Spiderwoman

When Jessica Drew was about a year old, her parents moved from England to a small cottage in the outskirts of Wundagore Mountain in Transia. Her father, Jonathan Drew, geneticist and research partner to the man who would later become the High Evolutionary, found large amounts of uranium in their property, which gave them the financial resources to build a research facility to keep working on their controversial studies of evolution, genetics and cell regeneration.

In the course of the next three years, life was good, until little Jessica became ill, poisoned by her long-time exposure to the Uranium that was so prevalent in their land. Jonathan, being an expert on the regenerative and immunological properties of arachnids' blood, injected Jessica with an untested serum made with the blood of several uncommon species of spiders, in the hopes of stopping the tissue damage and immunizing the girl from the Uranium radiation in her blood. Then, he sealed her in a genetic accelerator created by Herbert Wyndham a.k.a. the High Evolutionary to speed the process, but it only seemed to work at a very slow rate. In stasis for decades, her aging greatly slowed, until the treatments finally finished in recent years. Now a full grown woman with little life experience, Jessica found herself unwelcome among the New Men of Wundagore, who sensed the difference of her hybrid nature.

Hydra
Jessica eventually set off on her own, leaving the Citadel of Science and found work as a barmaid in a nearby village. She also experienced her first romance, which tragically ended when an innocent prank panicked the young woman and she accidentally triggered a bioelectric blast that killed her boyfriend. Accused of witchcraft and murder, Jessica fled from an enraged mob into the clutches of Otto Vermis. The wealthy Vermis offered sanctuary to Jessica as a high-ranking leader in Hydra, an international terrorist movement. Vermis trained Jessica in the use of her powers and taught her espionage, martial arts, and various killing techniques. Hydra wanted to mold Jessica into the perfect assassin. Her mind already in a state of shock after the death of her boyfriend, Jessica lost all memory of her life before meeting Vermis, even her name. Mentallo used his powers to convince her that Hydra was an organization that fights the encroaching powers of corporations.

Marvin Flumm (Earth-616) from Spider-Woman

However, she rebelled on a basic level against them, going so far as to deviate from their conformity by making her first costume red instead of green. In her first and only field assignment for Hydra, Jessica refused to assassinate S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury. Rebelling against Hydra, Jessica defeated Vermis in a battle to the death. Before he died, Vermis tricked Jessica into believing that she was originally an artificially evolved spider instead of a mutated human.

Distraught by what she learned, Jessica wandered Europe until a clash with Hydra in London brought her into contact with the Thing and Modred the Mystic. Modred magically revealed the truth of Jessica's true origins, and she lived briefly in London. She was approached by the mysterious sorcerer named Magnus. Magnus tutored her in the ways of civilization and informed her that her father was murdered, leading her on a hunt for his killer. Jessica traveled to the United States with Magnus. She and Magnus met up with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jerry Hunt (who started a romantic relationship with her), and the trio settled down in Los Angeles. During her first few months in L.A., Jessica ran afoul of immortal sorceress Morgan le Fay in her Spider-Woman guise and foiled her plans to acquire the Darkhold (a tome of dark magic). With Hunt's help, she identified her father's murderer who died immediately after confessing.

Eventually, she parted ways with both Jerry and Magnus, and struggled for a long time to find a sense of belonging and purpose in the world. Jessica met her first female friend, actress Lindsay McCabe, at a pop-psychologist's therapy group. The two became fast friends over their defiant departure from the group. While she looked for a steady job, Jessica began working as a bounty hunter as Spider-Woman. She worked alongside attorney Scotty McDowell until they parted ways over their different goals and methods.

Jessica accepted Lindsay's offer to be her roommate in San Francisco, and the two women started over in the City by the Bay. A period of personal success began in this time, beginning with Jessica's establishment as a private investigator. She quickly built a successful business and also fell in love with her landlord, David Ishima. Spider-Woman gained a reputation as the "Dark Angel of San Francisco", established ties with SFPD via Lieutenant Sabrina "Bree" Morrel, and began her long-lasting friendship with Carol Danvers.

However, Jessica's pattern of bad luck struck again when Ishima broke up with her after discovering the truth about her super heroics.