Thunderhead!

Steve Rogers is heading home after attending a party to network for his job as a freelance commercial artist. He runs into a gang of thugs who try to mug him, but Rogers is not an easy mark. As he defends himself, Peter Parker — who was attending the same party — witnesses Steve fighting back and snaps some photos of the action. After the punks are dealt with, Steve notices Peter and convinces him to hand over the photos, as he secretly fears that such pictures could compromise his secret identity. When Peter Parker’s spider-sense begins going off around Steve, he decides to change into Spider-Man and follow the stranger in case he has more trouble coming his way.

The web-slinger watches as Steve goes to use a nearby payphone. Suddenly, Rogers is being teleported away. Luckily, Spider-Man manages to tag him with a spider-tracer before he vanishes. That’s when the wall-crawler is ambushed from behind by two men in uniform. As he fights back, Spider-Man is surprised when he knocks one of his attackers toward a brick wall and he passes right through.

Meanwhile, Steve materializes in a secret compound where he is attacked by an army of robots. With his life in danger, he strips off his street clothes and changes into Captain America. He tries to fight through the army of robots, but they quickly swarm him and stun him with an energy blast. When he looks up, Cap sees who is responsible for kidnapping him.

Back in the city, Spider-Man tosses his other attacker through the phony brick wall to make sure he isn’t seeing things and decides to pass through himself to see what’s on the other side. His attackers try to stop him again but the web-head easily trounces them. That’s when Nick Fury enters the room, revealing that that this is SHIELD’s secret headquarters. He explains that Captain America has been kidnapped by Systemic Ultimate Lawless Takeover of All Nations, or SULTAN for short. Wanting to help Spider-Man tells Fury how he managed to tag Cap with a spider-tracer before he disappeared. This is the lead Nick has been looking for and they get to work to boost the signal so they can find out where Captain America was taken.

At that same moment, Captain America is confronted by Sultan, the mastermind behind his kidnapping. The cyborg explains that he was once a SHIELD inventor who believes that the government didn’t respect his inventive genius. Leaving the spy agency, Sultan then created this complex and his army of robots as part of a plan to destroy all the governments of the world and become the ruler of the planet himself. He then reveals that he has constructed a huge missile which he intends to launch on Washington, DC.

By this time, Nick Fury and Spider-Man are racing along the Maine coast, following the signal to his spider-tracer. On a lonely stretch of highway their presence is detected by Sultan who blocks the road and send and army of his robots to stop them. They are quickly captured and brought to Sultan’s hideout where they are powerless to stop the villain from launching his missile. With no time to lose, Nick Fury activates a device in his shirt that causes it to wrap around the robot holding him captive. This gives Spider-Man and Captain America the cue to break free themselves. As they battle the army of robots, Sultan launches the missile, prompting Fury to break off from the fight and use grappling hook device to hitch a ride in the hopes of disabling the missile before it destroys the nation’s capital. As he looks down to see where the missile is being launched from, the sight he sees is beyond belief.

Back inside the Sultan’s complex, Spider-Man and Captain America are outnumbered and make a strategic withdrawal through the missile silo. On the other side they quickly discover that Sultan’s hideout — hidden in Thunderhead Mountain — has blasted off on its own and they are now free falling to the ground below.

Recurring Characters

Captain America, Spider-Man, Nick Fury, SULTAN

Topical References

• Peter Parker is depicted using a camera that uses rolls of film to take photos. While these types of cameras are still used in photography, most in the news media (like Peter) have shifted to digital photography due to the ease of use.