Avengers: The Initiative #7
Triple Threat
Baron Von Blitzschlag, the Initiatives resident mad scientist, has come to the ruins of Avengers Tower to examine the damage caused by the Hulk.[1] He has come with a team of gamma ray experts and classified information, much to the dismay of Senator Woodman. When he raises his security concerns, the Baron assures him that they have extra security on hand. Woodman wasn’t informed and he gives the kill signal to the Vulturions who were hired by the crooked Senator to steal the contents of Blitzschlag’s attaché case. Already swooping in to steal it the Vulturions’ leader Honcho decides to go ahead with the theft anyway.
The Baron tries to use his lightning powers to try and shoot the thieves down, but he is too old and his powers have greatly faded. His faltering causes the Scarlet Spiders to drop their cloaking devices and check to see if he is ok. Blitzschlag assures them he is fine and orders the trio to go after the Vulturions and get his briefcase back. This goes against orders that the Scarlet Spiders weren’t to be publicly revealed yet, but the scientist says its time for his “sons” to show the world what they can do.
Meanwhile, back at Camp Hammond, Justice (Vance Astrovik) and Cloud 9 (Abby Boylen) have called a meeting with War Machine (Jim Rhodes) and Yellowjacket (Hank Pym).[2] They want answers about Michael Van Patrick, an Initiative recruit who died in a training exercise gone wrong. Specifically, about the Michael Van Patrick that Vance and Abby saw at the Van Patten home before the incident with the Hulk.[3] Jim is surprised to hear this because he know nothing about it and he also demands answers from Pym. However, Hank is sworn to secrecy and none of them have the authority to make him divulge the truth. That’s when a guard comes in and tells Hank and Jim are needed in the war room. As Pym leaves, Justice is even more frustraited by the secrecy and leaves. When they enter the war room, Gyrich briefs them on the situation with the Scarlet Spiders. War Machine is once more annoyed by there being a secret special forces unit operating under his nose since he is in charge of the base.
Back in New York, Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) is secretly checking in on his Aunt May, who is on life support in the hospital after getting shot. Hearing how things are still grim, Peter goes up to the roof and vents his frustrations. He blames Tony Stark and his Super Human Registration Act which led to his aunt getting shot and Peter being a fugitive from the law. That’s when he spots the Vulturions fly by followed by the Scarlet Spiders. Seeing others in his old Iron Spider armor angers Peter even more and he decides to go after them.[4]
In Louisville, Kentucky, the newly formed Action Pack — Vox, Prima Donna, and Frog-Man (Eugene Petilio)[5] — are setting up their new headquarters after completing their Initiative training. Suddenly, their Negative Zone portal activates and Justice and Cloud 9 emerge from the other side. Not wanting to deal with explanations, Vance uses his telekinesis to incapacitate the Action Pack so they can leave unimpeded. After they recover, Vox reports this incident back to Camp Hammond. When Vance and Abby arrive at the Van Patten house, they find the place deserted. Furious, Justice telekinetically blasts the front of the house wide open revealing that the house is totally empty. This is the last straw for Astrovik, who tells Abby that he’s not going back to the Initiative as he intends to investigate the truth about Michael Van Patrick.
Gyrich is uninterested in what just happened as he is more concerned about the Scarlet Spiders. With the trio catching up with the Vulturions, War Machine gives them authorization to use non-lethal pulse cannons to take the villains down. That’s when Peter Parker arrives and attacks the Scarlet Spiders. Further complicating things is a news crew who begin recording the altercation live on television. This is caught by SHIELD Director Tony Stark who grimly watches the proceedings in silence. Also seeing the news is Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson and reporter Betty Brant. Seeing that there are now three more Spider-Men, Jameson hopes they aren’t clones because he hates clones.[6]
Meanwhile, Peter Parker continues to clash with two f the Scarlet Spiders until they playback a recording of him complaining when the Initiative intervened with his attempt to capture the Sinister Syndicate.[7] Realizing that he is being a hypocrite, Parker tells the Scarlet Spiders to watch as he handles the Vulturions, who are beating on the third Spider. Using the holographic capabilities of their Iron Spider suits, the two Scarlet Spiders disguise themselves as the real Spider-Man. Seeing two wall-crawlers puts enough fear into the Vulturions and sows confusion long enough for two of them to be taken down.[8] The third tires to flee, only to be stopped hard by the real Peter Parker.
With the briefcase recovered, Parker isn’t sure he can trust the Scarlet Spiders to have it. This is as War Machine is issuing orders to arrest Peter. As a news crew arrives to interview them all, the Spiders decide that they owe Parker for helping them out and use their holographic projectors to make them look like him. They then tell the media that Peter Parker wasn’t the real Spider-Man, just someone who previously piloted the Iron Spider armor, which duplicates the real wall-crawler’s powers. They then say that they had come to confiscate Parker’s suit because of his recent actions. This is broadcast on live television, leading people to wonder if Parker was the real Spider-Man. At the Bugle, Betty Brant is reminded of the time Peter posed as Spider-Man in the past, but J. Jonah Jameson thinks this is some kind of fake out.[9] This convinces Peter to hand them the briefcase and he quickly disappears into the crowd.
