The Big Picture

• Madame Web, played by Joan Lee in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, has a unique history in the Marvel universe that extends beyond animation.
• Madame Web serves as a mentor figure to Spider-Man in the show, challenging him to make wise decisions and guiding him through trials for the sake of the entire multiverse.
• Joan Lee, Stan Lee's wife, inspired many Marvel characters and played an important role in shaping the Spider-Man mythos, including being the original inspiration for Gwen Stacy.

The Spider-Verse is ever-growing, and it seems like everywhere we turn, Sony is introducing us to new spider-people on the big screen. Whether you're a fan of the classic Spider-Man trilogy from Sam Raimi starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, Andrew Garfield's Amazing Spider-Man movies, or even the Marvel Cinematic Universe version with Tom Holland, there seems to be enough Spider-Man to go around. Even animation is covered, and as Sony continues to build their live-action Spider-Man Cinematic Universe (albeit without much Spidey at all), the more we're seeing movies like Venom, Morbius, and now Madame Web. While Dakota Johnson is playing the clairvoyant spider-person this time around, the best version of the character was introduced back in the '90s, and played by none other than Marvel comic book legend Stan Lee's wife, Joan Lee.

Madame Web Has Been Spinning Stories for a Long Time

First appearing back in The Amazing Spider-Man #210, Cassandra Web aka Madame Web has been a Spider-Man ally for much longer than you might think. While most recognize the character from the '90s Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Web has had a unique history in the Marvel universe that extends far beyond animation. In her first appearance in 1980, Web was conscripted by Spider-Man to help him find a missing person. Web, a mutant with clairvoyant abilities, was able to help the web-slinger in his superheroics but later revealed that, because of her powers, she knew his secret identity as Peter Parker.

Web only appeared a handful of times after that, including The Amazing Spider-Man two-parter "Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut" (issues 229-230) where the X-Men villain nearly killed her. You see, Madame Web was born blind and was paralyzed (with myasthenia gravis), so her husband built her a life-support machine shaped like, you guessed it, a giant, metal web. As a result, any forcible removal from her machine could cause death, and that's nearly what happened before Spider-Man saved her life. Though Web briefly regained her mobility and youth after a strange ritual in the '90s, she eventually reverted to her aged form. Additionally, she was the grandmother of the fourth (and villainous) Spider-Woman and the mentor to the third (Mattie Franklin), the latter of which is set to appear in the upcoming Madame Web film.

Madame Web was eventually killed during the "Grim Hunt" story arc that ran from 2009-2010 and passed on her clairvoyant and psychic abilities to the second Spider-Woman, Julia Carpenter (played by Sydney Sweeney in Madame Web). Though Julia became the next Madame Web, the original version returned once more during the "Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy" storyline a few years later when her spirit was merged with a clone body, though eventually, she passed on here again too. While Madame Web wasn't exactly a major player in the original Marvel comics, she was invaluable to Spider-Man's journey in the '90s Marvel Animated Universe.

'Spider-Man: The Animated Series' Elevates Madame Web

For two seasons of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Peter Parker (Christopher Daniel Barnes) thrived as Spider-Man, facing villains like the Hobgoblin, the Spider-Slayer, the Lizard, Doctor Octopus, and eventually Venom, saving his friends, family, and New York City from every threat imaginable. But in the show's third season, Madame Web appears to spur our hero back to wall-crawling after he fails to stop Doc Ock from destroying a building ("Make A Wish"). Voiced masterfully by Joan Lee (seriously, who else could play Madame Web quite like the Marvel Muse?), this was the version of Madame Web that nearly every Spider-fan has come to know and love.

It always felt like Madame Web showed up much more than her 11 of the series' 65 episodes. A consistent force throughout Season 3 (throughout the "The Sins of the Father" story arc) and later in Season 5 as well, Web always appeared with the right information at the wrong time. Unlike her role in the comics, which was more of an uneasy alliance between the two spider-people, Madame Web was more akin to a mentor figure for the wall-crawler throughout his self-titled animated series. Of course, Spider-Man doesn't traditionally have a mentor (no matter what the MCU might want you to believe), so the results varied here depending on what it is our mysterious clairvoyant had for Spidey to do.

