Hopeless Talks "Spider-Woman" and Balancing Crime Fighting with Motherhood

[Darth Kal-el]

In ASM 1 last year we got thirteen years ago so that's how we know Peter is twenty eight but with two eight month jumps he would be thirty now

[LordRyus]

This isn't Jessica Drew. The series is good, but her 'voice' has been nothing like the mature, complicated Spider-Woman we've seen from 1978 through the early 2010s.

This. She's been 100% out of character from the start of this series. I'm not happy about it. That said it's a fun series, but like Alias they may have wanted to do Jessica Drew but they should have just created another Jessica instead.

OK now as to the interview:
-She is pregnant and they are addressing the risk to the baby if she fights
-Father will remain a mystery so you buy the issue, surprise!!! Seriously it's Hawkeye though, right? They had makeup sex just before Secret Wars if I remember correctly. Please tell me it's not Ulrich or Porcupine...
- An authors life story in a superhero comic (S***, those usually can go bad very quickly)
- she and Miles will both separately be fighting Spider-Man villains in New York now. Miles makes sense but Jessica is an Avenger damn it, I don't care how Hopeless retconned that she in my mind is an Avenger and Proud of it. Hopeless kinda ignores continuity sometimes when he wants to tell a story, not as badly as Bendis but sadly Bendis understood her character far better, sigh. Suppose Silk might get lumped in there too of figniting Spider-Man villains. Lol
- Someone from her past is coming back. Due to pregnancy my bet is Jonathan Drew her Hydra father who was obsessed with her genetics now wanting to meet his grandchild. If i was a writer and wanted to retcon the kid or at least not focus on it after Hopeless's run ends, id bring back Jessica's mother and do a 'ship the kid to doom then go off on more adventures' like the FF did just substitute doom for grandma (lol, but i digress). Many others would work but thematically he works best. Madame Hydra, Taskmaster, Morgan La Fey, other Hydra connections, and High Evolutionary would work too though (but doubt the last one).
-No one asked if it's a boy or girl... hmmm...

[Darth Kal-el]

I read her through Bendis Avengers and her solo is in character. After Spider Verse she needed a break from universal problems and wanted to refocus on small issues that affect everyday people. But she has the same voice and skills

Of course she is an Avenger but she needs a break. They have coupted her too long. Time to join the Spider-Man family and protect the small guy in Peter's absence. Her reasons have been explained

[responsarbre]

I read her through Bendis Avengers and her solo is in character. After Spider Verse she needed a break from universal problems and wanted to refocus on small issues that affect everyday people. But she has the same voice and skills

Of course she is an Avenger but she needs a break. They have coupted her too long. Time to join the Spider-Man family and protect the small guy in Peter's absence. Her reasons have been explained

Yeah, Hopeless has said over and over that his Jessica is based mostly on Bendis' version. Her snarky moments come right out of his Avengers, and her mean-and-serious moments seem exactly like something she would say in Agent of SWORD.

The character is pretty different from what she was in the 70s, but the street-level direction is a nod to that part of her life. I think the series is pretty faithful so far.

[OBrianTallent]

Time to pull out the old series and re-read those old stories.

I'm not exactly crazy about the idea of a kid, but it will be pretty easy to write out if necessary (which will hopefully be necessary if Hopeless leaves and Marvel gives the series to a new writer.)

[LordRyus]

I read her through Bendis Avengers and her solo is in character. After Spider Verse she needed a break from universal problems and wanted to refocus on small issues that affect everyday people. But she has the same voice and skills

Of course she is an Avenger but she needs a break. They have coupted her too long. Time to join the Spider-Man family and protect the small guy in Peter's absence. Her reasons have been explained

Yeah, Hopeless has said over and over that his Jessica is based mostly on Bendis' version. Her snarky moments come right out of his Avengers, and her mean-and-serious moments seem exactly like something she would say in Agent of SWORD.

The character is pretty different from what she was in the 70s, but the street-level direction is a nod to that part of her life. I think the series is pretty faithful so far.

