Spider-Woman #13

 


Spider-Woman #13 "Suddenly...the Shroud!" 

Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Penciler: Carmine Infantino

Plot: Spider-Woman seeks help and employment at local institute for emotional research, but something sinister may be behind the institute. 

Comments: Magnus leaves in this issue. Gruenwald had wanted to write him out. Still there is some foreshadowing on how Jessica refers to Magnus as a father figure, unaware that Magnus possessed her father in the past, which was revealed in Avengers #187, which was co-plotted by Gruenwald. This was also back in the olden days when non-passengers could go inside the gate to see their family or friends off. 



Jerry leaves town on an assignment and Jessica decides to look for work. The employment agency tries to place her at various jobs that don't work out. I guess from left to right: It's waitress at a cafe, department store employee and waitress at a men's club. 


Frustrated that people's instant dislike of her is making her unable to keep a job, Jessica sees an institute on TV that focuses on emotional research and decides to pay them a visit. The fourth panel of Jessica watching TV with her robe open, got called out in the letter's column and Gruenwald defended it by saying he was going for realism in that people aren't always covered in the privacy of their home like they would be in public. 

Jessica goes to the Hatros Institute, and it seems that the research conducted on her and feedback she gets from the group may be another dead end, but she is offered a job as a receptionist. This makes her happy and she does an adorable loop de loop in the air. Meanwhile, Jerry is assigned a partner by the Los Angeles S.H.I.E.L.D. director Bukowski (named after Charles Bukowski?).  Jerry's partner is Laura Brown, who like Jessica, is a former member of Hydra and first appeared in Strange Tales #135. 


While at the front desk at the institute, everything goes dark for Jessica in more ways than one when an interloper, the Shroud, breaks in. The Shroud's origin is recounted. The origin is less blatantly based on Batman, like it was in Super-Villain Team-Up #7, but the pose that the Shroud has is unmistakably Batman. 







Jessica changes into Spider-Woman and stuns the Shroud, but things appear to dire for them as they are surrounded by an apparent Thugee Cult. 



The letters reacting to this issue were mostly positive, except for the aforementioned calling out of Gruenwald over Jessica's robe being open while watching TV. It was interesting how Gruenwald felt that Jessica and Jerry's relationship wasn't destined to work given how quickly they fell in love and that they would fall out of love just as quickly. 






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