Arachne | |
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Arachne. Art by Marc Silvestri. |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
First appearance | Secret Wars vol. 1 #6 (October, 1984, in the shadows) Secret Wars vol. 1 #7 (November, 1984, full appearance) |
Created by | Jim Shooter Mike Zeck |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Julia Carpenter |
Team affiliations | Omega Flight West Coast Avengers Force Works Freedom Force Secret Defenders CSA |
Notable aliases | Spider-Woman |
Abilities | Superhuman strength, speed, agility, stamina, and durability Healing factor, Wall-crawling, Ability to create webs out of psychokinetic energy. |
Arachne (Julia Carpenter, née Cornwall), formerly known as Spider-Woman, is a fictional character and a superheroine in the Marvel Comics universe. The character first appeared in Secret Wars vol. 1 #6 (in the shadows).
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Publication history
As Spider-Woman, Carpenter has appeared as a starring character in Avengers West Coast and Force Works as well as a supporting character in the second Spider-Woman series, whose main character was Mattie Franklin. While she frequently appears as a member of a team, such as the Avengers West Coast and Force Works, Julia starred in her own four-part Spider-Woman miniseries which explained her origin and the origin of her enemies, Death Web.
Fictional character biography
A secretive government group called The Commission decided to create their own superhero. Val Cooper met college friend Julia Carpenter in Julia's hometown of Denver, and convinced her to be part of an "athletic study". She was unknowingly a test subject in their experiments. During the experiment, they "accidentally" injected Julia with a mix of spider venom and exotic plant extracts, which gave Julia powers very similar to those of Spider-Man.[volume & issue needed]
Not long after she was given the identity of Spider-Woman, she was drawn into the first Secret Wars, where she met Spider-Man and the Avengers for the first time, and allied herself with the superhuman champions. She battled the Absorbing Man, Doctor Doom, and the Hulk. She was killed and resurrected by Doom with the power of the Beyonder.[1] After returning to Earth, Julia joined Freedom Force,[volume & issue needed] a government-sponsored super team made up primarily of former members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, who enlisted into government service to avoid prison terms. In an early mission with Freedom Force, the team was sent to arrest the X-Men, and Julia encountered her predecessor Jessica Drew, who at the time was still without her own Spider-Woman powers. During this conflict with the X-Men, Julia also began to question her teammates' exceedingly brutal attitudes that they held over from their criminal past.[volume & issue needed] Subsequently Freedom Force was sent to arrest the Avengers after a disgruntled Quicksilver made false accusations against them. Freedom Force actually defeated the combined East and West Coast Avengers teams and helped bring the Avengers into custody at the Vault without a trial. Spider-Woman, once again found her loyalties divided; she had a change of heart and eventually chose to aid the Avengers by breaking into the Vault and freeing them, battling the Guardsmen and thus becoming a fugitive from the law herself.[2] While on the run from the law she teamed up with Spider-Man occasionally.[volume & issue needed] In another adventure she also teamed with Iron Man, to battle renegade AIM agents named the Seekers, who sought to capture Valerie Cooper to undercover solo work.[3] In gratitude for her earlier assistance with the Avengers, Iron Man worked with the government to get her pardoned.[volume & issue needed] Alongside Spider-Man, she battled the Wrecking Crew as a government assignment.[4]
Later, one of her assignments led her to California looking for a team of Asian supervillains called the Pacific Overlords. She met and assisted the Avengers West Coast against the Pacific Overlords, and battled U.S. Agent.[5] She was eventually offered membership in the team, and joined the Avengers West Coast.[6] As a member of the West Coast Avengers, Julia battled some of the Marvel Universe's major foes including Doctor Demonicus,[volume & issue needed] Ultron[volume & issue needed] and Mephisto[volume & issue needed] as well as participating in the Infinity War cosmic crossover.[volume & issue needed] In addition while still a member of the West Coast Avengers, Julia was chosen by Doctor Strange to be a founding member of the Secret Defenders in their first mission alongside Dark Hawk (whom she would later recommend for West Coast Avengers membership), Wolverine and Nomad .[volume & issue needed] When the West Coast Avengers disbanded, Julia joined their spin-off team Force Works ,[volume & issue needed] whose primary enemies included the alien Kree[volume & issue needed] and long time Iron Man foe the Mandarin.[volume & issue needed]
