Friendly neighborhood Spider-Women
Here's a little early Christmas cheer courtesy of the incredible Michael Dooney, best known for his work on the various Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles projects.
The idea for a team-up of Marvel's two characters called Spider-Woman first came to me when Mike Dooney created separate commissioned drawings of Saturn Girl and Ms. Marvel for me a while back. When an opportunity to commission Mike again presented itself, I knew exactly what I wanted to ask for.
Initially Mike was a bit hesitant: "I usually steer clear of two-character sketches..." But the holiday spirit overcame his objections, and he agreed to team Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman I, in the upper left) and Julia Carpenter (Spider-Woman II, in the darker costume at lower right) in this spectacular tableau that Mike himself devised.
Trust me, I was blown away when I saw the original in person. The total art area is much larger (there's a considerable amount more of the brick building at bottom right) than my scanner can accommodate. Not only is the composition of the drawing amazingly dramatic, but the detail of Mike's pencil art is stunning. You can check out a larger image here.
That Marvel ever had a character called Spider-Woman, never mind a pair of same (and I'm told there's a Spider-Woman III, but I can't recall ever seeing that one), was much less a creative decision than a marketing call. In the '70s, as superheroes were starting to come to film and television more frequently, the top brass at Marvel became fearful that someone would snipe the concept for a female version of their most popular character out from under their noses. So Spider-Woman was born, for no better reason than to secure the trademark on the name. SWI had her own comic for a few years, and even a short-lived Saturday morning cartoon, then disappeared. Later, SWII arrived on the scene, appearing most regularly in West Coast Avengers (the title of which later turned to Avengers West Coast, then to Force Works).
I may be mistaken about this, but I believe Julia Carpenter, the second Spider-Woman, was the first superhero single mother in comics history.
The idea for a team-up of Marvel's two characters called Spider-Woman first came to me when Mike Dooney created separate commissioned drawings of Saturn Girl and Ms. Marvel for me a while back. When an opportunity to commission Mike again presented itself, I knew exactly what I wanted to ask for.
Initially Mike was a bit hesitant: "I usually steer clear of two-character sketches..." But the holiday spirit overcame his objections, and he agreed to team Jessica Drew (Spider-Woman I, in the upper left) and Julia Carpenter (Spider-Woman II, in the darker costume at lower right) in this spectacular tableau that Mike himself devised.
Trust me, I was blown away when I saw the original in person. The total art area is much larger (there's a considerable amount more of the brick building at bottom right) than my scanner can accommodate. Not only is the composition of the drawing amazingly dramatic, but the detail of Mike's pencil art is stunning. You can check out a larger image here.
That Marvel ever had a character called Spider-Woman, never mind a pair of same (and I'm told there's a Spider-Woman III, but I can't recall ever seeing that one), was much less a creative decision than a marketing call. In the '70s, as superheroes were starting to come to film and television more frequently, the top brass at Marvel became fearful that someone would snipe the concept for a female version of their most popular character out from under their noses. So Spider-Woman was born, for no better reason than to secure the trademark on the name. SWI had her own comic for a few years, and even a short-lived Saturday morning cartoon, then disappeared. Later, SWII arrived on the scene, appearing most regularly in West Coast Avengers (the title of which later turned to Avengers West Coast, then to Force Works).
I may be mistaken about this, but I believe Julia Carpenter, the second Spider-Woman, was the first superhero single mother in comics history.
SwanShadow was randomly pounding the keyboard at 11:39 PM
2 insisted on sticking two cents in:
What do you think of Jessica Drew joining the New Avengers?
I'm way behind the times here -- I thought Jessica had been permanently retired. But then, we're talking Marvel Comics here, where no character ever remains off the radar forever.
And what was wrong with the "old" Avengers? ;^)
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