Issue(s): Spider-Woman Origin #1, Spider-Woman Origin #2, Spider-Woman Origin #3, Spider-Woman Origin #4, Spider-Woman Origin #5
Cover Date: Feb-Jun 06
Title: N/A
Credits:
Brian Michael Bendis & Brian Reed - Writer
Jonathan Luna & Joshua Luna - Penciler
Jonathan Luna - Inker

Review/plot:
This mini-series is a serious revision of Spider-Woman's origin. The goal seems to have been to remove the fantastic elements associated with the High Evolutionary and play up the role of Hydra in preparation for a regular Spider-Woman series that was probably going to have an espionage focus but was never published.

The story spends a lot of time with Jessica's parents, who are fairly well developed characters. They are scientists who were either recruited or duped by Hydra into leaving Britain and working in seclusion on Wundagore Mountain. Their colleague, Miles Warren (later the Jackal)...

...eventually leaves them to focus on his own specialization, but Jessica's parents are meant to be working on a ray that allows on-the-fly genetic manipulation. In a lab accident, Jessica's mother, pregnant with her at the time, is exposed to the ray...

...and Jessica is imprinted with a spider's DNA.

She is born looking normal and healthy, but later exhibits spider characteristics...

...and her father, driven by his failure to accomplish anything with the ray, starts experimenting on his daughter, leading to a confrontation between the parents.

Due to the stress, Jessica's venom bolt powers manifest, knocking all three of them out.

Jessica is woken from a coma ten years later by agents of Hydra. She is convinced that Hydra is an organization that fights the encroaching powers of corporations. This is the best explanation i've seen as to how they are able to recruit so many members; it's unfortunate that it isn't used more often.

Jessica is mentally probed by Mentallo...

...and trained by the Taskmaster (in an appearance pre-dating his first published appearance by quite a few years).

She develops a relationship with a Hydra agent named Jared Gold. When Jared is captured by SHIELD, Jessica is sent to rescue him and kill Nick Fury.

Confronting Fury, she is exposed to the truth about Hydra and she flees. Jimmy Woo (not actually appearing on panel) is sent to trail her but she is able to evade him and she goes off the radar.

It's hard to judge entirely on its own merits when a big part of reading this is trying to determine how, where, and why it contradicts elements of Spider-Woman's original origin. This dialogue suffers a bit from Bendis' tics (A girl who was raised alone on a mountain by two scientists and has just awoken from a coma she's been in since she was seven is unlikely to say "You're freaking me out here."), but overall the story is well written.

After her run-in with SHIELD, Jessica attempts to live a normal life, enrolling at a university and dating boys. She initially accepts an offer to join SHIELD when she hears that her parents are alive but flees again after finding her mother has just been killed by Hydra and Whiplash.

She subsequently hunts down the location of her father by seducing (yech!) Count Otto Vermis...

...and in the process stops a Hydra program that is creating more Spider-Women.

Again she rejects an offer to join SHIELD but agrees to remain in close contact with Nick Fury as she heads to the west coast to open a private detective firm.

On a minor note, the Taskmaster is used as a Hydra field operative in these issues, something i'm not comfortable with. However, perhaps his defeat here is what led him to go freelance and remain firmly in the training business.

If you're able to not tear your hair out over the major problems this story causes for Spider-Woman's origin, there's actually some decent writing here. The art, however, is just terrible. Characters are blocky and drab and there is little sense of action or storytelling.

So how does it all fit together? Does it fit? More or less.

Before getting into the details of the differences, it is worth noting that Bendis was the proponent of getting Marvel to publish Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1, which reprinted Spider-Woman's three origins (told in Marvel Spotlight #32, Spider-Woman #1, and Claremont's retelling in Spider-Woman #37. Each subsequent re-telling had changes to the original story (although the changes in issue #37 are minimal, but there are other revisions during Claremont's run). While it's possible that Bendis' involvement is overstated, or that he only wanted them published to demonstrate what a mess her origin is, justifying the need for a definitive version, i believe that he would not have wanted them made available if he were going to simply discard large portions of them.