Gyrich is furious over all of this and orders them to turn off the TVs. After War Machine confirms that the Vulturions are in SHIELD custody and tells them that Baron Von Blitzschlag is fine, he orders them back to base for an explanation. Later, back in the lab, Blitzschlag demands to know why his creations acted this way. Unable to look at them with their masks on he orders them to take them off. They do as ordered revealing that they are all clones of Michael Van Patrick — Each one named after part of MVP’s name — and they explain they did what they did because it was the right thing to do. The Baron didn’t program them to act so selflessly and wonders who could have imbued these characteristics into the clones. He looks over at the remains of MVP and swears he can see the corpse smiling somehow, but tries to dismiss it as the result of rigor mortis or a trick of light.
Recurring Characters
The Initiative staff: Baron Von Blitzschlag, Henry Gyrich, “Yellowjacket”, War Machine, Justice
Trainees: Cloud 9 Shadow Initiative: Scarlet Spiders
SHIELD (Tony Stark), Action Pack (Vox, Prima Donna, Frog-Man), Spider-Man, Arthur Woodman, Vulturions (Honcho), May Parker, J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, MVP (corpse)
Continuity Notes
This was during the World War Hulk event which primarily took place in World War Hulk #1-5. Avengers Tower was trashed in the first issue of that event.
This is not the real Hank Pym, but a Skrull infiltrator. See Mighty Avengers #15.
MVP was killed in Avengers: The Initiative #1 and his body was secreted away. Justice and Cloud 9 found this “other Michael” in issue #4. Here, Vance makes reference to World War Hulk as well as a recent lockdown at Camp Hammond. That happened last issue after Gauntlet was assaulted by a trainee.
There is a lot going on in the life of Spider-Man at the time of this story, so lets break it down:
After the Stamford Disaster, Peter was convinced by Stark to reveal his identity to the world as a show of support to the newly passed Super Human Registration Act, as seen in Civil War #2. However, he eventually realized that the SHRA was wrong and went rogue in issue #5 of that series, making him an outlaw.
With his identity public knowledge, the Kingpin (Wilson Fisk) hired an assassin to kill him. While the bullet missed Peter thanks to his spider-sense, it tragically struck his Aunt May instead, as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #538. The old bird has been in critical condition ever since. Peter’s outlaw status has put incredible strain on his ability to get his Aunt the medical help she needs.
Not long after this story, Peter will make a deal with Mephisto to save the life of his Aunt May, which will also make everyone forget Peter Parker is Spider-Man. See the infamous Amazing Spider-Man #545.
The Iron Spider armor was built by Tony Stark for Peter in Amazing Spider-Man #529. Peter later ditched it after he defected in Civil War #5.
Peter notices that some of the Vulturions are different from the last time he tangled with them. That was in Web of Spider-Man #1.
It should also be noted here that Peter is able to spin webs without his trademark web-shooters. At the time of this story, Spider-Man had gained the ability to spin organic webbing following the events of Spectacular Spider-Man (vol. 2) #17-20. He will lose this ability in the aformentioned Amazing Spider-Man #545.
This is not the real Frog-Man but another Skrull infiltrator as will be revealed in Avengers: The Initiative #19.
This is in reference to the fact that Spider-Man has been cloned many, many times before. The first time in Amazing Spider-Man #149. His “I hate clones” line is a nod to the much maligned Clone Saga which took place in nearly every Spider-Man book between 1994 and 1996. I covered the vast majority of that event in my 90’s Spider-Man index.
The Initiative tried to bust Parker in Avengers: The Initiative #3. When the Scarlet Spiders tell Parker their names he sarcastically quips about how “original” it is. This is a nod to the fact that one of Peter’s clones, Ben Reilly, previously called himself the Scarlet Spider from Spider-Man #52 to Sensational Spider-Man #0.
The two Scarlet Spiders disguise themselves by taking on the appearance of two of Spider-Man’s most iconic looks: His traditional red and blue costume first seen in Amazing Fantasy #15, and the black and white costume patterned off the Venom symbiote, which Peter first wore in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8.
Betty is referring to the events of Amazing Spider-Man #12. In that story, Doctor Octopus had captured Betty and Aunt May and held them hostage. This coincided with Peter catching a flu bug that caused his powers to temporarily go away. Despite this, he went into battle anyway and was easily defeated and unmasked. However, because he didn’t display any of his spider abilities in the fight, everyone believed that Peter was pretending to be Spider-Man to save Betty and his aunt.