Spider-Woman #9
Spider-Woman #9 marks the debut of the Needle (Josef Saint), one of the more genuinely unsettling villains to emerge from Marvel's Bronze Age — a mute, mutant tailor who paralyzes his victims with a hypnotic stare and literally sews their mouths shut, a concept darkly out of step with the era's superhero mainstream. The issue is equally significant as the first chapter written by Mark Gruenwald, whose tenure on the title deepened Jessica Drew's characterization far beyond the Marv Wolfman foundation, leaning into her social alienation and fear-inducing pheromones as psychological drivers. Gruenwald's affection for the character and his villains proved durable: he revived the Needle years later as a member of Night Shift during his celebrated West Coast Avengers run, giving this debut issue an outsized legacy within the continuity of a character he clearly never stopped caring about.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
Marv Wolfman launched the Spider-Woman series in April 1978 but departed after issue #8, candidly admitting he never found a comfortable voice for Jessica Drew. Gruenwald — then a relative newcomer to Marvel — inherited the book starting with this issue, partnering with the series' regular penciler Carmine Infantino, with inks by Al Gordon and editing by Roger Stern (who had replaced Wolfman in that role as well). The 'Eye of the Needle' story was Gruenwald's opening statement: he kept Wolfman's macabre Los Angeles atmosphere but pivoted toward character-driven storytelling, a shift that would define the title through issue #20.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and complete origin of the Needle (Josef Saint), a mutant supervillain created by Mark Gruenwald, Carmine Infantino, and Al Gordon.
- Story title: 'Eye of the Needle'; release date September 12, 1978; cover date December 1978.
- Written by Mark Gruenwald — his first issue as writer on the series, taking over from Marv Wolfman who departed after issue #8.
- Art by Carmine Infantino (pencils) and Al Gordon (inks); cover by Carmine Infantino and Bob Wiacek; edited by Roger Stern under Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter.
- The Needle's power — paralysis through a hypnotic gaze with his remaining eye — was established as having an ironic symmetry with Spider-Woman's own bio-electric venom blast, rendering the two effectively immune to each other's paralyzing abilities.
- Needle was later brought back by Gruenwald himself as a member of the villain team Night Shift during his run on West Coast Avengers (beginning Captain America #330, 1987), cementing the character's place in the broader Marvel universe.
- The Needle received official handbook recognition in OHOTMU Update '89 #5 (Night Shift group profile) and a solo profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition #27.
- The issue is collected in Marvel Masterworks: Spider-Woman Vol. 2 (2022 hardcover, ISBN 978-1302927363), which gathers Spider-Woman #9–25, and was previously reprinted in Essential Spider-Woman Vol. 1.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Comic Reader #160 (1978), La Mujer Araña #8 (1982), La Mujer Araña #9 (1982), Tarantella - Edderkoppkvinnen #3/1984 (1984), Essential Spider-Woman #1 (2005), Marvel Masterworks: Spider-Woman #2 (2021), Die Spinne Comic - Taschenbuch #25, Περιοδικό Σπάιντερ-Γούμαν [Spider-Woman] #5, Spiderwoman #4, Tarantella #3/1984
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