Nick Peron

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Araña - Heart of the Spider #12

Amun is racing to the town of Ticonda cursing himself for coming to the rescue of Araña when he was hired to kill her. At that same moment, Vincent is locked in battle with Miguel Lega, Nina Smith, and Ted Mankowski, unwilling to disobey the Sister of the Wasp’s orders to protect Felix Jade, the leader of a drug cartel that the Sisterhood is attempting to recruit. When Amun arrives on the scene, he decides to depart when Miguel starts trying to attack him as well.

Meanwhile, Felix Jade is continuing to use his hypnotic power to force Araña to drive him from the scene of the battle. Distracted by his latest set of orders, Araña — an inexperienced driver as it is — accidentally slams into the side of another car on the road. She manages to get control and seeing a child in the passenger seat of the other car is suddenly struck with a recollection from her childhood. She was still a small child on a family trip. Growing impatient, she asked her parents if they were there yet. This distracted her father, Gil Corazon, and he narrowly avoids striking another car. Swerving off the road, their vehicle hit a tree. Anya was frightened but was comforted by her mother, Sofia, who assured her that they were all safe. In this memory, Anya’s mother tells her to get out of the car. This shocks Araña because that is not what her mother actually said at the time. The voice again calls out to her to get out of the car, but Araña can’t because of Felix’s hypnotic power. Her mother tells Anya that she will help and appears before her. Seeing the spectral image of her daughter causes Anya to snap out of it and she is able to stop the car and get out, much to the annoying of Jade.

Rushing to the image of her mother, Araña asks if she’s really there and what is going on. Sofia tells her daughter that she’s not really there and that she is only there to make sure things take on their proper course, telling her that the war between the Spider Society and the Sisterhood of the Wasp is fast approaching its final conclusion, telling her to stay strong. Collapsing to the ground and retracting her carapace, Anya pleads with her mother not to leave her again.

Back at the safe house, Miguel decides he has wasted enough time with Vincent and traps him a mystical web so he can catch up with Araña, leaving Nina and Ted behind to torture their prisoner. By this time, Anya has wrapped up Felix with her spider-bolo and puts him in the trunk of his car. He can’t believe that she is going to kill him, but she doesn’t have a problem with it and puts the car into reverse causing it to roll off the road and into a nearby river. That’s when Amun arrives and tells her that Felix Jade didn’t kill her mother. That’s when Miguel arrives and asks Anya what she has done. Realizing she’s made a horrible mistake, she leaps into the river after the sinking car. However, when she reaches it at the bottom of the water she discovers that he’s gone. When she comes up to the surface, she asks Amun where Felix went but he speeds off without giving her an answer.

Miguel then takes Anya back to the others, where she has to tell them that Felix Jade escaped and it was her fault. Miguel tries to comfort her, but she still feels horrible for almost killing Jade. As they pack up Vincent and leave, Miguel asks how Araña managed to break free from Jade’s control. All she tells them is that someone was watching over her, unaware that someone in a robe watches them as they drive away.

Back in the city, Araña goes out on patrol, feeling that she needs to do a lot to make up for almost killing Felix Jade, but intends to redeem herself.

This story is continued in Spider-Man/Araña: The Hunter Revealed #1….

Recurring Characters

Araña, Miguel Legar, Nina Smith, Ted Mankowski, Amun, Vincent, Felix Jade, (in flashback) Gil and Sofia Corazon