Spider-Woman prepares for a showdown with her brother in #14 preview

If you think the Marvel Comics' Spider-family is unique, wait until you meet Spider-Woman's actual family. In recent issues of Spider-Woman, she's been fighting her brother Michael Marchand - verbally, and in some cases physically - with him and his henchmen over a secret file she has that cured an illness of hers - and that she needs in case her son, Gerry.

It's all coming to a head in August 18's Spider-Woman #14, and we have an exclusive preview of the issue by writer Karla Pacheco, artist Pere Perez, colorist Frank D'Armata, and letterer Travis Lanham:

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Spider-Woman #14 preview

Yes, that opening page is perhaps the most memorable opening page we've seen in superhero comics in quite some time.

Marchand has been hounding Jessica Drew for help in finding a cure for an illness his daughter Rebecca. He experimented on Spider-Woman to find that cure, and eventually she got that information - and even shared it with Marchand. But now for some reason, he's back again wanting Jessica's copy of that file.

Based on early information about subsequent issues, this is building towards the debut (or reveal) of a new villain named Aeternum. Aeternum is Latin for 'forever,' but is also the name of a fictional species of spider - Latrodectus Aeternum - that has been at the center of Pacheco and Perez's run on Spider-Woman.(Latrodectus is the genus for a family of Spider species known as 'true widows,' such as - you guessed it - some Black Widow species.)

Spider-Woman #14's main cover is drawn by Jungeun Yoon, with a Marvel Games-themed variant by the artists at Netease. Take a look:

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Spider-Woman #14 covers

Spider-Woman #14 goes on sale on August 18. A collection of this arc, titled Spider-Woman Volume 3, is scheduled for January 11, 2021.

Spider-Woman is one of comic books' top female superheroes - but does she make our top 10? Here's our picks for the best female superheroes in comic books.

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)