Amazing Spider-Man #562
The Other Spider-Man
At the Bar With No Name, the supervillains are watching news coverage of someone calling himself the Basher. He claims to have fought Spider-Man in the past and calls for the wall-crawler to face him for a rematch.[1] As the villains make shop talk, the Basher continues to rant and rave on live television.[2] As the Bookie begins taking bets, the other villains are trying to figure out when the Basher might have fought Spider-Man before.[3] Since the challenge was published on a video sharing site, the villains don’t think Spider-Man will see it and start placing bets. They would be wrong, as at that very moment Peter Parker being shown the footage by his new roommate, Vin Gonzales.[4] Vin says that the police aren’t doing anything about the Basher because technically he’s not doing anything illegal. When Vin figured Peter could use a news tip unaware that Peter was recently fired from his job at the DB, something that Peter isn’t going to tell him, hoping he can find new work before the end of the month. Still, Peter is curious about the Basher and decides to check things out as Peter Parker.
Meanwhile, the Bookie has returned to his family home in New Jersey to have lunch with his parents. As usual, his parents are bickering with each other as they have for decades. The Bookie’s father, Lester, also complains about how his son is handling the family business, pointing out that he lost money on the Spider-Man/Overdrive bet, as well as the Freak bet, and that he’s making the same mistake with the Basher as new villains always get defeated by Spider-Man.[5] Lester boasts about how his wheeling and dealing on a bet between the Thing and the Hulk got him enough money to buy the house they are sitting in.[6] Since the Bookie owes his father money, he assures Lester that he’ll be able to pay him back after the Spider-Man/Basher bet pans out. However, Lester isn’t very confident that this is going to work.
Later, the Bookie returns to the Bar With No Name where villains continue to watch the footage of the Basher challenging Spider-Man. When the Trapster comes in an adds to the number of bets that Spider-Man will be a no-show to the battle. Watching this spectacle from the streets below is Peter Parker who has decided not to indulge the Basher when suddenly, his spider-sense begins going off. That’s when Peter spots someone else in a Spider-Man costume racing to face the Basher. Thinking this might have some connection to the spider-tracer killings, Peter rushes to a nearby alley to change into costume.[7] Back at the Bar With No Name, the villains are all suspicious of the Spider-Man who has appeared to battle the Basher, who doesn’t uses any webbing and quickly makes an escape shorlty after knocking the Basher down. The Bookie is about to talk himself out of trouble when the real Spider-Man arrives to confront the impostor. The Ox grabs the Bookie and holds him while the other crooks ask for their money back. When the Bookie suggests that one of them sent a phony Spider-Man to make sure he showed up, but none of the other crooks admit to it as all of them voted for Spider-Man for a no show. As Spider-Man chases after his impostor, he realizes that he has seen these moves before.[8]
Soon Spider-Man manages to catch his impostor and unmask them and is shocked to discover that it is Screwball. When he asks how she got out of jail so quickly, she tells her that the Bookie paid her bail in exchange for posing as Spider-Man to fight the Basher.[9] When he asks where he can find the Bookie, Spider-Man rushes to the Bar with No Name, unaware that this is a hang-out for super-villains until he bursts in through the front door.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Screwball, Betty Brant, Vin Gonzales, Basher, Bookie, Serpent Squad (Coachwhip, Fer-de-Lance, Rattler, Rock Python, Puffadder), Condor, Discus, Stilletto, Doctor Nemesis, Enforcers (Ox, Fancy Dan, Montana), Hydro-Man, Poundcakes, Powderkeg, Scorpia, Squid, Trapster, Lester Laude
Continuity Notes
In fact, the Basher never fought Spider-Man, this is all a scam, in order to have Spider-Man served for a lawsuit that was filed against him in Amazing Spider-Man #550.
Mention is made about Screwball, the new social media savvy villain who first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #559. The Basher mentions how Spider-Man recently fled from a battle with the Menace. That was in Amazing Spider-Man #558.
Hydro-Man thinks that Basher might have been in the Fearsome Foursome and that they never fought Spider-Man. He’s totally wrong. The Basher was never part of the Fearsome Foursome. The group, who first appeared in Fantastic Four #377, consisted of Devos, Klaw, Huntara, and Paibok the Power Skrull. They have actually fought Spider-Man who assisted the Fantastic Four in fighting the Fearsome Foursome in Fantastic Four #378.
It is said that the video was posted in YouTube. Among the windows open on Vin’s laptop there is an advertisement for Steven Colbert’s 2008 parody election campaign. Both of these things should be considered topical references per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.
The Bookie’s first bet during the Spider-Man/Overdrive battle was in Free Comic Book Day 2007: Amazing Spider-Man #1. He also collected bets on the Freak in Amazing Spider-Man #553.
The joke here is when Lester mentions the Thing and Hulk fight his son asks “which one?” As the pair have fought each other many times over the years. The first time the Thing and Hulk fought was in Fantastic Four #12. By this time the pair have fought in Fantastic Four #25-26, Incredible Hulk #122, Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Comics Magazine #5, Fantastic Four #112, Incredible Hulk #153, Marvel Feature #11, Giant-Size Super-Stars #1, Fantastic Four #166-167, Rampaging Hulk (vol. 2) #5, Marvel Two-in-One #46, Marvel Two-in-One Annual #5, Marvel Fanfare #21, Marvel Graphic Novel #29, Fantastic Four #320, Incredible Hulk #350, Incredible Hulk #365, Incredible Hulk Annual #18, Fantastic Four #374, Hulk #9, Hulk and Thing: Hard Knocks #1-4, Fantastic Four #533-535, and World War Hulk #2.
Spider-Man has been accused of being the spider-tracer killer, who has been leaving spider-tracers with bodies that have been found in New York City. These bodies started turning up in Amazing Spider-Man #548.
Spider-Man makes a quip about the “writer’s strike being over”. He is referring to the Writers Guild of America strike that lasted from November 5, 2007 until February 12, 2008. The strike saw the halt of television and movie productions in the United States during the period of the strike. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale.
Spider-Man last tangled with Screwball in Amazing Spider-Man #559, she turned herself over to the police when she became afraid that she would become the spider-tracer killer’s next victim.
