Amazing Spider-Man #616
Keemia’s Castle
Investigating a string of murders, Spider-Man has discovered they are all connected to a little girl named Keemia Alvarado. He has traced the missing girl to Governor’s Island leading to a battle with her father, the Sandman. This time, the Sandman has created an army of Sandmen to battle the wall-crawler in order to keep his enemy away from his daughter.[1] Spider-Man is swarmed and ultimately locked out.
When he wakes up he finds himself pinned to a wall and gets reamed out by Keemia, who is apparently just fine living with her father on Governor’s Island because he is playing into her fantasies of being a princess. When he asks where the Sandman is, she tells Spider-Man that they are inside her father as the Sandman has created a massive sand castle for for her with his enitre body. She also tells him that her father is sleeping after a long work day. Spider-Man tries to convince the girl to free him by telling her that her grandmother is worried sick about her. This doesn’t work because the Sandman has promised to bring her mother and her grandmother to the island so they can all live together. Spider-Man already knows that Keemia’s mother was murdered, probably by the Sandman, but decides that this is probably not the best time to tell her. He decides to change tactics and tells Keemia that he’ll bring her mother and grandmother to her if she lets her go. Keemia doesn’t buy it because her father says that Spider-Man is with the law and the law has been keeping them apart. Spider-Man thinks of all the battles he’s had with the Sandman over the years and that her father was just joking.[2]
She is suspicious that Spider-Man is going to try and take her back but he promises her that he won’t, promising her that super-heroes don’t lie. However, after she frees him, he picks the girl out. When she starts to shriek, it wakes up the Sandman who begins creating traps reshaping the castle to trip him up. Realizing the Sandman won’t do anything to harm his daughter, he leaps at one of the walls holding out Keemia and, sure enough, the Sandman creates an opening in the sandcastle. Once they are outside, Spider-Man webs the protesting little girl to his back and flees the army of Sandmen that are emerging from the castle. The Sandman orders him to return his daughter, but Spider-Man refuses to hand the little girl over to a murderer. The Sandman still doesn’t understand what he’s talking about when suddenly, some of the Sandmen army — who represent Flint Marko’s dark side — own up to murdering Alma Alvarado, which comes as a shock to the Sandman. Spider-Man points out that he can’t safely raise Keemia because he might subconciously harm her like he did her mother.
This causes the Sandmen to fight among one another until they all agree that Spider-Man is to blame and merge into one massive form and continue chasing the wall-carwler. With no easy way off the island, Spider-Man spots the supply building and lures the Sandman inside. There he battles the Sandman and pushes him into the ventilation system. Sandman screams his daughter’s name as his sandy form is blasted into particles and shot into the air. Keemia, afraid for her father, tries to flee and falls down and access hatch into the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnely. Thankfully, Spider-Man is able to swing down and save her before the little girl can fall into oncoming traffic.
Spider-Man makes some calls and heads to city hall where he thinks he is meeting Betty Brant and Keemia’s grandmother. Instead, Betty told her roommate, Glory Grant who is waiting for Spider-Man instead.[3] Also waiting for her is Children’s Services who have come to take Keemia and place her in foster care as they have deemed her grandmother unfit to raise her since she left the girl unattended to watch television on the day she was kidnapped. Keemia gets upset and demands to see her grandmother and as the child care workers drag her away, Keemia blames this all on Spider-Man. Glory apologizes to the web-slinger, but he should have seen this happening.
Things are a little brighter when Peter Parker meets Carlie Cooper at the Coffee Bean later that day. She thanks Peter for getting Spider-Man’s help rescuring Keemia because it helped prove that the Sandman broke into the crime lab to steal back the weapons he left at the scene of his murders. Still, Peter still feels bad about what happened to Keemia, but Carlie says that’s some times you are a hero for making the hard choices and is certain that being put into a foster home was the best thing for Keemia. At that same moment, Keemia is being brought to her new foster home which is already full of children. The social worker who has brought her is certain that she will become fast friends with the other children that live there. After the grown up is gone, one of the older children asks Keemia if she has any money. Since she doesn’t have any, she is shoved to the ground. As she pulls herself back up, Keemia thinks about how she was once a princess and knows that someday her father will come and rescue her and bring her back to her kingdom.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Sandman, Keemia Alvarado, Glory Grant, Carlie Cooper
Continuity Notes
One of the Sandmen is wearing a version of the high tech costume that he wore on-and-off from Fantastic Four #61 to Amazing Spider-Man #214.
Spider-Man and Sandman do go way back, their first battle took place in Amazing Spider-Man #4.
Glory mentions how Spider-Man recently saved the city from Electro. That happened in Amazing Spider-Man #612-614.
