Spider-woman II

[cyclonekath]

The Julia Carpenter, black and white costume wearing/inspiring Spider-woman in her West Coast Avengers, pre-Force Works, pre-power rape by Byrne to empower his awful Spider-woman III prime.

Spider-woman II

Secret ID: Juila Carpenter

Height: 5'9"
Weight: 140 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Reddish-Blonde
Species: Mutagenic

Intelligence: 3
Strength: 5
Agility: 5
Speed: 4
Durability: 4

Health: 4 Energy: 12

Actions:
Close Combat: 3
(Agility or Strength Bonus)
- Hand-to-hand
- US Military Training
- Avengers Training
Wall-Crawling: 4
(Agility bonus)
Ranged Combat: 2
(Weapons Modifier)
Web-Swinging: 3
(Agility bonus)
Acrobatics: 4
(Agility bonus)
Black Ops: 3
- Infiltration/Exfiltration
- Escape
Psychic-Webbing: 6
- One panel for simple forms/web-lines
- Two panels to weave complex forms/web-barriers
Social Skills: 3
- Parenting
- Sports/Tennis
- Avengers Protocol

Modifiers:
Reflexive Dodge: (+2)
Team Affiliation: West Coast Avengers
Equipment:
None

Challenges:
Dependant Daughter
Aura of Knockoff (Female knockoff Spider-man, knockoff of original Spider-woman)

Description:
Daughter of two renowned Amazon jungle guides, Julia Cromwell gave up a promising tennis career and dropped out of college when she fell in love and married Larry Carpenter. After he left her and their daughter Rachel, she struggled to make ends meet, until a chance meeting with her former college classmate Val Cooper, who offered her a place on a government project into human development. During a series of tests she was accidentally injected with spider venom and Julia began to manifest spider based powers, choosing to work for the government as a superhero under the name of Spider-woman, eventually becoming a member of the West Coast Avengers.

Much like her male counterpart, Spider-woman has the proportional strength, speed and agility of a spider and the ability to cling to and crawl along surfaces. Unlike Spider-man's inorganic web fluid, Spider-woman's webbing consists of psychic energy. While she never has to worry about running out or changing webbing cartridges, she can't cause it to materialize instantly, Spider-woman must weave it's strands together through a combination of mental concentration and physical gesturing.

Julia's initial trust in the government seems to be sadly misplaced, first being attached to the criminal filled Freedom Force and ordered to bring the Avengers to justice, followed by being blackmailed into doing infiltration work for the government. Later she even learned that her origin was less than accidental, that she was chosen from the start to receive spider powers using herbs and venom her parents unwittingly helped the government locate. Her daughter Rachel's welfare is always her paramount concern, Julia continuing to don her costume to ensure she has a world and future worth growing up for.

Cyc

[psistrike]

I loved this version of Spider-Woman and hearing what they did to her pissed me off.Why are there so many idiots who think they have to mess with perfection?

[piratespice]

I guess I never followed this character closely enought...what did they do to her?

[cyclonekath]

Carpenter had her powers stolen by evil Spider-woman IV, who had her powers stolen by brat Spider-woman III.

While Madam Web and Jessica Drew got their powers back (sort of) and played roles in the third Spider-woman series, Julia was basically badly injured, and written out of the series, probably content to look after Rachel.

Byrne's Spider-woman III series grates on many people because Mattie Franklin was an unlovable brat, and the way she basically F-ed over the other spider-women in the process.

Cyc

[beyonder]

Hey, 'Kath, thanks! My campaign includes SW as an NPC, but I'm not so familiar with the character, having never been an Avengers/WCA/Force Works reader, so this is most helpful, especially the detailed history. Now I know how to run her! I have some campaign-pertinent questions, though:

Is this version the fresh-off-the-truck, Secret Wars Julia or the more experienced, Force Works one? I'd guess the latter, since she has Avengers Protocol and Black Ops. Is there much difference in her experience levels, Actions-wise?

Are there any indications why she was chosen specifically by the govt. for genetic experimentation? Favorable genetics, maybe? What I'm digging for, here, is whether her daughter might have some latent mutative potential.

Speaking of whom, how old was her daughter, say when SW was introduced? (I need to know how old the girl would be 19 years later). Any details about the girl's personality, appearance, etc. would be most helpful. Also, how much would I have to warp mainstream Marvel reality to have Rachel in Denver when SW began? ('Cause I'd really like to have her in my campaign, but if it's too much of a stretch, I won't need any details about her.) Why exactly was Julia in Denver at that time? Where was her (now ex-)husband?

I didn't know anything about her parents .... very interesting! I don't know whether Julia grew up in the jungle with them, but do you think that she learned anything about their job skills? (General Knowledge about jungle life, spiders, herbology, or maybe Hunting/Tracking, things like that.) Since the transplanted chunk of Denver is bordered on one side by an alien jungle, such knowledge might come in very handy!

