Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Coaster ride for a decent character., December 11, 2005
Spider-Woman / Jessica Drew was one of Marvel Comic's 70's female character attempts, and one of only several to survive to this day.
The character had an exteme rollar coaster ride of highs and lows in terms of story and art. I gave this book only three stars because the first several attempts at the character (Marvel Spotlight & Marvel 2-in-1) were only so-so, as were issues 17 - 25 of her own book. If Marvel comics puts out a volume 2 (covering SW 26-50,Avengers Annual #10, Avengers 240/241, X-Men 148, Mavel 2-in-1 #85, and for good measure, a segement of Captain America # 281), issues 26-32 and 47-49 of her own book will also be only so-so. However the rest, is quite good. Just in totally different ways. The original 16 issues had Carmine Infantino on art (normally not a fan, but his style fit SW in a way) and Marv Wolfaman and Mark Guenwald on story. Both writers focused on keeping SW away from the traditional superhero, working more to discover her past and encountering strange people and creatures along the way. It had an off-beat / horror feel that worked for the character. She was a different character from Spider-Man. But then they had problems figuring out where to go with the character until Chris Claremont took SW over around issue 34. Claremont took the character into the private investigator/spy arena with Steve Leialoha on art duties (personally my favorite of the SW artists). He made the character very spy savy, very confident in herself and strategically intellegent. By issue 38, the women's movement had slowed down and sales of the comic forced it to go bi-monthly. Claremont and Leialoha left with issue 46 and the book took a horrible turn and ended with at least a half-decent finale issue at #50. The SW part of the character was put to rest in Avengers #241. Fans off and on for years have been teased with her return, but it never seemed to happen, until Brian Bendis.
Bendis, it is rumored, was to make his new Alias book's main character be Jessica Drew, but the idea was nixed by Marvel. When asked to re-launch the Avengers, Bendis was able to bring the character back to much fan applause. Currently there is a Spider-Woman "Origin" mini-series and continuing series in the works.
So, should you try this book out? Yes and no. If you're looking for Spider-Woman history and don't mind off-beat stories, it's interesting to read. However, don't expect the superhero version you're currently being presented with in New Avengers. That version of the character won't really happen until SW Vol.2 comes out. SW Vol. 1 has kinda a superhero meets mild horror feel with some really sappy woman's romance stuff near the end (yeah, told you they lost direction).
My personal opinion falls this way. I like interesting characters. I like seeing how they develop. The first 16 issues and then the Claremont run, really made me love this character. Here was a woman character, who wasn't defined by her male counterpart. Heck, she didn't need a counterpart.
By the way, the listing is wrong,J. Michael Straczynski had nothing to do with this character. The book is by Marv Wolfman, Mark Gruenwald, Archie Goodwin, Sal Bucema, Carmine Infantino, Jim Mooney, Ron Wilson, Steve Leialoha and friends.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A 70'S FORGOTTEN GEM!, December 28, 2005
Marvel tried really...really hard in the 1970's and early 80's to develop a popular female super hero into her own on-going title. To that end the era gave us characters such as Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, Dazzler, and Spider-Woman. Of course three of these were simply female versions of the more popular male characters. If one judges based strictly on longevity, the most popular character was Spider-Woman who lasted for 50 issues from 1978 to 1982. Certainly nothing to sneeze at and it was longer than many other male heroes lasted in their own series.
She made her first appearance in Marvel Spotlight #32 (which is included in this book). Jessica Drew is Spider-woman and had a rather colorful origin that included being given an experimental drug to try and cure radiation poison and then being placed into a genetic accelerator that slowed her aging. Sounds kind of backwards though doesn't it? Years later she would be release and recruited by HYDRA and then would turn on them and become a super hero in L.A., and eventually meet Spiderman.
Jessica Drew possesses superhuman strength. Her agility, reflexes, endurance, and speed are likewise enhanced. Her hearing is hyper-acute. She can cling to walls and other surfaces, and her enhanced musculature and stamina allow her to easily lift and carry an undetermined amount of weight while clinging to walls.
She is immune to all forms of toxic substances and radiations. She also has the ability to store bioelectricity in her body, which she can release at will in powerful discharges that she calls "venom blasts." Her metabolism generates certain types of pheromones that elicit attraction and/or repulsion on others, depending on many, still unknown, factors which might include gender and mood.
Throughout the fifty issue run Spider-woman fought mainly minor league villains and she was eventually thought to have been killed. It would turn out that she was only trapped in the astral plane and Dr. Strange would restore her to her body years later and she would become a member of the Avengers.
Spider-woman suffered with fairly weak artists during the early issues. Carmine Infantino's style that was so bold in the 60's now just looked old in the late 1970's. Other artists included Steve Leialoha (a big improvement over Infantino). But what stood out to me and others were the usually dynamic covers, particularly those done by Dave Cockrum. A favorite was #32 by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson with their tribute to Universal Monsters. Chris Claremont wrote issues #34 to #46 and they were some of the best.
All in all, Spider-woman really is a forgotten gem of the 1970's and I give a lot of credit to Marvel for putting out this first volume which covers ½ of the 50 issue run and can't wait until volume two.
Reviewed by Tim Janson
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Spider-Woman Redux, October 8, 2006
After years of hiatus, Spider-Woman has returned to her roots with "New Avengers". Essentially playing a support role now, it's fun to look back and remember when Jessica Drew aka Spider-Woman was the star of her own on-going comic book series. Having no relation to the more famous Spiderman, Spider-Woman let loose on the world of Marvel in the late 1970's. The stories collection in the this volume cover the origin and first few battles of Marvel's reinvented heroine.
It's important to remember that like classic films, these stories were written for a different time. The dialouge, set ups, and resolutions can sometimes be silly. The artwork is top notch and lends itself well to the black and white pages of Marvel's Essential collections. The price point of the book is affordable enough for even a casual fan to pick up a copy and revisit it every now and then.
Hopefully Marvel will see fit to release a second edition containing the last half of "Spider-Woman"...until then...MAKE MINE MARVEL!
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