I’m not super well versed in the world of tarot, so forgive me if any of my interpretations of these themes is slightly off in some way! But I hope you enjoy😄❤️
remember how we thought black widow (2021) was going to be the darkest mcu movie, but then after the really well-done opening credits montage, the movie stopped being dark, and then two years later, a silly little Guardians of the Galaxy movie ended up being the movie where every person I’ve talked to said that they were deeply upset by it and they cried 6 times and that it was the most beautiful marvel movie in years and 100% the darkest movie that the mcu has ever made and was surprisingly gory and had the mcu’s first f-bomb and i even openly wept in a movie theater for the first time since avengers: endgame and there were points where i could just hear everyone crying and
This idea occurred to me a while back when I was listening to a Marvel podcast (not naming names), and they were talking about Jessica Drew, and when it came time to describe her, they took a long pause and then went with ‘she’s a good friend.’ Which – is true (for the most part.) But it does make her sound like she has no personality.
This is no shade to the podcast, or to the guest speaker (who I believe knows/has written Jess well.) It’s just often when female characters are presented, the talk centres on the character’s ‘likeability.’ While male characters are analysed with more depth.
Now I initially had the inkling of an idea for a post like ’10 Key Characteristics of Jessica Drew,’ but it soon came to my attention that my analytical brain had way too much to say – so such a post would either be:
1) far too long to be readable, or
2) cut short in a way that would be deeply unsatisfying to me.
So came the decision to split up my analysis into smaller posts. Thus, this being a part 1.
Also – just one more thing before I kill this intro: my favourite way of analysing characters is to compare-and-contrast them with other characters, so there may be a little analysis of other characters thrown in as well.
Analysis starts here
From her conception, Jessica Drew has been associated with fear. And more than anger (though she does have a temper), more than sadness, or guilt, or joy, fear is the emotion I think of most when I think of her. Fear is both something that Jessica Drew has struggled with when trying to be a superhero, and also a driving force behind many of her actions. It has hindered her and helped her to survive, kept others in her circle alive as well. It’s not something she can get rid of, or ignore, but something she must live with and come to accept as a part of herself.
Which is fascinating to me, because fear is most often depicted in stories as something that needs to be overcome – especially in superhero stories. The villains are cowards. The heroes are brave.
Which isn’t saying heroes are never depicted as scared. We can see moments of a hero being out of their depth, but (usually) they need to keep whatever fear they are feeling inside and do the right thing anyway.
When heroes are given flaws, it’s more likely to be something like a hot temper, or hubris, or a guilt complex. This may be in part because those negative emotions are seen to be more active, whereas fear is often seen as a passive emotion.
But as any horror writer worth their salt can tell you: a fear-filled character doesn’t have to be a passive one. Fear can absolutely be debilitating. But then again, so can something like guilt. There have been plenty of times when Peter Parker/Spider-Man has shut down, self-isolated, and thought he was not cut out to be a hero because he was so plagued with (often unnecessary) guilt. But guilt is also what drives him to keep going back to saving people, because the thought of people dying when he could stop it is something his guilt won’t let him bear.
Now Jessica Drew doesn’t have Peter Parker’s guilt complex, but like him she’s pretty damn neurotic. It’s just that her obsessive nature is more based in anxiety, worry, and fear. Not that Peter doesn’t feel anxiety (man has gotten stress ulcers), or that Jess doesn’t feel guilt – but I am looking at main driving forces here, and Jess is more of a fear-driven character.
We can look at this fear as threat detection, which is essentially what fear is. Hers is just a lot stronger and harder to ignore than other heroes.'
But why was Jessica Drew given this characteristic in the first place?
Animal instinct
It’s no secret that Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman (like She Hulk) was created as a copyright thing – so that DC or any other Marvel competitor wouldn’t be able to use the name Spider-Woman for a character. Her first appearance was in Marvel Spotlight #32 (Written by Archie Goodwin & pencilled by Sal Buscema in 1976) where she was a brainwashed ‘kid’ working for Hydra sent out to save her handler Jared by killing S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury.
In this story, the character’s only name was the codename Arachne, and at the end of the issue, she was revealed to not actually have been born a human being but a spider that the High Evolutionary had ‘evolved’ into a person. (An origin that was also toyed around for another character: Logan/Wolverine – although obviously in that case he would have been born a wolverine and not a spider.)
Now when there was more interest in the character than Marvel initially anticipated, ‘Arachne’ was handed over to another writer – Marv Wolfman – and her origin was immediately changed. The whole ‘she is actually a spider’ was retconned to be a lie that Hydra told Jessica Drew to make her feel more isolated from the rest of humanity (and thus more dependent on them.) The High Evolutionary was still part of her backstory, but now Jessica was the daughter of his intimate friend/lab partner. THE later ‘adopts’ Jessica when her mother dies & her father leaves in despair. In this version, Jessica's DNA was spliced with spider DNA when an experimental serum made from spider blood was administered to heal her from a childhood illness (caused by uranium poisoning.)