Uh, no. Jessica needed no break from the Avengers. Nothing in her character hinted she did prior and she was very happy with being an Avenger. Then in 1 issue, bam, she needed a break... right after a big speech to an alt universe version of herself who was too scared to step up to the big leagues. Uh, wth Hopeless... way to make Jessica look super wishy-washy and weak willed. Sorry but that's a classic Hopeless 1 issue I'm going in a new direction, deal with it moment.

My bet is she went street level just because Hickman wasn't really using her so Nick Lowe stepped in and snatched her up for his department... that has nothing to do with her character needing a break but an editorial mandate.

Her becoming an Avenger was literally the best thing that ever happened to Jessica Drew. Her old series failed in large part since she went street level and P.I. (I've read them and she was a very bad P.I. btw, thankfully she's more competent in Hopeless's take but Porcupine is still there to bring on the plot induced stupidity). Jessica got trapped as a P.I. for nearly 2 decades in total obscurity in Marvel comics until Bendis made her an Avenger.

Yes she has the snark of Jessica (kinda) but her motivations did a total 180 in the course of a single issue. So snark isn't her character though, it's her questioning herself worth and her becoming an Avenger was the only thing she ever did that made her feel like she wasn't less than human. Worse Jessica at her best is a total badass and super crafty, barely any of that has translated to her P.I. run

Hopeless can't even get her powerlevels right or consistent, she is insanely fast. Near Spider-Man levels (minus Spider Sense early warning) yet she couldn't dodge an hydrolic arm. Then she can rip off its arm, but two issues later gets mobbed by civilians when it should be easy to brush them aside at her power level even without gravely hurting them (look at Captain America in the Elevator in The Winter Soldier and that's with a fraction of Jessica's total strength and Speed). Not to mention she can leap 100 feet and glide away anytime she wants. Just a few issues ago we saw her leap over a building in NY, NY in a few bounds yet 4 issues later she could only move horizontally. I applauded Hopeless for remembering her super hearing in issue 5 to hear the scream since most forget about that power, but now she couldn't hear a mob of a few hundred charging her last issue. It's nothing but plot induced stupidity. Oh, did we forget also that Jessica is a living taser and could have just ko'd the brainwashed mob? She's taken out 2 dozen Hydra members and Taskmaster before with one blast.

Look at her here vs Agent of Sword like you said. In Sword she manipulated the hell out of the Thunderbolts and snuck past them to blow up their aircraft. She was always thinking on her feet there. Back in Rogues introduction issue (king-sized annual The Avengers in 1981) Rogue had just stolen Ms Marvels powers petmanently, then stole Captain America's, then Thors, but it was Jessica Drew who kept her from absorbing more and Spider-Woman who helped drain her of Thor and Captain America's powers until she was forced to flee. Here it's lIke she's almost a full blown idiot again, except so is Ulrich and as to Porcupine... is so big an idiot hes the only reason they look smart in comparison. Jessica has gone from facing problems head on to almost running away from the big problems, only chasing street-level opponents for occasional thrills.

In many ways this series has seriously regressed her character. Don't get me wrong, it's a fun read I enjoy but like Fraction's Hawkeye it's totally made the main character an idiot for the sake of 'fun'. As great as that series was there is no denying it wasn't a take on Hawkeye that played up him being a guy who's previously fought Thanos, he was barely able to handle a mob group in that run.

To sum up Hopeless has kept her snark since it serves his purposes but not much else. In fact he just had her walk away from her most successful career in Marvel comics and now is saddling her with a baby for no other reason than he hated kids to but now is a daddy so he can relate... even though a character becoming a parent should be thought of way more carefully since it almost always ends in a retcon for comic characters. Everything we knew about Jessica up until this point screams planned parenthood if she ever got pregnant. Hopeless just admitted she hates kids historically... and he's choosing to run with it in the totally opposite direction. I'm personally not opposed to kids in comics, in fact I want Peter Parker to be married to MJ with little May as their kid... it's just that this is the way wrong character for this. With Peter it's a natural progression, here its a 180.

