Madame Web

Madame Web (Cassandra Webb) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 210, published November 1980, and was created by writer Denny O'Neil and artist John Romita Jr. She is usually depicted as a supporting character in the Spider-Man comic book series, where she appears as an elderly woman with myasthenia gravis, connected to a life support system resembling a spiderweb.

Madame Web is a clairvoyant and precognitive mutant who first appears to help Spider-Man find a kidnapping victim. She is not one of the mutants who lost their power during the "Decimation" storyline. In "Grim Hunt", she is attacked by Ana Kravinoff and her mother Sasha, who kills her, but before she dies she is able to pass her powers of precognition as well as her blindness on to Julia Carpenter, who becomes the next Madame Web. Webb is subsequently resurrected by Ben Reilly before succumbing to the Carrion Virus. Webb is the grandmother of the fourth Spider-Woman, Charlotte Witter.

Madame Web has appeared in or served as inspiration for several Spider-Man related media. Rachel Dratch voices "C. Weber", a character loosely based on Madame Web, in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), while Dakota Johnson portrayed Cassie Webb in the eponymous film.

Publication history
Madame Web was created by writer Dennis O'Neil and artist John Romita Jr., and first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 210 (November 1980).

Fictional character biography
Cassandra Webb was born in Salem, Oregon. She is a paralyzed, blind, telepathic, clairvoyant, and precognitive mutant, allowing her to work as a professional medium. She was stricken with myasthenia gravis and was connected to a life support system designed by her husband Jonathan Webb, which included a series of tubes shaped like a spider-web.

When Spider-Man approached her to help find kidnapped Daily Globe publisher K.J. Clayton (actually an impersonator fronting for Clayton's circulation manager Rupert Dockery, the kidnapping's mastermind), Madame Web used her powers to help him locate and rescue both the real and the fake Clayton but disclosed to him that she already knew his secret identity.

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 hoping to exploit her psychic abilities against the X-Men, only for her to then nearly die after Juggernaut separates 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. The resulting mental trauma, however, meant that Madame Web apparently lost her memory of Spider-Man's secret identity.

Webb is the grandmother of the fourth Spider-Woman, Charlotte Witter. She participates in an arcane ritual known as the "Gathering of the Five" to gain both immortality and eternal youth. Restored to her physical prime, Webb then serves as a mentor of sorts to the third Spider-Woman, the young Mattie Franklin.

Madame Web resurfaced, with her psychic powers intact, after Decimation. However, since House of M (in which she did appear young) she seemingly loses her mystical enhancements and reverts to her aged self, though her myasthenia gravis remains gone.

Madame Web again returns in a back-up feature in The Amazing Spider-Man No. 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". 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, who is later killed by Sasha Kravinoff as part of a sacrificial ritual that revived Grim Hunter.

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.

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. 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. 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.

Powers and abilities
Madame Web is a mutant who possesses several psychic abilities. She can use telepathy to read the minds of others. She has the ability to see the future. Madame Web can project an astral form of herself away from her physical body. 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. Madame Web was a victim of myasthenia gravis, a disorder of neuromuscular junction transmission. As a result, she became 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. Madame Web is cybernetically linked to a spider-web-like life-support chair which attends to all of her bodily needs.

Accolades

 * In 2017, Screen Rant ranked Madame Web 12th in their "Every Member Of The Spider-Man Family" list.

Other versions

 * The first appearance of a character called Madam Web was in a Hostess Twinkie ad starring Spider-Man in 1977. There is no connection between the two characters other than a similar name.
 * 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.
 * Webb also appeared during the House of M storyline as a therapist employed by S.H.I.E.L.D.
 * Madame Web has died in the MC2 universe, but her reputation has inspired an entire temple of prophetic acolytes.
 * Madame Web appeared in Ultimate Spider-Man. In issue No. 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.

Television

 * The Cassandra Web incarnation of Madame Web appears in Spider-Man (1994), voiced by Joan Lee. This version is an ally of the Beyonder with similar powers over reality who is 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 in the two-part series finale "Spider-Wars". 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.
 * The Julia Carpenter incarnation of Madame Web appears in Ultimate Spider-Man, voiced by Cree Summer.

Film

 * A character loosely based on Madame Web named "C. Weber" appears in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023), voiced by Rachel Dratch. She is a counselor at Miles Morales' school.
 * A young Cassandra "Cassie" Webb / Madame Web appears in a self-titled film,   portrayed by Dakota Johnson. This version is a paramedic partnered with her friend Ben Parker who acquired her powers after her pregnant mother Constance Webb was betrayed and left for dead by Ezekiel Sims. After being rescued by natives, she was bitten by a rare Peruvian spider they were looking for shortly before giving birth to Cassie. Additionally, Julia Carpenter appears as well, portrayed by Sydney Sweeney. Over the course of the film, Cassie works to protect Carpenter, Mattie Franklin, and Anya Corazon from Sims. Despite being blinded and paralyzed while defeating him, Cassie becomes the trio's mentor.

Video games

 * The Cassandra Web incarnation of Madame Web appears in Questprobe featuring Spider-Man.
 * The Cassandra Web incarnation of Madame Web appears in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, voiced by Susanne Blakeslee. 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. Additionally, she 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.