The High Evolutionary and Jessica Drew

 

I wanted to write a post that ties into the hype surrounding Marvel Studio’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 but at first, I could not think of any good connections to the MC2. Then it hit me, the High Evolutionary! ‘But wait, he doesn’t appear in the MC2,’ I hear you shout. This post also managed to tie into the upcoming Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, too! Buckle up, this one is a doozy!

 

Herbert Wyndham aka The High Evolutionary first appeared in The Mighty Thor #134 (following a mention in the previous issue) in which Thor finds himself brought before the High Evolutionary by the Knights of Wundagore while seeking the missing Jane Foster. Thor learns from Jane that she is acting as a teacher to the High Evolutionary’s New-Men. However, Thor’s arrival distracted the High Evolutionary from his latest experiment at genetic acceleration, causing his wolf subject to evolve far further than intended into the extremely powerful and hate filled Man-Beast.

 

 

After the Knights join forces with Thor to save the High Evolutionary and defeat the Man-Beast and his newly created evil New-Men, the High Evolutionary leads his Knights of Wundagore to the stars to seek out a new home in his spacefaring Citadel (The Mighty Thor #135).

 

 

 

The High Evolutionary has his creator complex all over the Marvel Universe and the MC2 is no exception. As you may be aware, Jessica Drew aka the original Spider-Woman appears in the MC2 as the mother of Gerry Drew, the new Spider-Man. Well, Jessica’s origins are intrinsically linked with the High Evolutionary and by extension, so are Gerry’s. To make sense of this we must review Jessica’s convoluted origins.

 

Jessica Drew first appeared in Marvel Spotlight #32 where she was called Arachne and was referred to as ‘a spider-woman’. Sent by Hydra to kill the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury, we get the first version of her origin: a spider evolved by the High Evolutionary as the first female of his ‘New Men,’ she fled and lived among humans until she accidentally killed a man. Apparently amnesiac, ‘Arachne’ was taken in by a Hydra Area Commander named Count Otto Vermis who brainwashed and manipulated her to use as his superpowered weapon. Once the truth of Hydra’s evil machinations is revealed and Otto Vermis dies in an explosion, ‘Arachne’ is left alone in the world with her fractured memory.

 

Next up, following a team-up with Shang-Chi, Ben Grimm aka The Thing of the Fantastic Four is embroiled in a Hydra plot while in London. Having been captured and brainwashed again, Spider-Woman is sent to capture Ben’s girlfriend, Alicia Masters whom Hydra uses as a test subject for a serum based on Spider-Woman’s body chemical. The serum transforms Alicia into a rampaging humanoid spider-creature but with the intervention of The Thing, Spider-Woman and the newly arrived Invisible Woman the Hydra agents lose their control and eventually Alicia is restored to normal. Naturally, shortly afterwards Grimm, Alicia and Spider-Woman are embroiled in a conflict involving the mystical elemental beings known as the Brothers Four and Modred the Mystic. It is Modred who informs Spider-Woman she is, in fact, a human. The pair depart together with Modred promising to help restore her past memories (Marvel Two-In-One #29-#33).

 

We do not have to wait long for version two of her origin, with Spider-Woman #1 revealing the memories and knowledge Modred unlocked including her real name, Jessica Drew, and that her parents, Jonathon and Meriem (of the myriad misspelt monikers) were friends with Herbert Wyndham. Both scientists, Jonathon studying arachnids and Herbert studying evolution, agree to work together, and along with Meriem and a young Jessica, move to Transia. Discovering uranium beneath the land, they use the wealth to build the scientific station Wundagore.

 

Months later, Jessica falls deathly ill due to the radiation exposure. Wyndham places Jessica in a cryogenic unit, with Jonathon injecting her with a serum he derived from spider extract in hopes it will help her adapt to survive the radiation. Realizing the serum required months to incubate, Wyndham offers to use his genetic accelerator on Jessica before she runs out of time. Meriem apparently dies from the strain and Jonathon vanishes, leaving Herbert to attend to Jessica’s repeated treatments through the years as the serum interacted with the accelerator in unexpected ways. Many years later, Wyndham having adopted the identity of the High Evolutionary watched as Jessica emerged from cryostasis, leading us back to her first appearance in Marvel Spotlight #32. Oh, and she meets and saves Gerald ‘Jerry’ Hunt a liaison at Scotland Yard working for S.H.I.E.L.D.

 

We get glimpses of Jessica’s origin again in Spider-Woman #35 while hallucinating during a battle with Angar the Screamer, this time with the addition of the Arthurian sorceress Morgan Le Fay intruding on her memories. In Spider-Woman #37 Jessica tells Nick Fury that her first concrete memory was being (physically) aged ten, being told by the High Evolutionary that she had been in cryogenic hibernation since infancy and that both her parents were gone. Additionally, Jessica mentions she had been extensively educated while in cryo-sleep, to a level second-only to the High Evolutionary.