This spider serum saved Jessica Drew’s life and gave her powers like: projectable bioelectricity, aka her venom blasts; containment immunity (her body rapidly creates powerful immunities to poisons, toxins, and drugs); ‘spider strength’ (though she’s notably not as physically strong as Peter Parker or others of the ‘spiders’); and powerful pheromones (which though they cause fear in other people thus adding to the motif of fear in Spider-Woman comics will not be discussed in this particular post.)
Along with these powers though, the spider DNA caused another change in Jess. It rewired her brain, causing her amygdala (aka her ‘lizard brain’) to become overactive, upping her survival instinct and making her a much more reactive person. One who scares easily.
This is interesting, because a lot of times when people think of spiders, they think of them as predators, but spiders are actually very small animals and though they kill and consume they are far from the top of the food chain. Who hasn’t seen a spider scurry for cover when startled? Or heard about a spider biting someone when they felt threatened? Which brings us to the section –
Flight or Fight
Captain Marvel leads with her heart and her chin: she sees a problem and her response is to march in and hit it. Her best friend Spider-Woman on the other hand leads with her hips: her first response to a problem is to get up and walk away. She has to try very hard to be a hero. – Kelly Sue DeConnick
I am going to argue with Ms. DeConnick here. I think Spider-Woman’s first response to a problem is not to walk but to run away. She gets a hit of that adrenaline, and she’s ready to take off. We see this in particular when Jess is faced with a foe who is stronger than her or is unpredictable in some way – she is more prone to turn tail than a lot of superheroes. *
However, things change and take a drastic turn for the worst for whoever Jess is up against, if Jess feels like she can’t get away. If she feels trapped, if she feels threatened, if she feels like the only way to get out is through, she’s going to do that. Which is something that some of her enemies have learned the hard way.
Jess is often underestimated because a visibly frightened woman running or backing away does not appear to be a difficult opponent. However, it is her fear that motivates her to strike out for survival.
Now Jess is not one of Marvel’s top violent heroes. Generally speaking, she is not going around executing people. She’s no Frank Castle, and in terms of body count, she’s no Deadpool, Elektra, or Wolverine either. But she was trained by Hydra to be a brutally effective fighter – and killer, and when instinct takes over and adrenaline gives her a massive energy spike, she becomes dangerous like a cornered animal. She has broken bones, beaten people into comas, and yes, killed people.
Killing isn’t something she takes pleasure in though, and maybe that’s a reason why Jessica Drew doesn’t have a lot of long-lasting guilt about the people she has put in the ground. She usually kills out of self-defence, so she can see it as the other person forcing her hand.
Also, even though she can be a brutal fighter, she is not a sadistic one. Her hurting others is a means to an end rather than something she relishes in. She is not going to snap someone’s humerus if she can just shove them aside, so the level of threat determines how violently she will react. If her opponent is stronger than her and an imminent threat or if she has multiple opponents attacking her all at once, her fighting style is a lot different than if she is fighting one-on-one with someone on or below her strength/power level.
*A pretty big asterisk here. Jess is not going to just up and run away when she has people to protect. This is just how she acts when she is by herself. I thought I should just clear this up before Ms. Drew’s defence team get on my case about it.
Foils
Okayyy, I’m starting to understand why they went with ‘she’s a good friend.’ I’ve basically just said that Jessica Drew runs away from danger and kills people – which begs certain questions...
Like why the hell is she considered a hero?
The problem is fear is one of Jess’s two or three most long-lasting, consistent, and defining traits. And I would say though Jess isn’t purely defined by fear, it is foundational to (understanding) her character.
What I mean by this is: a good bit of her fiercely protective nature comes from fear – her anxiety about losing the people close to her. Even the depth of her empathy probably stems from having such a visible and persistent ‘flaw.’ She is better able to understand and have compassion towards other people’s frailties and failings.
The visibility thing is important. Like I said near the beginning, her fear isn’t something she can hide. Its physical. It’s noticeable. It’s commented on – both by her and others around her (allies and enemies alike.) She has an ‘exaggerated’ startle response. Her heart races. She looks scared. She sounds scared. It’s just not something she can deny or pretend isn’t there – as much as she might want to.
Which makes her an interesting foil for other superheroes and a way of showing the danger they are all in. It also further establishes the other character(s) as being these brave, brash, or reckless people, because they are in the same situation as her, but not having panic attacks.
