Army of Insects

Peter Parker has taken his family and friends out to watch his new girlfriend, Carlie Cooper, in a roller derby match. Joining him are his Aunt May, her husband Jay Jameson, as well as his friend Mary Jane Watson, as well as Flash Thompson and Betty Brant, who Peter is glad to see are back together.[1] Peter is also enjoying being able to spend time with the people he cares about most and still can hardly believe that his life has really turned around recently thanks to his new job at Horizon Labs.[2] Mary Jane has really taken notice of how happy Peter is. For the first time in years, he can balance his personal life with his responsibilities as Spider-Man and he is truly happy. It kind of hurts that he managed to do all of that without her.[3] Mary Jane suddenly realizes that she’s jealous of Carlie Cooper and can’t believe that she’s the “one” for Peter and not her. As she tries to ignore these feelings, Carlie ends up being knocked over the boards and into MJ’s lap. Helping Carlie back onto the playing field, Mary Jane dismisses her negative thoughts, feeling like a jerk for even thinking them in the first place. Seeing Mary Jane encouraging Carlie to go out and kick ass, Peter tells Mary Jane that she’s a class act.

During a lull in the game, Jay asks May if she won’t join him, but she reminds him that tomorrow’s outing is so the Jameson men can get reacquainted and she agreed to go to the spa with Marla Madison — her new step-daughter-in-law — so that the men can hash things out. She assures Jay that he’ll survive one day without her.

Later, at Andru Air Force Base in New Jersey, the Spider-Slayer and his Spider Swarm have all gathered at the site of a space shuttle launch waiting for the right time to attack J. Jonah Jameson who has come to watch his son’s lastest space flight. The Scorpion, having just received new cybernetic implants from the Spider-Slayer, learns that every other member of the Spider Swarm has been wronged by Jameson in one way or another either as former publisher of the Daily Bugle or in his capacity as mayor of New York City.[4] As Jonah arrives with his security detail, he tells his wife Marla Madison, and assistant Glory Grant that something doesn’t feel right. He also doesn’t like that there are so many bugs around the base. Jonah’s mood changes when he sees his son John and he is introduced to Horizon Lab’s Max Modell and his assistant Jurgen Muntz who are assisting in the launch. However, Jonah is not happy to hear that they will be testing out a new vertex shuttle that will take John to Horizon Lab’s space station over concerns for his son’s safety. Glory asks Max to do something to set Jameson’s mind at ease. Max tells him that one of his top men, Peter Parker, to help if he needs extra reassurance. Although Jonah makes a big deal about how young Parker is, Glory reminds him that Peter is a genius, a fact that Jonah grudgingly accepts.[5]

Back in the city, the roller derby match is over and Carlie decides to stay behind with Peter to show him some moves. As the others leave, Jay Jameson gets a text from his son and tells Peter that he’ll be at the launch tomorrow as well and he’ll see him then. Once he puts on his rollerskating gear, Peter has ignores all of his spider instincts to make himself appear clumsy in the roller rink. After getting a good laugh, Carlie decides to hit the showers and suggest that they go out and get dinner after. Once Carlie is gone, Peter cuts loose using his spider powers to run circles around the arena, certain he is being unobserved. When he is done, he is startled by someone clapping. It turns out to be Mary Jane who has come back to ask Peter if he is planning on telling Carlie that he’s secretly Spider-Man. He tells her that he is keeping it a secret for now, pointing out that Mary Jane knew he was Spider-Man from the very beginning and he wants Carlie to fall in love with Peter Parker before he lets her in on his secret.[6] They are interrupted just as Carlie comes out of the locker room and quickly drop the conversation. Mary Jane quickly makes an excuse that she forgot her hat and as she leaves, she suggests Carlie that she should call sometime for some girl talk, making Peter get concerned. As Peter and Carlie leave, Carlie starts talking about Mary Jane and assures Peter that she is cool with him being friends with his ex-girlfriend. She gets to talking about how she is friends with Spider-Man and when she suggests they set Mary Jane up with the web-slinger, Peter is shocked by this suggestion that he walks right into a closed door.

