Even if the world survives the siege from the King in Black, it may be too late to save Spider-Woman from what she has done to herself.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Spider-Woman #8 by Karla Pacheco, Pere Pérez, Frank D’Armata & VC’s Travis Lanham, on sale now.
The King in Black landed on Earth in a terrifying display of force and shrouded the planet in his symbiote goop. Many heroes the world depends on have fallen, but the heroes remaining are trying to find a way to stay one step ahead of Knull’s ever-growing forces. Mostly, they are just trying to remain hopeful while searching for anything that can stop this new enemy.
In the chaotic mess Jessica Drew, also known as Spider-Woman, whose sanity has been questioned a lot lately by those closest to her. After taking a larger than normal dose of Marchand Serum, Spider-Woman annihilated one of Knull’s dragons on her own but it caused her to go into a rage. Locked in a Hulk containment unit for her safety, and everyone else’s, Jessica was left alone while her friends went to fight Knull, showing that maybe Spider-Woman has already been pushed too far.
Related: King in Black: Is Namor About to Unleash Cthulhu on the Marvel Universe?
Since the first issue of the current Spider-Woman run, Jessica hasn’t been feeling right. The radiation illness she has had since childhood was thrown out of whack by the forced removal of her healing ability. Her friends and family instantly noticed a difference in her — she wasn’t acting like herself. She had become more irritable, more prone to violence and vomiting corrosive liquid. Noting the change herself, she feared for the safety of those around her. She felt the best thing was to send her baby and boyfriend to a farm where she couldn’t hurt them.
In an attempt to help her, Jessica was given the Marchand Serum as a possible cure to her problem. It made her feel better, amplified her powers to new levels and stopped the vomiting. However, it came with side effects that made her violence and rage worse than before. With each dose, she became less herself and more of an angry monster that had little regard for others.
Searching for her last hope, the High Evolutionary, Spider-Woman went on a rampage in space. Her best friend Carol Danvers, better known as Captain Marvel, saw an immediate change in Jessica. She condemned her friend’s excessive use of force and tried calming her down repeatedly. Jessica rebuffed Carol and decided she could get more done on her own. Hitting dead end after dead end, Jessica was called back to Earth to help fight Knull. Wanting to punch her way through Knull as well, she injected herself with copious amounts of the serum, pushing her physical and emotional limits.