With Sony
Pictures Madame Web movie right around the corner, now is a good
time to take a look at one of the film’s main cast of characters as she appears
in our favourite comic imprint. Today, we will cover Spider-Woman aka Julia
Carpenter in the MC2.
First appearing in 1984's Marvel Super Heroes Secret
Wars #6 in shadow and making her first full debut in Marvel Super
Heroes Secret Wars #7, Julia Carpenter was introduced as
the second Spider-Woman, and the inspiration for Spider-Man’s
own black-suit
design,
though her origin would remain a mystery for quite some time.
Born Julia Cornwall in Los Angeles,
California to Elizabeth and Walter Cornwall , Julia befriended
fellow college student (and later federal agent) Valerie Cooper before
she met, fell in love with married Larry Carpenter. Julia dropped
out of college, working to support Larry as he studied for a
career in public relations (Avengers West Coast #84).
After graduating college, Larry Carpenter (who
first appeared in Iron Man #214) often focused his time and
attention on his work and extra-marital affairs, rather than Julia despite
the two having a young daughter- Rachel Carpenter-together. Rachel
Carpenter (who also made her debut in Iron Man #214) was
five years old when Julia divorced Larry and
the courts granted custody of Rachel to Julia. Now
a single mother struggling to make ends meet, Julia moved Julia to Denver,
Colorado.
Unbeknownst to Julia, a seemingly chance meeting
with Val Cooper would lead to Julia gaining
her spider-powers. Val hired Julia as a test
subject for a secret government project, telling Julia it was
for exercise research when the experiments were to create government-controlled
super humans for the Commission of Superhuman Activities (CSA).
After being subjected to weeks of intense athletic training, Julia was
secretly injected with a large dose of a special spider-serum. While Dr
Napier claimed this was an accident, the researchers had been
dosing Julia with higher and higher amounts over time. The
'accident' yielded the desired results and Julia quickly
discovered she had developed her own unique set of spider-powers including the
ability to generate psionic 'webbing' (Avengers West Coast #84).
Despite appearances, Val Cooper had not
encountered Julia by mere luck. Julia would
learn much later that the story she had believed was fabricated. The CSA's ambition
to have government super-agents had led to them hiring lead scientist Dr
Carter Napier. Napier and his team of scientists had
sought out rare plants and spider venoms only found deep in the Peruvian
Amazon. The expedition had been led by jungle guides Elizabeth and Walter
Cornwall, Julia's own long-absent parents. It was through
this connection that Val Cooper learned of Julia's financial
struggles and combined with her prior knowledge of Julia's athletic
prowess, found the perfect candidate for the experiments (Spider-Woman Vol.2
#2).
After the events of Secret Wars, Julia spent
time working for the CSA, being assigned to work alongside Freedom
Force in battling the X-Men and later capturing
the Avengers.
Feeling it was not right, Julia freed the Avengers and
was declared a fugitive by (Uncanny X-Men #206, X-Factor #8-9, Avengers
Annual #15). With Julia absent for long periods of
time, Larry successfully sued for custody of Rachel. Aided
by Iron
Man, Julia turned herself in to the CSA,
working as an undercover agent under the orders of Mike Clemson, a
man who was openly hostile toward her. Meanwhile, the general public continued
to believe she was a wanted criminal (Iron Man #214).
Julia encountered the Avengers in California after
moving there to be close to her daughter again. After aiding the team in their
battle with the Pacific Overlords, Julia joined
the West Coast Avengers team, finally allowing Julia to
officially clear her name and quit the CSA. Around this time, Julia revealed
her superhero identity to Rachel. Julia would serve with
the Avengers West Coast branch until the team was disbanded. (Avengers
West Coast #70-102).
When the West Coast branch of the Avengers disbanded, Julia joined
the newly formed Force Works alongside with several other
former-West Coast team members. Rachel moved into
the teams headquarters- The Works- alongside her mother. However,
in the wake of the events of The
Crossing, the Force Works team disbanded (Force
Works #1-22). After this, Julia next appears in a back up
story in Sensational Spider-Man Annual '96, which takes place after
the events of Onslaught.
In this adventure, Julia is operating solo in Los
Angeles when she encounters the animated Spider-Woman costume
of Jessica
Drew. It leads her into an encounter with Shadowoman and Lindsey
McCabe where they save Jessica
Drew from the other dimensional Void-Eater. The story
concludes by implying Jessica may want her old super hero
moniker back, and an editorial box tells readers to look for a follow up story
in the pages of Spider-Man Team-Up. Sadly, this would never come to
pass as this story was writer Mark Gruenwald's final published
work before his death.
Following this, Julia Carpenter next shows
up post-Heroes
Return for cameo appearances in Avengers Vol. 3 #1-4 and Captain
America Vol. 3 #3. As I've mentioned in prior posts, it's unclear what
parts of this era occurred or did not occur in the history of the MC2.
Around this time in the Spider-Man books, Doctor
Octopus' Spider-Woman (Charlotte Witter) was
taking the powers of the various other Spider-Women. However,
things appear to have played out differently in the MC2, as this is
where events had already begun to diverge.
Julia Carpenter makes her MC2 debut
in Spider-Girl #37 where she seeks out Peter
Parker for assistance finding the original Spider-Man's family
so she can bring in Jessica Drew's son, Gerry
Drew aka the new Spider-Man before Gerry comes
to harm as a result of his rare blood disease.
In Spider-Girl #39, Julia mentions
that Jessica, herself, Mattie Franklin, and Cassandra
Webb aka Madame Web had all previously used Peter to
get messages to Spider-Man. Julia also appears to
have detailed knowledge of Jessica and Gerry's history,
implying the two Spider-Women have maintained contact until
recently.
As with the previous issue, the connection between the
three Spider-Women is reinforced with a flashback in Spider-Girl
#40 showing Julia in her Spider-Woman costume
meeting up with a costumed Mattie Franklin and a plain
clothed Jessica Drew. It’s notable that Jessica is
in plain clothes and apparently depowered while Julia seems to
retain her abilities, judging by her costumed appearance.
Julia and Peter track
down Jessica at her home and confront her, with Jessica telling
the two that Gerry won't stop his reckless behaviour as superhero
without a good reason. Peter approaches Gerry in
costume as Spider-Man and convinces him to retire until he can
get treatment from Reed Richards. Julia notes that
despite being believed dead, the original Spider-Man returned
when needed (Spider-Girl #42-43).
Julia’s appearances in the MC2 raise a lot of
unanswered questions, such as whether she retained her spider-powers (it seems
likely, though it’s never stated) and we get no mention of her own daughter Rachel
who would surely be an adult by this point. Maybe someday we’ll learn more.
Until I discover Dr Napier was in the Amazon
with my parents researching rare plants and spiders, right before they… didn’t
die, I remain
frogoat
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