Nick Peron

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Spectacular Spider-Man #4

Nick Peron

The Vulture Is a Bird of Prey

Credits

A small-time hood is chased down the street by the Vulture. Not aware of who his mark was, the man tries to beg for forgiveness as he was only doing his job. However, the Vulture is only interested in retribution and carries the thug high up into the sky. The screams of the Vulture's victim wake up Peter Parker, who is sleeping in his Chelsea apartment. Spider-Man looks out the window and sees nothing, unaware that the shouts were coming from overhead. Thinking he dreamed the whole thing, Peter returns to bed, needing to rest after his battle with the Lizard and Stegron the Dinosaur Man. Meanwhile, the Vulture then tosses the thug into the Hudson River for daring to try and extort him for protection money. Later, this thug returns to his boss, the mobster known as Morgan to tell him that the Vulture is operating out of a fix-it shop. Morgan finds this amusing given the defeats of both Kingpin and Hammerhead have left a power vacuum in the underworld. Morgan decides to try and make allies with the Vulture so his gang can expand out of Harlem and take over the entire underworld.

The following morning, Peter Parker wakes up and is shocked to discover that he slept through his alarm. Running late for school, he changes into Spider-Man to catch his bus. Although he lands on the roof of the bus before it can leave, he is knocked off as they pass a low hanging tree branch, much to his humiliation. Meanwhile, Morgan and his men pay a visit to the fix-it shop to try and recruit the Vulture into their organization. However, the Vulture is not interested in joining forces as he has spent his recent freedom increasing his powers so he can finally destroy his foe, Spider-Man. He then quickly trounces Morgan's men and leaves the mobster hanging from a lamp post until the authorities arrive with a cherry picker to get him down. At that moment, Peter Parker is so exhausted from his late night adventuring that he falls asleep in class, getting him in trouble with his professor. After classes are over, Peter happens by the restaurant where Flash thought he saw Sha Shan, the woman who saved his life when he was in the military. Peter decides to confirm this by knocking at the door. However, when the owner answers the door he denies having an employee named Sha Shan working for him. All the while, Sha Shan hides behind a curtain choking back tears.

Peter continues on his way, thinking about the situation with Flash when suddenly he spies the Vulture flying over the city with a hostage in hand. He overhears from one of the by-standards that the Vulture is threatening to drop this man if Spider-Man doesn't appear to face him. Despite the crippling winter cold, Peter slips away to a nearby rooftop and changes into his Spider-Man costume to face his long-time foe. Meanwhile, Morgan is watching the news coverage on television. Seeking to get revenge against the Vulture for his earlier humiliation, he hires a costumed assassin called the Hitman to eliminate the Vulture for a large sum of money. At that moment, Spider-Man arrives on the scene to fight the Vulture. The villain leaves his hostage with others he had captured on the top of a building and the two begin to fight. Their battle sends them crashing into an abandoned construction project. There, Spider-Man tries to damage the Vulture's power pack -- a means of defeating him in the past -- only to learn that his foe has boobytrapped it, electrifying the hero. Before the Vulture can swoop in for the kill, an explosion knocks him to the ground. The pair is then confronted by the Hitman who intends to foil the Vulture's revenge sceme by destroying Spider-Man himself.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Sha Shan Nguyen, Vulture, Hitman, Boss Morgan, Achmed Korba

Continuity Notes

  • References to Flash Thompson fighting in the Vietnam War should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. Per History of the Marvel Universe #2, one could assume that Flash fought in the Sin Cong Conflict