Julia Carpenter: Spider-Woman II/Arachne/Madame Web Appreciation 2022

[Chris0013]

Ha, that was fun. I'm guessing this was from the Omega Flight mini or the Weapon Omega story in Marvel Comics Presents #1-12 from 2008.

MCP...And it was a great showing for John as he was in Canada as the government's eyes and ears for Stark and also was working with Julia and her then boyfriend Shroud who was part of the Underground to work out what was going on with the Weapon Omega program.

[Lukmendes]

Having her be featured anywhere would be cool! And have her interact with her mom more! I would like to see Rachel react to her mom's new role...

While Rachel didn't react to Julia's role, she has reacted with a bit of annoyance to her powers:



(ASM#679)



(ASM#689)

And Scarlet Spider#6 vol 2 when she was wondering about Julia's powers:

She had a great look, but so does Jess. For whatever reason, Julia also seemed like a push over.

I think her most embarrassing loss is in in Marvel Comics Presents#167 and#168 she almost got killed, twice, by some guy with a gun, not even a badass gunslinger too lol.

Her psionic webs were not very strong whereas Jess' venom blasts could be very potent. I think, physically, they were/are about the same -- but Jess has benefit of gliding on air currents. Also, depending on who is writing Jess -- she has ability to resist toxins and radiation.

Her psi-webs randomly have strong feats, like being able to hold down some falling debris from a planet.

Though like everything else, her powers have randomly looked weak too, Jessica's own Venom Blast can be little more than a nuisance too lol.

Julia's daughter Rachel playing video games with John Walker.

https://comicvine.gamespot.com/a/upl...2-walker13.png

I wonder what game they're playing... The characters in there look like Ghost Rider and Spidey, but there aren't a lot of games with both of them in it, I can only think of Ultimate Alliance, but the camera angles weren't this close...

Then again, maybe it is UA1, and this is a promotional picture instead of gameplay screenshot.

I wonder what Julia would think of her being just a costume for Jessica in this game lol.

You know, I miss when Julia got to have a presence in the MU. Ever since she became Madame Webb, she’s basically been relegated to Spider-Man sans that one time she was in Daredevil. Plus it’s time for them to give her an actual costume cuz the trench coat look is honesty pretty plain and boring. Even Cassandra had more going for her with her outfit than they’ve given Julia.

Yeah, as much as I like the potential she has with her powers + Cassandra's, her being isolated to the Spidey side has done her no favors, since Spidey writers don't really care about using her, only Slott and Spencer have bothered, and Slott only used her as someone to make vague allusions about some threat that is coming in the future, which annoys Spidey and is ridiculous, since Cassandra didn't do that, so neither should Julia, Spencer only used her in Last Remains and uh, she at least was better written than most other Spiders there, and did have a cool way to defeat Sin Eater, but most of her presence was whatever (Even if "less whatever" than the rest, since she doesn't have an interchangeable role or personality with the other Spiders who aren't Gwen).

It doesn't help that whenever other Spiders get their own comics, Julia doesn't show up or only does so briefly to say "Hey, something dangerous is gonna happen!".

It's just silly to make her basically have the same role as Cassandra, that is being someone who has a more supportive role, when she lacks the reason for Cassandra to not help out much, since Cassandra was old and her strongest way to fight back was her telepathy, which's not very impressive.

I'm liking more and more the idea of her joining whatever Defenders team someone like Ewing comes up with, or I dunno, some Avengers team Jessica isn't in lol.

[seccruz]

While Rachel didn't react to Julia's role, she has reacted with a bit of annoyance to her powers:



(ASM#679)



(ASM#689)

And Scarlet Spider#6 vol 2 when she was wondering about Julia's powers:





I think her most embarrassing loss is in in Marvel Comics Presents#167 and#168 she almost got killed, twice, by some guy with a gun, not even a badass gunslinger too lol.



Her psi-webs randomly have strong feats, like being able to hold down some falling debris from a planet.

Though like everything else, her powers have randomly looked weak too, Jessica's own Venom Blast can be little more than a nuisance too lol.



I wonder what game they're playing... The characters in there look like Ghost Rider and Spidey, but there aren't a lot of games with both of them in it, I can only think of Ultimate Alliance, but the camera angles weren't this close...

Then again, maybe it is UA1, and this is a promotional picture instead of gameplay screenshot.

