Amazing Spider-Man #683
Earth’s Mightiest
Two Weeks Ago
Doctor Octopus is informed by Mysterio that all of their side missions are going off without a hitch. In Budapest, the Chameleon has used a Chronoton sensor to obtain a suit of Iron Man armor from the future.[1] At Hulkbuster Base Omega, the Sandman and Rhino recover one of the Leader’s inventions.[2] While in a British museum Electro has recovered the Fang of Jörmungaandr. With all of these successful acquisitions, Doctor Octopus tells Mysterio that these items will give him the world.
Now
At the Palazzo Senatorio in Italy, world leaders and leading scientists have met for an emergency meeting of the G8 to discuss the benefits of the Octavian Shield created by Doctor Octopus which he claims will help prevent man-made climate change. The meeting is interrupted by Spider-Man, Captain America, and Thor of the Avengers. Spider-Man tries to appeal with them not to follow through with the plans of Doctor Octopus, reminding them all that the supervillain is a psychopath. Spider-Man’s appeal is argued by a former Vice-President of the United States turned environmentalist. Everyone is shocked when Spider-Man attacks the former VP, but he is quickly exposed as the Chameleon in disguise. He was able to detect the Chameleon with technology that keyed in to his specific heartbeat.
That’s when Doctor Octopus appears on the video monitors. He informs them that the Chameleon was planted among them to speed along approval of his plan but now, thanks to Spider-Man’s interference, he has decided to teach them one final lesson now that his stealth satellites have fully recharged.[3] This is all according to Spider-Man’s plans as he has Iron Man hooked up to a Starktech satelltie in the hopes of pinpointing the location of Otto’s hideout when he activates his Octavian lens. Unfortunately, the signal has changed preventing from this to happen.
At Horizon Labs, Max Modell and his team of scientists have discovered that the steal satellites are using technology stolen from their own space station. However, as they try to warn the conference via video feed, the power at Horizon Labs is suddenly cut off. They go outside to see that the rest of the city still has powers. As Max prepares his staff to deal with it, they are approached by J. Jonah Jameson and his city officials who tell Modell and his staff that he was responsible as he is still trying to shut down Horizon Labs. However, when Max insists that his company will continue to operate, Jameson orders the chief of police to clear out the building.
Back at the G8 meeting, Spider-Man gets word from Iron Man that the Octavian Lense is working but not in the way they expected. Instead of using it to harm the planet, Doctor Octopus has used it to reverse the effects of climate change. He implores the leaders of the world to allow him to give his final gift to the human race. Spider-Man, however, doesn’t buy Otto’s sincerity and fears the worst is yet to happen. Even more shocking, the world leaders have order the three Avengers to let the Chameleon go. However, Spider-Man has a contingency plan in the works because he doesn’t trust his old foe. At that same moment, the Prime Minister of Symkaria returns to his limo where Silver Sable is waiting for him. After he reports the developments to her, she tells him not to write off Spider-Man just yet as the web-slinger is very resourceful and decides to keep a closer eye on him.
An hour later, the Chameleon meets up with the rest of the Sinister Six off the Mediterranean Coast. There they quickly discover that their ally was tagged with a spider-tracer and that a Quinjet full of Avengers are heading their way. On board the ship are Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye, the Red Hulk, Iron Man, the Black Widow, and Spider-Woman. Spider-Man is in charge and orders them to hit them hard and fast. However the Sinister Six are undaunted by the Avengers superior numbers. Once on the beach, Hawkeye draws first blood by trapping Mysterio in a net, despite his illusions to the contrary. That’s when Electro takes down the Quinjet, still piloted by the Black Widow. He then begins racing around and electrocuted Iron Man and Spider-Woman while making a b-line to Spider-Man. However, the web-slinger’s costume is insulated against his attacks. This leaves Electro open to Thor who uses his enchanted hammer to absorb Electro’s electrical form and shoot it up into the sky.
That’s when the Rhino charges at Thor, who is surprised when the villain’s horn is able to gore him. This is because the Rhino’s typical horn has been replaced with the Fang of Jörmungaandr. Iron Man goes down next when Doctor Octopus uses a device reverse engineered from the future Iron Man armor to shut down Tony Stark’s own suit of armor. Meanwhile, Captain America tries to convince Sandman to stop fighting,[4] but he is quickly incapacitated with a cryo-pellet that seals the Star-Spangled Avenger in ice.[5] The Red Hulk is the next to go down when the Chameleon activates an alpha/gamma disruptor built into the Octotank he is piloting.
With all the other Avengers now down, Spider-Man tries to take the battle directly to Doctor Octopus. However, he made a mistake of reverse engineering Otto’s octobots to make his armor and this allows Doctor Octopus to incapacitate the wall-crawler. With the Avengers defeated, Doctor Octopus thanks Spider-Man for handing him such an easy defeat.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Sinister Six (Doctor Octopus, Mysterio, Electro, Sandman, Rhino, Chameleon), Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, Red Hulk, Black Widow, Spider-Woman), Max Modell, Uatu Jackson, Grady Scraps, Bella Fishbach, Sajani Jaffrey, J. Jonah Jameson, SIlver Sable
Continuity Notes
This armor was worn by the so-called Iron Man of 2020, first seen in Machine Man (vol. 2) #2. There is no explanation how Baintronics got ahold of this armor. Further, I would argue that the “year 2020” that this Iron Man comes from should be considered topical since we are now in the year 2020, however Marvel hasn’t offered an official explanation.
Reference is made to the Leader taking over this Hulkbuster Base and that he has long since fled this location. This is a reference to the Fall of the Hulks and World War Hulks storylines. See Fall of the Hulks Alpha/Gamma, Incredible Hulk #606-611, Hulk (vol. 2) #19-24, Fall of the Hulks: Red Hulk #1-4, Fall of the Hulks: Savage She-Hulks #1-3, and World War Hulks #1.
Doctor Octopus mentions his deteriorating health. Otto has been suffering from a degenerative illness after years of head injuries. See Amazing Spider-Man #600.
Captain America tries to appeal to the Sandman by reminding him that he was once an Avenger. Following Marvel Two-In-One #86, the Sandman reformed from a life of crime and was given reserve status on the Avengers in Avengers #329. He was made evil again by the Wizard in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #12.
The Sandman quips about how Captain America was once frozen for years. This happened in the final days of World War II until he was revived by the Avengers in the Modern Age. See Avengers #4.
Topical Referneces
This story features various prominent scientists and world leaders that should be considered topical. They include scientist Stephen Hawking (who died in 2018), Barack Obama (who was President of the United States from 2009-2017), Joe Biden (who was then Vice President at the time, and could be the new President in 2021, but we’ll have to wait and see on that one), Stephen Harper (former Prime Minister of Canada from 2006-2015), Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany since 2005, although that can change at any time), David Cameron (British Prime Minister from 2010-2016) , and former Vice President Al Gore.
People use the term “Global Warming” here which is an outdated scientific term that has since been replaced with the more accurate term Climate Change.
Dated pop-culture references: An Inconvenient Truth
