Issue(s): Spider-Woman #48, Spider-Woman #49
Cover Date: Feb-Mar 83
Title: "Original sin!" / "Runaway!"
Credits:
Ann Nocenti - Writer
Brian Postman - Penciler
Sam DeLaRosa - Inker
Mike Carlin - Assistant Editor
Mark Gruenwald - Editor

Review/plot:
Spider-Woman investigates the drug trade, and the trail leads her to the Gypsy Moth, who has become a strange sort of Queen of Junkies out of loneliness.

Lindsay was tricked into attending a party thrown by the Moth, and she winds up drugged.

The Moth can control strands of thread, and that apparently includes hair, so Spider-Woman is forced to rip hers off in order to prevent being drowned.

Her costume is also badly torn in the fight because the Gypsy Moth tries to hold her back using the threads in the costume, and Spider-Woman just literally rips herself out of her suit.

The Gypsy Moth seemingly disappears after the fight.

After getting Lindsay to the hospital, but still in her ripped costume, Spider-Woman decides to check in on Jack Russell because it's a full moon. Russell has dutifully locked himself up in a cage...

...but oddly he also disappears soon after his transformation.

Later, Spider-Woman takes a case investigating a runaway kid. The boy turns out to be an albino mutant with the power to cause things to break or move around.

He runs into Tigra who puts him under her protection.

Before pursuing the case, Jessica spends some time with her boyfriend David, and she decides to reveal to him that she's Spider-Woman. He doesn't take it very well, but she doesn't notice, and runs off to find the runaway. It's a very abbreviated scene and it doesn't work very well.

Spider-Woman and Tigra fight for a while...

...until Tigra is able to convince Spider-Woman that the boy isn't a normal runaway to be forcibly returned. Spider-Woman agrees to help them, but they suddenly disappear as well.

Nocenti has a weird symbolic/metaphorical writing style that feels like it ought to be good, but i can't quite get into it.

Art in these issues is by a new team, Postman and DeLaRosa, and it's pretty good (Postman actually first penciled on #47 without DeLaRosa, but it didn't stand out as much to me). Less atmospheric and more straightforward than Leialoha's, but not bad.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The Gypsy Moth disappears in this issue, and doesn't appear again until issue #50, when Spider-Woman is seemingly killed. Therefore, this issue must occur after the brief Spider-Woman/Gypsy Moth fight shown in Contest of Champions #1, although that encounter is not referenced here. And it makes sense to fit in Spider-Woman's appearances in Captain America #281-282 after this arc, since while some time passes between the end of #49 and the beginning of #50, Spider-Woman says she's unable to help Nick Fury rescue Cap in that arc because she has pressing issues here. Since she starts off that arc hunting for the Viper, maybe we can assume that she thought Viper was responsible for her missing friends.

References:

• Spider-Woman tried to befriend the Gypsy Moth in Spider-Woman #10.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A