Digger

Las Vegas. July 3, 1957

The legendary meeting of the so-called “Vegas Thirteen” was held at the Golddigger hotel and casino which included members of the most powerful mob families from New York to Nevada. It was called as a peaceful meeting to resolve the control of gambling money earned by the casinos. It was only after dinner that they noticed that Morris Forelli was not present, but it was not much concern since his lieutenant George Sims was present. They were completely off guard when Forelli had a quartet of armed men to come crashing in and mow the mobsters down. Their bodies were then gathered and dumped in a mass grave in the middle of the Nevada desert. [1]

Now

The United States military has renewed gamma bomb tests in the Nevada Desert in order to ensure the country is prepared if the weapons are ever needed. One of these tests occurs over the unmarked grave where the Vegas Thirteen were buried many years ago.[2] The blast creates a boiling crater of molten rock and gamma radiation and from it emerges a green form that begins hobbling across the desert to the lights of Las Vegas.

In New York, Peter Parker and Mary Jane are celebrating their reunion by going out for dinner. When the waiter comes to take their order, he cracks up Mary Jane by telling a bunch of jokes, much to the waiter’s chagrin.[3] When Mary Jane suggests they celebrate further by having sex, Peter turns this offer down even though he really wants to. He explains that he’s had too much to drink this evening and wants the first time back together to be special, and sober. Mary Jane understands, saying that there is no rush.

Meanwhile, a security guard at the trainyards goes looking in the cars from homeless vagrants. He finds something else entirely, something horrifying and that something murders him. Later that evening, while Peter is on patrol as Spider-Man, he is so happy that he and Mary Jane are back together he shouts that he’s the luckiest man in the world. This leads to an argument with a man in the apartment below who wants the wall-crawler to shut up because he’s trying to sleep. At that same moment, two enforcers for the Forelli crime family are intimidating a local pimp as he owes the family money. They are interrupted when the green-skinned monster arrives, saying it knows the Forelli family. The two enforcers try to shoot this monstrosity, but it is immune to their gunshots. After throwing one of the mobsters out the window he tells the other that he is going to send a message to his boss. With that, the monster causes the building to collapse. Soon after, Lieutenant William Lamont arrives on the scene to investigate the collapse. Examining the crime scene he spots a handprint embedded in the side of a steel girder and tells the CSI team to dust it for fingerprints.

The following evening, Peter Parker and Mary Jane are deciding what to do on another night out.[4] Peter is so taken away by what Mary Jane is wearing that he begins babbling. This is stopped when Mary Jane kisses him and he asks for another. Later that evening, Spider-Man is on patrol once again thinking about how lucky he is when his spider-sense goes off again. He is drawn to the sound of a woman screaming and soon discovers that it is just a recording being played by William Lamont. Lamont tells Spider-Man that this was the only way he could think to find the wall-crawler since he had no means of contacting him.[5] Lamont takes Spider-Man to the ruined building and shows him the handprint in the steel girder. He tells the wall-crawler that the fingerprints came back and two of the fingers were prints belonging to two different men: Santo Castellani, Jimmy “Little Man” Desanti. Adding to the mystery, both of these men were mobsters who went missing in 1957. When recounting eye-witness accounts, Lamont says that the building was attacked by one person and that this person had green skin.

Meanwhile, the being responsible for the attack arrives at the site of the old Starlight night club and is disgusted that it has been changed into a hip-hop venue called the Abyss. When one of the patrons takes offense to his complaints and pulls a knife, the monster hits him so hard he goes crashing into the crowd. Stripping off his trench coat and fedora, this monster shows off its patchwork body to the startled crowd. When he starts demanding to hear music from his own era, another one of the patrons tosses a beer bottle at the back of the creature’s head. In response, the monster then begins bringing the building crashing down. Not far away, Spider-Man spots police cars racing to the scene and decides to follow them to see what’s going on. The wall-crawler arrives just in time to stop the monster from attacking the band on stage. Spider-Man makes a quip that he came because there was a noise complaint, to which the monster responds by saying it’ll be quiet again after he rips the wall-crawler’s legs off and beat him to death with them.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Digger, Mary Jane Watson, William Lamont

Continuity Notes

1. The story about the Vegas Thirteen is locked into the year 1957 according to the Digger profiles in Marvel Encyclopedia, Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Spider-Man 2004, and Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3. This causes some problems with the Sliding TImescale, as it becomes increasingly difficult to explain how Morris Forelli could still be alive and running an organized crime family without some means of slowing or eliminating his aging process. Marvel has yet to provide an official explanation. My take is detailed below.

2. Naturally, any references this story makes to the death of Vegas Thirteen happening 46 years prior to this story should be considered topical as it is a measurement of time between 1957 and 2003, the year this comic book was published.

3. Peter and Mary Jane had split up in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2001 and got back together last issue. They are referred to as husband and wife here. However, not long after this, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As such they should be considered a common-law couple here.

4. Peter suggests that he and Mary Jane go and see The Producers, this musical played on Broadway between 2001 and 2007. It’s mention here should be considered a topical reference.

5. Spider-Man quips that this is he and Lamont’s “second date”. Spider-Man sought out William Lamont’s help tracking down the criminal known as Shade in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #41.

How to Fit the Morelli Crime Family into the Sliding TImescale

As mentioned above, there is no official explanation that can place Morris Forelli in the modern age if he was alive in 1957 due to the Sliding Timescale. Marvel usually explains these inaccuracies by coming up with some means of having a character have prolonged vitality of some kind, either slowed or completely recessed aging. It seems unlikely that this would be the case for a simple mobster (Yes, I know Silvermane is a thing, but he’s the exception, not the rule, so shut up)

My take on this is pretty straight forward. In the story, you never see Morris Forelli in the flashback in this story. My guess is that the Morris Forelli who ordered the death of the Vegas Thirteen is not the same Morris Forelli that we see in the modern age, but they are close relatives. Why not? Mobsters name their offspring after themselves all the time. It’s less of a mental exercise to figure Digger going after the Forelli family instead of the Morris Forelli that ordered them dead in 1957, it just so happens that the current head of the Forelli family is also named Morris Forelli. Whenever the modern age Morris Forelli mentions the events of July 3, 1957, he is referring to the actions of a relative, not actions he did on his own.