main image

SPIDER-WOMAN

Real Name: Mary Jane Watson

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Earth-8545) human mutate

Occupation: Adventurer

Group Membership: Avengers of Earth 8545 (Beast/Hank McCoy, Blob/Fred J. Dukes, Captain America/Steve Rogers, Daredevil/Matt Murdock, Dr. Henry Pym, Dr. Octopus/Otto Octavius, Emma Frost, Frog, Havok, Icegirl, Juggernaut, Leech, Power Fist, Rachel Summers, Rhino, Thor)

Affiliations: Exiles (Beak/Barnell Bohusk of Earth-616, Blink/Clarice Ferguson of Earth-295, Mimic/Calvin Rankin of Earth-12, Magik/Illyana Rasputin of Earth-4210, Morph/Kevin Sydney of Earth-1081, Nocturne/T.J. Wagner of Earth-2182, Sabretooth/Victor Creed of Earth-295, Sunfire/Mariko Yashida of Earth-2109, Sasquatch/Dr. Heather Hudson of Earth-3470, Timebroker), Gods of Asgard of Earth-8545 (Balder, Beta Ray Bill, Fandral, Hogun, Odin, Sif, Thor, Volstagg), Quentin Quire of Earth-91172

Enemies: Morlun of Earth-001, formerly: Vi-Locks (Forge (leader), Abomination, Absorbing Man, Angel, Aurora, Black Bolt, Black Panther, Black Widow, Bullseye, Captain America, Captain Britain, Cyclops, Daredevil, Deathlok, Dr Doom, Dr Strange, Dracula, Falcon, Gambit, Giant-Man, Green Goblin, Green Lantern, Hawkeye, Hulk/Bruce Banner, Human Torch, Iron Man, Jubilee, Juggernaut, Karnak, Medusa, Morbius, Moon Knight, Mr Fantastic, Nightcrawler, Northstar, Orphan, Quicksilver, Rogue, Sabretooth, Sauron, Scarlet Witch, Scorpion, She-Hulk, Spider-Man, Thing, Venus Dee Milo, Vision, Vulture, Wasp, Wolverine (unrevealed, presumably millions of others)

Known Relatives: Mother and father (names unrevealed, most likely Philip and Madeline Watson)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
                                  formerly Avengers Compound, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

First Appearance: Exiles I#20 (February, 2003)

Powers/Abilities: Spider-Woman possessed all the superhuman abilities commonly associated with beings empowered by the Spider-Totem. She had superhuman strength, agility, reflexes and stamina, could stick to most surfaces and used web-shooters that may or may not have been organic in nature.

Height: 5'9" (by approximation)
Weight: 145 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: Green
Hair: Red

History: (Exiles I#34 (fb) - BTS) - Mary Jane Watson always knew she was gay. As a young girl, she told everyone she was going to marry her first-grade teacher. No one took this too seriously, though it tipped off her parents. When she was a child, she also loved to go to movies with her father.

(Exiles I#20 (fb) - BTS) - At an unrevealed point in time and through unrevealed circumstances, Mary Jane Watson of Earth-8545 became that reality's Spider-Totem. After realizing she had gained superhuman powers, Mary Jane decided to use them for good and started fighting crime as Spider-Woman. Eventually, she became a member of the Avengers and joined them as they tried to stop the Vi-Locks, an ever growing army of techno-organic creatures that had already taken over 73 percent of the United States. Spider-Woman was one of the few unaffected heroes left and, along with the Avengers, moved to one of the last free cities: Las Vegas. From there, she helped defend the city from an inevitable, final assault that would most likely come from the Vi-Lock's Mainframe headquarters in the Nevada desert.

(Exiles I#34 (fb) - BTS) - Spider-Woman and the other Avengers raided hotels in the mostly empty city for supplies like food, clothing and luxury items like dvds. She mostly enjoyed the lavender bathsoaps from the Bellaggio. She also asked Doctor Octopus to return a nearby IMAX movie theater to working order because the memory of going to movies with her father was comforting to her.