Jared Gold, the Hydra agent that pretends to be in love with Spider-Woman, is in both. However, his reason for being disgusted with having to pretend to love Spider-Woman is different in the two books. In Origin, it is because she has the mind of a seven year old due to her coma. In Spotlight, it's because he "knows" she has been evolved from a spider.

The scene where Spider-Woman infiltrates SHIELD to rescue Jared and kill Fury is nearly identical in the two books, including some of the dialogue (although Fury is a lot more relaxed and suave in Origin). After she flees SHIELD, in Origin she simply goes off the map.

In Spotlight, she first returns to her Hydra cell and destroys it, with SHIELD trailing her and mopping up, and she then disappears. There's no reason why this scene couldn't fit in to the Origin timeline.

The most troubling discrepancy between the two origins is the role of the High Evolutionary. In the original story, the High Evolutionary plays a prominent role, seemingly creating her, evolving her from a spider. She is shunned by the other New Men and flees Wundagore Mountain, trying to live a normal life in an Eastern European village until her powers manifest in a dangerous way and she is 'rescued' by Hydra. Later re-tellings of Spider-Woman's origin (prior to Origin), would back away from the "evolved from a spider" bit but kept the Evolutionary's involvement. In Origin, the High Evolutionary seemingly does not appear at all, with two caveats:

1) The interface between Jessica's parents and Hydra is a General Wyndham. The High Evolutionary's civilian name was Herbert Edgar Wyndham.

The General is killed during the course of the story.

2) Soon after reviving Jessica, Hydra brings in Mentallo to probe her mind. It is also suggested that at that point he puts in mental blocks that cause her to hallucinate whenever she attempts to attack Hydra agents. These hallucinations appear in the forms of the High Evolutionary, the Man-Beast, and Bova (earlier in the story, Jessica had a non-cow nanny named Bova).

I don't know what to make of General Wyndham. I don't believe that he was meant to be the High Evolutionary. I think Bendis & Reed were trying to write the Evolutionary out of her origin, but it's odd that he used the same name for the General and that the image of the Evolutionary was used in her mental scan. It's possible that he was a brother or something. We know from the Evolutionary War back-ups (see the link in the comments below) that Jessica's parents knew Herbert Edgar Wyndham.

If we believe the words of Spider-Woman's father, none of the High Evolutionary visions represent anything real. They are pure illusions that Mentallo created.

The problem with that is that, if this book takes place in the Marvel Universe, it's very odd for Mentallo to have developed illusions that coincidentally represent actual characters that Jessica has never met. And Jessica's father is certainly a suspect source of information, both in the sense that he's no expert in Mentallo's abilities and the more basic fact that he's a lying Hydra scientist. So i prefer to believe that Mentallo unlocked actual memories that Jessica had repressed.

Based on that, i've tried to work in all the various origins. The sequence may go as follows:

