The splash page of Spider-Woman #1:

Let's close in on the credits:

One more zoom:

Hmm. I can't say it's a bad thing to give credit to someone who played a vital role in the creation of Alex Maleev's art.

But this raises a whole buncha questions:

**Does this imply that Maleev DIDN'T use models for any other characters? That Agent Brand, for example, was completely drawn "from scratch?" Because it sure wouldn't seem fair to credit Jolynn Carpenter for her work, and not everybody else Maleev was using.

**Speaking of unfair, the whole credit issue seems to have its priorities misplaced. They credit the model one of the characters is based upon, but nowhere in the issue do they give any credit for the reprinted panels drawn by the Luna brothers or Leinil Yu (from Spider-Woman: Origins and Secret Invasion). So, we credit models, but not the actual artists whose actual artwork is being reprinted??????

**This could be a terrible precedent--do we have to go back and re-credit all of Maleev's previous works, either in reprints or in trades, to acknowledge the models he's used? What about all of Alex Ross' work? If our new principle is we need to give credit to an artist's models, there's a whole lot of uncredited comics modeling that needs to be acknowledged.

**On the plus side, this would mean that Greg Land owes us a pretty exciting list of adult movie stars...

There was a time, in the misty past, when Jessica Drew was not really the Queen of the Skrulls. When she wasn't a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who was really a Hydra agent who was really working for Nick Fury against both groups as an whiny triple agent (or was it quadruple??). An era before she was a New Avenger, or a Mighty Avenger.

She was just Spider-Woman, private investigator, reluctant quasi-superhero, and someone who ran into the most macabre collection of oddballs in Marvel history. Under separate runs by Mark Greunwald and Michael Fleischer, Jessica came up against nutbars like the Needle, Gypsy Moth, the Brothers Grimm, Waxman, and the Cult of Kali (well before Temple of Doom, thank you), not to mention obscure Marvel characters as the Enforcer, Nekra, Werewolf by Night, and the Shroud. It was a fun book.

But a lot of people forget about the last-gasp, post-Chris Claremont run of Ann Nocenti and Brian Postman. Take, for an example, Daddy Longlegs. Ramsey Kole, a dancer, goes to visit Bill Foster (before he was killed just so Marvel could claim Civil War was "edgy" and "dangerous"). Ramsey, it turns out, has a real need for Foster's re-tooled growth formula:

Ahh, yes, the dance world is a jungle. Kole won't take "no" for an answer, and takes down Foster almost as fast as clone Thor did:

Well, Kole soon learns, you shouldn't mix and match untested biochemical formulas, should you?

Just how big is he??

EEK!!

Anyway, Kole decides to use his new long-leggediness to break into the performance of an overrated pop dance troupe and show the public what a real dancer can do. Check out the creepy art (and the creepier cultural elitism):

Long story short: Spider-Woman get involved, he refuses to be reasoned with, and fisticuffs result. But, to her chagrin, his gangliness and dancer's reflexes make him impossible to hit:

But he makes the mistake of getting in too close, so she delivers the Chris Sims Special...

...followed by a full body venom blast...

...and a full page put down:

As far as I know, Daddy Longlegs made only one other cameo appearance 3 issues later, and was cured in an Iron Man annual some years later. Too bad, because he was kind of cool.

Not as cool as Bahlactus, of course...

Jessica Drew before Bendis got his hands on her in Spider-Woman #47 (1982)