Background

Led by her friend Valerie Cooper, with promises of a large income, Julia, who was in trouble financially at the time was led to become an agent for the Commission on Superhuman Activities (CSA). During her stay with the Commission they experimented on her using rare Amazon jungle plants and spider venoms granting Julia powers similar to that of Spider-Man.

During the first Secret Wars when the Beyonder pulled the city of Denver, Colorado into outer space, he also pulled in Julia who was living in the city at the time. Seeing the fighting taking place, now in costume, Julia volunteered to help with the super heroes against the Beyonder. After the battle she was brought back to the Earth along with all the other super heroes.

Julia worked with the super team calling itself the Freedom Force, which was sponsored by the Commission. During one mission she was involved in, the team was forced to arrest the Avengers on false charges. Feeling guilty about the way the Avengers were treated she decided to break them out of the Vault, causing her to have to leave the Freedom Force in the process.

Later, Spider-Woman joined the West Coast Avengers and fought against a group of super villains called the Death Web, made up of three super powers created by the Commission using the same procedures used to give Julia her powers. During their battles the Death Web terrorized Julia and the rest of her father, actually causing the death of her husband, Larry. But it was Spider-Woman who ultimately triumphed in the end, defeating the Death Web along with their leader, the Manipulator.

Once the Avengers decided to close down their West Coast team, Spider-Woman left the team begrudgingly and joined the spin-off team with other members from the West Coast Avengers forming Force Works. Soon after Force Works disbanded and Julia put away her costume to try and lead a normal life for herself and her daughter, Rachel.

After being a member of the Force Works, Julia left behind her life as a super hero to focus on raising her daughter but soon was attacked by Charlotte Witter, who was trying to gain the powers of both Julia and Jessica Drew, the first Spider-Woman. (Charlotte was a pawn of Doctor Octopus.) Witter desired to become the new Spider-Woman with their combined powers believing that with the powers of the previous Spider-Women, she'd be unstoppable. The attack left Julia in a wheelchair. After helping Madame Web, Jessica Drew and Mattie Franklin, the newest Spider-Woman to take down Charlotte, Julia went back to her life as a mother.

At some point, she regained the use of her legs and went back to being Spider-Woman. This let her be kidnapped by the family of Sergei Kravinoff, who were looking for "Spyders" to sacrifice. Mattie Franklin fell to them, as did Kaine and Madame Web. Julia survived the ordeal, but was changed by the dying Cassandra Web. She gained the old woman's blindness and psychic powers, forcing her to leave the title of Spider-Woman to Arana.

Julia kept tabs on Spider-Man and his enemies, especially the Jackal and his henchmen, Tarantula and Spider-King (the mutated Kaine and Captain America, respectively) when they returned. Julia seems to be very in tune with the "web of life" that courses through life in the Marvel universe, now that she is Madame Web. She seemed to go into shock when the Queen (a new ally of the Jackal) managed to change many New Yorkers into a new species, Homo aranus. She said that the web was only able to support a few spiders, not this many.

Thanks To:

The assistance of the Marvel Chronology Project is gratefully acknowledged.