Debra Whitman
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Debra Whitman was a fictional character from the Spider-Man universe, and a brief love interest of Peter Parker in the Spectacular Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man comic titles in the late 70s and early 80s. She is perhaps better remembered for her role in Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
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 title, in the TV series she is Peter's equal, if not superior in intellect and academia.
She is also one of the first characters to determine that Peter was Spider-Man, although she was later convinced she was delusional.
In her first animated appearance, Peter Parker describes Debra as being the little sister he 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 Thompson, another classmate. However, she also had a deep infatuation with Michael Morbius, but he rejected her, albeit as gently as he could, because he was with Felicia Hardy, who later became the Black Cat. Sometime after Morbius disappeared following his vampirism, Debra started dating Flash to ease the pain, 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.
Debra made her return to Spider-Man comics in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #14, where she's seen on the phone speaking to her co-writer about her new book, titled “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, which Spider-Man and the newly-released Vulture are both seen planing to crash.