I wonder what Julia would think of her being just a costume for Jessica in this game lol.



Yeah, as much as I like the potential she has with her powers + Cassandra's, her being isolated to the Spidey side has done her no favors, since Spidey writers don't really care about using her, only Slott and Spencer have bothered, and Slott only used her as someone to make vague allusions about some threat that is coming in the future, which annoys Spidey and is ridiculous, since Cassandra didn't do that, so neither should Julia, Spencer only used her in Last Remains and uh, she at least was better written than most other Spiders there, and did have a cool way to defeat Sin Eater, but most of her presence was whatever (Even if "less whatever" than the rest, since she doesn't have an interchangeable role or personality with the other Spiders who aren't Gwen).

It doesn't help that whenever other Spiders get their own comics, Julia doesn't show up or only does so briefly to say "Hey, something dangerous is gonna happen!".

It's just silly to make her basically have the same role as Cassandra, that is being someone who has a more supportive role, when she lacks the reason for Cassandra to not help out much, since Cassandra was old and her strongest way to fight back was her telepathy, which's not very impressive.

I'm liking more and more the idea of her joining whatever Defenders team someone like Ewing comes up with, or I dunno, some Avengers team Jessica isn't in lol.

Thank you for this! I had no idea if Rachel was even aware of Julia's new role. I wonder if, in the new Spider-Verse story, she'll be featured?

[Huntsman Spider]

MCP...And it was a great showing for John as he was in Canada as the government's eyes and ears for Stark and also was working with Julia and her then boyfriend Shroud who was part of the Underground to work out what was going on with the Weapon Omega program.

Cool, and thanks.

Thank you for this! I had no idea if Rachel was even aware of Julia's new role. I wonder if, in the new Spider-Verse story, she'll be featured?

I hope Julia lives through the End of the Spider-Verse, because it would suck for Rachel to be orphaned, not to mention there's still so much more that could be done with Julia in the vast Marvel Universe.

[Lukmendes]

Thank you for this! I had no idea if Rachel was even aware of Julia's new role.

It honestly would be weirder if Julia didn't tell Rachel, since for most of Rachel's story, she has known that Julia has super-powers, even back when heroes overall had secret identities.

That being said, considering how little Rachel shows up (With her last appearance being 9 years ago), and how those appearances became even less frequent once Julia became Madame Web, can't blame anyone for thinking Rachel wasn't aware, I would just find it weird if she didn't since the relationship between her and Julia doesn't have such secrets anymore, and Julia would have little reason to not tell her.

I wonder if, in the new Spider-Verse story, she'll be featured?

Extremely unlikely.

Those Spider-Verse stories naturally only really use other Spiders, if other heroes show up they're little more than glorified cameos, if they even get the "glorified" part, and civillians don't show up much in general for the last 20 years or so, and they're even less likely to show up in an event.

Honestly if Rachel shows up she might get possessed if she's lucky, killed if very unlucky lol.

I hope Julia lives through the End of the Spider-Verse, because it would suck for Rachel to be orphaned, not to mention there's still so much more that could be done with Julia in the vast Marvel Universe.

I doubt anyone will really die in this event, but Julia dying would be really bad.

Like super-heroes have this reputation of coming back when killed, but problem is, they have to be popular to come back, Julia isn't really popular, she could always be like Mattie, who died, only came back in Clone Conspiracy, then died again, and is mostly forgotten by people who should at least keep her in mind.

So yeah, this is the first Spider-Verse event that has Julia being involved in, and her dying in this would really suck, 'cause while she's not doing much now, getting her killed lowers the chances of her being able to do something later.

[seccruz]

Cool, and thanks.



I hope Julia lives through the End of the Spider-Verse, because it would suck for Rachel to be orphaned, not to mention there's still so much more that could be done with Julia in the vast Marvel Universe.

My hope as well. Since she is well trained anyway, I hope she does make make it. Maybe get help from an alternate self? Cause there aren't that many around

[kcekada]

I'd definitely prefer to see more of Julia -- as an adventurer, wall-crawler -- and not as Madame Web. Frankly, I don't think there is anything wrong with having some old characters in comics. I guess it's no longer fashionable to show anyone over 40 in comics? The new characters like Silk and Ghost-Spider don't appeal to me.

