Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew)
Jessica Drew is one of my personal favorite characters mainly because of her character’s story arc. She starts out – literally like a female Bucky. A tragic past and not a lot of friends, she’s drawn into HYDRA and becomes their top agent. Like Bucky, she overcomes and has her own heroes journey to the point where she becomes a friend to Carol Danvers (Yes, Captain Marvel), dates Clint Barton (and that in and of itself is interesting) And mentors Gwen Stacy, Silk, and many of the other new “spiders” in the spider verse.
Putting Jessica in Netflix, (heck introducing her period) is a great way to get a similar character who many people could identify with (feeling lost and needing a purpose) into the story and giving the story a spider twist. I’ve long been a proponent of there needing to be more spider characters besides Spider-Man (I’d give my eye for Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales) and Jessica Drew ranks up there.
Picture it, Jessica Jones or Daredevil stumble upon an abandoned Hydra base in the heart of New York unleashing HYDRA sleeper Agent Madame Web, after a lengthy chase Matt, being a paragon of virtue saves her from SHIELD and execution by convincing her to become a hero. She’s saddled with Jessica and Trish, forming a gal-pal team and within that she learns how to be a part of the Defenders before moving out of New York and moving on.
Jessica Drew has a ton of fascinating character arcs and it would be a great opportunity for diversity (she is a single mom) on a lot of different levels. Her transformation from deadly hydra agent to hero makes for a compelling story worthy of Netflix and a perfect addition to the MCU.
While Jessica Drew’s presence in the Netflix universe would make sense, Jessica Drew’s rights don’t yet extend to television. Netflix has proven time and again it has the chops to address serious issues and seeing them sink their teeth into her story would be great but it’ll just be a dream. However, with Marvel anything is possible. – Carolyn
Next: It’s time for a certain Gamma-powered alpha female to step into the MCU!