Issue(s): Spider-Woman #37, Spider-Woman #38
Cover Date: Apr-May 81
Title: "Who am I?" / "Criminal at large!"
Credits:
Chris Claremont - Writer
Stephen Leialoha - Penciler
Terry Austin, Al Milgrom, Frank Springer, Alan Weiss & Bob Wiacek / Dan Bulanadi, Bruce D. Patterson, Walt Simonson, Alan Weiss & Bob Wiacek - Inker

Review/plot:
Extra inkers for issue #38 credited in Essential Spider-Woman #2 (via UHMCC). The original issue credits just say "Wiacek & Co".

This issue starts with Spider-Woman having infiltrated the SHIELD Heli-carrier and making her way to Nick Fury's office.

She wants a recommendation so that she can become a private investigator. Fury agrees that it's a better job for her than being a bounty hunter.

While there, she recounts her origin. There's some slight variations between this recap and the one in Spider-Woman #1, and they're both different than the original origin in Marvel Spotlight #32 aaaand it's all different than Spider-Woman: Origin. I'll use the entry for Origin to try and reconcile all of the variations.

In this one, her first memories are of the High Evolutionary. The New Men are said to simply have 'shunned' her; no mention of her having spider origins. She leaves Wundagore because she was lonely, meets a nice boy in a local village but accidentally kills her with her powers. She's saved from the angry villagers by Count Otto Vermis and brought to Hydra, where she is trained as an agent. She's sent on her mission to SHIELD to assassinate Fury, but she realizes that Hydra is evil and "destroys" Vermis instead. She says that she and Hydra have been implacable foes ever since, which is odd because Hydra has never again appeared in a Spider-Woman comic, but it works well when you consider the Spider Woman Origin continuity inserts.

There's a funny scene where Contessa Fontaine casually tosses a cosmic cube-ish device on Nick Fury's desk.

On the way back from the Helicarrier, Spider-Woman is 'attacked' by Morgan Le Fey.

By attacked, i mean that Morgan sends a strong breeze her way, which, because Spider-Woman can only glide and not actually fly, puts her in danger. Morgan doesn't follow up, though, and Spider-Woman is able to recover with minimum damage.

Later, Jessica wakes up to find that Lindsay is throwing an impromptu house warming party celebrating their move to San Francisco. Jessica starts getting along very well very quickly with their new landlord, David Ishima.

She's interrupted by high pitched sonics (that David can't hear). She sneaks away and finds Black Tom, the Juggernaut, and a lady wearing an outfit suspiciously similar to Banshee's robbing the San Francisco Mint (that's monetary mint, not a delicious dessert factory)(we first meet them in their civvies).

They beat the holy crap out of her and leave her to take the blame for the robbery. She escapes the police and heads back to Lindsay's party. Storm, Colossus, and Angel show up. They've been tracing the energies of a new mutant, and it's led them to Jess. They know she's Spider-Woman.

She explains that she encountered Black Tom, the Juggernaut, and Siryn . They head off together to hunt them down.

After a long fight...

...and a fairly innovative plan for dealing with the Juggernaut....

...they're able to capture Tom and Siryn. But Tom asks for leniency for Siryn, who is in fact Banshee's daughter, and he goes to jail on the condition that Siryn be let free. She's taken back to the Mansion to re-unite with her father. A narration panel says that Black Tom was soon afterward freed from prison by the Juggernaut.

Unlike Banshee, Siryn is able to create illusions with her sonic powers.

Whew. A lot going on in these issues. It's certainly been a huge uptick in quality since Claremont took over, and it's reflected in the lettercol reactions. Leialoha's art continues to be nice, and now there's a good story to go along with it.

Statement of Ownership Total Paid Circulation: Average of Past 12 months = 126,006. Single issue closest to filing date = 120,494.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 5 - 1st Siryn

Chronological Placement Considerations: This takes place between Uncanny X-Men #144-145. The X-Men are shown repairing the Danger Room, and there are boards on the ceiling in Storm's attic.

References:

• The X-Men are still recovering from the damage to the Mansion caused by Kitty Pryde's fight with the N'Garai demon in Uncanny X-Men #143.
  
• Siryn has the power to posses people using sonic illusions, but Spider-Woman is immune to the effect, having already been exposed to that particular 'poison' when she faced Angar the Screamer in Spider-Woman #35.
  
• Colossus and the Juggernaut faced off previously in Uncanny X-Men #102.
  
• Siryn next appears in Uncanny X-Men #148.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1 (Issue #38 is an original)

Apparently Spider-Woman can stick to ceilings with her ass. I'm not sure about the implications...

Well, this explains why Spiderwoman is out to dinner with the X-Men in #148. Another mystery solved thanks to fnord's OCD.

Fnord - you've tagged Wolverine for this issue rather than Colossus.

Thanks Erik. Wolverine does appear in a Danger Room sequence in issue #37 but doesn't go on the main mission (same with "Sprite" / Kitty Pryde). But i've added Colossus.

Oh cool Black Tom appears again in something other than a cameo. I really liked his appearance in X-Men with the Juggernaut. Also I really like how in the final Marvel Team Up Jugs trusts Tom enough to split the power with him.

Shouldn't this take place between "Uncanny X-Men" 147 and 148 for the X-Men? If Jessica and Siryn came back directly from this encounter to Xavier's, that is (which seems to be what happens). In your entry for UXM 148 you seem to indicated that Banshee has just arrived at the mansion. But I always read it as he never left the US following the Doom/Arcade incident -- he's clearly been at the mansion for at least several days if not a week or more between 147 and 148. And it seems out of character to me that the X-Men would find out about his daughter BEFORE the Doom business and then sit on it until well AFTER. That's why I feel like these issues come after UXM 147.

My placement is based on the MCP's which is based on the official 1994 Marvel indexes, and i wouldn't want to change that unless there was a definite problem, which doesn't seem to be the case.

Looking at issue #148, it doesn't seem to me that Spider-Woman and Siryn travel directly with the X-Men back to the mansion. Nightcrawler is training with Wolverine. Storm and Angel are first seen with Professor X, arguing over Wolverine, and Colossus is working with Banshee on the Blackbird.

And according to the end of this arc, it's said that Siryn went back with the X-Men and then "weeks" later Jessica gets a letter from Storm sayings that Siryn is about to be reunited with her father. So it seems that Jessica responds to that letter by traveling to be with the X-Men for #148. Over those "weeks" is when ROM #17-18 and Uncanny X-Men #145-147 can occur. It does seem like the X-Men sat on the news about Siryn for "weeks" (maybe because Siryn was having doubts about meeting her father or Xavier was examining her story or just because Xavier is a manipulative dick). You can probably come up with a different interpretation but it seems like the current placement is on solid enough ground.

One thing you are definitely right about was my phrasing about Banshee in #148, and i've updated that. Thanks.

Ok that's pretty sound logic. I think I originally missed the "weeks later" line. Got it! :)

Jessica talks about code-names being related to powers as if the association was new(s) to her, d'oh!

Am I mistaken, or do these powers of illusion and mind control never get referenced again in Syrin's later appearances?

They are referenced again in 2006 X-Factor, in the first issue and used sparingly afterwards (they are tied to her sonic abilities).