When Peter arrives at the Air Force base the following morning, Jurgen Muntz is unimpressed when he sees Peter with a bandage on his nose and cotton stuffed up his nose after last night’s injury. As the three scientists get to work, J. Jonah Jameson wishes his son John good luck on his space flight. As John is updated on the status of the launch, Peter can’t help but think how Spider-Man was there to save John’s life during one of his earlier space launches.[7] Suddenly, Peter’s spider-sense goes off so hard it causes him to yelp in pain. He tells Max to excuse him and not to start the launch until he gets back. This annoys Jurgen, but Modell assures his colleague that Peter Parker is a reliable scientist and decides they should go over the details of the launch to make sure they haven’t missed something. As they look over the notes, they fail to see the Scorpion scaling up the side of the space shuttle. As orders are made to delay the launch, the Spider-Slayer — disguised as one of the security detail — links into the computer system to trigger the launch ahead of schedule. J. Jonah Jameson rushes to Max Modell and demands to know what’s going on. When Jurgen mentions how Peter ran off, Jonah blames Parker for what’s happening. With his plan beginning, the Spider-Slayer and his Locusta Army — who have disguised themselves as flight technicians — drop their disguises. John Jameson watches this from the monitors on the shuttle and orders his co-pilot to shut down the engines. Unfortunately, the controls are unresponsive because the Spider-Slayer has taken control of them. Over the intercom, the Spider-Slayer tells everyone that he plans on sending the shuttle into space where a bomb will blow it up, killing everyone on board. J. Jonah Jameson recognizes Smythe’s voice and orders the security detail to go and retake the command center. However, they soon see a swarm of Locusts led by Fly-Girl heading toward them.

Before Fly-Girl can attack Jay Jameson, Spider-Man arrives and ambushes her. As Spider-Man tries to fight off the invades, Jameson pulls the web-slinger aside and tells him to save his son, insisting that the guards and soldiers can protect them from the Slayer Swarm. Even though this means leaving Jonah, Jay, and Glory Grant in danger, Spider-Man realizes he has little choice and snags the shuttle with a web-line. He is quickly yanked into the sky as the booster rockets begin firing up. Spider-Man quickly moves up onto the thrusters before he is roasted alive. Clinging for dear life on the side of a rocket booster, Spider-Man is confronted by the Scorpion who Mac Gargan knew that Spider-Man would try to interfere with their scheme and is ready to fight him to the death.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Slayer Swarm (Spider-Slayer, Scorpion, Fly-Girl, Jumping Spider, Locust Army), J. Jonah Jameson, Marla Madison, Aunt May, Jay Jameson, John Jameson, Carlie Cooper, Mary Jane Watson, Flash Thompson, Betty Brant, Glory Grant, Max Modell, Jurgen Muntz

Continuity Notes

1. Flash and Betty have dated on and off for years dating back to Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #98. They just recently got back together in Amazing Spider-Man #648.

2. Peter mentions how his Aunt May and Jay Jameson are still newlyweds. They got married in Amazing Spider-Man #600.

3. Peter and Mary Jane have also had an on-again-off-again relationship dating back to Amazing Spider-Man #42. At this time, the couple broke up following the events of Amazing Spider-Man #545.

4. The Scorpion and Spider-Slayer both have reasons to hate J. Jonah Jameson for things he did while he was the publisher of the Daily Bugle:

   • For the Mac Gargan, he blames Jameson for the side effects caused by the experiments Jameson paid for to transform him into the Scorpion back in Amazing Spider-Man #20.

   • Alistaire Smythe blames Jameson for fueling his father’s obsession to destroy Spider-Man when he first hired him to build the first Spider-Slayer robot back in Amazing Spider-Man #25. Over the years, the radioactive isotopes used to build his robots gave Spencer cancer and he died in Amazing Spider-Man #192.

5. For the record, per Civil War #2, Peter would be about 29 at the time of this story, hardly the youth that Jameson makes him sound like.

