Amazing Spider-Man #279
Savage Is the Sable!
Silver Sable and her Wildpack have answered a distress call from some of her operatives. They arrive too late to help, but fortunately, there were no fatalities. Sable appears unemotional about the injuries sustained and tells her team to assist the injured. The injured completely fill an entire floor of Cornell University Medical Center, much to the frustration of her uncle Mortimer. Demanding answers regarding the expense, Mortimer intrudes on one of Sable's training sessions. After Sable finishes training with a group of ninjas, she explains to her Uncle Morty that her men were injured tries to bring an international terrorist to justice. Twenty minutes later Silver Sable and her men sit in on a review on their current target, the man known as Jason Macendale. Macendale was a former member of the US Marines and the CIA before becoming a soldier of fortune, specializing in terrorism. He eventually developed the costumed identity of Jack O'Lantern leading to clashes with both Machine Man and Spider-Man.
After the briefing, Silver Sable assures her uncle that her unit will not need any further assistance from Symkaria to complete their mission. This is a relief to Mortimer, who worries what would happen if the ruling council discovered that the Wildpack has gone from hunting Nazi war criminals to anyone for the right price. When they get into Sable's office she is brought a bouquet of flowers that were delivered to the embassy. When she realizes they are orchids, she quickly tosses the vase out the window where the flowers explode harmlessly. She then gets a phone call from the sender who asks Sable if she enjoyed the flowers. After the call ends, she tells her assistants to compose themselves so she can move on with their manpower shortage. The next morning, J. Jonah Jameson is upset to discover that Silver Sable International requesting the assistance of Spider-Man and is offering a generous pay for him to do a job. Jameson scolds the director of advertising for running the add without his say so, however, Jameson decides to let it slide when he learns that Sable paid double the premium ad rate. When Jameson asks Joe Robertson where Peter Parker is, Joe explains that he hasn't been able to reach Parker for days.
Jameson isn't the only person looking for Peter Parker, Mary Jane is trying to call him again while she has a free moment during her current modeling gig at Kingsley Limited. She is worried because she also hasn't heard from him in days. She wishes she didn't really know that Peter was secretly Spider-Man for moments like this. She also wonders what is going on with their relationship as she doesn't understand where things are anymore. Her thoughts are interrupted by Janice, another model, who has come to tell her that Roderick Kingsley wants to see all the models before they go on the runway. Elsewhere, at a local gym, some thugs are reading Silver Sable's advertisement calling for Spider-Man. They are put in line by their current employer, Jack O' Lantern, who tells them that Spider-Man and Silver Sable are not foes to be underestimated. The last thing Jack wants is for Sable to procure Spider-Man's aid and wants to eliminate her immediately. Later, Silver Sable appears on the television show World News Weekly to once more send out her request for Spider-Man's aid. When the host asks why she needs Spider-Man's help, she declines to comment. After the interview, Sable decides to walk back to the embassy instead of taking the limo waiting for her outside.
As she walks she thinks about how the Wild Pack was formed to hunt Nazis, but the group has to change with the times. If she doesn't get ahold of Spider-Man quickly, she will have to send a request back to Symkaria to have more men sent. Suddenly, some robbers run out of a liquor store after making a heist. Sable watches as one of them shoots a woman dead in front of her daughter. This reminds Silver of the death of her own mother and leaps into action. She smashes into the getaway car and incapacitates the crooks. She then demands the driver tell her where to find their leader, a man called Snake. Silver Sable then rushes back to the Symkarian embassy where she tells her uncle to hold operations until she sees to personal business. Grabbing her weapons, she leaps out of the window and down to her car parked in the alley below. As Sable speeds off, her position is reported back to Jack O'Lanturn by the men he has staking out the embassy. Jack O'Lantern tells his minions to get ready as they will be attacking their target soon. While at a nearby police station, Flash Thompson continues to languish in a cell after being accused of being the Hobgoblin. Flash wonders where Peter Parker is, and thinks that Parker has abandoned him like everyone else.
Meanwhile, Silver Sable has been tracked to a condemned tenement by Jack O'Lantern and his men. They are confused as to why Sable would come to such a place. Inside, Snake warns his other gang members that he was followed back by Sable and they begin searching the moldering tenement to find her. Sable begins taking out some of Snake's men when suddenly Jack O'Lantern's men come storming in. She knocks out a few of them and decides to wait and see what is going on. When Jack himself enters the building, he demands Snake tell him why Silver Sable is after him. The small-time crook has no idea why. Sable starts making short work of Jack O'Lantern's men, so the masked villain orders them outside while he deals with her. While the two fight, Snake manages to untie himself and tries to escape. Sable quickly tosses a gas heater at Jack, causing it to explode on his flaming head, shattering his helmet. Injured by the blast, Jack O'Lantern decides to flee the scene. Silver Sable finds herself choosing between Jack or Snake, with only one of her Chai's left. She uses it to knock out Snake instead, allowing Jack O'Lantern to escape. After the police arrive, Silver Sable returns to the embassy. There she tells her uncle that she captured some of Jack's minions. However, when he brings up the woman who was gunned down in the street earlier, she changes the subject and asks if Spider-Man has contacted them yet. When he tells her that the wall-crawler has not called, Sable is unimpressed and returns to her office.
Meanwhile, in Temple Corners, Virginia, the National Guard is providing relief following a massive explosion caused by Roxxon. Among the survivors is Daily Bugle reporter Joy Mercado who came here to investigate a story with Peter Parker. Unfortunately, she lost track of Peter before the blast and fears that he might be trapped in the tunnels below or dead. As she worries about Peter, the fragments of a Spider-Man costume lays unseen among the smoldering rubble.
Recurring Characters
Wild Pack (Silver Sable, Uncle Morty), Mary Jane Watson, Flash Thompson, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson, Jack O’Lantern, Foreigner (voice), Joy Mercado
Continuity Notes
There are multiple references to how the Wild Pack was originally former to hunt Nazi war criminals by Silver Sable's father. This is a factual reference as the series Avengers 1959 confirms that Ernst was active during that period of time. How he could live long enough to have a daughter who is an adult in the modern age is not possible unless he had some means of slowing his aging. There is no official explanation for this, however not impossible given his past history with Nick Fury and Kraven the Hunter, two men who have slowed their aging process.
The mission briefing about Jack O'Lantern recounts his previous battles with Machine Man (Machine Man #19) and his many battles with Spider-Man, which occurred in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #56, 110, and Amazing Spider-Man #251 respectively.
The man who sent the exploding flowers to Silver Sable is her ex-husband, the assassin known only as the Foreigner. This is revealed in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #118.
Spider-Man, and more importantly his alter-ego Peter Parker, went missing following an explosion in Web of Spider-Man #17. He will resurface alive and well in Web of Spider-Man #18.
This story marks the first reference to Silver Sable's mother, Anastasia, who was shot to death before Silver's eyes. The details pertaining to her death were chronicled in Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #9.
Flash Thompson is in jail because he was framed for the crimes of the Hobgoblin in Amazing Spider-Man #276.