 

As an aside, the Morgan Le Fay subplot made it seem that Jessica’s mother, Meriem, was not dead and was actually the villain known as Viper or Madame Hydra (Spider-Woman #41-#44). This proved to be false memories implanted by Morgan Le Fay and the Elder God Chthon (Captain America #281, Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #14). These presumably included affecting everyone’s perception regarding Jessica and Viper’s apparent close physical resemblance. We will learn what really happened to Meriem Drew with this next origin update…

 

As part of ‘The Evolutionary War’ crossover event which ran across various comic title’s annuals in 1988, we got a more complete origin for Herbert Wyndham. We learn that a struggling Wyndham was working on his genetic accelerator in his mother’s basement in September 1928 before first meeting Jonathon Drew at an International Conference on Genetics in Geneva, Switzerland the following month. A mysterious stranger outside a pub gifts the drunken Wyndham all the necessary information needed to break and map the genetic code (X-Factor Annual #3).  

Having been expelled from Oxford University, and with only two-thirds of the notes translated by 1930, Wyndham has a success with his genetic accelerator only for it to be shot dead by neighbours shortly afterwards. Deciding he needs somewhere secluded to work, Herbert reaches out to his friend Jonathon Drew in hopes of pooling resources to set up their own research facilities. Having recently inherited a tract of land in the Balkans from her (never identified) maternal uncle, Meriem suggests they convert it into a laboratory and the four, including young Jessica, make the move together (The Punisher Annual #1).

Discovering radioactive uranium beneath Meriem Drew’s land on the eastern side of Wundagore Mountain, Herbert and Jonathon begin a mining operation which pays for the construction of their Citadel of Science. Jessica meanwhile is frightened by something or someone outside her window following a visit alongside her mother to their neighbour Baron Russoff who spoke of werewolves (Silver Surfer Annual #1).

 

By March 1931, the Citadel of Science was well underway (with some assistance again from the mystery man) when Jessica falls ill while playing with clay alongside her friend Phillip Masters, due to exposure to radiation from the nearby mine. Herbert determines the radiation level has been building for months and places her in a cryogenic unit to slow down her cellular decay. Jonathon uses a serum derived from spider-extract in hopes her body will adapt to survive the radiation as would a spider. But with the serum requiring a month’s incubation period and Jessica too close to death to wait, Herbert offers to use his genetic accelerator to speed up the process. Meriem objects to using Jessica as a guinea pig and after a disagreement with Jonathon, goes for a walk only to be found dead by Herbert later that night, slain by the lycanthropic Baron Russoff (ancestor of Jack Russell aka the Werewolf by Night). Herbert avoids telling Jonathon the truth of her death (New Mutants Annual #4).

 

A month later, a despondent Jonathon leaves the Citadel to Herbert and returns to America. With the comatose Jessica the only other human, Herbert spends a month forging his iconic armour to defend against the werewolf creature and captures it (Fantastic Four Annual #21). Revealed as Baron Russoff, Wyndham agrees to contain him during his transformations in exchange for studying him. Surprised by the sudden return of Jonathon Drew, possessed by the mystic Magnus, who speaks of Morgan Le Fay’s followers who used the evil tome known as the Darkhold to summon Chthon. When he proved indomitable, Chthon was bound within Mount Wundagore. After Magnus was killed by Morgan Le Fay for hiding away the Darkhold, centuries later he returned as a possessing spirit, warning of Chthon’s threat due to Wyndham’s machines drilling machines beneath the mountain. As a man of science, Wyndham does not accept this story, instead believing his friend is suffering under a delusion (Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22).

 

For over a decade Magnus (still inhabiting Jonathon) oversees the educating of High Evolutionary’s genetically accelerated ‘New Men’ in medieval tradition as highly skilled and principled warrior Knights of Wundagore. Meanwhile, a heavily pregnant woman is brought into the Citadel of Science, just as Magnus senses the Darkhold’s presence nearby and departs Jonathon’s body. The Knights fight and seemingly drive off Chthon’s defences, with Magnus managing to holt the demon’s manifestation while simultaneously the woman Magda gives birth to twins as a magical flash from Chthon touches one of them: Wanda Maximoff, later known as the Scarlet Witch (Uncanny X-Men Annual #12).