(Exiles I#20) - When the newly arrived Exiles, a band of reality-hopping heroes, appeared in Las Vegas with a number of Vi-Lock infected children they had saved in the desert, Spider-Woman was on hand to quickly contain the infected. She grabbed all four of them with her webs and brought them to the nearest decontamination lab while the Exiles were hit with a stinger blast that incapacitated them. Later, she was present when Avengers leader Hank Pym filled the Exiles in about the Vi-Lock problem. The Exiles then informed Pym and Spider-Woman of their mission to rescue the mutant Cypher, who was indirectly responsible for the Vi-Locks' creation, from Mainframe.

(Exiles I#21) - Spider-Woman attended a meeting called by Hank Pym to discuss the joint Avengers/Exiles mission designed to free Cypher. Despite Morph's misgivings, it was decided to infiltrate Mainframe by infecting the heroes with a limited amount of the Vi-Lock virus. After the meeting, Spider-Woman had a brief chat with Exiles member Sunfire (Mariko Yashida) about the living arrangements at the Compound. Obviously taken with her, Spider-Woman revealed her hidden identity and insisted she called her Mary Jane. Three days later, Spider-Woman was one of the heroes infected with the virus along with Blink, Nocturne and Havok. Designated Team Alpha, they teleported into containment chamber where Cypher was kept while the Beta team created a diversion with a frontal assault on Mainframe. While searching the containment chamber within the Mainframe, Blink soon felt she'd found Cypher, only for the experienced Spider-Woman to point out the person in the containment tank had breasts. Their search was cut short when the Vi-Lock's leader Forge spotted their presence and attacked. Forge infected Blink, thereby learning all that she knew. Their mission a failure, the infected mutant teleported both teams back to Avengers Compound. Upon their return, the Tallus informed the Exiles that the only way to complete their mission in this reality was by destroying the Earth.

(Exiles I#22) - Spider-Woman joined the Exiles and Avengers in a meeting to discuss their next course of action. Hank Pym described the plan to stop the Vi-Locks by ramming Mainframe with a ship filled with nuclear bombs that would also detonate the Vi-Locks' own stockpile of nuclear weapons. The resulting explosion would most likely split the planet in half. Nocturne offered to pilot the craft.  Spider-Woman later desperately tried to reach Mimic, who had decided to sacrifice himself and take Nocturne's place as pilot of the bombplane. Trying to inform him of the recent developments involving the usage of the newly-arrived Asgardians' blood to reverse the Vi-Lock virus' effects, Spider-Woman couldn't get a hold of him. In the end, Pym ordered her to contact the Vi-Locks and inform them of their initial plan, imploring the robots to shoot the plane out of the sky. Eighteen hours after saving the world with the assistance of the Asgardians, Spider-Woman attended a victory celebration and was seen holding Sunfire particularly close. The festivities were rather unceremoniously interrupted by the Timebroker, who informed the Exiles that Blink had completed her mission and was to be sent home. As the Tallus transferred from her to Mimic, the Timebroker introduced Blink's replacement: fellow teleporter Magik (Illyana Rasputin).

(Exiles I#34) - After the Exiles' Sunfire returned to Earth-8545 alongside Nocturne following a battle with the chaos magic-using Vampire King, Mary Jane was overjoyed when she heard of Mariko's return and rushed to her side. The two instantly rekindled their romance and for the next week and a half grew inseparable, even fighting on the same Avengers team as they regularly went on missions to round up small pockets of Vi-Locks still holding out against the Asgardian cure that by now had cured about 80 percent of the population. Even the news that Nocturne and Sunfire were still unhinged from time and could disappear at any moment when the problem corrected itself couldn't keep the two of them apart though MJ briefly tried to break things off to save them both the heartbreak of the inevitable goodbye.

(Exiles: Days of Then & Now I#1 (fb)) - Avengers squad leader Power Fist (Luke Cage) took Spider-Woman and Sunfire to clear out a Vi-Lock nest in Montana. Though the mission was supposed to be relatively routine, they were surprised to encounter several infected Omega class Vi-Locks once they arrived, including Colossus, who knocked out Cage and started to infect him. In a desperate move to save him, Sunfire unleashed an intense flame blast that vaporized the Vi-Locks and saved Cage. During the Quinjet ride home, the naked, still smoking Cage was swearing up a storm much to the girls' delight.

(Exiles I#66 (fb) - BTS) - All in all, Mariko and Mary Jane spent 39 days together during which time they realized they were the love of each other's lives. Mariko shared everything about her life with MJ including the fact her Exiles teammate Morph was in love with her.