Particularly interesting to me in this regard are her relationships with Logan Howlett and Carol Danvers, because these are characters who are noted for their fearlessness and their unwillingness to back down from a fight. When juxtaposed with Jess who doesn’t value her pride over avoiding a kill or be killed situation, these characters can come across as more rigid. Whereas Jess could be seen as the wuss in this comparison.
Though, neither Carol or Logan view Jess as a coward – rather they seem touched/inspired that she would follow them into danger even if it freaks her the fuck out. To be fair, Jess’s fear can prove to be an asset when teaming up with other heroes. She notably does not have a ‘spidey sense’ like Peter Parker, Cindy Moon, or Miles Morales – but she can ‘act’ as a spidey sense to others. She is perpetually scanning the environment for threats, and is often the one to scream out warnings or otherwise save the people around her from danger.
But why would she want to be a hero?
Well, while she did quit the Avengers saying that it was too stressful, and she does question whether she can be a hero when she’s trembling in her booties, and she can easily be cast in the role of ‘reluctant hero,’ she does keep going back to it.
I think there are two big contributing factors:
1. I may have mentioned that Jess was raised by the High Evolutionary – who is a villain, but I would say that a good portion of her moral code actually comes from him. As a way of civilizing his newly made anthropomorphic animals, THE attempted to ‘recreate’ Camelot, and so Jess grew up in an environment where things like loyalty, serving others, and courage were valued.
2. But because Jess feels like she lacks courage herself, she is perpetually drawn to it in others.
We can see this with two of her longest lasting relationships: Lindsay McCabe and Carol Danvers. Both of these women are (to put it frankly) adrenaline junkies. They crave excitement and tend to be daring and put themselves in danger. Especially with Carol, there’s this fascinating and almost vicious dynamic where Jess is drawn to Carol because of her lack of fear, but then because Carol is reckless/severely lacking in the self-preservation department, Jess obsessively worries about her and tries to keep her safe. It’s the kind of addictive, co-dependent dynamic which would probably be considered unhealthy in real life but is hella fun to see on page.
But this is moving towards talking about Jess-as-a-protector territory, which I have plans to make an entirely separate post about, so I think it’s about time to wrap things up.
Some Extras:
A list of fears that Jessica Drew has been shown to have:
Dying, dying alone, being abandoned, the people she loves dying, rats, rape, rejection, people she cares about just pretending to like her, high heights, large bodies of water, outer space, Natasha Romanoff’s sadistic methods of operating, Flerkens (or at least Chewie), being controlled, losing control, telepaths
I am not going over her interpersonal/social fears here, but Jess in general tends to be anxious in situations where she feels isolated, doesn’t have any kind of control, or where she is faced with something unpredictable – thus her fear of small animals (although she is not afraid of spiders.)
She does have an intense fear of outer space, which contrasts sharply with Carol loving space and seeing it as an exciting place to explore. Jess does have some space-related trauma because she was held prisoner on an alien ship, but even without that experience, I don’t doubt she would be terrified of being in a metal container where stepping outside would mean instantly suffocating. Despite this she has gone to outer space on multiple occasions after the whole the Skrull-captivity thing, she just never has a good time.
'Villain’ version of the character that illustrates this same trait:
The Jessica Drew of Earth-001 is driven by fear/survival instinct when she becomes (‘Spider’-hunter) Morlun’s ‘lover’ to avoid becoming one of his victims. This version of the character is only looking out for herself and is not above sacrificing others to ensure her own survival.
This self-serving version of Jess actually reminds me of Karla Soren aka Moonstone – with her ‘realist’ approach of fucking people over so she doesn’t get fucked over herself. I wouldn’t say that Karla is primarily driven by fear – but like Jess she does seem to be attracted to superheroes because of qualities she sees as lacking in herself: like altruism. For this and other reasons, I think seeing more interactions between Karla and the main universe Jessica Drew would be interesting: either as enemies or uneasy allies.
Another thing I thought about with Earth-001’s version of Jess though is that the relationship between her & Morlun reminded me of the offer that the villain Morgan Le Fay made (main universe/616) Jessica Drew in her first solo series: that in exchange for Morgan’s protection from greater enemies Jess would pledge herself to be Morgan’s forever. While this offer wasn’t explicitly sexual in nature, there were definitely undertones – especially in Jess being paralleled with Sir Lancelot (a knight that Morgan greatly desired.)
Jess does (violently) refuse this offer, but not before a moment’s hesitation – so it’s not surprising that despite finding her counterpart’s actions appalling, Jess can still see herself in this other woman.
Jess describes the encounter as looking at herself naked in a funhouse mirror. She does try to find the good in her counterpart and encourages her to serve as a positive leader for her world (after Morlun and the other tyrannical Inheritors are removed from power.) But then when she goes back to her own world, (616) Jessica Drew immediately quits the Avengers – leading Natasha Romanoff to confront her, asking if something happened in that other world to make Jess question her place on the team. Jess refuses to comment.