Following this costly encounter, the High Evolutionary is now convinced of his old friend’s statements about the demon. Magnus shortly after leaves Jonathon’s body, reminding the High Evolutionary not to neglect Jessica. Bova, the cow woman who acted as Magda’s midwife informs the High Evolutionary the mother has left her twin children with instructions to find them a good home. Meanwhile, former superheroes Robert and Madeline Frank (who is also due to give birth) arrive at the Citadel and two days later Madeline dies during childbirth and their child is stillborn, with a distraught Robert fleeing. At the same time, after decades in cryostasis, Jessica awakens and his placed in the care of Bova. Soon after, the High Evolutionary appears before Django and Marya Maximoff and entrusts them with the twins Pietro and Wanda (Web of Spider-Man Annual #4).

 

Following the events of The Mighty Thor #134-#135, Bova and the young Jessica Drew stayed behind, observing as the High Evolutionary and his Knights pilot the rocket propelled Citadel of Science into space (West Coast Avengers Annual #3). Thus ends the relevant portion of the High Evolutionary’s origin as it pertains to Jessica Drew and her family.

Now, how does all this have anything to do with the MC2? Let us take a look at the origin of Gerald ‘Gerry’ Drew aka Spider-Man. It’s from another former Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter that we learn the identity of the MC2’s new Spider-Man: the son of Jessica Drew and Gerald ‘Jerry’ Hunt, Gerry was born with a rare blood disease. In a desperate attempt to save her son, Jessica pulled out her father’s old notes, apparently following the same process as that which saved her life as a child. However, while Gerry did end up with spider-like powers, he was not cured of his disease (Spider-Girl #39).

 

When May ‘Mayday’ Parker as Spider-Girl confronts Gerry in an attempt to get him to stop risking his life as Spider-Man and seek medical assistance, he recounts his origin to her. Gerry believes he ruined his mother’s attempt to settle down and live a normal life when he was diagnosed with his blood disease, for which his father blamed Jessica and abandoned them. Not giving up on Gerry, Jessica tried to cure him by recreating the experiment that had transformed her into Spider-Woman. During the long and painful process, Jessica would distract Gerry with stories of other super heroes with the boy’s favourite being the original Spider-Man. When Gerry developed his own spider-powers he decided to follow in the family tradition, but elected to pattern himself after his childhood idol instead of his mother’s costumed look (Spider-Girl #40).

 

In Spider-Girl #42, when Peter Parker and Julia Carpenter visit Jessica Drew, she blames herself for Gerry’s blood disease. Recounting how she only wanted him to get better when she tried to recreate the experiment that made her Spider-Woman, Jessica notes that the process did at least super-charge him as it granted him spider-powers. Jessica remembers reading stories about the world’s greatest super heroes to him while he was trapped in his tube. When they realized he would never be cured, Gerry decided to put his new powers to use to live his remaining days to his fullest (Spider-Girl #42).

 

It is also worth mentioning that Gerry notes having his surname legally changed from Hunt to Drew after his parents were divorced (Spider-Girl #42). Fortunately, Peter assumes his old identity and as Spider-Man convinces Gerry to hang up his webs and seek treatment with Reed Richards for which Jessica thanks Peter before accompanying Gerry to his treatment (Spider-Girl #43).

 

So there you have it; not only does Jessica Drew have ties to the High Evolutionary, but so does Gerry Drew, thanks to them both utilizing Herbert Wyndham’s technology and processes, in addition to Jonathon Drew’s spider extract.

 

There are far more connections and characters that play into the High Evolutionary’s connections with the wider world of the Marvel Universe, but I have omitted them for the sake of focus and clarity. While I briefly mentioned the Maximoff twins, I have not even touched on Miles Warren! That is probably best saved for its own post someday. This was a tough one to research and I did not even touch upon the later retcons to Jessica’s origin as they are outside the purview of this MC2-centric history. I hope you enjoyed it.

Until I figure out what the deal was with Meriem’s maternal uncle (seriously!), I remain

 

frogoat

The Amazingly Bombastic Bag-Man

 

Sony’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has released another trailer and with it we got another glimpse of the very tangentially related ‘Bag-Man’ costume which also happens to make a few appearances in the MC2. I have already published posts about Six-Arm Spider-Man and the original Spider-Armor, so be sure to check those out too.

 

Let us take in some context and history, shall we? Full credit goes to Youtubers Jason Lethert (HeroJournalism and Comics2Film) and Chris Baker for doing all the research and making their confessions. I will try to keep It straightforward, but it is all over the place, so strap in. The iconic and well-known iteration of Peter Parker in an old Fantastic Four costume with a paper bag on his head comes from MC2 creators Tom Defalco and Ron Frenz in Amazing Spider-Man #258. Following the discovery that his new black costume was, in fact, an alien symbiote, Peter was left wearing nothing but his underwear until Johnny Storm outfitted him with the aforementioned suit and bag and slapped a ‘Kick Me’ sign to his back.

