Happy Birthday Part One

As a special surprise to his students, Peter Parker has bought them all copies of his favorite book, “Science and Poetry” saying that sometimes when you have to explain something so amazing you can only use poetry to explain it. However, Peter had the wrong books shipped out and instead he he has the students read out a passage from “Essential Cooking with Fowl, Pig, and Cow” instead. Furious, Peter storms into the office and demands that Julie, one of the admin assistants, either get him a refund or order the right books. Later, at home, Peter is relaying this story to Mary Jane and his Aunt May who both put it into perspective for him. May says that Ben always said that people either good-natured or bad and you shouldn’t be insulted by it any more than you should be insulted when you are bitten by a lion, because it is in their nature.

That evening, Peter is in bed as a storm starts outside and wonders what his true nature is. Mary Jane joins him in bed and he starts showing her how to count the distance between thunder and lightning to know how close the storm is. That’s when there is a bolt of red lighting. When there are more bolts of red lighting, Peter realizes this could be dangerous and heads out as Spider-Man. Swinging out to Times Square, Spider-Man is shocked to see that nearly every superhero in New York appears to be out fighting an invasion of Mindless Ones. While the other heroes are busy, Spider-Man swings in and saves a father and his daughter from a trio of the monsters. However, this leaves the wall-crawler open and he is quickly swarmed by a horde of the Mindless Ones. Before he can be smothered, Spider-Man is rescued by the Thing. As they fight it out, the Thing explains that they Mindless Ones come from another dimension and right now, Mister Fantastic is building a device he hopes will send them back where they came from.[1]

When Spider-Man hears another scream for help, Spider-Man pulls a woman to safety and realizes that it is Julie from work. When she asks for his autograph after saving her, he signs his name on the side of a chimney to get back at her for the book mix-up earlier. He then leaves to rejoin the battle on the streets below. That’s when Mister Fantastic arrives and orders all the other heroes to join him up on the roof. He tells them that his device should hopefully banish the Mindless Ones and close the portal that has brought them to Earth. Although Iron Man thinks it is feasible, Thor is concerned and suggests they wait for Doctor Strange since he has experience facing these creatures.[2] Spider-Man is also concerned because they’re trying to use science to stop something mystical in nature. Still, they go through with it. As Reed uses his device to open a portal, the Human Torch, Cyclops, Thor, and Iron Man all open fire to force the Mindless Ones back through. It appears to work at first but that’s when Doctor Strange arrives and destroys the device.

Strange warns the gathered heroes that he had recently defeated his enemy, Dormammu, by breaking his essence and sending it off to different dimensions. However, Dormammu had enough energy to trick Earth’s heroes with his Mindless One invasion to create the energy needed to draw Dormammu’s essence back together. Now it is too late as Dormammu has now returned.[3]

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson, Iron Man, Thor, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Cyclops, Dormammu, Mindless Ones, Doctor Strange, Joey Gastone

Continuity Notes

1. The Thing states that the Fantastic Four have fought the Mindless Ones before. The Fantastic Four encountered the Mindless Ones in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #70-71.

2. Thor would be correct, Doctor Strange has faced the Mindless Ones for years. He first fought these mindless creatures in Strange Tales #127.

3. When did Doctor Strange discorporate Dormammu? Well, that story was never depicted. Dormammu was last seen in Hellcat #1-3 and he was perfectly fine back then.

Continuity Errors

1. The Thing states that they come from the Faltine Dimension. That’s not correct. They exist in the Dark Dimension which is an entirely different plane of existence. The mistake is simple since the ruler of the Dark Dimension is Dormammu, who is one of the Faltine. I think we can cut the Thing some slack since he’s not an expert on much and often gets things Reed tells him wrong anyway.