Warning! Spoilers for Spider-Woman #21 ahead!
Marvel has finally given Spider-Woman a chance to square off against her own version of Spider-Man's iconic Sinister Six. The final issues of Spider-Woman introduce readers to Jessica Drew's own organized group of enemies, the Anti-Arach9. This "star"-studded group consists of Jessica's supposedly most prolific villains, who have come together to bring an end to Spider-Woman and give her a chance to make an even bigger mark on the ever-expanding Spider-Verse. While the villains themselves may fall flat in the end, they do their job by helping continue to boost Jessica Drew's status as a hero.
Fans have been asking for Spider-Woman to receive more formidable foes and the Anti-Arach9 are attempting to finally fit the bill. The team consists of Ice Queen, Rosé Roche, Aeturnum, Stegron the Dinosaur Man, Los Espadas Gemelas De Toledo, the Brothers Grimm, Lady Bullseye, and Krazy Goat. Each member comes with their own personal reasons for hating Spider-Woman and wanting to bring an end to her career. For example, Octavia Vermis aka Ice Queen is out for revenge after Jessica Drew killed her father and contributed to Octavia being turned into a mutant dinosaur slave. In Spider-Woman #20, each of the members, as well as a small series of other villains vying for a spot on the team, are given a chance to go up against the hero individually and all fail spectacularly. This leads to the official formation of the team and their fight against Spider-Woman in issue #21.
Over the past year, readers have seen the extra work writer Karla Pacheco has put into attempting to give Spider-Woman an amped up and improved rogues gallery. All this work comes to a head in the final battle in Spider-Woman #21 by Pacheco and artist Pere Perez. Icon status is certainly achieved as Jessica spends 19 pages duking it out with her new rogues and delivering witty lines that would rival those of her male counterpart. The stunning finale, ending in the simple line - "My name is Jessica Drew. I am Spider-Woman." - gives this web-slinger a chance to show off her prowess in forms she hasn't before.
Jessica defeats each of the new villains with relative ease, even with the new challenge of fighting several of them at once. She easily takes out Lady Bullseye and the Brothers Grimm within a few panels despite having taken hard blows from Stegron only moments before. The fight against the whole team gives Spider-Woman a chance to show off her unique skills, especially when she finally goes toe-to-toe with Ice Queen and a T-Rex at the same time. In complete hand-to-hand combat, Jessica Drew easily takes down the Anti-Arach9, proving what most fans knew all along, that she is a powerful and iconic hero worthy of her own, much more frightening gallery of rogues.
In the end, Spider-Woman even admits that her villains are truly terrible, but she proves that she is deserving of her place in the constantly growing Spider-Verse. While readers may never see this original version of the Anti-Arach9 again, they may take a page out of their far more well-known counterparts, the Sinister Six's, book and expand and change in order to pose a much bigger threat to their common enemy in future issues. Whether or not the Anti-Arach9 will eventually be as iconic as the Sinister Six is still up in the air, but it is fair to say now, Spider-Woman is definitely reaching the same (and well-deserved) status as Spider-Man.