 

After intervening in a hit and run robbery, Peter finds himself surrounded by news reporters who bombard the humiliated hero with questions. Returning home, Pete catches a news report about his paper bag persona who the press dubs  ‘The Unknown Super-Hero’. As others above have noted, this is a reference to ‘The Unknown Comic,’ a stand-up comedian who frequently appeared on The Gong Show wearing a paper bag over his head.

Now that we have detailed the infamous origin, let us look at a precursor from way back in Amazing Spider-Man #82 by Stan Lee and John Romita Sr. With his Spider-Man costume in desperate need of the local laundromat but worried about onlookers, Peter dons a paper bag mask and swings in to finish his laundry. It is a nice touch from Romita Sr to draw web-shooters on Peter’s wrists, even if the colourist seems to have rendered them the same yellow as Peter’s shirt.

 

The Spider-Man animated show (not to be confused with Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends) which began production in 1981 (though it apparently wasn’t completed or widely aired for some time after) also features an instance of Peter wearing a paper bag mask. In the episode ‘The Sandman is Coming’ written by Jeffrey Scott, Spider-Man finds himself inadvertently unmasked by the villain and uses a paper bag to cover his face as he makes his way home in his Spider-Man suit.

 

Writer J.M. Dematteis and artist Luke Ross give us yet another version of the Bag-Man in Spectacular Spider-Man #256. When confronting the villainous White Rabbit and her goons, Peter is forced to throw together this paper bag mask and shirtless look which he dubs ‘The Bombastic Bag-Man’ before launching into a humorous fictitious origin story for his temporary identity. Dematteis even references ‘The Unknown Comic’ again.

 

Now it is time to look at how the Bag-Man costume made the transition to another medium and probably the one most responsible for propelling this design to wider recognition: video games.  Making its first video game appearance in Activision’s Spider-Man in 2000, the costume is dubbed ‘The Amazing Bag Man’. The Bag-Man would go on to appear in various Spider-Man games from then on, but the question remains, why is the Fantastic Four costume with the paper bag mask called ‘The Bombastic Bag-Man’ nowadays if that nom du jour refers to the Dematteis version?  Well, Chris Baker has the answer.

 

As he explains in a video on his YouTube channel, Chris Baker was working as a Licensed Game Manager for Marvel on game developer Beenox’s Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions in 2010. With the Bag-Man costume, Chris asked them to change the name from whatever name it had originally been given in-game to ‘Bombastic Bag-Man.’ Mr. Baker not only admits his error but points out the actual source of the name, Spectacular Spider-Man #256 while musing what they would call that costume if it appeared alongside the other design in a future game. Games and merchandise since 2010 have often used the ‘Bombastic Bag-Man’ moniker making it widely accepted regardless of accuracy.

 

Now, let us circle back to the MC2 and its own history with the Bag-Man identity. For what might be considered Bag-Man 3.0 or even 4.0 we must look to Spider-Girl #47 in which Peter is visiting the Fantastic Five Headquarters so that Big Brain aka Reed Richards can work on his new bionic leg. When Apox the Omega Skrull destroys the top floors of the building, Peter aids members of the Fantastic Five, his daughter Spider-Girl and the new Scarlet Spider, leaping into battle with a familiar temporary costume courtesy of Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch, albeit this time the trademark paper bag is replaced with a metal helmet belonging to The Thing.

 

This brings us to Spider-Man Family Vol. 1 #1. Therein we have a story (seemingly) set during the mostly unexplored point in time after Baby May is rescued and returned to Peter and Mary Jane Parker by Kaine but before Peter loses his leg in his final battle with Norman Osborn aka the Green Goblin. Lured into a trap by the villain Jack O’ Lantern aka Maguire Beck, Spider-Man meets and teams-up with Araña and her *sidekick* Miguel as they battle a museum room full of Spider-Man robot’s designed to resemble various costumes and points in Peter’s career. Among these we see a robot that appears to be clad in The Unknown Super-Hero costume. This robotic Bag-Man duplicate is destroyed by Spider-Man who alongside Araña and Miguel go on to defeat the mastermind Jack O’ Lantern.

Much like with the case of Six-Arm Spider-Man and the original Spider-Armor there is the lingering question of how Jack O’ Lantern came to know of the connection between Spider-Man and The Unknown Super-Hero given it’s not even spider-themed. I would like to offer a No-Prize explanation. Given the media picked up the story and he was caught on camera, it is not hard to believe there is footage of the Bag-Man crawling up a wall. Thus, Jack O’ Lantern was able to deduce the two were probably one and the same.

 

It is absolutely mind-blowing how much this one-off gag based on a stand-up comedian’s own gag has taken off. It is even more amusing that none of the writers of the Bag-Man appearances seem to have been referencing each other another.

 

Until I wind up in a paper bag with a ‘Kick Me’ sign tapped to my back, I remain

 

frogoat