Amazing Spider-Man #664
Revelation Day
While attempting to stop Anti-Venom from attacking a limo carrying Martin Li, Spider-Man is overpowered by his foe because he forgot that his proximity to Anti-Venom cancels out his spider-powers. With Spider-Man at his mercy, Anti-Venom decides that their dust-up is just the typical misunderstanding that leads to a team-up superheroes always end up having and decides that he should unmask the wall-crawler. Thankfully, Spider-Man’s ability to cling to surfaces still work and he uses it to make it impossible to remove his mask. Anti-Venom decides that he needs to do more to prove to Spider-Man that they are on the same side. When they both agree that Mister Negative is a mutual enemy that’s when Anti-Venom drops a bombshell, Martin Li is Mister Negative.[1] Spider-Man can’t believe that the guy who runs the FEAST Center is also Chinatown’s notorious drug dealer, so Anti-Venom takes off to bring Spider-Man proof. With Anti-Venom gone, Spider-Man manages to knock a bottle of acitate off the table of Anti-Venom’s hideout, a former meth lab, to melt through the symbiotic goo used to restrain him.
Meanwhile, at Rothner Antiques, the owner is being terrorized by the new vigilante known as the Wraith. She threatens to kill him if he doesn’t reveal information about Mister Negative’s human trafficking operations, of which Bob Rothner is an active participant. When he is reluctant to answer, the Wraith takes off her mask revealing the face of long dead police captain Jean DeWolff.[2] This is what cracks Rothner and he begins to talk. Neither one is aware that the Wraith had been followed by Clarie Cooper who has become curious about this new vigilante. Through infrared binoculars, Carlie confirms that the Wraith is not dead as she claims and with all of the evidence she has collected she is certain she knows who the Wraith really is.
While at Columbian Presbyterian Hospital, doctors are assuring Jay Jameson that his wife, May Parker, is fine and no further tests need to be run. They catch a news broadcast of mayor J. Jonah Jameson’s latest news conference. He is thanking Martin Li for dontating his newly acquired Chinese terracotta warriors to the Metropolitan Museum. Martin makes it a point to have Jameson mention that all tickets to see these historical objects are going to be given to charity to help the homeless. At the scene is Norah Winters who is reporting for the Daily Bugle and has her boyfriend, Randy Robertson, operating the camera. When Phil Urich arrives on the scene he is upset that Norah got Randy to shoot the spot because he is usually her camera man. When Randy says “any idiot” can operate a camera, Phil is insulted and reminds them both that he was able to get footage of the Hobgoblin’s recent battles with both Hercules and Spider-Girl recently.[3] Norah diffuses the situation by telling Phil that she didn’t want to bother him for a puff piece and assures him that she values the work he does for her. Phil, who is secretly the Hobgoblin, is annoyed that no matter how hard he tries, Norah continues to flock to Robertson and begins considering a way of getting rid of Randy permanently.
While Jameson continues a rather lengthy speech, one of Martin Li’s bodyguards pulls him aside to talk business. Mister Negative’s personality comes forward and listens as he learns that the rest of the terracotta warriors have cleared customs and the museum has agreed to allow Li’s men set up the display and given them the security codes, much to Mister Negative’s delight. Neither man is aware that one of the guards is actually Anti-Venom in disguise and that he is learning about their plans for the museum. Later, Spider-Man has just painfully pulled himself free from Anti-Venom’s webbing with the acitate when his foe returns and webs him up again. Anti-Venom then picks up Spider-Man and carries him to the Metropolitan Museum to show him the truth.
At the Special Crimes Evidence Storage facility, Carlie Cooper arrives to request the equipment confiscated during the last Mysterio case to learn that all of the evidence was accidentally destroyed when a pumpkin bomb in storage went off.[4] Carlie looks over the report and learns that Mysterio’s Jean DeWolff mask was destroyed along with a bunch of Mysterio tech and Mister Fear’s fear gas and that the officer on the scene at the time of the accident was none other than her friend, Captain Yuri Watanabe.
Back at the museum, Anti-Venom leaves Spider-Man webbed up to a statue promising to bring him Mister Negative and prove that he is actually Martin Li. Trying to reason with Eddie Brock, Spider-Man insists that if he is going to fight against Negative he’ll need help. Anti-Venom ignores Spider-Man’s pleas and goes into the room where the terracotta warriors are being stored. There, Mister Negative sneaks up behind Anti-Venom and stabs him through the chest with a negatively charged sword that negates his healing abilities. Mister Negative and his Inner Demons then surround Anti-Venom. Mister Negative knows that he is actually Eddie Brock and vows to take away the gift that his alter-ego, Martin Li, gave him.[5] In the next room, Spider-Man struggles to break free when he is visited by the Wraith who offers her assistance. Spider-Man sees right through he ruse as he has met Spirits of Vengeance in the past and he also knows Mysterio’s tech when he sees it. Still, since she is there to help, Spider-Man accepts it and he is quickly freed.
