Digging into the history a little bit, Julia Carpenter was the second person to take up the mantle of Spider-Woman in the comics after Jessica Drew, who made an appearance in this summer’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Carpenter, though, first appeared in “Secret Wars” #6 back in 1984 and was created by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck. Carpenter gets her powers as a result of being experimented on by a group called The Commission that aimed to make their own superheroes. Carpenter was injected with a mix of plants and spider venom, resulting in her having powers not unlike those of Spider-Man.
Also of note, while Jessica Drew’s Spider-Woman typically dons a mostly red costume, Julia Carpenter’s version historically wears a black and white costume. She was featured heavily in the ’90s animated “Iron Man” TV show, as well as “Ultimate Spider-Man” and several video games. But the character has never appeared in a live-action film, making this a potentially very big deal.
For Sony, it seems very logical. Whether or not we see Sweeney actually suit up as Spider-Woman in “Madame Web” almost feels irrelevant. Certainly, the idea is to use this movie as a springboard to give Spider-Woman a larger presence in a solo project down the line, assuming the reception is good enough to warrant it. For what it’s worth, Variety asked Sweeney about a possible “Spider-Woman” movie in the profile, which was “met with a shrug” while “Sweeney smiles knowingly.”
The idea that this movie could, in any way, be teeing up a live-action “Spider-Woman” film is a big deal. For what it’s worth, it was reported in 2020 that Oliva Wilde was going to direct a “Spider-Woman” movie, though we haven’t heard much of anything about it since. Maybe that’s finally going to come back around.
“Madame Web” is currently set to hit theaters on February 14, 2024.