Fictional character biography
Born in Salem, Oregon, Cassandra Webb is a paralyzed, blind, telepathic, clairvoyant, and precognitive mutant who works as a professional medium. After being stricken with myasthenia gravis, she is connected to a life support system designed by her husband Jonathan, which includes a series of tubes shaped like a spider-web.
Spider-Man approaches her while looking for kidnapped Daily Globe publisher K.J. Clayton (actually an impersonator fronting for Clayton's circulation manager Rupert Dockery, the kidnapping's mastermind). Madame Web uses her powers to help him locate and rescue both the real and the fake Clayton. She later discloses to him that she already knows his secret identity.
In the "Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut!" story arc, she contacts Spider-Man for assistance when Black Tom Cassidy dispatches the Juggernaut to capture her, hoping to exploit her psychic abilities against the X-Men. She nearly dies after Juggernaut separates her from her life-support system. This triggers a fight between Spider-Man and the Juggernaut, who is subsequently trapped in a construction site's wet cement foundation. The resulting mental trauma, however, means that Madame Web apparently loses her memory of Spider-Man's secret identity.
Webb is the maternal grandmother of the fourth Spider-Woman, Charlotte Witter. She participates in an arcane ritual known as the "Gathering of the Five" to gain both immortality and eternal youth. Restored to her physical prime, Webb serves as a mentor of sorts to the third Spider-Woman, the young Mattie Franklin.
Madame Web resurfaces, with her psychic powers intact, after Decimation. However, since House of M (in which she appears young), Cassandra seemingly loses her mystical enhancements and reverts to her aged self, though her myasthenia gravis remains gone.
Madame Web again returns in a back-up feature in The Amazing Spider-Man #600. She looks into the future, showing what are apparently quick looks into Spider-Man's future, only to see someone "unravelling the web of fate," and fearfully exclaiming "They're hunting spiders." After that, she is attacked by Ana Kravinoff and her mother Sasha. The pair incapacitate her and then claim "we now have our eyes." She is seen still held captive by Ana and her mother, as they inspect their new quarry, Mattie Franklin. While still bound in a chair, she apologizes to a then-unconscious Mattie, who is later killed by Sasha Kravinoff as part of a sacrificial ritual that revives Grim Hunter.
At the conclusion of "Grim Hunt", Sasha Kravinoff slashes the throat of Madame Web, believing that Web was deceiving her and knew the outcome of events that transpired. Before dying, Web reveals that she is no longer blind, and transfers her psychic powers to Julia Carpenter.
During the Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy storyline, Madame Web is resurrected by Ben Reilly (posing as the Jackal), inserting her soul into a cloned body. Julia Carpenter senses that Madame Web is alive from telepathic feedback resulting from Electro's attack. Julia infiltrates New U Technologies and uses the opportunity to investigate the near-abandoned facility. During this time, Julia is led to Madame Web, who refuses to take medication which could aid her in healing from Electro's attack. Madame Web has seen the future and refuses to be a part of it. Before dying from clone degeneration, Madame Web tells Julia to save Prowler.
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