Julia's main enemies in her solo adventures were the arachnid-based team called Death Web, which consisted of three supervillains who were created by The Commission, using a variation of the same serum which transformed Julia. When Mike Clemson, founder of Death Web, captured Spider-Woman's daughter Rachel, he blackmailed her into fighting Spider-Man. Even though she nearly killed Spider-Man, she would not commit an act of murder, and Spider-Man helped her rescue Rachel.[volume & issue needed] Eventually, Julia walked away from the superhero business to concentrate on raising her daughter.[volume & issue needed] Like Jessica Drew (the original Spider-Woman), Julia was also attacked by Charlotte Witter and had her powers stolen.[volume & issue needed] After the loss of her superpowers, Julia returned to the life of a normal mother.[volume & issue needed]
Civil War
Julia reappeared in a story arc of the 2006 Ms. Marvel series, using the codename Arachne (which she originally intended to use).[volume & issue needed] Her powers have clearly been restored. During Civil War, Julia registers under the Superhuman Registration Act, and she and Wonder Man aid Ms. Marvel in the training of novice superheroes.[volume & issue needed]
However, Julia is shown to be a double agent; when she first responded to Iron Man's request, she thought it would be an opportunity to help people escape registration; she is shown to have tipped off Hobie Brown, the Prowler, moments before a SHIELD capekiller squadron arrived at his home to arrest him, and she is thought to have warned many more heroes of impending arrests.[7] It is also revealed that she is romantically involved with the Shroud, an opponent of the Superhuman Registration Act.[volume & issue needed]
Julia's status is discovered when a captured Prowler reveals under interrogation that she tipped him off. The Shroud, who had been captured by Ms. Marvel,[8] reveals that Julia was paralyzed for several months after she lost her powers, even though all of her other injuries had healed. The Shroud's company had synthesized a duplicate of the serum that originally provided Julia with her powers, and these returned several days after it was administered to her. With the Shroud's help, Julia underwent intense physical therapy and was soon able to walk again. It was during this time that she and the Shroud fell in love.[volume & issue needed]
A government strike team led by Ms. Marvel, including Wonder Man and Araña, attacks Julia at her home just as she was about to flee the country with her daughter. Julia is captured and summarily incarcerated. However, it is revealed in Ms. Marvel #13 that Julia escaped captivity during the Negative Zone prison break, and she returned to Colorado in search of Rachel. A SHIELD Psy Ops team telepathically traces her to Brooklyn, where she furiously confronts and attacks Araña, demanding to know where her daughter has been taken. She is subsequently defeated by Araña with surprising ease due to her instability from losing her daughter. After being rendered unconscious by Araña, she awakens aboard the Minicarrier 13 where Ms. Marvel endeavors to help Julia find Rachel.[volume & issue needed]
Omega Flight
Arachne became a member of the new Canada-based team Omega Flight.[9] She was given the option of having outstanding charges dropped in exchange for her participation on the team. After a battle against the Wrecking Crew, Julia decided to stay on the team.[10]
Powers and abilities
Arachne possesses superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility, and reflexes. Arachne possesses the ability to spin a "psi-web" of psionic energy between two surfaces. This web, once solidified, possesses sufficient tensile strength to support a 10 ton weight. It remains in effect for up to approximately 1 hour. She can also project and release sufficient psionic energy through her hands and feet to enable her to walk on walls and ceilings.
