Is Madame Web a villain? Spider-Man character & history explained

Madame Web’s first trailer has fans wondering if Sony is adapting another Spider-Man villain for film, but that’s not quite the case. 

While Spider-Man won’t be appearing in Madame Web, it’s understandable why fans may believe their favorite wall-crawler will make an appearance. Madame Web has a long history of being tied to Spidey, making her an odd choice for a solo film star.

Though she is definitely an important character in Spider-Man’s backstory, Madame Web is still fairly obscure. Given she’s also been dead for the past decade, many fans may not have even seen the original version of the character. 

Ahead of Madame Web’s release, fans may wonder if the film is adapting another villain, much like Morbius, Venom and the upcoming Kraven the Hunter. The simple answer to that is no, though Madame Web may not have been explicitly heroic, either. 

Is Madame Web Spider-Man’s villain or friend? 

Madame Web is not a villain, but she’s not necessarily heroic. First introduced in 1980’s Amazing Spider-Man #210, Madame Web is a clairvoyant who can view the future. Though Spider-Man has his doubts, she wins him over by calling Peter Parker’s apartment at issue’s end and revealing she knows his dual identity. 

Throughout the years, Madame Web would appear as a mysterious, if not somewhat antagonistic, being. Her psychic powers greatly aided Spidey over the years, and her supposed immortality (something she gained while aiding Norman Osborn during the Gathering of the Five ritual) meant she was always present. 

Web would ultimately be slain by Sasha Kravinoff, the widow of Kraven the Hunter. In her final moments, Madame Web bestowed her powers on the then-Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter. 

Julia Carpenter has taken on the role of Madame Web in modern stories. The original Madame Web has remained dead in the intervening years, save for a brief spell where Ben Reilly cloned her while posing as The Jackal. 

Has Madame Web appeared outside of Marvel Comics? 

Madame Web has appeared in a number of other projects. She’s a central figure in the video game Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, where she brings together Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Man Noir and Ultimate Spider-Man to save the multiverse from Mysterio. 

Most fans will likely recognize Madame Web from her appearances on Fox’s Spider-Man animated series. Here, Madame Web (voiced by Joan Lee, the wife of Spider-Man creator Stan Lee) is much more of a chessmaster type, manipulating events in Spider-Man’s life for her own good – and for the multiverse’s. 

The series finale for Spider-Man: The Animated Series sees Madame Web assemble a team of Spider-Men from other universes to stop the multiversal threat of Spider-Carnage, a story that predated the Spider-Verse by two decades. 

A planned sixth season would have seen her join Spider-Man in a quest to save Mary Jane that led to Victorian England, but the show was canceled. That story was later adapted into a story by series writer John Semper Jr.

Obviously, Madame Web’s next appearance is in the film she’s the star of. Not much is known about Madame Web’s plot, but it brings in many Spider-Women, the mysterious Ezekiel Sims, and more. 

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