Jumping the Tracks Part Two

The surface of the Earth is a wasteland. However, in the ruins of what used to be New York City is a massive underground city called Argattha.[1] There, at Empire State University, Robin Borne her and boyfriend, Professor Larry Nyven is working on a formula that she thinks will save the universe, something that her father would be proud of. Larry suggests that Robin set her priorities closer to home, saying Earth needs to be saved before they work on fixing the universe. Robin argues that if the universe is not settled how will they know if what they’re doing on their planet will matter. She then goes through her equation one more time. She says it is based on a theory first made in the 21st century that suggests that not all universes are equal and that some parallel universes could also intersect. Her investigation into this phenomenon has discovered a number of instances in the past 200 years and she has been trying to determine how these incursions affected their own timeline. Her work has suggested that one of the larger universes could swallow their whole and either they will become something else entirely or cease to exist. That’s when Larry tries to change the subject, reminding her that they were planning to take a vacation.

That’s when Robin’s father, Max Borne, arrives in his Spider-Man uniform and tells his daughter to come with him. At first, she is surprised he’s calling her “Hob”, a childhood nickname, but then realizes that he’s come to arrest her. Both Robin and Larry find this absurd since she hasn’t done anything. Max explains that the crime she is being arrested for hasn’t been committed yet. He explains that his daughter will develop a suit that will allow her to make an unauthorized trip to parallel worlds and cause chronal disruptions and murders in a mad attempt to rework the universe in her image. However, Robin refuses to give up her work for the next thirty years when the temporal opportunity closes. When Larry tries to talk sense into her, he realizes that Robin will stop at nothing to succeed in her work. Larry then tries to keep Max occupied. Unfortunately, he can’t stop Spider-Man from catching his daughter in webbing. She says that his namesake, Peter Parker, would be ashamed of how he is using the Spider-Man name and tells her father that she hates him.

Suddenly, Robin finds herself at an old farmhouse, laying in the field. Getting up and going to the house she is greeted by Larry who tells her that this isn’t real and that she is in stasis and the world around her is nothing more than a computer simulation. Even though she has no memories prior to her incarceration, Larry explains that he has come to rescue her and once the computers force him out of the simulation it will drop a nanovirus to shut down the zone and free her and all the others trapped in it. However, as Larry is shunted out and the virus drops, something goes wrong and Robin is tormented with hallucinations of her father. When Robin and the other prisoners of the zone are released from their stasis pods they have all been driven completely mad and start attacking the security detail that has come to try and contain them. After the break-out, Spider-Man confronted Larry Nyven blaming him for the breakout. However, Larry accuses Max of being obsessed with control instead of law and order like he believes and stopped loving his daughter the moment she became her own person. Spider-Man points out that if he was half the monster Larry is accusing him of being, he would kill him right then and there. However, their argument is interrupted when Robin returns wearing her Hobgoblin costume, which she successfully hid from her father in a temporal fold. She then tosses one of her Retcon Bombs at her father and misses. It hits Larry instead, erasing him from existence all existence. When Spider-Man points out that she just created a paradox since Larry was the one who freed her but she doesn’t care. As the new Hobgoblin of the year 2211, Robin intends to alter all reality in the multiverse to fit her vision and she is going to make it her task to make sure that nobody remembers Spider-Man. Unfortunately, when Spider-Man attempts to arrest her the Hobgoblin vanishes.

Returning to TOTEM headquarters, Max goes over the data collected from the battle, kicking himself for not being able to stop his daughter. Bobb, a fellow TOTEM agent, reminds Max that they can’t see the future, only predict it. Still, Max can’t help but notice that his attempts to stop his daughter created the disaster he was trying to prevent and wonders if his work actually does more damage to the universe than they fix. Perhaps his own hubris prevented him from seeing that it was his daughter who really needed him. Soon, they locate the Hobgoblin battling a Spider-Man from the past, and worse, she has derailed the Ben Parker from an alternate reality. Taking a look at the historical records they look to see how Ben Parker’s absence has on the Spider-Man in that reality. Max is horrified to discover that 20 years after Ben Parker’s disappearance Spider-Man becomes a spider-creature and kills every hero on that world.[2] Max tells the TOTEM agents to prepare to sling him to that reality to stop his daughter once and for all.

In that reality, the Hobgoblin of 2211 has confronted Spider-Man and the Ben Parker from an alternate reality. The web-slinger remembers encountering this Hobgoblin before with the Spider-Man from the year 2099 and asks what she is up to this time.[3] The Hobgoblin explains that she has come to give Peter a gift, his dead Uncle Ben in the flesh, not like the ghost he recently met for a few short minutes, like last time.[4] When Spider-Man asks how she could know so much about his life, Hobgoblin explains that his entire life has been documented for prosperity in her time. By this point, the biospores being emitted from her glider’s exhaust port have infected Spider-Man’s new costume allowing her to take control of it and make the hero hit himself over and over.[5] Ben tells her to leave Spider-Man alone, but the Hobgoblin tells him not to tell her what to do. Snaring Spider-Man in some coils she leaves to paint the town red, telling Ben to enjoy getting reacquainted. When Ben wonders what the Hobgoblin was talking about he turns around and finds himself face-to-face with May Parker.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Ben Parker (Earth-6078), Spider-Man 2211, Hobgoblin 2211, TOTEM

Continuity Notes

1. Although Robin Brone’s Earth exists in the year 2211 it exists in Reality-9500 per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #3.

2. The reality that Ben Parker was pulled from is indexed as Reality-6078 per Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #2.

3. Peter previously met the Hobgoblin from 2211 in Spider-Man 2099 meets Spider-Man #1.

4. The Hobgoblin is referring to Amazing Spider-Man #500 when Doctor Strange reunited Peter with the spirit of his Uncle Ben for five minutes as a birthday gift.

5. This costume is referred to as new and created by Tony Stark. Tony created this armor and gave it to Peter in Amazing Spider-Man #529.

Topical References

• All references to the present day taking place in the year 2006 should be considered topical.