The Substitute Part One

At the Baxter Bulding, Spider-Man watches as Mister Fantastic teaches the children and finds that he misses being a teacher.[1] When the adults on the team are asked to deal with Monstoroso, a giant monster threatening the city, Spider-Man suggests staying behind to teach the kids. Mister Fantastic tries to put it politely and ultimately tells Peter that Alex Power is a suitable substitute while Spider-Man would only be a distraction.

As they fight Monsterosos, Spider-Man asks the Thing if he thinks he would make a good teacher. Ben Grimm doesn’t support Peter’s idea, saying he’s not an expert on the subject since he got kicked out of Hebrew school when he was a kid. As Spider-Man and the Thing keep the monster busy, Reed takes a reading and discovers that the creature originates from the Microverse and wonders how it got here and how it got so big. They are joined by Giant-Man who confirms that this creature was artificially grown to massive size. As he helps the Future Foundation restrain the creature and shrink it back down to size, Giant-Man explains that he was happening by because he was looking for a substitute teacher to train his students at the Avengers Academy today. Reed declines because he wants to investigate if this monster has anything to do with their recent trip to the Microverse.[2] Giant-Man says it is just as well as he was hoping to recruit one of the Future Foundation members who is also an Avenger. At first, Spider-Man thinks Hank Pym is talking about him, but Giant-Man was actually hoping the Thing could substitute for the day.[3] This upsets Spider-Man, who points out that he was the teen super-hero, and a member of both Avengers teams and, on top of this, he also has a teacher’s license. Pym decides Spider-Man would be an ideal choice, especially since they use his career as an example of what not to do as a superhero.[4]

Giant-Man warns Spider-Man that most of his students are troubled youths, mentioning how Norman Osborn originally recruited them and tried to manipulate them into becoming loyal soldiers through brainwashing and torture.[5] He then tells Spider-Man about his students: Hazmat whose body is so toxic that she has to wear a containment suit at all times, Mettle who had his flesh removed by Norman Osborn and replaced with metal. Finesse who earned the same “photographic reflexes” from her father the Taskmaster, the shapeshifting Reptil, Veil whose body is slowly losing cohesion and turning into a gaseous form, and lastly Striker who has power over electricity. Pym thanks Spider-Man for taking on the task as they have the opportunity to steer young superhumans into becoming the next Captain America instead of becoming the next Red Skull.

Although Spider-Man exudes confidence, when Peter Parker relates a version of this story to his girlfriend, Carlie Cooper, he admits that he is nervous. However, it is a difficult conversation to have since, as far as the world knows, he quit his previous teaching job and he has to keep his alter-ego secret.[6] Carlie tells Peter that she is confident that he will be able to do the job right.

Later, Spider-Man begins classes with the Avengers Academy. After a few moments of awkward silence he begins a lesson on superhero ethics. He relates to his own teenaged years and tries to teach the youths the importance of not using their powers in their civilian lives as it could compromise their double lives. However, Spider-Man quickly learns that these kids don’t have secret identities like he did growing up and that they can’t relate to his own teenaged years. The question then comes up about Spider-Man’s early career as a celebrity. Spider-Man quickly learns that Giant-Man has co-opted his maxim “with great power comes great responsibility” and the kids start poking holes in the reasoning why Spider-Man quit showbusiness to protect his true identity. Realizing he’s not getting anywhere he decides to take the kids on patrol, something they are all eager to do.

However, the students in the Avengers Academy find going on patrol looking for trouble to be boring.[7] Spider-Man is so caught up in his doubts he doesn’t see that the kids have landed their sky-cycles on a nearby rooftop in order to stop a mugging. When he catches up with his students, Spider-Man is shocked by the level of violence they are resorting to stop the crime. However, they insist that they had the situation under control since Mettle put his buller proof body between their victim and the thieves guns and Veil is gassing them with anesthetic until they can get to a hospital. The woman they saved also has no complaints how these young Avenger trainees conducted themselves. Spider-Man recognizes the crooks as some low level purse snatchers and wonders why they would suddenly resort to threatening someone with a gun. When their would-be victim (who never seen them before) comments about how they said thety hated her, Spider-Man finally puts the pieces together. That’s when Psycho-Man appears, confirming Spider-Man’s suspicions.[8]