[Chris0013]

I'd definitely prefer to see more of Julia -- as an adventurer, wall-crawler -- and not as Madame Web. Frankly, I don't think there is anything wrong with having some old characters in comics. I guess it's no longer fashionable to show anyone over 40 in comics? The new characters like Silk and Ghost-Spider don't appeal to me.

50/50 agree...I have no problem with her as Madame Web...but need her to be in the field more and not just showing up and saying cryptic stuff.

[seccruz]

I'd definitely prefer to see more of Julia -- as an adventurer, wall-crawler -- and not as Madame Web. Frankly, I don't think there is anything wrong with having some old characters in comics. I guess it's no longer fashionable to show anyone over 40 in comics? The new characters like Silk and Ghost-Spider don't appeal to me.

There should be room enough for more Spider-Women other than Gwen or Silk. Jess is a good example of branching out and I wish they would consider giving Julia the same love. Especially when it comes to spider people with different powersets from Peter...

[Lukmendes]

I'd definitely prefer to see more of Julia -- as an adventurer, wall-crawler -- and not as Madame Web. Frankly, I don't think there is anything wrong with having some old characters in comics. I guess it's no longer fashionable to show anyone over 40 in comics? The new characters like Silk and Ghost-Spider don't appeal to me.

Comics generally avoid characters being that old anyways lol.

I mean ****, Cyke should be around in his 30's, but I remember seeing an interview where someone (I think it was Jordan White, the editor) saying that he isn't, while someone else disagreed, and it's just silly, let the guy be over 30 lol.

50/50 agree...I have no problem with her as Madame Web...but need her to be in the field more and not just showing up and saying cryptic stuff.

It's honestly annoying she shows up to say cryptic stuff when Cassandra herself never did that (She did do it in the 90's cartoon, but never really in 616, and even then, 90's cartoon Cassandra had actual reasons to be as vague as she was, since she was basically training Spidey, Julia isn't doing that, so she sounds cryptic because it's a precog cliché).

From what I've seen, it's possible that Julia has stronger, more detailed precognition when compared to Cassandra, but Julia can see wrong stuff or misinterpret 'em, meanwhile Cassandra can't see too far ahead, but she generally sees correct stuff.

How this affects both of 'em is that Cassandra gets to be ironically the more helpful one since she says what she knows, and then says more once she learns more, while Julia tends to have a better idea of what's coming ahead and is vaguer, just because.

So yeah, being like this makes Julia often sound annoying, and since she doesn't tend to fight, she's basically a worse Cassandra, when logically she should be generally better.

Her incompetence when it comes to how to use her precognition could be a lack of experience at least, and maybe be excused that she's being vague for the sake of being someone who helps but doesn't hold the heroes' hand so they aren't overly dependent on her, but considering Cassandra herself didn't mind being as helpful as she could, Julia just looks odd by comparison even if that is used as an excuse, specially considering how she doesn't show up too much, so heroes becoming too dependent on her just ain't happening.

But yeah, she definitely should be on the field doing stuff more, Cassandra stayed behind because she'd be about as useful in combat as a kitten, there's no reason for someone like Julia to do nothing.

It looked even sillier in Spider-Island where only after a while she decided to interfere, though what she did was both good and bad (She told everyone to stop using the jammers so she can see the future again, which is what powered up Spider-Queen, but doing that also made Spidey get his Spider-Sense back and allowed him to not lose his powers after a fight with Kaine, so despite what she says, she didn't only cause problems).

When Spencer used her, at least she fought alongside the other Spiders, and she even was the reason Sin Eater was defeated after taking a huge gamble to let him steal her powers.

I do wonder what she thinks of causing Sin Eater to kill himself, and whether or not she knew he'd do so to.

There should be room enough for more Spider-Women other than Gwen or Silk. Jess is a good example of branching out and I wish they would consider giving Julia the same love. Especially when it comes to spider people with different powersets from Peter...

There should, the problem is that making all of these Spider-People work is difficult, even the super popular Gwen struggles to have an on-going that actually lasts.

Of course, fact that on the DC side we have Super family, Batfamily and Flash family means that a concept of similarly powered characters can work, but Marvel has never managed to make that work, and they don't try very hard to make the other Spiders special, and they don't even try that hard with Spidey even...

When characters who are more popular than Julia like Jessica and Gwen struggle to have their own comics, it'd be very difficult for her to get something, honestly something like another West Coast Avengers or Force Works would be better, or, I dunno, what I've been suggesting and having her show up in a Defenders comic lol.