Any thoughts on her approximate age? I know that this usually matters very little in comics, but like I said, my campaign is set 19 years later, so I'm wondering how old SW would be in my timeline.

Finally, speaking of time and experience, any thoughts on what SW would be like as a veteran heroine with nearly twenty years of on-the-job training? Higher Close Combat, I'd say, and maybe a higher Reflexive Dodge, Acrobatics, and Web-Slinging. Perhaps improvements in her psi-webbing, too. (I also gave her alien-tech enhancements for her mask, for Prescience and some Enhanced Vision powers. ;D)

I'll bet you didn't expect this writeup to generate so much extra work for you, didja? Thanks again!

[cyclonekath]

Beyonder said:

Hey, 'Kath, thanks! My campaign includes SW as an NPC, but I'm not so familiar with the character, having never been an Avengers/WCA/Force Works reader, so this is most helpful, especially the detailed history. Now I know how to run her! I have some campaign-pertinent questions, though:

Is this version the fresh-off-the-truck, Secret Wars Julia or the more experienced, Force Works one? I'd guess the latter, since she has Avengers Protocol and Black Ops. Is there much difference in her experience levels, Actions-wise?

This is the late West Coast Avengers just before Force Works versions. She received government training just after she got her powers so pretty much only the Avenger specalisations are the significant differences, maybe level if you feel she should grow in skill over time.

Are there any indications why she was chosen specifically by the govt. for genetic experimentation? Favorable genetics, maybe? What I'm digging for, here, is whether her daughter might have some latent mutative potential.

No proof as written it was because she had some genetic plus or was a mutant, and Julia got her powers years after Rachel was born. Julia's parents were the ones who found the herbs and venoms that made the process possible, project head Val Cooper knew her from college before Julia dropped out and knew Julia was having money trouble after she was divorced. Pretty much the only plus Julia had was she still engaged in athlete level exercise and hadn't grown housewife fat.

Speaking of whom, how old was her daughter, say when SW was introduced? (I need to know how old the girl would be 19 years later). Any details about the girl's personality, appearance, etc. would be most helpful. Also, how much would I have to warp mainstream Marvel reality to have Rachel in Denver when SW began? ('Cause I'd really like to have her in my campaign, but if it's too much of a stretch, I won't need any details about her.) Why exactly was Julia in Denver at that time? Where was her (now ex-)husband?

I'd reckon Rachel would be about 5-7 around Secret Wars I. I personally doubt Julia would have gone off to link up with the heroes or stayed with them if Rachel was in Denver, but you never know. Julia claimed when questioned that she was just visiting friends in Denver at the time it was taken, so you've probably got a free hand in that regard. She basically looks like a young version of Julia, fairly perky personality.

I didn't know anything about her parents .... very interesting! I don't know whether Julia grew up in the jungle with them, but do you think that she learned anything about their job skills? (General Knowledge about jungle life, spiders, herbology, or maybe Hunting/Tracking, things like that.) Since the transplanted chunk of Denver is bordered on one side by an alien jungle, such knowledge might come in very handy!

The way it's worded her parents were guides, but only recently bought an Amazon compound to turn into enviromental retreat so it's unknown. Sadly as a minor character we don't have too much info about Julia's younger years. Pretty much she was a talented tennis player and entered college is it.

Any thoughts on her approximate age? I know that this usually matters very little in comics, but like I said, my campaign is set 19 years later, so I'm wondering how old SW would be in my timeline.

About 25-27, it's claimed she married fairly young.

Finally, speaking of time and experience, any thoughts on what SW would be like as a veteran heroine with nearly twenty years of on-the-job training? Higher Close Combat, I'd say, and maybe a higher Reflexive Dodge, Acrobatics, and Web-Slinging. Perhaps improvements in her psi-webbing, too. (I also gave her alien-tech enhancements for her mask, for Prescience and some Enhanced Vision powers. ;D)

Better combat and definately improved psi-webbing. Secret Wars I Julia could basically only create web-barriers, the web-slinging only coming later and even then it was a rare thing for her to use due to speed constants.

I'll bet you didn't expect this writeup to generate so much extra work for you, didja? Thanks again!

Just another way of proving you actually read it

Cyc

[beyonder]

Excellent. Thanks for the quick response.

It seems as though her second-string status has given me very little to go on, but on the + side, that means I can make stuff up as I go! Oh, and since she's still powerless, there's little chance of Marvel coming up with new material about her past to mess me up. Good deal!

[cyclonekath]

In the same way Jessica Drew was saved from death at the cost of all her powers, only to be clinging to surfaces months later ^_~

Man...how many times can the Spider-women lose their powers...

Cyc