Madame Web is a clairvoyant and precognitivemutant[1] who first appears to help Spider-Man find a kidnapping victim. She is not one of the mutants that lost their power during the "Decimation" storyline. In "Grim Hunt", she is attacked by Sarah and Ana Kravinoff, who kills her, but before she died she was able to pass her powers of precognition as well as her blindness on to Julia Carpenter, who becomes the next Madame Web. Webb is consequently resurrected by Ben Reilly, before succumbing to the Carrion Virus. Webb is the grandmother of the fourth Spider-Woman, Charlotte Witter.
When Spider-Man approached her to help find kidnapped Daily Globe publisher K.J. Clayton (actually an impersonator), Madame Web used her powers to help him locate and rescue both the real and the fake Clayton, but disclosed to him that she had divined his secret identity.[5]
In the "Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut!" story arc, she contacts Spider-Man for assistance when Black Tom Cassidy dispatches the Juggernaut to capture her in the hope that her psychic powers would help them defeat the X-Men, only for her to nearly die after Juggernaut separated her from her life-support system. This triggered a vicious fight between Spider-Man and the Juggernaut, who was subsequently trapped in a construction site's wet cement foundation.[6]
From the shock to her system, however, Madame Web apparently lost her memory of Spider-Man's secret identity.[7]
Webb is the grandmother of the fourth Spider-Woman, Charlotte Witter. She participates in an arcane ritual known as the "Gathering of the Five", gaining immortality; she is restored to youth and her myasthenia gravis is cured.[8] Webb serves as a mentor of sorts to the third Spider-Woman, the young Mattie Franklin.[9]
Madame Web resurfaced, with her psychic powers intact, after Decimation. However, since House of M (in which she did appear young) she seems to have regained her aged appearance, though the myasthenia gravis remains gone.[a]
Madame Web again returns in a back-up feature in The Amazing Spider-Man #600. She looks into the future, showing what are apparently quick looks into Spider-Man's future, only to see someone "unravelling the web of fate", and fearfully exclaiming "They're hunting spiders." After that, she is attacked by Ana Kravinoff and her mother Sasha. The pair incapacitate her and then claim "we now have our eyes".[10] She is seen still held captive by Ana and her mother, as they inspect their new quarry, Mattie Franklin. While still bound in a chair, she apologizes to a then-unconscious Mattie,[11] who is later killed by Sasha Kravinoff as part of a sacrificial ritual that revived Grim Hunter.[12]
At the conclusion of "Grim Hunt", Madame Web has her throat slashed by Sasha Kravinoff in retaliation, as Sasha believed that Madame Web was deceiving her and knew the outcome of the events that transpired. Before dying, she reveals she is no longer blind, and passes her psychic powers over to Julia Carpenter.[13]
During the Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy storyline, Madame Web was resurrected by Ben Reilly (posing as the Jackal), inserting her soul into a cloned body. She tipped off Prowler about a bank robbery vision she had which he managed to stop the bank robbery. When Prowler goes to get more information on the hacker from Madame Web, she tells him that she sees buildings filled with agony that cannot escape.[14] When the villains at New U Technologies are getting out of control, Jackal sends Electro to find Prowler to put them under check again. Electro goes to Madame Web's room and tortures the telepath into giving her Prowler's location with the intent to kill him. Julia Carpenter senses that Madame Web is alive from telepathic feedback resulting from Electro's attack.[15] Julia infiltrates New U Technologies and uses the opportunity to investigate the near-abandoned facility. During this time, Julia is led to Madame Web who refuses to take her medication to aid her in healing from Electro's attack. Madame Web has seen the future and refuses to be a part of it. Before dying from clone degeneration, Madame Web tells Julia to save Prowler.[16]
Madame Web is a mutant who possesses several psychic abilities.[17] She can use telepathy to read the minds of others. She has the ability to see the future.[18] Madame Web can project an astral form of herself away from her physical body.[19] She can perform psychic surgery on the minds of others. She is sensitive to psychic energies, allowing her to sense the presence of psionic powers in others, to see the area surrounding her, and events which take place far away from her. Additionally, Madame Web has a gifted intellect.