6. As explained in Marvel Graphic Novel #46, Mary Jane has known Peter is Spider-Man since the night he went out to catch Uncle Ben’s murderer circa Amazing Fantasy #15. She didn’t let Peter know this until Amazing Spider-Man #257. Post Amazing Spider-Man #545, she is one of the only people outside of the superhero community that still knows that Peter is Spider-Man.

7. This was way back in Amazing Spider-Man #1, the image in Peter’s mind is taken directly from that issue.

Topical References

• Outdated technology: Jameson complains about being unable to program the clock on his VCR.

• Outdated pop-culture references: Peter sings “Rocket Man” originally sung by Elton John.

Lock and/or Key Part One

A press conference is behind held so that mayor J. Jonah Jameson can award Spider-Man the key to the city after he helped save it from an attack by Doctor Octopus. Jameson has grudgingly agreed to give the key to Spider-Man at the behest of Captain Steve Rogers, something he makes abundantly clear to the web-slinger as they shake hands for the camera.[1] Unfortunately, the ceremony is interrupted by the arrival of the brand new Power Man who has come to fight Spider-Man and earn his reputation. Thinking that this is some new super-villain, Spider-Man lunges at Power Man, making fun of his uninspiring name. Power Man is glad to hear that this is a “mistaken for a supervillain” scenario, saying how Iron Fist trained him for this. As he prepares to battle Spider-Man, Power Man’s mind drifts back to earlier….

…. Victor Alvarez is being trained by Danny Rand, aka Iron Fist. After Deadly Nightshade attempted to block Victor’s ability to absorb chi, Danny wants to train him in martial arts so he is not defenseless if his powers ever fail him.[2] As they spar, Victor tries to get Danny to tell him which other superhero was a challenge to fight. After some hesitation, Rand admits that one of his greatest challenges was Spider-Man, who is much more dangerous than he looks. Danny tells Victor that part of what makes the web-slinger such a worthy adversary is due to his spider-sense warning him of blows that a normal human couldn’t evade.[3]

… his mind snapping back to the present, Power Man learns that Danny wasn’t kidding when Spider-Man is able to easily evade one of his chi-powered punches. He remembers how Danny explained how Victor can focus his chi energy to read someone’s lifeforce and be able to see what move they are going to make next. Using this ability, Power Man manages to punch Spider-Man square in the chest with such force it sends him flying into the side of a parked news van.

Recovering from the blow, Spider-Man quickly learns that this young man has been trained by Iron Fist and quickly blinds him with webbing and ropes him up into a tree. There Power Man explains how he wanted to defeat the one hero his master, Iron Fist, couldn’t and explains how he is the new hero for hire and needs to boost his reputation.[4] He also learns that this wasn’t an unprovoked attack as Power Man was hired to interrupt the press conference. At first Spider-Man thinks this was Jonah’s doing, but the mayor insists that he had nothing to do with it. That’s when he noticed that someone stole the key to the city in all of the confusion. Asking Victor who hired, the new Power Man tells Spider-Man that his employer was a guy named Norton Fester. Spider-Man knows exactly who this is as Fester is his old foe, the Looter.

At that same moment, the man the Looter hired to snatch the key while Spider-Man was busy with Power Man delivers the stolen ket. The Looter is pleased to have it as he believes it will unlock a secret that has been hidden under the city for over three decades. The Looter intends to live up to his name by stealing the secrets that he has uncovered.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Power Man, J. Jonah Jameson, Glory Grant, Glory Grant, Looter, Iron Fist (flashback)

Continuity Notes

1. Spider-Man saved the city in Amazing Spider-Man #648. Steve Rogers suggested that Spider-Man be awarded the key to the city in the following issue.

2. Power Man’s clash with Deadly Nightshade was in Shadowland: Power Man #1.

3. Iron Fist first clashed with Spider-Man way back in Marvel Team-Up #31.

4. Victor mentions how both Spider-Man and Iron Fist were teammates on the New Avengers. Danny joined the group while Spider-Man was already a member back in New Avengers #27.

Topical References

• Dated pop-culture references: Craigslist, Paypal