Like so many heroes and heroines before her, the first trailer for Sony’s Madame Web has revealed that Marvel Comics’ third Spider-Woman, Mattie Franklin, has been race-swapped in her translation to the silver screen.
Therein, thanks to both her being referred to as such by the other characters and her donning of an admittedly accurate take on Franklin’s comic book costume, Ghostbusters: Afterlife actress Celeste O’Connor was revealed for the first time since her casting in May 2022 to be playing the film’s version of the magical web-slinger.
However, while it has no bearing on her actual talent or potential performance on the film, O’Connor’s casting as Franklin, as mentioned above, stands as yet another in a long-line of live-action superhero race-swaps.
Making her first full body appearance in Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #441, the niece of J. Jonah Jameson began her comic book career taking her father’s place in Norman Osborn’s Gathering of Five, an arcane meeting held with the intention of either ‘blessing’ or ‘cursing’ each participant with the gift of either power, knowledge, immortality, insanity, or death.
With Osborn being turned over to the grips of ‘insanity’, nominal side-villain Morris Maxwell finding himself privy to the vast depths of ‘knowledge’, eventual-Scarlet-Spider-villain Gregory ‘Override’ Herd having his body possessed by the forces of ‘death’, and Cassandra Webb – the original Madame Web – receiving eternal life courtesy of ‘immortality’, Franklin was left to receive ‘power’, which ultimately manifested within general superhuman attributes and the ability of flight.
A fan girl of the web-slinger in her own right, Franklin would eventually be spurred to a life of costumed crime-fighting when Peter Parker temporarily took a break from the scene in order to spend time with Mary-Jane.
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However, when Peter eventually turned to the webs, Franklin – with the blessing of the original, Jessica Drew – would later establish herself as the second Spider-Woman, a moniker she would wear when she eventually absorbed and took the supervillain Charlotte Witter’s own set of spider-powers – including the ability to wall-crawl and spawn eight-extra combat limbs ala the Iron Spider armor – for herself.
Unfortunately for Franklin, her super hero career would languish when she received her powers, as the next few years would see her subject to such events as having her genetic material forcibly extracted in order to be used as a biological base for Mutant Growth Hormone operation, joining and having her trust broken by the superhero support group the Loners, and even being passed over for recruitment into the Fifty State Initiative.
Eventually, Franklin’s string of bad luck would culminate with her being abducted and violently sacrificed by the Kravinoff family in order to revive Kraven’s son, Vladimir, from the dead.
Of course, this is comic books, and Franklin would not stay dead for long.
Thanks to the second Jackal – otherwise known as Ben Reilly, but that’s a rant for another day – and his New U cloning technology, the young Spider-Woman would soon thereafter be brought back to life, fully convinced of her benefactor’s benevolence.
Sadly, Franklin’s second shot at life would be even more short-lived than her first.
Once, Spider-Man rejected the Jackal’s offer to revive Uncle Ben, the unstable madman triggered the latent Carrion virus he had planted within each and every one of his clones.
Managing to briefly stave off the infection through sheer force of will, Mattie ultimately sacrifice her life in service of protecting her new friend, Silk, from the Jackal’s mindless monsters.
And yet, through out every single one of these adventures – as well as the very few brief appearances she’s made through out the multiverse – not once has Franklin ever been depicted as anywhere close to black.
Sony’s bizarre attempt at a Madame Web movie is currently looking to kick off its Spider-shenanigans on February 16th, 2024.