Julia's powers originally required considerable concentration for her to manifest them, and she found that physical gesturing aids her in the weaving of her psionic webs. By using psychokinetic energy, Arachne can bind ambient free-floating molecules into strands of solid force. Her psi-webs can be used to wrap enemies, or focused into narrow web-lines that she can swing from. Due to their psychic nature, her psi-webs can form from a distance, and she can mentally control the movement of her webbing.
She has heightened senses, and feels vibrations as does a spider in its web. Her senses allow her to detect a hollow area under a solid steel floor by walking over it.
In addition to her natural superhuman advantages, she has been extensively trained by the Commission on Superhuman Activities in espionage and hand-to-hand combat.
Although she lost her powers at one time,[volume & issue needed] she regained them through a duplicate serum.[volume & issue needed]
Costume
- When, in the Secret Wars storyline, Spider-Man first laid eyes on the symbiote black costume that would eventually become the symbiote-charged villain known as Venom, he surmised that he had subconsciously redesigned his costume to look more like Julia's.
- The Ultimate Marvel universe Spider-Woman wears a red-tinted costume that is similar to Spider-Man's black costume (which later became the Ultimate Marvel universe version of Venom). However, the costume she wears has white fingers. Unlike Julia, the Ultimate version of Spider-Woman wears a mask that covers all of her face.
In other media
Television
Julia Carpenter appeared regularly as Spider-Woman, both in and out of costume, in the 1994 Iron Man animated series voiced by Casey DeFranco in Season One and Jennifer Hale in Season Two. She is part of the team loosely based on the comic and super team, Force Works. In the cartoon, Julia Carpenter eventually married Tony Stark. However, this turns out to simply be a ploy by Tony to draw out the Mandarin and convince him he is not Iron Man. The Tony that Julia married was a Life Model Decoy, while the real Tony showed up dressed as Iron Man, thus leading Mandarin to conclude that the two men were different people.
In the first season, Julia had few action sequences; she primarily used her powers to fire blasts of energy, which formed what appeared to be rope nets that would fall on her enemies. In the second season she became more aggressive, actively fighting her foes. Her powers also became more like Spider-Man, as she fired organic webbing from her wrists (even using his trademark hand gesture when firing her webs) to swing from web-lines and trap enemies with sticky webs. In this continuity, she competes with the Scarlet Witch over Stark's affection. In the first season, Stark does not appear to reciprocate the feelings of either woman, but in the second season it becomes apparent that he harbors some feelings for Julia, only to have his "lone wolf" attitude complicate their chances of a relationship. When Stark's counter plan against Justin Hammer, which includes faking his death without the knowledge of his teammates, leads to a disbanding of Force Works, Julia and James Rhodes, AKA: War Machine, are the only ones who continue to work with Stark.
Rachel Carpenter also appears in the series, though she is older than her comic book incarnation and with a more "rebellious" attitude. In episode #3 she is shown as a lover of dance music -and arcades- disdaining classical composers (specifically Van Cliburn) but after a piece of Rachmaninov played by Cliburn on a cassette given to Rachel manages to recharge Iron Man's armor, she changes her mood and begins to appreciate the classical music.
Video games
- Arachne is a playable character in the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance; she is a variant skin for Spider-Woman, called Secret Wars. She is only a costume variation, and therefore uses the Jessica Drew Spider-Woman's power set.
Bibliography
- Spider-Woman Vol. 2 #1-4
- Avengers: West Coast #70-102, Annual #6-8
- Force Works #1-22
- Marvel Comics Presents Vol. 1 #159, 166-172
- Marvel Comics Presents Vol. 2 #3-12
- Omega Flight #1-5
- Sensational Spider-Man Annual 1996
- Secret Wars #7-12
- Iron Man vol. 1 #214
- Uncanny X-Men #206
- Ms. Marvel vol. 2 #6-8, 13-14
- Avengers vol. 3 #1-4
- Mighty Avengers #21
- Spider-Woman vol. 3 #1
Footnotes
External links
- Arachne's profile at Marvel.com
- Arachne's profile at Spiderfan.org
- MC2 version of the character at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
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