Spider-Verse Field Guide: Know Your Spiders

Spider-Woman

Jessica Drew, Earth-616

Though her history is too long and convoluted to get into here, Jessica Drew was the first female on the main Marvel Earth to go by the name Spider-Woman, and while she was created by the company simply to keep the name out of other hands, she’s grown into a very well-realized and popular character over the years. Jessica has the same wall-crawling, strength and speed you’d expect from her name, but she also has enhanced senses, a high resistance to poisons and radiation and “venom blasts” of bio-electric energy, sort of like a cooler version of a spider bite. She can also glide or fly, depending on who’s writing her.

Drew has been a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., S.W.O.R.D. and an Avenger, though she doesn’t typically get tangled up in stories that involve other spider-powered heroes. For that reason, her presence in Spider-Verse emphasizes the level of the threat all of the spiders face. She’s also getting her own ongoing title that will spin out of the event.

Spider-Girl

Anya Corazan, Earth-616

One of a relatively few Marvel heroes of Latino descent, Anya first called herself Araña and had an interesting variation on spider-based powers that was given to her by magic and revolved around an exoskeleton that she could grow when needed. She lost those powers but was given the same abilities as Spider-Man during the “Spider-Island” arc that turned many normal people into copies of Peter Parker, and while most people were eventually cured, she’s somehow held onto her powers while also gaining her own webbing.

Formerly a member of the Young Allies, Anya has recently come under the tutelage of Jessica Drew, and is at her side when both of them first appear in Spider-Verse.

Spider-Man 2099

Miguel O’Hara, Earth-616

He’s like Spider-Man, but from the future! As the star of Marvel’s 2099 line back in the 90s, Miguel got his spider powers from a corporate experiment that meshed his DNA with that of a spider. He’s got strength and agility similar to Peter Parker, along with organic webbing, talons that help him wall-crawl and can be used as offensive weapons, plus actual venom-producing fangs. Miguel lacks a Spider-Sense but has enhanced regular senses as a trade off.

Miguel is currently trapped in our present keeping an eye on his own grandfather and trying to prevent the company Alchemax from ruining the future, because comics. Whether this will change things in 2099 is certainly an interesting question. Marvel has set it up so that he’s been stuck in our era whether he likes it or not, but the events of Spider-Verse are poised to have him back in his own time soon, though perhaps only for the duration of the crossover.

The Spider-Man 2099 costume is also awesome, which really has nothing to do with this particular story but is always worth mentioning.