They both ambush Mister Negative’s Inner Demons before they can finish off Anti-Venom. While the Wraith handles the Inner Demons, Spider-Man attacks Mister Negative. During the fight, Anti-Venom musters the strength to get up and attacks Negative after he knocks Spider-Man into one of the art galleries. Seeking to turn the tide of battle, Spider-Man intentionally sets off the alarm to bring the authorities. Furious, Mister Negative attempts to use his Dragon’s Breath on the web-slinger. However, Spider-Man had recently swapped out the sample of his own blood with pigs blood, rendering the DNA specific poison harmless to him.[6] Still, Spider-Man pretends to succumb to the gas in order to lure Mister Negative close enough to land a punch. While their foe is stunned, the Wraith uses the facial recognition software built into her mask to scan his face and confirms that Mister Negative is Martin Li. At first, Mister Negative thinks they won’t live long enough to tell anyone, the Wraith explains that the information was automatically uploaded where everyone can see it. At that moment the information is sent to both the Daily Bugle and the mayor’s office. Also learning the news is Jay and May who have just returned home. The news that Martin Li is Mister Negative is a startling shock to May Parker, as she worked at the FEAST Center with him and had no idea.[7]
Back at the scene of the battle, Mister Negative curses the heroes for interfering with his plans and uses a cyanide bomb to cover his escape. Spider-Man and the Wraith are forced to pull back until the gas dissipates. With the authorities on their way, Spider-Man pulls the sword out of Anti-Venom’s chest and apologizes for not believing Eddie at first. Since Anti-Venom was the hero in all of this, Spider-Man even lets him go, telling Brock not to do anything to make him regret it. When the police arrive on the scene, Spider-Man pulls out his Avengers priority card and tells them that the terracotta warriors are all full of heroin that Mister Negative smuggled into the country. Spider-Man spots Carlie Cooper on the scene and decides to depart to see what brought her there. Spying from the ceiling, Spider-Man hears Carlie confront Yuri Watanabe about being the Wraith. She explains how she used her forensics skills to figure it out. Yuri admits that she has been moonlighting as the Wraith, explaining how she and Jean DeWolff used to be friend and she felt powerless to stop her killer, particularly since it took the combined efforts of both Spider-Man and Daredevil to take the spree-shooter down.[8] She says that after the recent incident with Massacre she decided to do something about it by becoming the Wraith.[9] Surprisingly, Carlie tells Yuri that she’ll keep her secret but points out that it was easy to figure out who the Wraith was and suggests they should talk later about how to properly cover Watanabe’s tracks.
Elsewhere in the city, Anti-Venom is proud of himself that he was able to expose the truth about Mister Negative and figure’s that today is the day that everything changes. While back at Mister Negative’s hideout, Martin Li is chained up in a closet pleading with the Inner Demons to let him out. However, since the Mister Negative persona has been submerged, they are under strict orders not to let Martin out until their master regains control of the body they share. While across town, Peter meets with Carlie at his apartment and tells her about how Spider-Man overheard Carlie and Yuri’s conversation about the Wraith and asks her why she kept Yuri Watanabe’s secret. She tells Peter that she is supporting Yuri because she is doing the right thing and tells him that she can keep a secret. She then asks him to finally come clean and tell her the truth about Spider-Man. Peter pauses for a moment and instead of telling her that he is Spider-Man he only tells her that he develops all of Spider-Man’s technology. Carlie accepts this as the whole truth and hugs him, pleased that he can trust her with one of his biggest secrets, unaware that there is more to the story than he is letting on.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Mister Negative, Anti-Venom, the Wraith, Aunt May, Jay Jameson, Carlie Cooper, Phil Urich, Norah Winters, Randy Robertson, Ben Urich, Joe Robertson, Glory Grant
Continuity Notes
Anti-Venom discovered that Martin Li and Mister Negative are the same guy in Amazing Spider-Man Extra! #2
Jean DeWolff was murdered by the Sin-Eater in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107.
The Hobgoblin fought these two heroes in Herc #2 and Spider-Girl #6 respectively.
The case in question happned in Amazing Spider-Man #618-620. In that story it was learned that Mysterio was using his special effects talents to help mobsters and dirty cops fake their deaths. Part of this deception included having mobsters pose as long dead police officers such as Jean DeWolff.
Exposure to Mister Negative’s power caused the remnants of the Venom symbiote in Eddie Brock’s system to come alive as the Anti-Venom symbiote. This happened in Amazing Spider-Man #568-573.
Dragon’s Breath is a DNA specific and highly toxic poison. Mister Negative once forced Spider-Man to hand over a sample of his blood as an insurance policy to prevent the web-slinger from interfering with his operations back in Amazing Spider-Man #548. However, Spider-Man and the Black Cat later broke into Mister Negative’s hideout and replaced it with pigs blood in Amazing Spider-Man #621.
Actually, May did stumble upon the truth in Amazing Spider-Man #618 but Negative used his corrupting touch to make her forget. It had the side effect of turning May into a crusty bitch until she fought off the effects in Amazing Spider-Man #633.
The Sin-Eater saga was covered in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110.
Massacre was an amoral psychopath who endangered innocent people. See Amazing Spider-Man #655-656.
Wall-to-Wall
Having recently lost his spider-sense, Spider-Man has sought out the aid of Shang Chi, aka the Master of Kung Fu to learn martial arts to boost his fighting prowess.[1] Shang Chi trains Spider-Man in a new fighting style he calls “the way of the spider”. Despite Spider-Man’s enhanced agility and speed, Shang Chi is evenly matched due to his lifetime of training in the martial arts. During one of these training sessions, Spider-Man eventually shows promise when he manages to land a blow on Shang Chi. Days later, the Master of Kung Fu has taught Spider-Man everything he can and sends him on his way.
When the web-slinger gone, Shang Chi tells Madame Web that she can come out of her hiding place as he knows she is in the room. He asks if the training will give Spider-Man the edge he needs when the spiders finally come, unfortunately the clairvoyant can’t see the immediate future with much clarity. All she can tell him is that they’ll have to wait and see.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Shang Chi, Madame Web
Continuity Notes
Spider-Man sacrificed his spider-sense by activating a device that shorted out the similar abilities used by the Spider-Slayer’s Slayer Swarm in Amazing Spider-Man #654.