(I do also personally think Logan’s death at around the same time probably played a part in Jess leaving the Avengers, as he was the one who first encouraged her to be an Avenger - but I will leave talking about Jess’s relationship with grief for another post.)
Anyway..
This has been fun! If you got this far thank you very much for reading and letting me indulge in this obsession. The floor is open for comments etc.
Appearance: He looks very similar to the comics except that his suit is dark purple rather than more red in hue, which honestly looks more visually pleasing, and he has a flesh tone mask rather than a metallic one due to story-related reasons which has an unnerving effect.
GRADE = 5
Performance: Chukwudi Iwuji is fucking phenomenal in the role of the High Evolutionary. Able to logically calm and detached one moment, explosively angry and childish the next, and the whole way through maintaining a vibe of supreme arrogance and utterly heartlessness, I have never felt such visceral hatred for an MCU villain due to the actor's performance. David Tennant as Zebediah Kilgrave in Neflix's Jessica Jones came close, but even then there were times he made me interested or made me laugh or even made me pity him. This guy only made me feel the utmost, skin-crawling contempt, and Iwuji cannot be praised enough for it.
GRADE = 5
Motivation: This is the one area where the High Evolutionary falls woefully short. Basically he wants to rule the universe because he has a god complex, literally saying "There is no God! That's why I stepped in!" Rocket sums up the motivation behind this as "you didn't want to make anything perfect, you just hated things the way they are". And you can infer some stuff from this - that the High Evolutionary is such a narcissist that he felt life in the universe was lacking because it didn't revolve around him and what he thought is best - but that's kind of just a retread of the other big Guardians baddies Thanos and Ego, and not nearly as interesting since we get no backstory or insight for the High Evolutionary and rather than having any of Thanos' intriguing complexity or Ego's charming simplicity, he's stuck halfway and achieving neither as a result. The one saving grace is the more solid motivation he has relating to Rocket specifically: despite being a lesser life form experiment he never intended to use in the world he sought to create, young Rocket actually figured out something that he, with all his great intellect, couldn't, and as a narcissist he can't stand that fact since it makes him feel like the lesser one. Then on top of that, Rocket ended up mutilating his face: another massive narcissistic injury. So his obsession with getting Rocket back isn't about his master plan or really anything rational, it's just so he can put him "back in his place" and assert himself as superior ("You freakish little monster! How dare you think you are more!?")
GRADE = 2.5
Villainy: Along with the actor's performance, the High Evolutionary's villainy made me despise him. His entire history is about playing God, creating new forms of life, abusing them and ultimately destroying them when they can't be "perfect" the way he wants them to be. We see it with an entire planet of his creations, we see it with the Sovereign, and most heart-wrenchingly of all we see it with Rocket and his fellow animal experiment friends. It's telling that Nebula, when seeing just what was done to Rocket in his formative years, actually says that it's worse than what Thanos did to her. And yeah, in terms of being loathsome, the High Evolutionary surpasses both Thanos and Ego. They at least have some credibility for their heartless arrogance, being a powerful Titan warlord and a living god respectively. The High Evolutionary is just a man. A weak, pathetic man, and it makes his narcissistic cruelty not only far less justified but far more realistic, emphasized even more in the fact that he's not some galactic emperor, but the leader of a corporate conglomerate. There are many men like the High Evolutionary in our own world: small men who rise to positions of power and use it to crush everyone else to make themselves feel big. It's among the most chilling kinds of evil.
GRADE = 5
Resolution: As he tries to kill Rocket, his raccoon creation fights back, and is then joined by every member of his family, the Guardians of the Galaxy, with each of them getting a hit in...ending with Gamora, who guts him with a blade. On the ground, his hideous face is exposed and he sobs pathetically about how Rocket ruined everything. Rocket has a chance to kill him with his gun, but doesn't, as executing an opponent who can't fight back and is already bleeding out isn't who he wants to be...definitively proving himself a better lifeform than his own creator. It's fantastic, but the only flaw is that afterward it left unclear if the High Evolutionary bled to death or if he survived and was imprisoned. A scene of the latter was filmed but cut (mercifully so since it included his mask back on in his confinement, and he does not deserve that luxury), and so he is last seen hanging limp over Drax's shoulders.
GRADE = 4
Overall: 4; if we had only gotten to understand what makes him tick more and received a firmer conclusion to his character, he could have been one of the MCU's best. But even as stands, he's still in the higher echelons, being the most viscerally despicable villain by far.
X-Men by Gerry Duggan continues to be an absolute treat of a comic. Between his excellent ability to write fun teams and Pepe Larraz's astounding art, this run has been incredible.
