WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Spider-Woman #3, by Karla Pacheco, Pere Perez, Frank D'Armata & VC's Travis Lanham, on sale now.
In Spider-Woman #3, Jessica Drew has had enough. She agreed to work with pharmaceutical CEO Michael Marchand as a bodyguard for his daughter.
She soon learned she was a pawn in his plan to try to reverse engineer experiments done to Spider-Woman to save his own daughter's life. Jessica eventually sent her son away to keep him safe while she faced great danger as several mysterious bad guys targeted Michael and his experiments. But after she sent her son away, Jessica learned she shockingly had one family member still to meet — one that she thought died years before.
The issue ended with a huge plot twist as Michael flew him, Jessica, and his daughter Rebecca to a mysterious location when his employees betrayed him. After a massive battle in the skies, they crash-landed at Michael's secret destination. That is when Jessica realized they were in Wundagore, and Spider-Woman learned that Michael is her brother, Rebbeca is her niece, and that her thought-dead mother, Meriem Drew, is alive and well in Wundagore.
This moment is shocking since Jessica's mom has been assumed dead for years. Meriem Drew first appeared in Marv Wolfman and Carmine Infantino's Spider-Woman #1, when Jessica dreamed about her origin story. The issue showed Jessica's life was in danger due to the experiments of her parents. A radiation blast hit a pregnant Meriem in the stomach, and Jessica was born with powers. Her dad told her the strain was too much for Meriem, and she died in labor.
Twenty-eight years later, the true fate of Meriem Drew played out in the five-issue miniseries Spider-Woman: Origin. There were even clues here that could have led eagle-eyed readers to discover the new twist. During an early conversation between a pregnant Meriem and Jonathan Drew, they had a pair of names in mind for their child — Rebecca and Michele. They ended up naming her Jessica Miriam Drew.
Of course, things did not go well for Jessica's mother. In this version of her origin story, Hydra woke up Jessica and told her she was in a coma for 11 years. When they told her they were saving the world, Jessica became an agent for them. When Jessica learned the truth from Nick Fury, he also revealed her parents were not dead, and her father was working for Hydra. Fury found her mother, but when Jessica showed up to confront her, Hydra was there and had already killed Meriem. When Spider-Woman found her father, he explained Mentallo of Hydra implanted false memories in her brain. Hydra sought to control her by showing her what they wanted her to see.
However, it turns out that Meriem never died. Spider-Woman's memory of her original death could have just been another trick of Jessica's broken mind. Since Jessica's brother shows that he possesses the same venom blasts that she does in this issue, Michael showed he possesses Venom Blasts in this issue, there's a chance that Meriem could share Jessica's Spider-Woman powers too.
The reason why Meriem remained hidden from her daughter for all these years remains a mystery for the moment, as is why Michael and Rebecca both knew that Jessica was their relative and kept it a secret from her all this time. However, it's clear that Spider-Woman's memories of her mother's death might not be as clear as she thought.