Debra Whitman
Encyclopedia
Debra "Deb" Whitman is a comic book
character
in the Marvel Comics
universe
, and was a brief love interest of Peter Parker
in the Spectacular Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man
comic titles in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She also had a prominent role in Spider-Man: The Animated Series
.
She is also one of the first characters to determine that Peter was Spider-Man, although she was later convinced she was delusional.
. While there, she met Peter and they started dating. However, things kept coming up in his secret life as Spider-Man and he kept giving her excuses to get out of the date. Because of Peter's rejections, she started to date Biff Rifkin for emotional support, but her infatuation with Peter did nothing but grow.
Debra also suffered from a mental instability that led her to idealize people and invert values. With Peter it grew further into her hallucinating that he was Spider-Man. When she told her psychiatrist about her hallucinations, he asked Peter to wear the Spider-Man suit to give her a shocking confrontation with reality to get her out of the hallucination. Peter refused, and indicated Biff Rifkin as a more reliable source of information. However, Biff already knew Debra when she was married to Mark Whitman. One day he asked her about her black eye and she gave evasive answers. That night he went to their house and saw Mark beating her. He rescued her and took her to the hospital, but she insisted Mark was a kind and gentle husband, locked in denial.
Peter then wore the suit and told her he was Spider-Man. The shock made her come to her senses and decided to leave New York to get a divorce.
During the superhero "Civil War
", Peter reveals his identity as Spider-Man to the world. Thereafter, Debra is seen on the phone speaking to her co-writer about her new book, entitled "TWO FACED: How Spider-Man Ruined My Life". She seems discouraged about the title and tone of the book, but is committed to a book signing later in the day. Enraged, she then hurls items around the room to get out her anger before the signing. At the book signing, Spider-Man and the newly-released Vulture
are both seen planning to crash.
After Spider-Man defeats the Vulture, Debra reveals to Betty Brant
the editors had forced her to exaggerate the mental damage that Peter had "done" to her in order to make for a better book. Debra's mother had been sick and the medical bills were far more than she could pay for, so when the Daily Bugle
dug up all of Peter Parker's past relationships to get dirt on him, she jumped on the chance to write the book. Betty talked Debra into telling the truth to the Daily Globe
, confidentially.
In order to save the life of May Parker
(who was near death with no prospect of recovery), Peter and his wife Mary Jane Watson
agree to allow the demon Mephisto
to alter history. In the new timeline, Peter and Mary Jane were never married, and his identity as Spider-Man was never revealed to the world. As a consequence of these changes, Debra's knowledge of Peter's identity (beyond her suspicions while the two were dating) is erased from history as well.
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
character
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
universe
Marvel Universe
The Marvel Universe is the shared fictional universe where most comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Entertainment take place, including those featuring Marvel's most familiar characters, such as Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, and the Avengers.The Marvel Universe is further...
, and was a brief love interest of Peter Parker
Spider-Man
Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...
in the Spectacular Spider-Man and The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man
The Amazing Spider-Man is an American comic book series published by Marvel Comics, featuring the adventures of the fictional superhero Spider-Man. Being the mainstream continuity of the franchise, it began publication in 1963 as a monthly periodical and was published continuously until it was...
comic titles in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She also had a prominent role in Spider-Man: The Animated Series
Spider-Man (1994 TV series)
Spider-Man, also known as Spider-Man: The Animated Series, is an American animated series starring the Marvel Comics superhero, Spider-Man. The show ran on Fox Kids from November 19, 1994, to January 31, 1998. The producer/story editor was John Semper, Jr. and production company was Marvel Films...
.
She is also one of the first characters to determine that Peter was Spider-Man, although she was later convinced she was delusional.
Fictional character biography
Debra Whitman was a secretary in the biophysics department of Empire State UniversityEmpire State University
Empire State University is a fictional university in the Marvel Comics Universe, a mixture of New York University and Columbia University . It is located somewhere in New York City, in Greenwich Village near the site of New York University...
. While there, she met Peter and they started dating. However, things kept coming up in his secret life as Spider-Man and he kept giving her excuses to get out of the date. Because of Peter's rejections, she started to date Biff Rifkin for emotional support, but her infatuation with Peter did nothing but grow.
Debra also suffered from a mental instability that led her to idealize people and invert values. With Peter it grew further into her hallucinating that he was Spider-Man. When she told her psychiatrist about her hallucinations, he asked Peter to wear the Spider-Man suit to give her a shocking confrontation with reality to get her out of the hallucination. Peter refused, and indicated Biff Rifkin as a more reliable source of information. However, Biff already knew Debra when she was married to Mark Whitman. One day he asked her about her black eye and she gave evasive answers. That night he went to their house and saw Mark beating her. He rescued her and took her to the hospital, but she insisted Mark was a kind and gentle husband, locked in denial.
Peter then wore the suit and told her he was Spider-Man. The shock made her come to her senses and decided to leave New York to get a divorce.
During the superhero "Civil War
Civil War (comics)
Civil War is a 2006-2007 Marvel Comics crossover storyline built around a self-titled seven-issue limited series written by Mark Millar and penciled by Steve McNiven, which ran through various other titles published by Marvel at the time...
", Peter reveals his identity as Spider-Man to the world. Thereafter, Debra is seen on the phone speaking to her co-writer about her new book, entitled "TWO FACED: How Spider-Man Ruined My Life". She seems discouraged about the title and tone of the book, but is committed to a book signing later in the day. Enraged, she then hurls items around the room to get out her anger before the signing. At the book signing, Spider-Man and the newly-released Vulture
Vulture (comics)
The Vulture is the name of six comic book supervillains in the Marvel Comics universe. The best known Vulture in the Marvel Universe is Adrian Toomes, an elderly enemy of Spider-Man created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in The Amazing Spider-Man #2 .-Golden Age Vulture:In Young Men #26, a scientist...
are both seen planning to crash.