As Spider-Man realizes that the Psycho-Man is responsible for his sudden feelings of doubt, his charges in the Avengers Academy attack the invader from the Microverse. However, the children quickly crumble when Psycho-Man activates the fear function on his Emoto-Caster. As Psycho-Man compels the kids to start attacking each other, Spider-Man fights through his doubt and uses Mettle to fling him right into Psycho-Man. The web-slinger then snatches the Emoto-Caster and smashes it against the wall. Unfortunately, Psycho-Man has prepared for this and explains that the device merely focuses the power that now exists within him. Spider-Man realizes that Psycho-Man isn’t bluffing as the Avengers Academy — consumed by hate — turn to attack him.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Psycho-Man, Avengers Academy (Giant-Man, Reptil, Finesse, Hazmat, Veil, Mettle, Striker), Future Foundation (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Thing, Franklin Richards, Valeria Richards, Alex Power), Carlie Cooper, Monsteroso

Continuity Notes

1. Peter Parker had a brief stint as a science teacher at Midtown High starting in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #31 until Sensational Spider-Man #28. He lost his job when he became an outlaw after rescinding his support of the Super-Human Registration Act in Civil War #5.

2. The Future Foundation recently travelled to the Microverse to stabilize reality as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #658.

3. The Thing has been a member of the New Avengers since New Avengers (vol. 2) #1.

4. Some Spider-Man facts are dropped here they are:

   • Spider-Man is a member of both Avengers teams. At the time of this story, Spider-Man had been a long standing member of the New Avengers since New Avengers #1. He just recently joined the original team’s new roster in Avengers (vol. 4) #1.

   • Spider-Man first got his powers when he was a teenager in Amazing Fantasy #15. Per Civil War #2, Peter was 15 when this happened. For those that care, per the Sliding Timescale that would make Peter about 28 years old at the time of this story.

   • Henry Pym mentions how Spider-Man first used his powers in an ill advised wrestling career to start. Per Amazing Fantasy #15, Peter originally tried to use his powers in show business. He did have a short lived career as a wrestler, this was expanded upon in Spider-Man: With Great Power #1-5.

   • Mention is also made about how Spider-Man allowed himself to be branded a menace. This is a little unfair. Spider-Man was only labelled a menace because J. Jonah Jameson didn’t like how Spider-Man “stole” the glory of his son’s space flight by saving him from disaster back in Amazing Spider-Man #1. Since then, Jameson used his position as publisher of the Daily Bugle and, later as mayor of New York, to denounce Spider-Man as a menace.

   • Lastly, Giant-Man mentions the Spider-Mobile. First seen in Amazing Spider-Man #130. It was the brainchild of an advertising firm to try and promote a pollution free engine. It’s changed hands over the years and was last seen on display at the Smithsonian in Amazing Spider-Man #600.

5. Norman Osborn became the director of SHIELD (later named HAMMER) after he eliminated the queen of a Skrull invasion of Earth in Secret Invasion #8. This gave him sweeping powers, one of these was founding that later became the Avengers Academy, see Avengers Academy #1. Osborn was ousted after a failed coup of Asgard in Siege #1-4.

6. Spider-Man explains a lot of recent Spider-Man lore: How he revealed in identity to the public in Civil War #2. After that made his family a target, However, he made a deal with Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545 to alter reality to save the life of his Aunt May. In the new reality, Peter had Doctor Strange cast a spell to make everyone forget Spider-Man’s true identity in Amazing Spider-Man #641.

7. The reason for the aimless patrolling is because Spider-Man had just recently lost his spider-sense. See Amazing Spider-Man #654.

8. Spider-Man has encountered Psycho-Man in the past, as seen in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #4-6.

Just Another Day

Peter Parker wakes up at 9:30 and goes into work with a to-do list. After working at Horizon Labs for the day he meets up with his fellow Avengers as Spider-Man to help contain Fin Fang Foom when the massive dragon attacks the city. After the battle his costume is in tatters and so Spider-Man quickly purchases some fabric to make repairs to his costume.

As Peter Parker he meets up with his girlfriend Carlie Cooper at a crime scene. Later that evening he goes out with the Black Cat to continue her training. He later finds himself in a random team-up with the Thing to stop the Psycho-Man. Later that evening, Spider-Man still hasn’t crossed off making new web-fluid off his list when he catches the Sandman robbing a bank. The Parker luck is true to form when he runs out of webbing at that moment. Luckily, there is a nearby tanker truck carrying a shipment of liquid nitrogen and tricks the Sandman into peircing the tank, freezing himself in the process.

After stopping a mugger on the way home, Peter Parker gets in at 9:15 in the morning. When his alarm goes off 15 minutes later he turns it off and rolls over to go back to sleep as the only item on his to-do list today is to get some sleep.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Avengers (Captain America, Hawkeye, Iron Man, Spider-Woman, Thor, Wolverine), Black Cat, Horizon Labs, Carlie Cooper, Thing, Fin Fang Foom, Sandman, Psycho-Man