In 1979, Marvel Comics character Spider-Woman got her own cartoon. However, while it did feature a Jessica Drew that looked like that of the comics, the animated character was nothing like the original superhero. Not only did the Spider-Woman change the hero's origin, but it also changed her powers.

In the cartoon, a poisonous spider bit a young Jessica Drew in her father's scientific laboratory. As she was dying, her father used the untested "Spider Serum #34" on his daughter, which miraculously saved her life. The serum not only saved Jessica, but it also gave her incredible spider-like powers. Jessica used her powers to not only fight evil, but also weaved "her web of justice." Spider-Woman then had Jessica work as the editor of Justice Magazine, and she partnered with photographer Jeff and her nephew Billy.

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Jessica Drew

Spider-Woman's cartoon origin is completely different from that of the comics, which was much darker and mysterious. In the comics, Jessica's father was a scientist working on mysterious experiments at Wundagore Mountain with Herbert Wyndham, who became the High Evolutionary. Jessica became ill due to uranium exposure, and her father injected her with a serum to save her, which gave her superpowers. This was retconned later in comics, with her father working for Hydra and the powers actually given when her mother was hit by radiation while pregnant with Jessica. Regardless, she became a superspy in both origin stories and was a very different character than she was in the animated Spider-Woman series.

Not only was Spider-Woman's origin changed in the cartoon, but her powers were very different as well. She could climb walls like Spider-Man, but the serum also gave her the superhuman physical attributes of most heroes, as well as super hearing, immunity to most toxins and drugs and more specifically, her Venom Blasts, which is similar to those of Miles Morales. She also flies and is able to turn into Spider-Woman by spinning in circles. The cartoon Spider-Woman's powers were many and great, and seemed to dwarf even those of Spider-Man.

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Spider-Woman feature

She also had Spider-Sense, which was almost a way to let her do anything the episode needed at the time. Unlike Spider-Man, whose Spider-Sense warned him of danger, Spider-Woman's was almost like a detector that could help her find things and know when something was wrong about a certain situation. Jessica even used her Spider-Sense later to see Spider-Man in danger while he was in another country with a vision of sorts. She also had "high-frequency spider-hearing," and she had the power of "spider-telepathy" to command spiders to do her bidding.

The animated Spider-Woman series upgraded Jessica Drew from super-spy to superhero. While her origin and powers were drastically changed, it made for an excellent rendition of the character.

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