Madame Web's Surprising Origin Story!

Madame-Web-Origins

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re diving into the origins of Madame Web. Beware of minor spoilers ahead.

Cassandra Webb AKA Madame Web is one of the most mysterious members in Spider-Man’s web of allies. She’s such an enigma that her early life has rarely been explored in detail in the comics. Fortunately, we know just a few key details about her life before she met the webhead. As it turns out, Madame Web has a couple things in common with the famous X-Men member Jean Grey.

Both women discovered that they had powerful psychic abilities at a very young age. This was due to the fact that the two heroines are also mutants. However, this is where their similarities end for now. At a young age, Jean Grey was invited to join the famous and public mutant team. But it would be a much longer time before Cassandra Webb spent time with people just like her. Since she was born without the ability to see, she learned how to foresee events clearly in her mind’s eye. Cassandra was improving her ability to peer into the future when she learned that she had a condition known as myasthenia gravis. This autoimmune ailment weakened her to the point that she needed constant medical care just to survive. Fortunately, Cassandra’s husband designed a special chair for her with many wires that coincidentally resembled a spider’s web. After she spent decades growing accustomed to her new circumstances, an elderly Madame Webb sensed that it was time for her to assist a hero. All Cassandra had to do was wait for Spider-Man to swing towards her.

Hours before their fateful meeting, Spider-Man saw Madame Web’s face on an ad. He was quick to dismiss her as an unreliable fake. But Spider-Man’s tune would change after a brazen crime. Minutes before Peter was about to interview for a job at a local paper, he saw a group of men capture an innocent woman named Ms. Clayton. Although he wasn’t able to catch them in time, the webhead noticed that the villains left behind another ad for Madame Web’s business in the scuffle. A skeptical Spider-Man decided that the best chance of saving Ms. Clayton was to pay the psychic a visit. To his surprise, she knew he was coming from a mile away.

By just touching the ad Spider-Man brought, Madame Webb was able to sense that one of her psychic students was in danger. While she wasn’t able to pinpoint where the distressed woman was, Cassandra was able to give the wall crawler a few cryptic clues about the kidnappers. The intelligent Peter was able to use his smarts to deduce where the captured woman was. Furthermore, he learned that his would-be employer was behind the entire scheme. This unfortunately meant that Peter wouldn’t be getting a shot at a lucrative interview. Before he could start sulking, Madame Webb suddenly called and predicted a job opportunity was coming. However, she did warn that he might not be fond of his new boss.

Outside of foretelling where Peter would be employed, Madame Web would go on to predict a number of catastrophes and potentially bad outcomes. Since she could see multiple versions of the future, she wasn’t always 100% sure about what would happen next. Madame Web’s inability to hone in on a clear timeline put her in jeopardy multiple times. On one occasion, she was nearly killed when the Juggernaut tried to kidnap her. Although Spider-Man saved her just in time, she was severely weakened by the encounter. Madame Web also appeared to die when a ritual she was conducting with Norman Osborn went terribly wrong. Fortunately, it was later revealed the traumatic event cured her condition and extended her life. Madame Web used this stroke of luck to become a much more active participant in the battle of good and evil.

For a period of time, she was largely focused on mentoring several women with spider-like powers. Despite being as cryptic as ever, Cassandra was able to make a difference in the lives of several heroines. Madame Web’s crimefighting career seemed to come to a permanent end when she was slayed by Sasha Kravinoff. In her dying moments, Cassandra gave all her psychic abilities to Julia Carpenter AKA Spider-Woman. The heroine honored the deceased crimefighter by becoming the next Madame Web. As Julia continued to rise in prominence in comic storylines, Cassandra continued to cement her legacy in various mediums.

Back when the original Madame Web was popping up on the page, tv fans were getting to know her on the 1990s “Spider-Man” show. She arrived on the scene to give Spider-Man advice and helpful yet cryptic hints on numerous occasions. Madame Web became such a major character that she played a significant role in the final episodes. When a villain threatened to destroy multiple realities, she gathered various Spider-men from across the multiverse to save the day. Thanks to Madame Web’s intervention, the Peter Parker we grew to know and love was able to stop the sinister big bad. Cassandra would continue her habit of gathering web crawlers in the 2010 game “Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions”. During that story, her guidance enabled four heroes to come together to stop a multiverse breaking Mysterio. After appearing in that game, Marvel fans learned they would see Cassandra in a full live-action film.

It was clear from the first preview that Sony would be completely rewriting Madame Web’s origins. During the early footage, it was revealed that this version of Cassandra wouldn’t start harnessing her powers until she was an adult. Instead of intervening from afar, she would be thrust right in the middle of the action. Cassandra would also be tasked with mentoring a group of young spider-women early in her career instead of near the end of her tenure. It's ultimately up to the fans to decide if all of those plot changes make her a more intriguing character or not. Either way, the Sony film put a bright spotlight on one of the more obscure Spider-Man supporting characters.

Like Madame Web, we can’t tell exactly what the future will hold for this character. The psychic has proved time and again that her intervention could be the difference between life and death. It’s also heartwarming to see how much she inspired other heroines to embrace their unique abilities to help others. Although Madame Webb might not appear in the next Spider-person film, she’s undeniably left a huge impression on many webheads from across the multiverse.

What Madame Web fact surprised you the most? Let us know in the web of comments below.