Condition
When dying, she displayed the ability to transfer her mutation to another individual, such as Julia Carpenter.[20] Madame Web was a victim of myasthenia gravis, a disorder of neuromuscular junction transmission.[21] As a result, she was left an invalid, entirely dependent on external life support for survival. This is no longer the case as she was cured of the condition some time ago. She is also blind and relies on her powers to compensate.[22] Madame Web is cybernetically linked to a spider-web-like life-support chair which attends to all of her bodily needs.[22]
Reception
Accolades
In 2017, Screen Rant ranked Madame Web 12th in their "Every Member Of The Spider-Man Family" list.[23]
Other versions
A version of Madame Web makes a brief appearance in the heroic fantasy world of Avataars: Covenant of the Shield as "the Widow of the Web", a spider-goddess who grants Webswinger (the Spider-Man parallel) his powers.[24]
Madame Web has died in the MC2 universe, but her reputation has inspired an entire temple of prophetic acolytes.[26]
Madame Web appeared in Ultimate Spider-Man. In issue #102, she is part of the psych team that plans to change Ultimate Spider-Woman's memories. She appears in a wheelchair (implying paralysis) and blind, similar to the classic version. However, she is younger than that version of the character.[27]
Animated Madame Web, as she appeared in the 1990s animated series.
Madame Web appears in Spider-Man, voiced by Joan Lee.[28] This version is an ally of the Beyonder with similar powers over reality tasked with testing Spider-Men from across the multiverse to determine whether they can stop Spider-Carnage from destroying the multiverse. Seeing leadership potential in the "prime" Spider-Man, Web tests him throughout the third season, Sins of the Father, though she respects his wish to not see her again until the time comes for his final test. After Spider-Man wins the Secret Wars during the fifth season, Web and the Beyonder task him with leading a group of multiversal Spider-Men to fight Spider-Carnage. Following the villain's defeat, Web rewards Spider-Man by taking him to visit Stan Lee and helping him find his girlfriend Mary Jane Watson.
Madame Web appears in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, voiced by Susanne Blakeslee.[citation needed] After Spider-Man accidentally breaks the Tablet of Order and Chaos while fighting Mysterio, she informs him of its mystical properties and tasks him, Spider-Man Noir, Spider-Man 2099, and a black-suited version of the Ultimate Spider-Man to retrieve its pieces in their respective universes before supervillains find them.[43] She also provides instructions to the Spider-Men about their powers and grants them new ones so they can complete their mission more easily. However, Mysterio takes her hostage after discovering a fragment he stole granted him magical powers and demands the Spider-Men give him the rest. Once the tablet is reassembled, Mysterio becomes a god-like being and attempts to alter reality to his liking, but Madame Web is able to bring the four Spider-Men together so they can defeat Mysterio and separate him from the Tablet. Afterward, she sends everyone back to their respective native universes.
Notes
^As of Sensational Spider-Man #26 (Part 4 of "Feral").
^DeFalco, Tom; Sanderson, Peter; Brevoort, Tom; Teitelbaum, Michael; Wallace, Daniel; Darling, Andrew; Forbeck, Matt; Cowsill, Alan; Bray, Adam (2019). The Marvel Encyclopedia. DK Publishing. p. 223. ISBN978-1-4654-7890-0.
^Manning, Matthew K.; Gilbert, Laura (2012). "1980s". Spider-Man Chronicle Celebrating 50 Years of Web-Slinging. Dorling Kindersley. p. 116. ISBN978-0756692360. Writer Denny O'Neil's newest contribution to the Spider-Man mythos would come in the form of psychic Madame Web, a character introduced with the help of artist John Romita, Jr.
^Brevoort, Tom; DeFalco, Tom; Manning, Matthew K.; Sanderson, Peter; Wiacek, Win (2017). Marvel Year By Year: A Visual History. DK Publishing. p. 198. ISBN978-1465455505.
