Warning Signs

At a biker bar in Brooklyn, the Hobgoblin and an army of Hand ninjas are attacking a gang of bikers who worship Norman Osborn.[1] The Hobgoblin liberates a briefcase from the bikers that will put the Kingpin in a great mood. That’s when Spider-Man comes crashing in to stop him. The Hobgoblin’s sonic laugh fails because Spider-Man is wearing special ear-pieces that filter out their affects. That’s when the Hobgoblin signals Tiberius Stone outside and he activates their newly build spider-sense device. Instead of cancelling out Spider-Man’s spider-sense it starts going haywire. Realizing that this isn’t working, the Hobgoblin leaves the ninjas to deal with Spider-Man while he flees with Tiberius and his failed device. As he flees, the new Hobgoblin is unaware that he is being tracked by Roderick Kingsley, who has come back to America to investigate his successor.[2]

In Astoria, Julia Carpenter — aka Madame Web — struggles to see all the visions of the future, as they slip through her fingers and fears for the end that is fast approaching.[3] Her visions are interrupted by her daughter, Rachel, who is heading back to her grandparents home in Colorado. Rachel hates that she has to go, but Julia wants her daughter somewhere safe while she tries to figure out what’s happening, as she fears that the end she is seeing might be her own.

While at Horizon Labs, Peter Parker returns to work and stashes the briefcase that he recovered from the battle between the bikers and the Hand until he has a chance to open it. Peter then goes to check in on Max Modell who is doing an interview with Sally Floyd for the Daily Bugle in an effort to boost Horizon Lab’s profile and prevent the mayor for shutting them down.[4] Peter is shocked when Sally reveals that she is going to write about how Peter creates tech for Spider-Man in her article. When he protests this, Floyd refuses to remove this fact from her article. She tells him that if he wants it killed he is going to have to go to the top.

Peter does just that by paying a visit to Joe Robertson at the Daily Bugle. However, Joe doesn’t want to kill it because he thinks it is a positive story. He also reminds Peter that he has always been associated with Spider-Man.[5] Peter’s secret concern is that this could lead people to discover his secret identity now that there isn’t a spell protecting him from this.[6] However, his attempts to convince Joe to drop the story fail and the story is about to go live. That’s when Phil Urich arrives to give Norah Winters his latest Hobgoblin footage, however she isn’t interested in it as she is focusing on a story about Norman Osbon.[7] This irks Phil who has been using his Hobgoblin footage to try and score points with Norah. Suddenly, Peter’s spider-sense begins going off like crazy and he starts worrying that Norah might be in trouble.[8] Both Norah and Phil notice that Peter is not looking well. Phil, thinking Norah is becoming interested in Parker again begins debating on making him disappear.

Meanwhile, at Shadowland, the Kingpin is furious that Tiberius Stone’s spider-sense jammer didn’t work as planned. Tiberius barters his life by assuring Fisk that he can recover the briefcase from Spider-Man and use it to cripple the wall-crawler. While at the same time, Julia Carpenter sees her daughter off on a bus and once her daughter is safely away hopes she can find out the truth about her foreboding vision. That’s when Tiberius activates all of the spider-sense jammers they have placed all over the city. Sensing that something is about to happen, Julia calls 911 and tells them that she is about to be in medical distress and send an amblance. Suddenly, Peter’s spider-sense begins going off even stronger than before and he begins detecting even the smallest thing as danger. This makes him start acting weird in front of Phil and Norah and eventually it gets so bad that Peter tries to run for it. At that same moment, Julie is suddenly flooded with so many visions of the future she is in utter agony.[9]

With a sense of urgency, she sends out an astral projection to Spider-Man’s location and it appears over him at the Daily Bugle. Fearing for his secret identity, Peter runs for the elevators but can’t shake the danger and decides to take the stairs instead. As Norah tries to make sense of Madame Web’s sudden appearance Phil gets a call from the Kingpin to inform him about their current plans to try and uncover Spider-Man’s location. Hearing this, Phil tells Fisk that he has the situation under control.

By this time, Peter has managed to get outside but everything around him is setting off his spider-sense. Trying to block it out, Peter tries to figure out where to go to get some help when he is suddenly ambushed by the Hobgoblin who gasses him and carries him away. The Hobgoblin flies off confident that he finally has one on Spider-Man.[10]

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Madame Web, Max Modell, Sally Floyd, Joe Robertson, Norah Winters, the Hand, the Kingpin, Hobgoblin, Tiberius Stone, Roderick Kingsley, Rachel Carpenter

Continuity Notes

1. Norman Osborn has become something of a revered criminal following his arrest in Siege #4. Those who worship Osborn have gotten Green Goblin tattoos. This was first seen in Amazing Spider-Man #647.

2. Roderick Kingsley has been in hiding since fleeing the country in Spectacular Spider-Man #259-261. His brother, Daniel attempted to revive the Hobgoblin identity but was murdered by Phil Urich who usurped the identity for himself in Amazing Spider-Man #649.

3. The “end” that Madame Web is seeing is the events of Amazing Spider-Man #700.

4. Peter states that he remembers Sally from the “Old Bugle”. The original Daily Bugle was run into the ground by Dexter Bennett in Amazing Spider-Man #614. The Front Line was given the rights to, and changed its name to the Daily Bugle in Amazing Spider-Man #648.

5. Joe reminds Peter that he used to take photos of Spider-Man and even published a book of his photos. Peter had worked on-and-off for the Daily Bugle for years, selling photos of Spider-Man, dating back to Amazing Spider-Man #2. The book Joe is referring to is Webs which Peter published in Amazing Spider-Man #304.

6. Back in Civil War #2, Peter revealed his identity to the public and it backfired spectacularly prompting him to take measures to protect his identity. Doctor Strange cast a spell to erase everyone’s memories and made it impossible for anyone to discover his identity unless he specifically revealed it to them in Amazing Spider-Man #641. This spell was weakened in Amazing Spider-Man #668 when Peter rallied people together during Spider-Island as we learned in issue #673.

7. Norah mentions how Osborn has dirt on a bunch of people and is presently in a coma. This is a reference to the events of Osborn #1-5 and Avengers (vol. 4) #24.

8. Peter mentions how Norah has recently been covering stories about the Punisher. See Punisher (vol. 9) #2-16.

9. Madame Web sees a bunch of images of things happening in the near future of the Marvel Universe. It is teasing the upcoming Marvel NOW event that was happening at Marvel at the time. I’m not overly familiar with much of the books that were being published at the time so if anyone wants to help me fill the gaps, e-mail me. However, the things I can Identify are:

   • All the scenes involving Spider-Man, Doctor Octopus, the Lizard, and Hydro-Man are all from Amazing Spider-Man #699.

   • The Professor X eulogy is from Uncanny Avengers #1.

   • The young X-Men being brought to the present is from All-New X-Men #1.

   • There is promo art of Ant-Man for the upcoming second volume of FF..

   • The image of Carnage is in the Microverse is telling the Minimum Carnagestory arc. The artwork is taken directly from Venom (vol. 2) #26.

10. This final scene is paying homage to when the Green Goblin discovered Peter Parker’s identity back in Amazing Spider-Man #39.

Topical References

• Dated pop-culture references: Dr. Oz