But the strange relationship between Spider-Man and Madame Web here lent itself nicely to Spider-Man: The Animated Series. For starters, she challenges Spider-Man to make wise decisions and live with the poor ones. Additionally, Web's influence over Spider-Man's life begins to haunt the web-slinger, and it eventually drives him to force her to stay away throughout the entire fourth season. Though her return might've saved him plenty of heartbreak concerning the clone of Mary Jane Watson (Sara Ballantine), Peter blamed Madame Web for the original Mary Jane's disappearance, leaving him without any otherworldly guidance until her eventual return in Season 5. Thankfully, that wasn't the end of their story.

‘Spider-Man’s Madame Web Is More Than a Mutant

While this Madame Web has all the same precognitive abilities as her comic book counterpart, she isn't a mutant in Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Rather, this Madame Web is an inter-dimensional being with almost limitless power who serves none other than the Beyonder, a cosmic force who manipulates entire worlds. Of course, Madame Web is still on the side of good here, despite being a bit manipulative and severely cryptic, and ultimately, the tests and trials she puts Spider-Man through are for the sake of the entire multiverse. That's right, Spider-Man did the Spider-Verse thing long before Miles Morales came around. With nearly unlimited power, Web helps unite multiple Spider-Men together to stop Spider-Carnage from destroying the multiverse, pulling different heroes from different worlds, all led by the show's "prime" Spidey. And this is after the show had already adapted Marvel's Secret Wars.

Power might not be everything, but in the case of Spider-Man's Madame Web, it certainly makes her a more interesting character. For starters, while Web is still constricted by her condition (and never appears without her trademark web-like chair), she proves herself invaluable in the fight against evil and is always able to help Spider-Man in the process. As an inter-dimensional being, Web has more knowledge and wisdom than any previous incarnation of the character, and can aid Spider-Man better because of it. In addition to her prophetic abilities, Madame Web can travel seamlessly through time and space, appear to Peter through visions, and can summon Spider-Men at will. Though their relationship is somewhat troubled, Peter knows that, at the end of the day, Web is still trustworthy, and does what she does for the sake of the entire multiverse.

As the series ends, Madame Web makes good on her promise to Spider-Man to find the real Mary Jane, who had been lost in the multiverse two seasons prior. She might not know exactly where she is, but Web still has the power to help Peter in the search. While we don't know exactly what happened to Peter and Mary Jane following Spider-Man: The Animated Series, the hopeful ending implies that Madame Web held up her end of the bargain. (They even get to meet Spider-Man's real-life creator, Stan Lee, at the very end, which seemed fitting.) And no wonder, as this uneasy mentor always cared for Spider-Man as she sought to guide the web-slinging hero into greater feats than he thought himself capable of. Turns out, she was right, and it's because of her influence that he was able to help save countless worlds. No other Madame Web can claim that!

Stan Lee's Wife Inspired Many Marvel Characters

Beyond her time as Madame Web, Joan Lee was known for playing a few other Marvel characters throughout her day. Before Spider-Man, she voiced Miss Forbes in Fantastic Four: The Animated Series and even voiced a computer program in the '90s Iron Man series. Her final Marvel-related appearance was in 2016, just before she died in 2017, when she and her husband appeared in a live-action cameo for Bryan Singer's X-Men: Apocalypse. "[She was] the girl I had been drawing all my life," Stan Lee had been quoted saying. Turns out, that meant more for the fate of Marvel Comics than most probably thought.

According to Lee, Joan was the original inspiration behind Spider-Man's first major love interest, Gwen Stacey. Yes, that Gwen Stacey. Some even say that she helped inspire certain aspects of The Fantastic Four, and encouraged Stan "the Man" to continue in the comics business even after he was disillusioned by it. Considering her invaluable contribution to the greater Spider-Man mythos (and Marvel as a whole), it makes a lot of sense that Joan Lee would be cast as Madame Web for Spider-Man: The Animated Series. It's a shame she couldn't have appeared in the upcoming Madame Web feature film as well because nobody played the character quite like her.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series is available to watch on Disney+ in the U.S.

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