Issue(s): Spider-Woman #19, Spider-Woman #20
Cover Date: Oct 79
Title: "The beast within" / "Tangled webs"
Credits:
Steven Grant & Mark Gruenwald - Writer
Carmine Infantino / Frank Springer - Penciler
Mike Esposito - Inker

Review/plot:
Steven Grant is given the vague credits of "Underwriter" and "Co-Scenario" for these two issues.

Staying over at her friend Lindsay McCabe's house, Jessica recognizes the howl of Werewolf By Night and goes after him as Spider-Woman.

She encounters a costumed man hunting him down and prevents him from shooting the werewolf. His name is the Enforcer, and he manages to tranquilize both Spider-Woman and the Werewolf.

But Spider-Woman develops quick immunities to poisons so she is able to resist his tranquilizer. But Jack's 'friend' Buck had previously been shot by the Enforcer, and he's still unconscious. This is following up on a plot that got dropped when Werewolf By Night was cancelled. It surely changes the intent of the original cliffhanger scene from Buck's subplot in the Werewolf issues.

We also learn that Jack still maintains control of his Werewolf form except during the full moon.

Oddly, Spider-Woman simply tells Jack that she's got to get going but she'll see him tomorrow night. She glides off thinking about how Jack is a hottie.

The next issue opens with Jessica shocked to find that she's gone out and stolen some money.

It turns out that she has been laid off from the Hatros clinic. She's also being evicted from Jerry Hunt's apartment; apparently he hasn't bothered to renew his lease. In a panic, Jessica decided to steal some money from Hatros. She soon feels guilty and decides to put it back.

But at that point, Peter Parker, visiting the clinic for the Daily Globe, catches Spider-Woman messing with the clinic's safe. He goes after her as Spider-Man and she wonders if he's somehow trying to imitate her.

Spidey and Jessica fight for a while, but in the end Spider-Man decides to let her go, because he too has been misunderstood and unjustly wanted by the law in the past. Or, he's ensnared by her pheromones (although in issue #19, we see that Jessica is taking pills to keep her pheromones under control).

Not sure what happened to the Werewolf story The sort-of follow up to the Werewolf By Night story will sort-of be continued in Marvel Team-Up #93.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: Spider-Man appears here between Amazing Spider-Man #200-201. This begins a period for Spider-Man where he is in California; he next appears in Marvel Team-Up #93.

References:

• Jessica starts off this arc by visiting Mrs. Dolly at a mental institution. Mrs. Dolly was defeated by Spider-Woman in Spider-Woman #12.
  
• Jessica is taking pills to suppress her pheromone powers. She learned about those powers in Spider-Woman #16 and got the pills in the previous arc.
  
• Lindsay McCabe seems to be able to sense the difference about Jessica. Lindsay, in Spider-Woman #14, was the only woman who was nice to Jessica when here pheromones were active.
  
• Spider-Woman and Werewolf By Night met previously in Spider-Woman #6, although Jack Russell doesn't remember it.
  
• The Enforcer appeared previously in Ghost Rider #22 and Ghost Rider #23-24.
  
• Jack's friend Buck was kidnapped while Jack was in New York in Werewolf By Night #42-43.
  
• We get a flashback of Spider-Woman's origin from Marvel Spotlight #32 and Spider-Woman #1, presumably for the benefit of Spider-Man fans picking up this book for the first time.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

Letter pages in later issues state that Michael Fleisher decided not to follow up on the Werewolf plotline when he took the book over. Why Gruenwald wouldn't have followed up on #19 in #20, though, I can't say.

Spider-Man was supposed to be kept out of the book for as long as possible, but Marvel cancelled a bunch of books at this time and Spider-Woman wound up being one of the lowest-selling afterwards(by comparison), so he was hurriedly stuck in to punch up sales.

@Mark: If Marvel(at the time) had integrated Jessica Drew into the Spider-Family her original series would still be around. It was stupid to keep Spider-Man out of the Spider-Woman series as some of Jessica's adventures might have been interesting if they had used some of Spidey's rogue galleries into Spider-Woman's own. And Jessica Drew and Peter Parker might have develop a close friendship a lot sooner than they did. Imagine if Jessica was working with Jean DeWolf as an investigator or fighting the Hobgoblin. This is also why no Spider-Man writer wanted to use the Black Widow as a guest in Spider-Man as well because they were afraid the Spider-based characters would take the spark away from Spider-Man, which was unfortunate. I think that Spider-Woman x Black Widow should have been integrated into the Spider-Family a long time ago dating back to the late 1970's to the early 1980's. Don't you agree?

Considering how much current comics cannibalize on each other and how much they have come to rely on obvious crash-grabbing ploys such as an unending row of events and decompressed storytelling, it is easy to see the wisdom of allowing Spider-Woman to develop on her own merits (as they are).

It is also fun to see her wondering if Spider-Man is emulating her. :)

I think the naturalism of hearing characters try to evolve or work off each other is gone in that sort of way and I see what you mean. Likewise, I probably feel similar in that with if Shulkie ends up giving Bruce the idea of creating the Bruce-Hulk under Mantlo and later the Professor Hulk under David.

The retcon that Jack still can't control his werewolf side under a full moon was probably an attempt to explain why Jack was out of control in Spider-Woman 6, although the real explanation is that Marv Wolfman never read Werewolf By Night 38-41 (not that you can blame him).

I still remember reading Spiderwoman 20 in real time when I was about 7 and left a favourable impression on me when she saved Spidey from the fall after he webbed her boot off. I enjoy the story and art here.