Fictional Character Biography
A secretive government group called The Commission decided to create their own superhero. Val Cooper met college friend Julia Carpenter in Julia's hometown of Denver, and convinced her to be part of an "athletic study". She was unknowingly a test subject in their experiments. During the experiment, they "accidentally" injected Julia with a mix of spider venom and exotic plant extracts, which gave Julia powers very similar to those of Spider-Man.
Not long after she was given the identity of Spider-Woman, she was drawn into the first Secret Wars, where she met Spider-Man and the Avengers for the first time, and allied herself with the superhuman champions. She battled the Absorbing Man, Doctor Doom, and the Hulk. She was killed and resurrected by Doom with the power of the Beyonder. After returning to Earth, Julia joined Freedom Force (a government-sponsored super team made up primarily of former members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants who enlisted into government service to avoid prison terms). In an early mission with Freedom Force, the team was sent to arrest the X-Men, and Julia encountered her predecessor Jessica Drew, who at the time was still without her own Spider-Woman powers. During this conflict with the X-Men, Julia also began to question her teammates' exceedingly brutal attitudes that they held over from their criminal past. Subsequently Freedom Force was sent to arrest the Avengers after a disgruntled Quicksilver made false accusations against them. Freedom Force actually defeated the combined East and West Coast Avengers teams and helped bring the Avengers into custody at the Vault without a trial. Spider-Woman, once again found her loyalties divided; she had a change of heart and eventually chose to aid the Avengers by breaking into the Vault and freeing them, battling the Guardsmen and thus becoming a fugitive from the law herself. While on the run from the law she teamed up with Spider-Man occasionally. In another adventure she also teamed with Iron Man, to battle renegade AIM agents named the Seekers, who sought to capture Valerie Cooper to undercover solo work. In gratitude for her earlier assistance with the Avengers, Iron Man worked with the government to get her pardoned. Alongside Spider-Man, she battled the Wrecking Crew as a government assignment.
Later, one of her assignments led her to California looking for a team of Asian supervillains called the Pacific Overlords. She met and assisted the Avengers West Coast against the Pacific Overlords, and battled U.S. Agent. She was eventually offered membership in the team, and joined the Avengers West Coast. As a member of the West Coast Avengers, Julia battled some of the Marvel Universe's major foes including Doctor Demonicus, Ultron and Mephisto as well as participating in the Infinity War cosmic crossover. In addition while still a member of the West Coast Avengers, Julia was chosen by Doctor Strange to be a founding member of the Secret Defenders in their first mission alongside Dark Hawk (whom she would later recommend for West Coast Avengers membership), Wolverine and Nomad. When the West Coast Avengers disbanded, Julia joined their spin-off team Force Works, whose primary enemies included the alien Kree and long time Iron Man foe the Mandarin.
Julia's main enemies in her solo adventures were the arachnid-based team called Death Web, which consisted of three supervillains who were created by The Commission, using a variation of the same serum which transformed Julia. When Mike Clemson, founder of Death Web, captured Spider-Woman's daughter Rachel, he blackmailed her into fighting Spider-Man. Even though she nearly killed Spider-Man, she would not commit an act of murder, and Spider-Man helped her rescue Rachel. Eventually, Julia walked away from the superhero business to concentrate on raising her daughter. Like Jessica Drew (the original Spider-Woman), Julia was also attacked by Charlotte Witter and had her powers stolen. After the loss of her superpowers, Julia returned to the life of a normal mother.
Read more about this topic: Julia Carpenter
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