Anyways rant off.

Time to pull out the old series and re-read those old stories.

I'm not exactly crazy about the idea of a kid, but it will be pretty easy to write out if necessary (which will hopefully be necessary if Hopeless leaves and Marvel gives the series to a new writer.)

This

[santino27]

So because the writer had a change of heart and had a kid, suddenly Jessica needs to totally change and do the same.

Ugh. There's "write what you know" and then there's "inject your own life into the story and to hell with the character's history." Bendis is infamous for the latter. This sounds like Hopeless doing the same.

[Kuwagaton]

What answer would you have accepted to that question? "Well, now that you ask, the father is ____"? Or "don't worry, that will be dealt with in our first story"? Maybe it is in the story, or maybe it isn't because the story is about something else. Not every pregnant woman's story is about the father.

I didn't expect an answer here, but it sounds like it's under wraps, which I would find ugly and silly. It's not about finding the father it's about showing her actually be an adult and not just saddling another heroine with a baby because "women be pregnant." It doesn't fit the character as I know her either, but I can assume that Hopeless will take care of that.

[Vworp Vworp]

Sigh.

Bad enough, we'll probably only have one Jessica Drew after Secret Wars... But did it have to be this one?

[MarvelMaster616]

It's not very often that Marvel lets one of their main characters get pregnant. I think that for a character like Jessica Drew, it opens the door to many intriguing possibilities. This is something that no other female character is going through right now. Marvel has made a strong push to expand the role of female characters, but that expansion shouldn't preclude some of the most important facets of being a woman, like being a mother. Aside from Sue Richards, there aren't a lot of characters who get to explore this sort of thing and I like that Marvel is giving this chance to someone like Jessica Drew. If they can get it right, I think this will raise her profile for all the right reasons.

[shgs]

What a lame cop out on the dad. This sounds bad enough to drop even though Javier is fantastic

Cop out? As with any series he can't reveal all the plot details, so he made a joke about it not being our business instead of giving the usual dreary 'I can't tell you that' spiel.

- she and Miles will both separately be fighting Spider-Man villains in New York now. Miles makes sense but Jessica is an Avenger damn it, I don't care how Hopeless retconned that she in my mind is an Avenger and Proud of it.

Nothing was retconned. She quit the Avengers in issue four. Nothing was rewritten here, Captain America even tells her 'Once an Avenger always an Avenger'.

Uh, no. Jessica needed no break from the Avengers. Nothing in her character hinted she did prior and she was very happy with being an Avenger. Then in 1 issue, bam, she needed a break... right after a big speech to an alt universe version of herself who was too scared to step up to the big leagues. Uh, wth Hopeless... way to make Jessica look super wishy-washy and weak willed. Sorry but that's a classic Hopeless 1 issue I'm going in a new direction, deal with it moment.

Except she didn't quit until Hopeless was on his fourth issue. Do you people even read the books before launching into your tedious ravings?

[Darth Kal-el]

I don't see the upset of something happening to a woman that happens all the time, they get pregnant. It's possible to happen to everyone even if they aren't kid people like he said. Being pregnant isn't anti woman

[ViewingFigures]

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[ViewingFigures]

Except she didn't quit until Hopeless was on his fourth issue. Do you people even read the books before launching into your tedious ravings?

Except the poster you quote stated "1 issue", not which particular issue. And as that poster did seem au fait with both post and prior plot machinations, then I'm guessing they did read the books. However, I am left wondering if you read their post before launching into your.....ironic musings?

I won't be reading, as I find the current characterisation of Jess to be almost completely one note, and after the IMO very poorly handled abuse arc, I simply don't have faith in the writer's ability to handle the subject matter well.

[shgs]

Deleted as double post

I fail to see how deciding you want a break from the Avengers and all their craziness after three and a half issues of high stakes interdimensional disaster constitutes a '1 issue I'm going in a new direction, deal with it moment'. Quite clearly it builds on what came before, including meeting an alternate version of herself who doesn't spend her entire life fighting.