I do think she may get a mini once the movie comes out though, assuming she's the Madame Web on the movie or has a major role in it, but time will tell if that will happen, or if the mini will be interesting.

[seccruz]

Comics generally avoid characters being that old anyways lol.

I mean ****, Cyke should be around in his 30's, but I remember seeing an interview where someone (I think it was Jordan White, the editor) saying that he isn't, while someone else disagreed, and it's just silly, let the guy be over 30 lol.



It's honestly annoying she shows up to say cryptic stuff when Cassandra herself never did that (She did do it in the 90's cartoon, but never really in 616, and even then, 90's cartoon Cassandra had actual reasons to be as vague as she was, since she was basically training Spidey, Julia isn't doing that, so she sounds cryptic because it's a precog cliché).

From what I've seen, it's possible that Julia has stronger, more detailed precognition when compared to Cassandra, but Julia can see wrong stuff or misinterpret 'em, meanwhile Cassandra can't see too far ahead, but she generally sees correct stuff.

How this affects both of 'em is that Cassandra gets to be ironically the more helpful one since she says what she knows, and then says more once she learns more, while Julia tends to have a better idea of what's coming ahead and is vaguer, just because.

So yeah, being like this makes Julia often sound annoying, and since she doesn't tend to fight, she's basically a worse Cassandra, when logically she should be generally better.

Her incompetence when it comes to how to use her precognition could be a lack of experience at least, and maybe be excused that she's being vague for the sake of being someone who helps but doesn't hold the heroes' hand so they aren't overly dependent on her, but considering Cassandra herself didn't mind being as helpful as she could, Julia just looks odd by comparison even if that is used as an excuse, specially considering how she doesn't show up too much, so heroes becoming too dependent on her just ain't happening.

But yeah, she definitely should be on the field doing stuff more, Cassandra stayed behind because she'd be about as useful in combat as a kitten, there's no reason for someone like Julia to do nothing.

It looked even sillier in Spider-Island where only after a while she decided to interfere, though what she did was both good and bad (She told everyone to stop using the jammers so she can see the future again, which is what powered up Spider-Queen, but doing that also made Spidey get his Spider-Sense back and allowed him to not lose his powers after a fight with Kaine, so despite what she says, she didn't only cause problems).

When Spencer used her, at least she fought alongside the other Spiders, and she even was the reason Sin Eater was defeated after taking a huge gamble to let him steal her powers.

I do wonder what she thinks of causing Sin Eater to kill himself, and whether or not she knew he'd do so to.



There should, the problem is that making all of these Spider-People work is difficult, even the super popular Gwen struggles to have an on-going that actually lasts.

Of course, fact that on the DC side we have Super family, Batfamily and Flash family means that a concept of similarly powered characters can work, but Marvel has never managed to make that work, and they don't try very hard to make the other Spiders special, and they don't even try that hard with Spidey even...

When characters who are more popular than Julia like Jessica and Gwen struggle to have their own comics, it'd be very difficult for her to get something, honestly something like another West Coast Avengers or Force Works would be better, or, I dunno, what I've been suggesting and having her show up in a Defenders comic lol.

I do think she may get a mini once the movie comes out though, assuming she's the Madame Web on the movie or has a major role in it, but time will tell if that will happen, or if the mini will be interesting.

Force Works would be fun again! Especially by DnA

[K7P5V]

Force Works would be fun again! Especially by DnA

Agreed. Just as long as no one gets killed-off...

[OBrianTallent]

Agreed. Just as long as no one gets killed-off...

Aw yes, that ridiculous yet awesome fold out cover. Force Works was the epitome of the 90's. It was almost Liefeldian.

[kcekada]

I think that's what they were going for. Are Abnett and Lanning to blame for that horrible Scarlet Witch outfit? It debuted in her mini-series and was finally (and thankfully) discarded during The Crossing.

[Huntsman Spider]

Force Works would be fun again! Especially by DnA

Indeed.

I think that's what they were going for. Are Abnett and Lanning to blame for that horrible Scarlet Witch outfit? It debuted in her mini-series and was finally (and thankfully) discarded during The Crossing.

Dunno. Would have to check that out, but I do recall a (somewhat cleaner) version of that outfit being used for her appearances (alongside Julia) in the first season of the 90s Iron Man cartoon.