1) Jessica's mother is accidentally exposed to the genetic ray while she is pregnant. (Origins #1)
2) Jessica's father repeatedly experiments on her, resulting in a confrontation between mother and father. Jessica's powers manifest, knocking everyone out. (Origins #1)
3) Jessica is not found by Hydra, but given by her father to the High Evolutionary, who claims credit for creating her (possibly after stabilizing or further experimenting with her). (Marvel Spotlight #32). During this period, her father also returns to Wundagore to warn the High Evolutionary of the dangers of C'Thon, as required by the Evolutionary War back-ups.
4) Unhappy with her life at Wundagore Mountain, Jessica flees and attempts to live in a normal European village until her powers manifest again, killing a villager and she is rescued from a mob by Hydra. (Spotlight #32)
5) Hydra keeps Jessica sedated for a number of years (but possibly not the full ten as originally suggested due to her life with the High Evolutionary and in the European village. This would explain her teen-aged mannerisms and intelligence)(It's also worth noting that in Spider-Woman #41 (by Claremont), Morgan Le Fey tells Spider-Woman that she was in suspended animation at Wundagore "for over 30 years"). (Origins #1)
6) Mentallo implements mind blocks and also suppresses her memories of the High Evolutionary. This has an unintended result of Spider-Woman remembering bits and pieces of her time with the High Evolutionary when the mental blocks preventing her from attacking Hydra agents are activated. (Origins #2).
8) Spider-Woman is trained by Hydra and sent to kill Nick Fury . She switches sides and destroys the Hydra base that she was operating from. (Origins #2 and the first few pages of Origins #3/Spotlight #32). Otto Vermis was seemingly killed at the end of Spotlight #32, but since he appears later in Origin #4 he must have survived, or there's more than one.
9) Spider-Woman is soon re-captured by Hydra, and is released in London to attack the Thing. Hydra is interested in creating super-soldiers using her blood. (Marvel Two-In-One #29-32)
10) Mordred the Mystic reveals to Spider-Woman that she's not really evolved from a Spider, which is what Vermis told her in Spotlight #32 (Marvel Two-In-One #33)
11) Based on Mordred's magic, we learn an alternate version of Spider-Woman's origin. In this, her father helped Herbert Wyndham build Wundagore after they purchased land on Wundagore Mountain that turned out to contain uranium. But the uranium poisons Jessica and her father is forced to inject her with spider-serums. After her mother dies from hysteria, her father disappears and Wyndham, now the High Evolutionary, continues treatments of Jessica. I think we'll have to discard most of the discrepancies here saying they're a result of Mordred's imprecise magic, or he's lying to her so as to not have to reveal that her father was a Hydra agent that didn't have any problems experimenting on her. (Spider-Woman #1).
12) Still in London, Spider-Woman dyes her hair with the most permanent hair dye ever, and changes her costume so that her hair shows through (Spider-Woman #1).
13) Still in London, Spider-Woman is attacked again by Hydra. She destroys another Hydra base. (Origin #3, up to but not including the last 3 pages).
14) Spider-Woman moves to America (between Spider-Woman #2 - Spider-Woman #3).
15) With the help of Magnus - another wizard - Spider-Woman investigates her father's death. At this point, Nick Fury seems to also believe that her father is dead. She's also dating a SHIELD agent, Jerry Hunt, who is possibly also assigned to keep tabs on her. (Spider-Woman #3 - Spider-Woman #7)
16) Spider-Woman breaks up with Jerry Hunt (Spider-Woman #16).
17) Spider-Woman continues to operate solo, and is off the grid as far as SHIELD is concerned (Spider-Woman #17 - Spider-Woman #36).
18) Nick Fury locates Spider-Woman in San Francisco, apparently taking some classes, after she's been off the radar for some time.

Spider-Woman learns from Fury that her parents are still alive.

She finds her mother murdered by Whiplash and then finds her father still working for Hydra. Hydra is still working on creating super-soldiers based on her genetics. She destroys the Hydra base he's working on. (the last 3 pages of Origin #3, which takes place '2 years' after the rest of that issue, Origin 4, and Origin 5 except for the last 3 pages)
19) Some time during her hunt for her parents, she also prevails upon Nick Fury to provide her a reference so she can be a private detective. (Spider-Woman #37).
20) After she destroys that Hydra base, Fury tries to recruit Spider-Woman into SHIELD. She refuses, hands him a Drew Investigation business card (the last 3 pages of Origins 5)

It basically works, but you have to accept that Spider-Woman's memory has been screwed with enough so that she doesn't remember things or remembers them inaccurately (for example, maybe her nanny wasn't really named Bova and she's conflating that with the cow-lady, and maybe the first Hydra leader she killed wasn't really Otto Vermis. It's worth noting that even prior to this series, Spider-Woman's memory was suspect; she was under the impression that she was a super-evolved spider for a while, for example. It's very rare for Marvel to attempt to do a clean reboot of a character without "explaining" how the previous origins of the character were wrong, and when they have (the Spider-Man and Hulk Chapter One stories) they've had to back away from them pretty quickly. So i don't know what they were attempting here.

