Spiral Part One

Spider-Man is on patrol around Manhattan. He can’t stop thinking of all of the things he saw during his trip across the multiverse and believes it has fundamentally changed him. Luckily he happens upon the police surrounding a warehouse and looks forward to a distraction from his moody thought. Captain Yuri Watanabe is in charge of the scene and she is preparing to serve a warrant to search a warehouse. Her colleague, Teddy Rangel, warns her that they are dealing with Tombstone, but Watanabe questions his source. That’s when Spider-Man makes his presence known and offers to go into the warehouse ahead of the police and do some recon. Yuri refuses this offer, saying that they are doing this by the book. Rangel can’t believe this, but she insists on it since she is the new bureau chief of her precinct.

That’s when shots come from the building, prompting Spider-Man to push Yuri to safety. Inside, Tombstone is furious that one of his men opened fire without his say so. Tombstone kill the shooter then orders the rest of his men to kill all the cops outside so they can get away. Spider-Man rushes inside the building and begins webbing up the shooters. Tombstone complains that he had a plan but Spider-Man is unimpressed and knocks him into the river with a single blow.

The police take it quickly under control of the situation and Tombstone is taken into custody. Unfortunately, Teddy Rangel was shot in the crossfire and is being wheeled away by ETMs. Yuri tells Spider-Man that Teddy was more than a friend, he mentored her the first year she was on the force and taught her everything she knew. When Tombstone threatens to finish Teddy off, Spider-Man webs his mouth shut. The web-slinger takes off, telling Yuri that Teddy would have considered his injuries worth it because the good guys won tonight.

However, eight days later at the 100 Center Street courthouse, Judge Anson Howel decrees that the warrant was defective and orders Tombstone released immediately. Yuri is upset by this and openly expresses her shock. The prosecution steps in and addresses her concerns, saying that the only reason why the warrant was considered defective is due to the fact that their source was known only to Teddy Rangel who is now in a coma due to his injuries. Despite this, the judge says his rulings stand and that Tombstone is still to be released. After the trial, the chief pulls Yuri aside and tells her that this is on her and that she is going to be subject to a full audit of the case in the morning.

Yuri then goes to the hospital to visit Teddy in the hospital where she complains about her situation, missing the old days when things seemed so much simpler. That’s when Peter Parker comes into the room. Parker Industries happened to be at the hospital repurposing their anti-Electro tech into a new electrical system for the hospital.[1] He heard about her situation from a friend and wanted to see how she was doing. Going out into the hall, Yuri Watanabe expresses her exhaustion with her work since the local gangs have been trying to fill the vacuum created when the Kingpin fled the city for Europe.[2] She is willing to accept the risks of being a police officer but not when some thick-headed judicial parasite can throw it all away.[3] However, Peter points out that you have to play by the rules otherwise you start crossing lines you vowed to never cross.[4] Yuri understands what Peter means but she is conflicted. That’s when the nurses call a code blue and, tragically, Teddy Rangel dies.

Later, during Teddy’s burial, Yuri wanders away from the rest of the mourners. She is then approached by Mister Negative who reveals that he was Teddy’s source.[5] He informs her that he also has more information and hands her an envelope showing Tombstone’s men paying off Judge Howel with drugs. Yuri sees this as Mister Negative as part of a take-over play of the New York mobs. Negative doesn’t deny this and asks her if she cares. Yuri rushes this evidence to her chief, who is getting into her car. However, the chief questions the validity of the photos, saying that they need hard evidence and to play things by the book. Growing sick of the ineffectiveness of going “by the book”, Yuri decides to investigate things further as the Wraith.

That night the Wraith travels across the city thinking about how she had retired as the Wraith when she runs into Spider-Man.[6] Spider-Man tries to convince her not to let her anger over Detective Rangel’s death lead her to do something stupid. She agrees to let Spider-Man help her storm one of Tombstone’s construction sites to look for more evidence to prove that Judge Howel is on the take. They quickly take down the guards, including one that is using a rocket launcher and bust open a vault that contains all of Tombstone’s files. Spider-Man is disturbed that the Wraith used the rocket launcher to crack the vault because someone could have gotten hurt. She doesn’t care because she is able to find the evidence she needs to prove the Howel is crooked. More over it only knocked out Tombstone, the only person in the vault.

When Spider-Man tries to remind the Wraith that this isn’t how cops behave. She reminds him that Yuri Watanabe is the cop and she is the Wraith. As she takes off, Spider-Man’s spider-sense goes off and he notices Mister Negative watching from the street below and begins to worry that Yuri is making all the wrong choices.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Wraith, Mister Negative, Tombstone

Continuity Notes

1. For Parker Industries attempt to de-power Electro see Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 3) #1-6.

2. The Kingpin’s empire was taken down when Doctor Octopus was in control of Spider-Man’s body and used his resources to shut down Shadowland in Superior Spider-Man #14.

3. Yuri mentions how Peter used to date Carlie Cooper. They dated from Amazing Spider-Man #647 to 673. She broke up with Peter when she discovered he was secretly Spider-Man.

4. Peter’s speech makes him think about how Otto Octavius crossed a lot of lines that Spider-Man never would. Octavius took over Peter Parker’s life from Amazing Spider-Man #698 until Superior Spider-Man #31.

5. When Yuri refers to Mister Negative as Martin Li, he reminds her that he is barely known by that name. As explained in Dark Reign: Mister Negative #1-3, the man who became Mister Negative was a snakehead who smuggled illegal immigrants to America from China. When a shipment of immigrants ended with most of them dead, the snakehead ended up being a test subject for Silvermane’s synthetic heroin experiments turning him into Mister Negative. He also adopted the name of Martin Li, one of the immigrants who died at sea, and used his this alias to become a philanthropist in New York to cover his criminal activities. Yuri, as the Wraith, exposed Mister Negative in Amazing Spider-Man #663-664.

6. Yuri first became the Wraith in Amazing Spider-Man #663. She mentions a few milestones of her career:

   • How Carlie Cooper forced her to retire after discovering who she was, this was after she took down Mr. Negative in issue #664.

   • Yuri briefly came out of retirement to help Carlie investigate the connection between Doctor Octopus and Spider-Man when Octavius was in control of Peter Parker’s body. See Superior Spider-Man #10-31.