Scarlet Spider (vol. 2) #5
Pillar of Fire
The Scarlet Spider is assisting in a high speed chase between the police and members of the Watchdogs, a homegrown terrorist organization. Kaine quickly forces the van to crash. When the driver tries to crawl away, the Spider grabs him and demands to know the location of a bomb that the Watchdogs have planted in the city.
At that moment at the Texas Center of Superconductivity at the University of Houston, a group of men in buisness suits tell the security guard that they need use of the facility. When he refuses to give them access, one of the men pulls a gun and shoots the guard in the head. Their leader then orders them to cut the alarms as he anticipates that things will get messy from here on out.
Back at the scene of the accident, Kaine is choking out the Watchdog, demanding he reveal the location of the bomb. His ally, Officer Wally Layton, orders Kaine to let go of the man as he cannot breathe. Kaine warns Layton not to threaten him and agrees to let go of the man. Wally understands Kaine’s frustration because this man, named Menkin, has made a career of committing hate crimes against undocumented immigrants from Mexico. Kaine then tells Wally to find out where Menkin’s family lives so he can kill them if he doesn’t talk. Wally refuses to do this so Kaine pops out his wrist stingers and impales one through Menkin’s hand in order to get him to talk.
Moments later, the Scarlet Spider and Wally are speeding through the city in a police car. Wally demands to know what Kaine was doing back at the scene of the accident. Kaine can’t believe Wally could act so naive when these lunatics have planted a bomb somewhere in the city. When Layton suggests calling his husband, Donald Meland, Kaine recommends telling him to get their friends, Annabelle and Aracely, and get them out of the city. To pass the time, Kaine also asks Wally to go over the situation again from the beginning.
Wally tells Kaine how the Houston PD got a tip about the attack from a member of the Watchdogs, a right-wing extremist group. He tells Kaine how the organization traditionally targeted abortion clinics, pornographers, and homosexuals, but have started targeting illegal immigrants since expanded into the southwestern United States. The whistleblower had learned about a plot to set off a bomb and blame it on illegals called the police to warn them. Apparently the group’s leader, a man named Ranier, is responsible. They already know that the bomb is in Houston but despite the local police and FBI’s efforts to find it they haven’t been able to locate the explosive. That’s why Wally is glad that Kaine is helping, referring to him as the Scarlet Spider. When Kaine asks where Layton heard that name, he explains that this is the name that the media has given Kaine. Hearing this makes Kaine think that he is being punished somehow.[1]
Moments later they arrive at the University of Houston to discover they are too late as the Watchdogs have stolen nuclear material for their bomb. When they leave so Wally can call it in, they are ambushed by Watchdogs. The Scarlet Spider quickly takes them down and this time it’s Wally threatening the lives of one of the terrorists in order to learn where the bomb has been taken.
Meanwhile, the news is spreading fast with word passing through the FBI’s Houston office, to their headquarters in Washington DC. When officials there call SHIELD for assistant, Director Daisy Johnson is not pleased they are only learning about this hours later. The call is then sent to Avengers Mansion where Iron Man tells them that he is on his way.
By this time, Wally and the Scarlet Spider arrive at William P. Hobby Airport where the Watchdogs are trying to flee the area in a private jet. The Spider quickly takes out the armed guards. However, when he confronts Ranier about the bomb, the leader of the Watchdogs says he’ll find out in 20 minutes when the bomb goes off and then puts his gun in his mouth and blows his brains out. When Wally enters the cockpit, the Scarlet Spider tells him that they need to get their friends and family and leave the city. However, Wally refuses to give up, confident that Kaine can do something. Kaine continues to argue with Wally when he suddenly remembers that he can communicate with spiders. Telling Layton to shut up, Kaine begins to concentrate and thanks to the city’s spider population is able to learn the location of the bomb.
As Iron Man is deployed over West Virginia, the President is briefed and told that they are probably going to lose Houston. However, the Scarlet Spider quickly arrives at the Houston Underground and quickly finds the bomb hidden in a supply room. With two minutes on the clock, the Scarlet Spider refuses to leave Wally alone with the bomb, saying that Houston is his home now too. With time running out, Wally calls his husband, Donald, before the end. With five seconds to spare, Kaine takes a chance and rips out a bunch of wires, shutting off the bomb. When Wally asks how he managed to choose the right ones, Kaine said he had no idea and just did it impulsively because they were going to die anyway. This revelation makes both men laugh their heads off.
When soldiers come bursting in moments later, the Scarlet Spider has activated the cloaking device in his costume. After Wally tells them the bomb was disarmed, Kaine tells him to keep his name out of it.
Recurring Characters
Scarlet Spider, Watchdogs, Wally Layton, Iron Man, SHIELD (Daisy Johnson, Nick Fury Jr, Phil Coulson)
Continuity Notes
When Ben Reilly, another clone of Peter Parker, began fighting crime in costume he was dubbed the Scarlet Spider by the media in Spider-Man #52. Kaine considers this a punishment because he had spent a great deal of his life haunting Ben Reilly. For more on this see Web of Spider-Man #117, Amazing Spider-Man #394, Spider-Man #51, Spectacular Spider-Man #217, Amazing Spider-Man #400, Spider-Man #57, Spectacular Spider-Man #223 and Spider-Man: The Lost Years #1-3.
Topical References
The President of the United States is depicted as Barack Obama in this story. This should be considered topical since Obama ran two terms as president and left office in 2017.