My other thought is that this was meant to work as a movie treatment, in which previous continuity wasn't a concern but they threw in the High Evolutionary illusions as an easter egg for fans, but Marvel has never presented this as anything besides an in-continuity series.

Either way, this series turns out to be a major disappointment. It's a decent origin story (with blocky art) in its own right but it has to be judged in the context of fitting with Spider-Woman's existing stories, and in that regard, it fails.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 4 - updated Spider-Woman origin

Chronological Placement Considerations: This origin spans a large period of time so most of it (basically everything up to Nick Fury telling Spider-Woman that her parents are still alive) has to be treated as a flashback (which is why the Jackal and the Taskmaster aren't listed as characters appearing, for example). I have this running concurrently with Spider-Woman #37.

References: N/A

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? Y

My Reprint: N/A

Sorry, but there was another retelling of Jessica's origins that you neglected to mention- it was in several backup stories in the Evolutionary War Annuals. Here's a summary of the stories as they relate to Jessica's father:
http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix2/drewjonathon.htm . Basically, it makes it impossible for your chronology to work. Besides, if we believe your chronology, we'd have to accept that Jessica had 2 nannies named Bova.

Thanks. I'll review and revise when i get there, but i'm only on 1983 so far... Does anything in those back-ups suggest a different reading order for Spider-Woman: Origins? Do you have an alternate theory for how it all fits together?

The High Evolutionary's civilian name is taken from 3 writers:Herbert George (H.G.) Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and John Wyndham.

While i was putting in images for this entry i made some adjustments to my proposed chronology, accounting for the Evolutionary War back-ups.

"Jessica is woken from a coma ten years later by agents of Hydra. She is convinced that Hydra is an organization that fights the encroaching powers of corporations. This is the best explanation i've seen as to how they are able to recruit so many members; it's unfortunate that it isn't used more often".

If one checks into Hydra history, though, it seems a tad too leftist, Marxist socialist to have them as Occupy Wall Street. As I understand it, a Yamato racial supremacist served as the first Supreme Hydra. Yamato racial supremacists usually follow a corporatist view, in which the welfare of the workers stands subordinated to the overall interest of the nation. (Trade unions suppression took place in Japan, with an Industrial Association for Service to Country-a name which pretty clearly indicates the subordination to national interests I have noted-taking their place in Japan.)

http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/capt_savage_and_his_leathernec.shtml features tale of first Supreme Hydra

http://www.historytoday.com/richard-sims/japanese-fascism

(For those readers who find this focus on the Japanese as provincial as unfair, see comments on Captain America#312 to note that I do not particularly single out Japanese culture as insular.)

http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/captain_america_312.shtml

The High Evolutionary's civilian name is taken from 3 writers:Herbert George (H.G.) Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and John Wyndham.

Posted by: Mark Drummond | September 11, 2011 2:07 PM
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H.G. Wells of course wrote The Island of Doctor Moreau, a

In Tarzan and the Lion-Man, an English Mad Scientist appears who came to Africa to conduct genetic and evolutionary experiments on gorillas. He rejuvenated himself with gorilla genes, but gradually assumed their physical characteristics. This obviously prefigures the High Evolutionary.

Yeah, that version of Hydra doesn't fit with the organization's past.
They were a fascist organization with links toNazis after World War II. Baron Von Strucker was a Supreme Hydra.
They're a nationalist organization. You might hear some conspiracy theories from their recruitment speeches, but it's more like to revolve around "International Financiers" and "elitist globalist Marxists", rather than sounding like a Left-Wing Socialist.

I always reckoned that while Hydra started out as a fascist organisation, they eventually turned into a more general, world-conquering organisation, mainly after power for its own sake, 1984 style.

As for where their recruits come from... perhaps the recruiters pretend to stand for whatever ideology will strike a chord with people (extreme left, extreme right, nationalist, communist, religious), only for those recruits to be manipulated (or even brainwashed) by the higher echelons?

