Every week, we will be examining comic book stories and ideas that were not only abandoned, but also had the stories/plots specifically "overturned" by a later writer (as if they were a legal precedent). Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of The Abandoned An' Forsaked. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

Commenter Night Swordsman suggested this one.

Today we look at the on and off parental relationship between Spider-Woman and the villainous Viper!

Enjoy!

Viper, or Madame Hydra, as she is sometimes known (typically when she is, you know, working for Hydra) was created by Jim Steranko in the pages of Captain America but by the time Chris Claremont had brought her back for an arc in Marvel Team-Up in the late 1970s, she had been out of use for a few years (and had not been used against anyone but Captain America).

A couple of years after her Marvel Team-Up appearance, Claremont brought her into the pages of Spider-Woman for a notable arc.

First, Viper recognizes Jessica Drew...

We learn in issue #44 that Viper is Spider-Woman's MOM! This is part of a story where Viper is working for the demon Chton (odd choice there by Claremont)...

Less than a year later, however, J.M. DeMatteis retconned Viper being Spider-Woman's mother...

In the Deluxe Edition of the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe, it confirms that Morgan Le Fey was behind the Chton that was involved with Viper. It was all a plot to kill Spider-Woman.

More recently, in the pages of the short-lived Brian Michael Bendis/Alex Maleev Spider-Woman series, Bendis confirms that Viper is not Spider-Woman's mom....

I suppose there's always room for a change in the future!