris Claremont takes over the Spider-Woman book, which has been in need of a good writer from the very beginning. Claremont wastes no time with a complete re-haul of the book's concept. Spider-Woman breaks her ties with Scotty McDowell and bounty hunting...

...and gets ready to move her from LA to San Fransisco with Lindsay (a strong female supporting character, and the only one that Claremont keeps).

Along the way she runs into Hammer & Anvil...

...Mandroids...

...a forest fire...

...and Angar the Screamer.

Thankfully, Stephen Leialoha remains on the book. His art has been the highlight of recent issues, so now that he's coupled with a good writer this book will be in good shape. Unfortunately, Claremont will only be on the book for a year.

We're reminded in this story that Spider-Woman still has her pheremone problem. It's normally kept under check by the pills she got in Spider-Woman #19, but she briefly stops taking them in this arc and the results are immediate.

Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - some changes in Spider-Woman's status quo

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Hammer and Anvil are "two dudes who started their career by beatin' on the Hulk" in Hulk #182.
  
• The plot of issue #34 deals with Deterrence Research Corporation - Moses Magnum's company - and there are references to Giant-Size Spider-Man #4 and Power Man annual #1
  
• DRC sends some Mandroids, first seen in Avengers #95, after Spider-Woman. Spider-Woman thinks to herself that they are a "much-improved model" which shows that she has a bit of an ego. Any Mandroids that Spider-Woman can take out in a couple of panels is vastly inferior to ones that can take on an entire team of Avengers.
  
• A brief history of Angar the Screamer: first appeared in Daredevil #100 and was finally defeated by Daredevil in Daredevil #105. Got sliced up by Colleen Wing in Iron Fist #5-7. At the time it was pretty clear that she killed him, but now Claremont says that "Colleen's samurai sword cut with surgical precision -- crippling without killing", and he's been in a Halwani prison ever since, until he is freed this issue but a mysterious benefactor that runs a criminal underground railroad in a Los Angeles amusement park
  
• Spider-Woman had just been in San Francisco in Spider-Woman #33
  
• Spider-Woman has also been having vision of Morgan Le Fey, who Spider-Woman fought in Spider-Woman #6

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: N/A