Customer Reviews

Spider-Woman: Origin

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

"Spider-Woman: Origins" is a solid series, I can't say I loved it, but I definately enjoyed reading it.

The fact that this book is solidly written is no surprise, due to the track of the Bendis - Reed partnership (which started in the great Ultimate Spider-Man video game and from here went to the New Avengers: Illuminati). The series is paced well, despite me thinking that Issue 1 was a bit dragged out, I love what Bendis and Reed does to the supporting characters he introduces and how they handle the moral ambiguitty in Jess Drew. Despite being solidly written, this story never broke new ground and was far from either writers best work, but I can say, that if they plan to release the ongoing, Im going to buy it.

The art by the Luna Brothers is wildly uneven and it takes the score down by a star. The action sequences are full of energy and flow extremely well, but on the other hand, some of the characters just look flat out ugly, like Nick Fury, he looks really bad, I like the colouring as well, but some of the faces (and expression), just left a really bad taste in my mouth, there is some potential here, but the Luna Brothers have some work to do in their faces to achieve it.

All in all, "Spider-Woman: Origins" is an entertaining read, could've been better, but its good as it is. I wouldn't say "go out and buy it!" but if you enjoy Bendis' recent take on Spider-Woman in New Avengers, you might enjoy reading this book.

A huge fan of Bendis, I felt a little let down by this tale. Why? Well, it was too short. I know that as comics get more expensive, pages diminish, and tales become less prolonged; things get weaned down. Sometimes for the better, particularly when a piece becomes a tale of substance. Unfortunately, it is too bad that those books of substance are so short that when you read them voraciously, you are done less than 10 minutes later.
Just wanted more!!!

artwork was great. i enjoted the story could use a little more color, but otherwise it is worth owning. good read.

The art is odd, the story is Average maybe I was expecting more for Spiderwoman being a fan of hers, or maybe Marvel just didn't want to put enough effort to it.