(Obviously non-canon, but regardless) It's so surreal seeing anything that resembles the original Ultimate Universe, especially after all this time. It was honestly a bit of a treat, even if I didn't love everything that happened. This is the closest we've gotten to an actual continuation of Earth 1610 and things just pick up where they left off 11 years ago. I feel like a kid again.
For the month of June, I’m going to make daily posts about canonically queer characters I love.
JESSICA DREW AKA SPIDER-WOMAN AKA BLACK WIDOW
First Appearance: Ultimate Spider-Man #98 (2006)
Created by Brian Michael Bendis & Mark Bagley
Sexuality: Lesbian
Gender: Woman (But it's complicated...)
One of my Pride Month projects for myself, in addition to these daily posts, was to read through every appearance of a character I've always liked but have never read more than a handful of issues: Ultimate Spider-Woman. Turns out, my affection was well placed because she's great!
In the original Ultimate Universe, the Clone Saga happens because evil mega corporation Roxxon decided to make their own supersoldiers by cloning Peter Parker. Each one involved them futzing around with the genetics to get different results, one was dying, one was very mutated, one was turned into a cyborg (that one is unaccounted for. There's a story there...), one rapidly aged, and one, the most stable of the batch, was denied a Y Chromosome, made as a woman.
For some reason, this cloning process left the clones with all of Peter's memories (how that works is anyone's guess) which Roxxon intended to erase but, before they could do that, a disaster allowed for the clones to escape. The female clone, who had been given the name "Jessica Drew", sought out Peter, informing him of what was going on and assisted in taking down the scientist responsible for their creation, Doctor Otto Octavius, in a fight that resulted in the deaths of all the clones except Jessica (and the cyborg Scorpion, who was in stasis at the Baxter Building at the time)
Jessica continued to operate as Spider-Woman, proving herself to be resourceful and crafty, having been forced to be due to her lack of real identity or family, which impressed the then director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Carol Danvers who offered to make her an agent and, later, a member of the Ultimates.
Throughout this, Jessica continued to work on figuring out who she was, a copy of a (now) dead hero with no past of her own. She struggled at first with accepting Miles Morales taking up her "brother's" role but eventually warmed to the kid, taking him under her wing in almost a Big Sister role, to an extent. She put much of her energy into taking down Roxxon and stopping their genetic testing of innocent subjects. This mission ultimately led to her, Miles, and fellow Roxxon test subjects Cloak, Dagger, and Bombshell, staging a massive raid of Roxxon and arresting the CEO.
After the fall of the Ultimates and S.H.I.E.L.D. during the Cataclysm event, Jess took the money she'd saved and her "generous" S.H.I.E.L.D. severance package to found a new team of Young Ultimates, consisting of her fellow Roxxon raiders plus mutant revolutionary Kitty Pryde, also former girlfriend of Peter Parker, who she shared an apartment with and quickly developed a massive crush on.
The topic of Jess' gender is an extremely interesting one. I, personally, consider her Trans based on my reading but I understand why others disagree (other trans readers. No offense, but I really don't care about cis opinions on this). Jessica has a fully "biologically female" body (a term I hate but feels necessary to use here). She could, for example, theoretically, become pregnant, just about the only thing a trans woman couldn't achieve through gender affirming care. But, due to the nature of her having Peter's memories, in Jess' mind, she was living as a boy for the first fifteen years of her life only to suddenly be in a "female" body, where she then started living as a woman (something she did intentionally, using female pronouns and dressing in women's clothes, calling herself Spider-"Woman", and considering herself a lesbian). I would consider that a quintessential trans experience.
If you count her as having been AFAB, despite her memories, there's definite times where she basically describes having gender dysphoria in the other direction, making the writing sometimes seem like she could be considered a trans man.
I don't necessarily believe that dysphoria is what it means to be trans so the fact that she has a naturally "female" body doesn't preclude her from the definition. Trans is a social identity as much as biological, if not more so. Just as much as HRT and surgery can be very needed to alleviate gender dysphoria, its often just as important, if not more important, for social acceptance of someone living as their preferred gender. Theoretically, in a world where transphobia and strict gender binaries don't exist, trans people wouldn't feel the need for as much physical transformation. Because of this, because Jess is so readily accepted as a woman because of her appearance, I think that makes more of an argument for her to be considered trans than not.
Whether or not she's a trans woman, trans man, or some kind of spicy cis, Jess definitely has some very interesting gender stuff going on!
I love Jessica and, imho, the fact that she was never brought over to the main 616 like Miles, Jimmy Hudson, Maker, and others is one of the biggest comic crimes in years. I think she, aged up of course, and Rachel Summers should meet up, trade stories about having been in love with their respective Kitty Prydes, and see what happens... (Jess does say she loves a natural redhead...)
She also needs a better name. Her original Bagley costume is perfect but both “Spider-Woman” and “Black Widow” are far too played out. I don’t have a better suggestion but that change needs to happen for her.
It's also a missed opportunity that we never got follow up on Johnny Storm having a huge crush on her, not knowing she was a genetic clone of his best friend, (even lying about having made out with her at one point) much to Peter's absolute horror. Johnny never found out and that's a shame because it'd have been really funny.
Recommended Reading:
- Ultimate Spider-Man #97-105, 129-133
- Ultimate Enemy (Miniseries)
- Ultimate Mystery (Miniseries)
- Ultimate Doom (Miniseries)
- Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #4-5, 16-28
- Ultimate Comics Ultimates #3-18
- Cataclysm: Ultimates' Last Stand (Miniseries)
- Cataclysm: Ultimate Spider-Man (Miniseries)
- Survive! (One-shot)
- Ultimate Spider-Man #200
- All-New Ultimates
- Amazing Spider-Man (2014) #9-15
- Scarlet Spiders (Miniseries)
- Miles Morales: Ultimate Spider-Man #11-12
Only one more of these! And it’s going to be a big one (at least to me)!!
To make a long story short, I am currently living with my grandparents and im currently in the basement, the storage tubs I put my collection and other personal items now has an inch of water in them because of a hair sized hole in the pipe above them.
Fml
Bendis, the piece of shit, ruined Gwen and Peter’s dynamic in 1610, fucked up my pairing by deaging Peter/making Felicia older(dumbest change ever. only fags like it), and then has him hook up with Kitty(who in main universes, is a TEENAGER, while Peter is A YOUNG ADULT/college student)! Losers have shit taste in alternative universe! only cringe MJ sluts like this overhyped trash!
We saw Giant Man resurrected and Ironheart in two of them wonder if there was a plan
Also worth noting that the Green Goblin we see gets transported to earth 616 then gets lost in another universe
Aside from ‘Hunger’ and ‘Spider-men’, what other books tie into the Ultimate universe that don’t have ultimate in the name? I’ve been reading them for years but up until recently I never knew Hunger and other books existed in this universe without having the Ultimate title/brand.