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Ultimate Spider-Woman is a very interesting
case.
She brings with her questions of gender identity,
what it means to be a person, and even the
larger state of LGBT characters in comics.
So let’s get into it, starting at the very
beginning, the Clone Saga, but not the one
you’re thinking of!
I’m talking about the Ultimate Clone Saga,
not the mess that is the original one.
Anyway, yeah, the Ultimate Universe had its
very own Clone Saga in the pages of Ultimate
Spider-Man and it’s honestly really good,
especially in comparison to 616’s.
I’m not gonna talk about the story in its
entirety because, like I said, it’s real
good and you should definitely go read it
for yourself, but, I will talk about Ultimate
Jess’s involvement.
Basically, she was created in a government
sanctioned program headed by a totally-not-evil-anymore
Otto Octavius and his assistant Ben Reilly,
who oddly isn’t a clone in this universe,
but he did help create a bunch of them!
She was birthed, along with four others, to
be a spy for the CIA after undergoing a memory
wipe, to get rid of Peter’s memories.
Before the forced amneisa happened; however,
all hell essentially broke loose and the Ultimate
Clone Saga ensued.
At the end of it all, Jess decided to embrace
her new identity and continue on as Spider-Woman.
Jessica here is a peculiar one -- she’s
a female clone of a male person.
There’s obviously going to be all kinds
of confusion there, anywhere from gender identity
to sexual orientation.
Especially since she retained the memories
of Peter, his relationship with Mary Jane,
Kitty Pryde, and his overall attraction to
women.
Because of this, Jess doesn’t really know
where she fits in, in fact in All-New Ultimates
#4, she addresses just this issue.
Her and her teammates are at the beach talking
about relationships and when it comes to Jess’s
turn she doesn’t really know what to say.
She confesses that she’s a clone of Peter
Parker and that because of this she’s been
conflicted; she doesn’t really know how
to feel about anyone.
She soon comes to the conclusion that she
just wants to just go with what feels right,
whether or not these thoughts are hers or
Peter’s is trivial.
Bombshell asks her what exactly “feels right”
and Jess replies, “Girls.”
Natural redheads in particular, apparently.
So at the very least, Ultimate Jessica Drew
is gay.
But, is she though?
She is a clone of a dude after all.
She has the brain patterns of a straight guy
who is very clearly into women.
The only thing that makes her a woman is her
body.
Her sex might be female, but her gender definitely
seems like it leans more towards male; she’s
more or less transgender.
And, of course, there’s no way to put a
strict label on these types of things, especially
seeing as she’s a comic book character who
can’t speak for herself.
Looking more closely here, it seems that Jessica
might be more agender as opposed to transgender.
Agender is essentially not having a gender.
Someone in such a precarious position as Jess
might identify with this.
She’s struggled with her very existence
because of this, referring to herself as just
this “thing” created in a lab.
Who knows?
Ultimate Jessica Drew is definitely something
special when it comes to gender identity.
Though I will see that characters like her,
Loki, Mystique, Hulkling, Wiccan, and many
more offer a bright look at the future of
LGBT characters in comics.
Let's get some more opinions on this though!
What do you all think?
Representation in media is obviously something
that’s not incredibly paid attention to,
but it’s getting better!
I’m optimistic.
Anyway, once again wanted to shout out our
Patrons over at Patreon.com/Auram!
They are going the extra mile to support this
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They make it possible for videos like this
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If you decide you wanna support over there,
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Head on over there to check it out -- Patreon.com/Auram.
That all being said, thank you so much for
watching!
Next time I go to the beach to question my
very existence.
Are we here?
Do we feel?
If an Android shows love, does it not love?
