Jeff Youngquist

Essential Spider-Woman, Volume 2 contains Spider-Woman nos. 26-50, Marvel Team-Up no. 97, and Uncanny X-Men no. 148. Picking up from volume 1, Spider-Woman continues to work as a bounty hunter in Los Angeles. In his final stories, Michael Fleisher pits Jessica Drew against English businessman and media mogul, Rupert M. Dockery (an obvious parody of Rupert Murdock), who sponsors supervillains in order to scoop other papers in covering their battles with Spider-Woman. This new media attention show more leads to conflict between Spider-Woman and her bounty-hunting partner, Scott McDowell.
After Chris Claremont took over writing duties from Fleisher with issue 34, Jessica Drew and her friend Lindsay McCabe relocate to San Francisco, where Drew becomes a private investigator and continues to battle as Spider-Woman. With the exception of two alien stories, Claremont's stories have greater depth than the villain-of-the month formula that Fleisher used and feel like a return to Marv Wolfman's style. Given the opportunity to flesh out Claremont's stories, Steve Leialoha's art shines. Claremont builds a world involving a corrupt defense contractor and the Yakuza while bringing back the Arthurian elements of Wolfman's run, like Morgan LeFey. A multi-issue storyline involving the Viper is equally compelling. After wrapping up his main plots, Claremont's final two issues feel like afterthoughts, but do set the reader up for the disappointment of the final issues.
Ann Nocenti writes and Brian Postman illustrates issues 47-50. The first three are villain-of-the-month type stories while the final one attempts to tie them together and offer a conclusion for the series in a double-sized story. Nocenti's conclusion leaves a great deal wanting and feels like something of a betrayal after so many good stories. Postman's art is sufficient for the story, but lacks the zeal of Leialoha or Infantino. Worse, the ending wouldn't be fully resolved until Avengers nos. 240-241 and the events of New Avengers and Secret Invasion. The next stand-alone Spider-Woman series was a 4-issue mini about Julia Carpenter that Marvel published a decade after Spider-Woman no. 50. This was followed five years later by an 18-issue ongoing series starring Mattie Franklin in the title role. Jessica Drew wouldn't helm her own Spider-Woman series until the 7-issue Agent of S.W.O.R.D. motion comic in 2009-2010 and an on-going series beginning in 2015. All told, a disappointing ending.
This paperback volume reprints the stories in their original size with finished inks, but no color. The coloring in this era of comics took into account the cheap paper used and, without significant retouching, it would look garish. By omitting the colors and using cheaper paper, Marvel also made it possible to include more stories for a cheaper price, though the quality seems diminished from volume 1 and the black ink tends to leave smudges on the reader's fingers. If you want to read some of these in color without buying individual issues, nos. 37-38 appeared in Giant Size Spider-Woman and no. 45 was in an Impossible Man TPB. show less

Essential Spider-Woman, Volume 1 contains Marvel Spotlight no. 32 (Spider-Woman's first appearance), Marvel Two-In-One nos. 29-33, and Spider-Woman nos. 1-25. In the original story, writer Archie Goodwin and illustrators Sal Buscema and Jim Mooney introduce the character, here named Arachne and working for HYDRA against the forces of SHIELD. She learns the secret of her origin and rethinks her alliegences. Though a brief origin, Marvel primarily created her to pre-empt Filmation's plan to show more create an animated Spider-Woman who would capitalize on Spider-Man's fame. Despite these motives, the character was a hit and writer Marv Wolfman and illustrator Carmine Infantino further explored her possibilities in a series of stories with the Thing from the Fantastic Four in Marvel Two-In-One before developing a stand-alone series.
This reprints all of Wolfman's stories as he added details to Spider-Woman's origin, building up a life for Jessica Drew outside of costume, and tried for a tone between action and horror to define the character. Many of the stories draw upon classic fantasy, including the Arthurian legends. Though Wolfman alternates between these more traditional superhero elements and something with more atmosphere, the creativity and ideas he explores are great fun. Beginning in issue #9, Mark Gruenwald took over writing the Spider-Woman stories, introducing characters like the Needle, Brothers Grimm, and Nekra. The Shroud, a Batman-like hero, also makes an appearance here. Infantino's art helps link these stories with Wolfman's earlier work while Gruenwald successfully matches the thematic tone. Unfortunately, Gruenwald departed after issue 20, and Michael Fleisher took over for the five issues that conclude this volume. Fleisher drastically changes the character, having Jessica Drew work as a bounty hunter with new associates who hadn't appeared previously. New artists Frank Springer and Mike Esposito draw the characters in a manner that doesn't match the tone of previous stories, though Steve Leialoha's illustrations for issue 25 high-quality and closer to Infantino's work.
This paperback volume reprints the stories in their original size with finished inks, but no color. The coloring in this era of comics took into account the cheap paper used and, without significant retouching, it would look garish. By omitting the colors and using cheaper paper, Marvel also made it possible to include more stories for a cheaper price. Those who want to see some of these stories in full color should check out Marvel Masterworks: Spider-Woman Vol. 1. show less