Is Madame Web Blind? Here’s What Happened to Her

Madame Web, despite being a relatively unknown character in the comics recently got her own standalone movie which is a part of Sony’s SSU. The movie sees Dakota Johnson in the role of Cassandra Webb, a fairly ordinary young woman with a tragic past and mystical powers. By the end of the movie, Madame Web can be seen with tinted glasses and in a wheelchair, which is clearly a consequence of her fight against Ezekiel Sims, so, Is Madame Web blind? Is she blind in the comics?

Madame Web is blind in the comics, it’s one of the most notable things about her

There are plenty of notable blind superheroes in the comics in general, and they usually always have some kind of superpower that allows them to “see.” The best example of that is Daredevil. Madame Web is nowhere near as popular as the Man Without Fear, but despite that, she also has that blindness + supernatural sight combo.

Cassandra Webb aka Madame Web was born and grew up in Salem, Oregon, blind from birth and dealing with a neurological condition called myasthenia gravis. Despite her challenges, her condition led to the development of strong psychic abilities, which she used to become a medium.

Now myasthenia gravis is a legit disease, although it won’t give you superpowers. Myasthenia gravis typically doesn’t lead to full-on blindness, it only weakens your sight and it also develops later in life, while Madame Web was born with it. So, even if somewhat inaccurate, Web’s story checks out.

Madame Web is always depicted in her wheelchair, although her physical condition did improve after Gathering of Five, it declined once again shortly before her death.

What’s interesting is that when the current Madame Web, Julia Carpenter inherited Madame Web’s powers, she also inherited her blindness which would imply that Madame’s blindness is more of a side-effect of her powers rather than the disease as Julia did not also become wheelchair bound. But in any case, in the comics, both popular Madame Web characters have been blind.

Madame Web becomes blind in the movie after a fight against Ezekiel Sims

In the movie, Madame Web aka Cassandra is quite young, she works as a paramedic and she is perfectly healthy at the start of the movie and the majority of the movie. However, in the last scene, we can see her with tinted glasses in a wheelchair while future Spider-Women flock around her. She explains that she sees better than ever before, so what happened?

During her fight against Ezekiel Sims, Madame Web set several traps for him. She did not have physical superpowers like him but she did something far more valuable, she was able to predict where he would walk and how he would attack. Madame Web was on the roof and utilized fireworks and billboards in the final fight, but after Ezekiel Sims was defeated, she also got a taste of her own medicine. Near the end of the fight fireworks explode in her face, blinding her, and after the fight is over she is crushed by falling debris as a massive board collapses. Madame Web barely survived, and when she woke up in a hospital she realized she was both wheelchair-bound and blind.

Later in the movie, we can see Cassandra looking a lot like her comic book counterpart, well, except for the age that is. She also explains how she sees better than ever before which is a nod to the fact that she can see in the future, sometimes read minds, etc.

In any case, Cassandra’s origin story was vastly different than the one in the comics, however, some core qualities of the character remained.

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