Julia Carpenter
Julia Carpenter is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck, the character first appeared in Secret Wars #6. Julia Carpenter was known as the second Spider-Woman, later as the second Arachne, and then as the second Madame Web.
Julia Carpenter as Spider-Woman appears in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, and the Sony's Spider-Man Universe film Madame Web under her maiden name Julia Cornwall, portrayed by Sydney Sweeney.
Publication history
As Spider-Woman, the character debuted in issue 6 of the first Secret Wars limited series in 1984. She was among the villains and was unknown to all other characters. Since that series, she has appeared as a starring character in Avengers West Coast and Force Works as well as a supporting character in the third Spider-Woman series, whose main character was Mattie Franklin. Julia starred in her own four-part Spider-Woman miniseries which explained her origin and the origin of her enemies, Death Web.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. In an early mission with Freedom Force, the team was sent to arrest the X-Men. During this conflict with the X-Men, Julia also began to question her teammates' exceedingly brutal attitudes that they held over from their criminal pasts. 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 break into the Vault and freeing them, battling the Guardsmen and thus becoming a fugitive from the law herself. Alongside Spider-Man, she battled the Wrecking Crew as a government assignment. In another adventure she teamed with Iron Man to battle renegade A.I.M. agents named the Seekers, who sought to capture Valerie Cooper doing undercover solo work. In gratitude for her earlier assistance with the Avengers, Iron Man worked with the government to get her pardoned.
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, joining the Avengers West Coast. As a member, 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 Darkhawk, 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. She had a relationship with Moonraker during this time.
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, Julia was attacked by Charlotte Witter and had her powers stolen. After the loss of her superpowers, Julia returned to the life of a normal mother.
Civil War
Julia reappeared in a story arc of the 2006 Ms. Marvel series, using the codename Arachne. Her powers have clearly been restored. During Civil War, Julia registers under the Superhuman Registration Act, and she and Wonder Man aid Ms. Marvel in the training of novice superheroes.Julia is shown to be a double agent; when she first responded to Iron Man's request, she thought it would be an opportunity to help people escape registration; she is shown to have tipped off Hobie Brown, the Prowler, moments before a S.H.I.E.L.D. capekiller squadron arrived at his home to arrest him, and she is thought to have warned many more heroes of impending arrests. It is also revealed that she is romantically involved with the Shroud, an opponent of the Superhuman Registration Act.
Julia's status is discovered when a captured Prowler reveals under interrogation that she tipped him off. The Shroud, who had been captured by Ms. Marvel, reveals that Julia was paralyzed for several months after she lost her powers, even though all of her other injuries had healed. The Shroud's company had synthesized a duplicate of the serum that provided Julia with her powers, and these returned several days after it was administered to her. With the Shroud's help, Julia underwent intense physical therapy and was soon able to walk again. It was during this time that she and the Shroud fell in love.
A government strike team led by Ms. Marvel, including Wonder Man and Araña, attacks Julia at her home just as she was about to flee the country with her daughter. Julia is captured and summarily incarcerated. It is revealed in Ms. Marvel #13 that Julia escaped captivity during the Negative Zone prison break, and she returned to Colorado in search of Rachel. A S.H.I.E.L.D. Psy Ops team telepathically traces her to Brooklyn, where she furiously confronts and attacks Araña, demanding to know where her daughter has been taken. She is subsequently defeated by Araña with surprising ease due to her instability from losing her daughter. After being rendered unconscious by Araña, she awakens aboard the Minicarrier 13 where Ms. Marvel endeavors to help Julia find Rachel.
Omega Flight
Arachne became a member of the new Canada-based team Omega Flight and was given the option of having outstanding charges dropped in exchange for her participation on the team. After a battle against the Wrecking Crew, Julia decided to stay on the team.The Gauntlet/Grim Hunt
Afterward, Julia became a victim of a grudge match between Spider-Man and the Kraven family. After escaping with Spider-Man from Ana and Alyosha Kravinoff, they are confronted by the Chameleon disguised as Ezekiel Sims, who informs them of a battle between the Spider and Hunter tribes. Julia is then captured by the Kravinoffs, along with Anya Corazon and Madame Web as Kaine is sacrificed to resurrect Kraven the Hunter. When Madame Web was mortally wounded by Sasha Kravinoff, she transferred her prophetic powers to Julia, to become the new Madame Web. Julia's first action in this role is to prevent Peter from killing Kraven, explaining to Peter that he is the center of a moral web that would be destroyed if he killed Kraven, advising him that this murder, however justified, would turn him into a ruthless destroyer. After burying Kaine and Madame Web in a potter's field, she explains her new purpose to Spider-Man and Araña before teleporting away.Spider-Island
When the population of Manhattan develops spider-powers during the Spider-Island storyline, Julia observes the crisis with Shang-Chi, preventing him from intervening until Spider-Man is accidentally attacked by the New Avengers when he tries to help out. Later, as Anti-Venom works on curing the individuals affected of their spider-powers, reflects on the need for both Venom and Anti-Venom to fix the Spider-Island problem, but also notes that for one of them, "your story ends here." At the conclusion of the crisis, she offers the spider-powers cure to Spider-Man himself, but he rejects it. As she departs, she apologizes for the suffering that is to come.While taking her daughter Rachel to summer school, Julia gets a vision telling her that the Great Web is unraveling. She then changes into her Madame Web gear and leaves to go speak to Spider-Man. While Spider-Man is fighting Morbius, the Living Vampire, Madame Web visits Spider-Man telling him that his life is in great danger. Although Spider-Man is concerned about Morbius, Madame Web states that Morbius is not the problem. She tells Spider-Man to return to Horizon Labs for a great tragedy lies in his future. She even tells Spider-Man that Silver Sable did not perish in the fight at Doctor Octopus' underwater hideout. Julia later detected that a new spider-based character has connected to the Web of Life as it shows that former Hobgoblin Roderick Kingsley was now working as Devil Spider.
After having a particularly strong vision of the future of the Marvel Universe, Julia enters into a comatose state.