After Spider-Man defeats the Vulture, Debra reveals to Betty Brant
Betty Brant
Elizabeth "Betty" Brant is a supporting character in Marvel Comics’s Spider-Man series. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, she first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #4 .-Fictional character biography:...
the editors had forced her to exaggerate the mental damage that Peter had "done" to her in order to make for a better book. Debra's mother had been sick and the medical bills were far more than she could pay for, so when the Daily Bugle
Daily Bugle
The Daily Bugle is a fictional New York City newspaper that is a regular fixture in the Marvel Universe, most prominently in Spider-Man comic titles and their derivative media...
dug up all of Peter Parker's past relationships to get dirt on him, she jumped on the chance to write the book. Betty talked Debra into telling the truth to the Daily Globe
Daily Globe (comics)
The Daily Globe is a fictional New York City newspaper in the . It was introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #27 , and for a long time its Editor was Barney Bushkin.-History:...
, confidentially.
In order to save the life of May Parker
Aunt May
May Reilly Parker-Jameson, commonly known as Aunt May, is a supporting character in Marvel Comics' Spider-Man series. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, she first appeared as May Parker in Amazing Fantasy #15...
(who was near death with no prospect of recovery), Peter and his wife Mary Jane Watson
Mary Jane Watson
Mary Jane Watson, often shortened to MJ, is a fictional supporting character appearing, originally, in Marvel comic books and, later, in multiple spin-offs and dramatizations of the Spider-Man titles as the best friend, love interest, and one-time wife of Peter Parker, the alter ego of Spider-Man...
agree to allow the demon Mephisto
Mephisto (comics)
Mephisto is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appears in Silver Surfer #3 and was created by Stan Lee and John Buscema, loosely modeled on Mephistopheles - a character from the Faust legend.Debuting in the Silver Age of comic books,...
to alter history. In the new timeline, Peter and Mary Jane were never married, and his identity as Spider-Man was never revealed to the world. As a consequence of these changes, Debra's knowledge of Peter's identity (beyond her suspicions while the two were dating) is erased from history as well.
Television
- Debra Whitman has appeared in the 1990s Spider-Man: The Animated SeriesSpider-Man (1994 TV series)Spider-Man, also known as Spider-Man: The Animated Series, is an American animated series starring the Marvel Comics superhero, Spider-Man. The show ran on Fox Kids from November 19, 1994, to January 31, 1998. The producer/story editor was John Semper, Jr. and production company was Marvel Films...
voiced by Liz Georges. She was a prominent supporting character and a love interest to Flash ThompsonFlash ThompsonEugene "Flash" Thompson is a supporting character in Marvel Comics’s Spider-Man series. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, he first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15 ....
. She is portrayed as an extremely sharp intellectual. Unlike her comic appearance, she has no romantic relationship linking her to Peter, but rather a friendly rivalry. However, she does show interest to Michael MorbiusMorbius, the Living VampireMorbius, the Living Vampire, is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Roy Thomas and penciler Gil Kane, the character, a living human suffering from vampiric abilities resulting from scientific rather than supernatural means, first appeared as...
prior to Flash. She has long blonde hair that she keeps tied back in a pony tail, and wears glasses. Although in the comics she is a secretary, in contrast to the largely post-graduate students of the Spectacular Spider-Man title, in the TV series she is Peter's equal, if not superior in intellect and academia. Peter once described her as "the little sister I never had... or wanted". She usually didn't have a direct effect on Spider-Man's adventures or become involved in the plots, but at one point, she was a victim of the Vulture's youth-sucking powers, which reduced her to a frail, fragile old woman; fortunately, the effect was not permanent, and Debra's youth eventually returned to her. In an archetypal opposites attract manner, Debra developed an unlikely attraction to the jockish Flash, another classmate. However, she also had an infatuation with Morbius who was her lab partner, but he gave her the brush off, though gently as he could, because he was with Felicia Hardy, who later became the Black CatBlack Cat (comics)The Black Cat is a fictional character, a superheroine in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Keith Pollard, she first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #194 ....
. Sometime after Morbius disappeared following his vampirism, Debra started dating Flash. She later began work on project to find Morbius in order to reverse engineerReverse engineeringReverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object, or system through analysis of its structure, function, and operation...
neogenics and cure him. When the project failed, she responded by letting her hair down, both physically and metaphorically, while trying to drown out her sorrows with lots of late night partying. In the end, even Flash had to put his foot down and tell Debra she had to ease up. Eventually Debra got her act together and resumed her more normal, studious life style though she and Flash are still apparently seeing each other.
- Debra Whitman appears on The Spectacular Spider-Man. In this show, Debra Whitman is an African-American girl who is the lab assistant of Miles WarrenJackal (Marvel Comics)The Jackal is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appears in The Amazing Spider-Man #129 , and was created by writer Gerry Conway and artist Ross Andru. In The Amazing Spider-Man #148 The Jackal is a fictional character that appears in...
, and works in ESU with Drs. Curt and Martha Connors after Miles transfers with them. She is mentioned to be the replacement of Eddie BrockEddie BrockEddie Brock is a fictional character created by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane. A comic book supervillain, Brock's earliest appearance is a cameo in Web of Spider-Man #18 before making his first full appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #299 as Venom...
who went missing. This version of Debra does not have any romantic interest in Peter, though the show's version of Gwen StacyGwen StacyGwendolyn "Gwen" Stacy appears as a supporting character in Marvel Comics' Spider-Man series. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, she first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #31 ....
bears a certain resemblance to Debra from the comics, such as wearing glasses.