SPIDER-WOMAN           

(Jessica Drew)

Strength   13D
Agility   9A
Intellect   6C
Willpower   9B

Edge   2
Hand   4 (25)
Calling:   Investigator
Personality:   Also referred to as “The Dark Angel” Beneath her quiet exterior lies an inner strength.  In combat she is usually cool and under control, but she also shows deep concern for the welfare of others, especially her friends.   She recently served as a mentor and big sister to the new 16 year old Spider-Woman III that she helped to train with Madame Webb.

SKILLS:

Brawling, Acrobatics, Fast Exit, Marksmanship (Handguns), Martial Arts, Criminology, Espionage, **Navigation (Ventilation Shafts), Observation, Tracking

 

**Hydra trained Spider-Woman to move quickly through ventilation shafts, so she receives –1 level difficulty to find her way.

                                   

POWERS:
Energy Blast  13 (“Bio Electric Venom Blast”)

   Stunts:  Paralysis, Stun Blast

    Limit: Infrequent – Must wait an aura duration between each use of Energy Blast, if she draws a Neutral or Negative

Invulnerability

  Stunts:  Poisons, Radiation, Disease, Pheromones

Pheromones  3

Limits: One emotion only, {pleasure in men, fear in women}, Uncontrolled

Wall-Crawling  9

 

EQUIPMENT:

Wings  3  (“Glider-Webs”)

Limit:  Gliding Only

 

HISTORY: 

 

As a child, Jessica was the subject of a bizarre experiment to save her life from radiation-poisoning. 

 

Scientists Jonathon Drew and Herbert Wyndham had built a laboratory on Mount Wundagore in the nation of Transia to study accelerated evolution.  Jonathon lived with his wife and daughter in a small cabin on the mountain.  When they discovered and exploited the rich veins of uranium found within the mountain, no one suspected the effect the radiation would have on young Jessica. The child eventually became sick, so much so that she had to be placed inside a cryogenic unit to slow down the rate of her cell destruction.  To save his daughter, Jonathon injected a spider extract serum that he had been working on but she did not respond to that treatment.  Herbert offered to speed up the incubation period with his genetic accelerator. 

 

The strain of seeing her daughter in this condition proved to be too great for Jonathon’s frail wife, Miriam.  Eventually she died, even as treatment with the genetic accelerator began.  Jessica’s father Jonathon valiantly sought a cure until Herbert Wyndham, who would someday become the High Evolutionary, convinced Jonathon that he needed rest.  Herbert told him to go away for a while and offered to watch after her and try out a few ideas of his own.  Jonathon Drew vanished after that and his path led him to work in the British Museam.  While there, a company named Pyro Technics learned of his spider extract.  They kidnapped him and kept him drugged until he perfected the serum, which they would use in a scheme to overthrow the government.  When he tried to escape before the final testing was done, he was shot and killed.

 

 Meanwhile, Herbert continued Jessica’s treatment for years even after he had taken on his new identity of the High Evolutionary.  Finally she awoke, her irradiated spider-blood giving her eerie Spider-like powers.  But the High Evolutionary’s other creatures, the New Men shunned her because she was a reborn human, not an animal.  She fled, but was shortly thereafter captured, trapped, and brainwashed by Hydra.  She had no memory of her past so the only identity she had was the one she was referred to by Hydra: Arachne. Hydra convinced her that SHIELD was an evil organization and sent her out on a mission to kill Nick Fury.  When she discovered the truth about Hydra, she confronted Count Otto Vermis in his lair, a supposedly abandoned monastery in the alps.  The encounter ended in his death, but not before he told her that she was not human, but a spider that was evolved into human form by the High Evolutionary.  Later, she learned that this was not true when Modred the Mystic reached into her mind and played the images he found for her to see.

 

Homeless, alone, and unable to get a job (her pheromones caused people not to trust her) she lived on the streets of London, scavenging what food she could.   SHIELD agent Jerry Hunt, posing as a policeman from Scotland Yard, tried to take her into custody after finding her sneaking out of a closed market.  He only succeeded in unmasking her.  He recognized her face but didn’t remember where he had seen her before. Literally stunned by her beauty (the pheromones were kicking in) he reacted too slowly and she escaped.  After he realized that nothing in the market had been stolen, he saw her again in her civilian clothes and tried to pursue her to talk to her.  She lost her temper throwing a lamppost at him, then at the last moment saved his life by pushing him out of the way.  To prevent recognition in the future, Jessica died her hair black and let it grow out long.  She also created a new mask.  She decided she must live as two separate people, Jessica Drew and Spider-Woman, although she had no intention of being a costumed crime fighter.

 

After encountering Jerry Hunt a third time, this time saving his life from thieves, she relocated to Los Angelos, despite her feelings of attraction for him.  He became obsessed with finding her not sure if he wanted to capture her, or love her.  Eventually he did find her with the subtle aid of her magician friend Magnus, a former disciple of Morgan Le Fay.  Together they learned the truth about the fate of Jonathon Drew.  Jessica and Jerry’s relationship progressed very quickly but it ended when they realized that she had the power to give off pheromones and that those powers seemed to be largely responsible for their love affair.  Repressing these pheromones using drug therapy also repressed her powers, so Jessica decided to live with her sometimes unpredictable body chemistry.    

 

Jessica has fought many enemies including Hydra, Werewolf, Morgan Le Fay, the Brothers Grimm, Flying Tiger, Gypsy Moth and Viper who at one time believed herself to be Miriam Drew. Recognizing Jessica Drew as a younger version of herself, Viper remembered the child she left in the care of the High Evolutionary years earlier, leading to a complex series of revelations and some decidedly odd powers for Viper involving that empty eye socket she's always hiding under her hair.  Later, however, Viper realized it was all just a magic-induced dream.

 

Jessica and her best friend/ roommate Lindsey McCabe, a former B-movie actress, opened a detective agency in LA.  The pair did fair business before Spider-Woman lost her venom blast, her immunities, and other side-effects of her unique blood chemistry in a battle with Morgan Le Fay.  Spider-Woman subsequently retired as a costumed adventurer and she and Lyndsey accepted an assignment that took them to the island of Madripoor.  There they had a run-in with Wolverine, who Jessica immediately recognized, even in his disguise as Patch.  Despite Dr. Henry Pym's former assurances that Jessica’s adhesive qualities were forever lost, she was still hanging off of walls and even airplanes during that time period.  Apparently her powers were returning.  The investigators decided to relocate to Madripoor where they performed only legal, or mostly legal operations. 

 

Eventually Jessica’s venom blast returned only to be stolen by an agent of Doctor Octopus, an evil Spider-Woman, who also turned out to be the granddaughter of Madam Web.  Madam Web gathered the first 2 Spider-Women together (the second also having had her powers stolen) with the third Spider-Woman, who confronted the power thief.  In the end, Spider-Woman 3 retained all of the powers and Jessica stayed in New York to help Madam Web train the young Spider-Woman.  Lately though it seems some of Jessica’s powers are returning.

 

 

Jessica Drew de-powered:

 

Strength: 7, Agility: 7, Intellect: 6C, Willpower 9D         Edge: 2/ 17      Handsize: 4/25

Skills: Same as above

Equipment: Handgun +4

Powers: None