2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Spider-Woman gets reworked for a new generation, September 5, 2007
This review is from: Spider-Woman: Origin (Paperback)
When Brian Michael Bendis disassembled the Avengers, and then re-assembled them with a lineup of his favorite Marvel characters, one of the most notable new faces was Jessica Drew, AKA Spider-Woman. A character with a sordid backstory and neglected use to be sure, Bendis transformed her into one of the most popular members of the team, and with Spider-Woman: Origin, he and co-writer Brian Reed re-work her origin for a new generation. Going all the way back to before Jessica was even born, we meet her scientist father, who's experiments on Wundagore Mountain plant the seeds for future events that will set in motion Jessica's turn as a super hero. The real standout of Spider-Woman: Origin is the art from Joshua and Jonathan Luna, better known as the crafters of the surprisingly good Ultra for Image Comics. They're lush renderings are refreshing to see in a Marvel comic, and hopefully this won't be the last we see from them on a mainstream title. The story may be too short for it's own good, but all in all, Spider-Woman: Origin is a more than solid reworking of one of Marvel's top female super heroes.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a great introduction for a pioneering female hero, March 21, 2007
This review is from: Spider-Woman: Origin (Paperback)
the script by Brian Bendis & Brian Reed is very good, and the artwork by the Luna Brothers is a touch of Anime' and very colorful. The plot reworks some established history of the character, and updates it for the 21st century. There are some plotholes here and there but overall this is a worthy graphic novel to pick up.
*************SOME PLOT SPOILERS CONTAINED IN REVIEW**********************
Her original comics origin was somewhat different, and more than a little bizarre: In it, back in the 1920's, her father, Jonathan Drew, worked with a partner named Herbert Edgar Wyndham. The latter pretended to be simply a human geneticist, but in reality was the High Evolutionary- who was once human but alien forces gave him unprecedented cosmic power & technology which he then used to pursue wildly disastrous experiments. They were stationed at Wundagore Mountain in Marvel's fictional Eastern European country of Transia; a very young Jessica got exposed to some radioactive material, and was poisoned. Desperate, the elder Drew convinced Wyndham to place his daughter in a stasis tube, where she was kept alive for decades, and being injected with a derivative of spider-protein. When she was finally revived decades later, she was now a young adult woman- but was brainwashed by HYDRA to be an assassin for them--a confrontation with Nick Fury snapped her out of it, and she then became a super-hero.
Bendis, along with co-author Brian Reed, turn all of this on its head. You see, it seems that our beloved Jessica Drew was mind-mucked quite royally by HYDRA (she and the ex-subjects of Weapon X could form a support group). Apparently, she was only born a few decades ago, when her parents were both scientists working under the tacit assumption that this was a British government grant financing their work. Miles Warren was Drew's partner, and this Wyndham was not the High Evolutionary, but a British general secretly in HYDRA's camp. Drew and his team had developed a machine that could map the DNA from a living creature and potentially imprint certain characteristics into another. So far they were only working with arachnids--the latest being a 'Wundagore Widow'- like a black widow, but red, with a yellow underbelly- sound familiar?
Anyway, the General shows up unannounced, and during an impromptu tour of the lab, Drew's wife accidentally steps in front of the laser-mapping device as Warren activates it--with the Wundagore Widow in between. The result is that the laser beam pulsates right through the spider, and into the belly of Miriam Drew--who is pregnant. The obsessive Mr. Drew is flabbergasted, and begins resenting his wife--his surly attitude does not change even after Jessica is born perfectly healthy--perhaps too healthy--he secretly takes fluid samples, injects her with serums and records the data as if Jessica is just another experiment. When Miriam finds out, she is horrified, and in her confrontation with Jonathan, he becomes enraged and starts beating her. Observing this, young Jessica lashes out with her first venom blast, and falls unconscious.
Overall this is a good TPB to pick up--The Luna Brothers' art has a slight manga touch, and Bendis' dialogue is mostly solid, only occasionally diverting to eccentricity.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
A good story saddled by terrible art., October 6, 2011
This review is from: Spider-Woman: Origin (Paperback)
When Spider-woman started to gain some momentum during Bendis' run on the New Avengers, the decision was made to revamp her origin story. Now, she would be exposed to an arachnid genome as an unborn child, and her parents would be researchers involved in some shady human genome research. It is finally revealed that the agency funding her parent's research is none other than HYDRA, the international terrorist organization. The story unfolds from that idea in an organic and enjoyable way, and asks an interesting question:
How does one end up as a hero if they're born on the wrong side of the law? If they're literally trained to be a "bad guy" since childhood? It's an idea with a disturbing amount of relevance today, what with children being trained in schools to grow up to be suicide bombers.
The dialogue is typical snappy Bendis fare. It's not his best work (his recent New Avengers books) but still solid. What cripples this book is the ATROCIOUS art. It's simply awful. Characters look doughy and poorly defined. The framing and staging are sub-par and the action poses lack any sort of dynamism. I can't imagine how this artist managed to land this book when there are hundreds of better artists hunting for work over on Deviant Art.
If you can ignore the ugly art, then you're in for a good story.
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