(Exiles I#34) Sunfire and Nocturne vanished shortly after an intense Avengers training session during which Spider-Woman got chewed out by a testy, newly-cured Captain America. Distressed by her lover's disappearance, Spider-Woman assured her concerned teammate Beast that she was nonetheless fine... if only because it helped her cope.

(Exiles I#66) - Morph and the other Exiles returned to Earth-8545 to bury Sunfire, who had recently fallen in combat. Though obviously heartbroken to hear of her lover's demise, MJ was grateful that the team had decided to bring Mariko back to her. After the services, she did admit to Blink that if it'd been up to her, she'd have buried her in her home reality. Blink explained that she felt the same way but that Morph was adamant that Mariko was laid to rest here. In a private moment with the grieving Morph, MJ told him that she knew he had loved Mariko and thanked him for caring enough to make sure she'd be able to spend eternity with her. Calling it the most unselfish thing she'd ever heard of, with tears in her eyes, she hugged Morph telling the equally sobbing shapeshifter that it was a comfort to have someone else who loved her to share the hurt with.

(Exiles: Days of Then & Now I#1 (fb) -  BTS) - It took Spider-Woman and the other Avengers a year to stamp out the last of the Vi-Locks. During that time, they lost several members including Daredevil (Matt Murdock), who was buried in the same desert burial ground as Mariko. Over time, the place was refurbished and became known as Remembrance Park. Mary Jane, by then calling herself Spider-Girl though she dropped that codename after the war, was a regular visitor.

(Exiles: Days of Then & Now I#1) - On his quest to find the Exiles, the Tallus on Earth-711's Quentin Quire's hand led him to Earth-8545, where it told him of his first mission: place flowers on Mariko Yashida's grave. Quentin was spotted by Mary Jane and Luke Cage, who also happened to be visiting. Curious to find out why an unknown man would be placing flowers on her lover's grave, MJ approached Quentin and noticed the Tallus on his arm. After briefly reminiscing about their experiences with the Exiles, Cage advised Quire to seek out the Beast, who was the team's resident expert on them. Moments later, Quire was teleported away, leaving behind Mary Jane and Luke, who wished him well.

(Spider-Verse I#1) - Ever hungry for the unique energy of Spider-Totems, the alternate reality-hopping villain Morlun made his way to Earth-8485 to hunt Mary Jane Watson, eventually claiming her life force and leaving her lifeless husk to burn.

Comments: Created by Judd Winick (writer), Jim Calafiore (pencils) and Jon Holdredge (inks).

It's a bit of a shame this particular Spider-Totem was used up as cannon fodder in the Spider-Verse storyline and she most definitely deserved a better send off than a one panel death scene without any actual dialogue. But that's the way the pandimensional cookie crumbles...

Unless otherwise specified, all locations and beings related in this profile refer to Earth-8545 versions.

Profile by Norvo.



CLARIFICATIONS:
Spider-Woman should not be confused with


images: (without ads)
Exiles I#34, p1, pan1 (main image)
Exiles I#21, p4, pan1 (mask on)
Exiles I#34, p13, pans 2&3 (coming out story)
Exiles I#34, p9, pan5 (thrilled to see Sunfire again)
Exiles Days of Then And Now I#1, p21, pan4 (visits Mariko's grave)
Spider-Verse I#1, p2, pan3 (killed by Morlun)


Appearances:
Exiles I#20 (February, 2003) -
Judd Winick (writer), Jim Calafiore (pencils), Jon Holdredge (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Exiles I#21 (March, 2003) - Judd Winick (writer), Jim Calafiore (pencils), Jon Holdredge & Eric Canno (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Exiles I#22 (April, 2003) - Judd Winick (writer), Jim Calafiore (pencils), Jon Holdredge (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Exiles I#34 (November, 2003) - Judd Winick (writer), Jim Calafiore (pencils), Mark McKenna (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Exiles I#66 (September, 2005) - Tony Bedard (writer),
Jim Calafiore (pencils), Mark McKenna (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Exiles: Days of Then and Now I#1 (March, 2008) - Mike Raicht (writer), Paul Azaceta (pencils & inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Spider-Verse I#1 (January, 2015) - Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks), Nick Lowe & Ellie Pyle (editor)


First Posted: 03/26/2015
Last updated: 03/09/2015

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at:
http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Characters