Spider-Woman Fact — November 6, 2026

Today's Fact

Her first series did not end with a farewell tour. It ended with an obituary nobody was allowed to remember.

SPIDER-WOMAN DIED, ASKED THE WORLD TO FORGET HER — AND CAME BACK WITHOUT HER POWERS!

The Featured Fact

The fiftieth and final issue of Jessica Drew's first series, Spider-Woman #50 (1983), sends her astral form back to sixth-century England alongside the ghost of her mentor Magnus for one last battle with her archenemy Morgan le Fay. Jessica wins the fight. She also loses everything else: while her spirit was away, her unattended body died on the table.

Facing an eternity as a ghost, Jessica made a last request that no other hero has ever made. She asked Magnus to cast a spell wiping every memory of her existence from everyone who had ever known her, so that no friend would grieve for a woman they could not find. The spell worked. Spider-Woman did not just die — she was edited out of the world's recollection entirely.

The erasure lasted less than a year in publication time. In Avengers #240–241 (1984), Tigra and the Shroud found Jessica's body inexplicably alive on life support in a San Francisco hospital, and the sight of her broke the faulty spell. The Avengers and Doctor Strange fought Morgan on the astral plane to win her spirit back — but Magnus gave his own existence to complete the rescue, and Jessica woke alive, remembered, and stripped of her powers.

Why It's Obscure

A cancellation so final it needed a second series, a sorcerer and a sacrifice to undo — the panels explain the price list.

Magnus

The ghost who loved her — Magnus had quietly engineered the whole tragedy hoping Jessica would stay with him in the spirit realm; his confession led to his final act, trading his existence for her return.

The faulty spell

Why the forgetting failed — the memory wipe cracked the moment people who had known Jessica actually saw her body again, which is how Tigra remembered a friend she had never met.

Powerless

The cost of resurrection — Jessica came back with her life and her name restored but her venom blasts and pheromone powers gone, and she rebuilt herself as a San Francisco private investigator.

Morgan le Fay

The trap inside the rescue — Morgan had planned the return journey all along, intending to ride Jessica's spirit back into the living world and steal the empty body for herself.

Gallery

The woman who was forgotten, in flight and in portrait, and the sorceress who arranged her funeral.

Spider-Woman gliding through an explosion on her web-wings in comic art — **The hero the world misplaced**Spider-Woman rides an explosion on her gliding wings, in the red-and-gold costume her friends were made to forget ever seeing.

Spider-Woman portrait in her red and yellow costume against a dark blue background — **Jessica Drew, remembered**A close portrait of Jessica Drew in her mask — the face that vanished from every memory on Earth for the length of one publishing year.

Morgan le Fay in a spiked crown surrounded by green magical smoke in comic art — **Morgan le Fay**The crowned sorceress in her green mists — Jessica beat her in the sixth century, and Morgan still nearly collected her body as the prize.

Sources

Every fact on this page was checked against at least two independent sources before publication.

Bullpen Bulletins

Spider-Woman Vol 1 #50 — Marvel Database Issue record for “Lifeline”: Jessica defeats Morgan le Fay in astral form, finds her body dead, and has Magnus erase all memory of her before departing for the Spirit Realm.
Avengers Vol 1 #240 — Marvel Database Records that everyone had forgotten Spider-Woman's existence until her body was found on life support, prompting Tigra to summon the Avengers, Doctor Strange and Hank Pym.
How the Avengers Saved Spider-Woman's Life — CBR CBR traces the reversal in Avengers #240–241: Magnus confesses he lied, sacrifices himself to break Morgan's hold, and Jessica returns to life without her powers.