Scarlet Spider (vol. 2) #17
Wraith Part One
A young man with multiple gun shot wounds is rushed into the ER at Park Plaza Hospital. Donald Meland takes the young man into surgery and upon removing the bullets he finds a strange ball in one of the wounds. Getting a closer look at the object he sees the word “Kaine” scratched into it and realizes that this means trouble.
Later that day, at a fancy restaurant in Houston, Bella Donna Bourdeaux and Smithy of the Assassins Guild wait for Kaine to get their message. Using his stealth costume, the Scarlet Spider gets close enough to punch Smithy in the face, announcing his presence. When Smithy tries to threaten him, Kaine crushes his hand for the second time and demands to know what brings the Guild to Houston. Bella Donna orders Smithy to leave and invites Kaine to join her. She reminds Kaine that he made a promise to do one job for the Assassins Guild in exchange for them leaving him and his friends alone and has come to call in her marker.[1] She then hands him a dossier and tells Kaine that his target is Wolverine of the X-Men, warning him that if he fails to carry out this contract the Assassins Guild will kill everyone he loves. Kaine considers this an interesting challenge and accepts the job.
When Kaine returns to his hotel room, Aracely already know about the job and asks to tag along. She reminds him how she helped him in the past and points out that he shouldn’t leave her alone.[2] Kaine then surprises her by giving her a US passport he got for her and says she is coming with him. They soon take a fight class flight to New York, a city that Kaine wanted to get away from. When they arrive the Assassins Guild has a limo waiting to take them upstate. The whole time Aracely is excited about the trip and wants to see sights. When she spots Spider-Man swinging by she gets very excited.
Soon they arrive outside of the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, and Kaine has to admit that this is the craziest thing he has ever seen.[3] Kaine uses his ability to communicate with spiders to take out the inside the of the school, eventually finding Wolverine in the headmaster’s office. Before going in, Kaine wants to know why Aracely has started wearing a costume. She ignores his question to ask questions about how his ability to communicate with spiders works. She also inists that he call her Hummingbird when she is in costume. While Kaine activates the stealth function of his costume he sends Hummingbird down to knock at the door. When the Toad answers the door, Hummingbird uses her ability to project fear into the minds of others to makes him flee allowing the Scarlet Spider to get access to the building. They are observed by one of the Assassins Guild’s foot soldiers sent to monitor their progress.
Inside, Hummingbird reveals that she can communicate with Kaine telepathically. However, as they are bickering with each other about keeping a low profile, Aracely runs into Marvel Girl who easily identifies her as an intruder. When Rachel tries to scan Aracely’s mind, the young girl projects her fear into Rachel’s mind. This spreads to all of the other telepaths at the school creating enough of a racket to get Wolverine’s attention. By this point, the fear has spread to all of the children. Rachel tries to keep her mind in check but the power inside Aracely is almost overwhelming. Still, she eventually begins detecting the presence of the Scarlet Spider and warns the Beast of this second intruder. Thanks to his enhanced senses, the Beast can zero in on Kaine's location due to his persperation.
Although the Beast’s senses tell him that this is Spider-Man, he knows this is an not the real wall-crawler, something Kaine admits. Soon he finds himself in a battle with both the Beast and Iceman. He quickly blinds them with webbing but Shadowcat sneaks up behind him and phases her hand through his head and threatens to solidify it and scramble his brains if Kaine refuses to surrender. However, Hummingbird has managed to use her powers to take mental control of the time-displaced Jean Grey and use her to use her mental powers to attack Shadowcat. This frees the Scarlet Spider who resumes his fight with Beast and Iceman until Wolverine arrives and demands to know what’s going on.
The Scarlet Spider tells Wolverine that he has come to kill him and says that it isn’t personal. Wolverine pops his adamantium claws and leaps into battle. Although Kaine is faster and stronger than Wolverine he is almost no match for the mutant’s savagery. However, when Logan slashes Kaine’s face it triggers the Other to take over and Kaine pops his wrist stingers and stabs it between Wolverine’s ribs and directly into the feral mutant’s hearts. As Wolverine falls to the ground, the Scarlet Spider asks who wants to take him on next.
Recurring Characters
Scarlet Spider, Hummingbird, Assassins Guild (Bella Donna Bourdeaux, Smithy), X-Men (Wolverine, Iceman, Marvel Girl (Rachel Grey), Beast, Shadowcat, Storm, Toad), Donald Meland, X-Men students (Marvel Girl (past Jean Grey), Rockslide, Glob Herman, Kid Omega, Mercury, Indra, Dust, Genesis, Blindfold, Match, Anole, Elixir, Broo), Spider-Man
Continuity Notes
Kaine clashed with the Assassins Guild when they were hired to assassinate his friend Donald Meland. See Scarlet Spider (vol. 2) #3-4.
Aracely points out how she helped Kaine fight the Lobo Cartel. This is more-or-less true. See Scarlet Spider (vol. 2) #13-15.
Kaine mentions that he has died twice and come back to life. The first time was when he was murdered by the Kravinoff family, the second was by the Lobo cartel. Both times he was resurrected by the Other. See Amazing Spider-Man #634-637 and Scarlet Spider (vol. 2) #13-15.
Topical References
Bella Donna and Smithy are seen eating at Brennan’s a famous restaurant in Houston. This should be considered a topical reference because it is a real world buisness.
Likewise, the hotel Kaine is staying at is identified as the Four Seasons Hotel in Houston. This is also topical for the same reason as the appearance of Brennan’s.
