Sometimes it Snows in April

Being pursued by Mayan warriors in the middle of a blizzard, Spider-Man regrets ever having left the house. However, Aunt May didn’t have any fun cereal and a free meal was a free meal. As he dodges these attacks he thinks back to how he found himself in this situation…

Earlier that day, Spider-Man had shown up at Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, headquarters of the New Avengers, for some cereal.[1] While he is there, Wolverine questions him about the accusations that Spider-Man is the spider-tracer killer even though he knows that Spider-Man isn’t a killer.[2] When Spider-Man says he doesn’t need any help sorting out his personal troubles, both Wolverine and Doctor Strange point out that Spider-Man never asks for help and that he should from time to time. When Spider-Man asks Strange to make it stop snowing, the sorcerer refuses to do so but uses his magic to determine when it will stop. Shockingly, Strange reveals that this is no ordinary snowstorm, that it comes from a void of darkness. That the end of all life is coming unless the protector fighting to keep the mystical seals succeeds. With that, Strange passes out and Wong quickly rushes to his aid. Knowing that something is going to go down on Bleeker Street at 4 pm that afternoon, Spider-Man and Wolverine agree to meet and see what’s going on.

Later, Spider-Man arrives on the rooftop of the DB Building and after changing out of his costume, he rides the elevator with some workers who were reinforcing the Bugle’s new sign and overhears them talking about how one of their co-workers is trying to sue Spider-Man after he nearly fell off the building.[3] Down in the newsroom, Peter meets with Betty Brant to see if there are any developments on J. Jonah Jameson’s health after his second heart attack. Apparently, he hasn’t said anything about Spider-Man — who was there at the time — but keeps on complaining about Dexter Bennett now owning the Bugle until he has to be sedated.[4] That’s when Dexter Bennett comes into the office and assigns Peter to photograph he morning clean-up effort. Dexter has little sympathy when he hears that Peter lives in Queens with his Aunt.

Later that afternoon, Spider-Man is waiting on Bleeker Street in the freezing cold wondering what’s taking Wolverine so long and what he should be looking for. That’s when he first spotted the Mayan warriors chasing a seemingly innocent-looking man in the street. Spider-Man comes to the man’s rescue but is forced to flee when the Mayans begin shooting arrows at him….

… Cornered in an alley, Spider-Man braces himself as an arrow streak toward him but Wolverine puts his arm in between the arrow and Spider-Man’s face. As the two fight off the Mayans, Spider-Man prevents Wolverine from killing one of the warriors. With the battle over, Wolverine tells Spider-Man that he can deal with the clean-up and heads back to Strange’s Sanctum to check and see how the Doctor is doing. Spider-Man webs up all the Mayans and begins dragging them to the nearby police station, taking their would-be victim with them so he can make a statement to the police. However, when they knock at the door of the police station nobody is there to answer it.

Deciding to learn more about this attack, the man introduces himself as Benjamin Rabin. He says that he is part of a group of mathematicians that were studying some algorithms that are believed to have been intuited by the Mayan culture hundreds of years ago. He says that their work got the attention of some Mayan extremists who threatened them, saying the equations were sacred. That’s when Benjamin remembers his colleagues were being held prisoner in a nearby truck. As Spider-Man prepares to go and recover them, Officer Vin Gonzalez comes outside and tries to arrest him. The wall-crawler webs up Vin and heads out into the blizzard swept city.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Wolverine, Benjamin Rabin, Doctor Strange, Wong, Betty Brant, Dexter Bennett, Vin Gonzales

Continuity Notes

1. Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum appears to be boarded up here and a sign outside says that it is the future location of a new Starbuck location. This is actually a spell cast over the Sanctum by Doctor Strange while the New Avengers are outlaws for not registering for the Super-Human Registration Act. This happened in New Avengers #28. The use of the name Starbucks should be considered topical since it is a real-world business.

2. Spider-Man is the lead suspect for the so-called spider-tracer killings, where bodies have been turning up in New York with spider-tracers on their bodies. These macabre discoveries started turning up in Amazing Spider-Man #548.

3. This worker was knocked off a scaffold by Menace in Amazing Spider-Man #549. Blaming Spider-Man, the man filed for a lawsuit in the following issue.

4. J. Jonah Jameson has been in the hospital since suffering a heart attack in Amazing Spider-Man #546. His wife, Marla Madison, sold the Daily Bugle to Dexter Bennett in the following issue. Jameson only found this out last issue which is what triggered his second heart attack.