"The art, however, is just terrible. Characters are blocky and drab and there is little sense of action or storytelling."

Yeah, at first I thought these were just stills from an animated show. There's really a strange quality to this art that makes it look like that.

The art looks like it was drawn by that moody girl in high-school who only wore black and always sat at the back of the room- the one who only came alive in art class but who had no real talent beyond penciling hollow angst.

This crap (and constant retcons) is the reason I don't buy Marvel comics anymore. It doesn't matter how good the writing may be; comics are a visual medium and the artwork must be at least be beyond the quality of an amateur. If this is good enough to be published, then I and they have very different ideas about what constitutes quality.

@Jesse I agree the art is terrible crap, but since the artists are two men i don't think it's cool to resort to misogynist (+anti-goth!) tropes to describe it.

I've read a million bad stories, but I never get too upset about them because nine times out of ten I believe that even hacks have their hearts in the right place. Nobody TRIES to do bad work (one hopes).
But a bad RETCON... this shit pisses me off to a degree that isn't healthy. It's one thing to suck. It's quite another to suck and be arrogant enough to "fix" someone else's work. It's the worst of both world's. Spider-Woman's origin didn't need to be "corrected"; if Brian Michael Bendis doesn't like the more fantastic elements he could just, you know, not mention them. This whole series was unnecessary. Add to that the ananchronistic dialogue and the self-consciously bland artwork... this thing's a mess.
Hell, they can't even do sound effects right. "SLICEE"?

Woof. That art's a dog all right. I'd bet they were new talent and this mini-series was probably a try-out gig for them.

The photoshop after-effects and computer coloring combined with the stiffness of the art are what make it look like stills from a cartoon.

The Luna brothers had done a relatively well received series called Ultra for Image prior to this.

Having never read any of Spider-Woman's origins, but knowing the 'evolved spider' one had already been retconned out, did this series do anything that was really needed? It had already been changed to be due to her father's work at Wundagore, so what does this add or change for the better? The mixed-up memories and hallucinations sound as if they're ADDING unnecessary complications. Also, have any of the changes ever impacted any later stories at all? Can I just take it that this story IS outside of continuity, and the previous origin still applies?

As far as I know, the only element from this mini-series that has even been mentioned in the past decade is the idea that Jessica Drew did not have a good father. There's a scene in an Avengers issue where Thor is complaining about how Odin has been treating him and Spider-Woman says something to the effect that she knows about bad fathers.

If I were God-Editor of the Marvel Universe, I would declare this mini-series to be out-of-continuity, as was retroactively done with Spider-Man: Chapter One.

As for where their recruits come from... perhaps the recruiters pretend to stand for whatever ideology will strike a chord with people (extreme left, extreme right, nationalist, communist, religious), only for those recruits to be manipulated (or even brainwashed) by the higher echelons?

Nah, there's a bunch of other stories where Bendis gives Madame Hydra/The Viper the same kind of weird "smash the state!" dialogue while she leads HYDRA troops into battle.

This all strikes me as a colossal waste of effort: Bendis's vision for Spider-Woman seems to be that she's a character haunted by her past as the agent of a hostile espionage organization. Part of that means stripping out the more fantastical elements of her origin so it can be conspiracy/spy thriller backstory instead from the start.

But Marvel already has a female adventurer with that past, and she's even got the spider motif.

I guess Bendis retconning Jessica like that makes sense, because he only has a knack for writing hard-boiled detective or spy fiction. Whenever he tries to tackle the more fantastical elements of the Marvel Universe, the results are utterly mediocre, and all the characters start acting like they're in detective story, with snappy "tough guy" dialogue and all, regardless of whether that fits their previously established personality. So Bendis really should've kept to writing street-level Marvel characters like Daredevil, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.

And to continue on from my other post about him, you don't have Jared tagged as appearing here.

Nevermind, it'll be treated like a flashback, won't it.