Reckonings

Then

Doctor Ashley Kafka is recording another session with the Vermin. She has begun making progress getting through to Edward, his true identity that has been submerged since is transformation. Through a regressive therapy session brings Edward back to when he was eight years old. He tries to get him to talk about his past and how he was sexually abused by his father. Reliving these memories causes Vermin great distress, and he tells her that he pushes all the feelings and pain down below, into the sewers. The session ends with the creature telling her that Edward is gone and there is nothing left but Vermin.

Now

Edward's parents home has been invaded by Vermin who has come to kill his father in retaliation for all the years of abuse. Confronting his father in his bedroom, the creature who was once their son reveals to his father that he finally remembers the truth and he will make all the pain go away. Vermin leaps onto his father's bed and is about to attack when suddenly, the young boy he found in the sewers -- a hallucination of his younger self -- begs Vermin not to kill their father. Elsewhere, Spider-Man is at war with hallucinations of his own. After being exposed to a hallucinogenic gas by the Green Goblin and haunted by the memory of his dead parents, Peter Parker has withdrawn deeply into his own mind.[1] He begs his parents to come back, that he will be good as long as they stop being dead. In the darkness, Peter eventually hears the voice of Ashley Kafka, who is gently coaxing him out of the emotional shell he has surrounded himself in. Peter begins reliving his travel through the tunnels he imagined when he was buried alive by Kraven the Hunter.[2] Ashley talks Parker through the guilt he feels over the death of his parents, something he feels was his fault because he was a bad child. Her demands for Peter to grow up and be a man finally pull him out of his catatonic state. Spider-Man suddenly leaps off Ashley's couch and struggles to his feet. As she congratulates him for processing his inner demons, they fail to see the Green Goblin flying by.

Back at the Whelan mansion, the hallucination of Edward's younger self begs Vermin not to kill their father, telling Vermin that it is wrong. Vermin points out that what their father did was wrong as well, and he needs to pay. Confused by this exchange, Edward's father asks who Vermin is talking to as there is nobody there. This revelation makes the hallucination disappear, and Vermin is pleased that nobody will stop him from what he must do. However, before he can land a killing blow, Edward's mother begs him to spare her husband's life. Hearing her cries, Vermin pauses and when he confirms that she is his mother, Vermin climbs off the bed and is comforted by his mother. Mrs. Whelan tells Vermin that she knows what Baron Zemo did to him and promises that nobody will hurt him ever again.[3] However, by this time, the authorities have been summoned to the Whelan home and are surrounding the area.

Then

Ashley Kafka continues her regressive therapy session. Now Edward is telling her about his trip to Mexico when he was 31 years old. He was a research scientist at the time and was looking for the notorious Nazi geneticist known as Arnim Zola. Instead, he found Baron Zemo, who enlisted Edward in his scientific research to push the limits of genetic engineering. Although Edward willingly took the job, as the work was brilliant, Baron Zemo treated him like a savage because he was a black man. He soon discovered that the work was being tested on human beings, that his mutates were transformed into horrific creatures partially by the darkest parts of their unconsciousness. Watching these horrible experiments made Edward think about his own abusive past. He begins to feel guilt over not doing anything to stop his father from molesting him, that somehow he was the bad person in it all that he was nothing bug vermin.

Now

Spider-Man is still recovering from his ordeal, and is still making sense of the revelation of the guilt he felt for the death of his parents, even though he had nothing to do with it. Kafka assures the wall-crawler that this is a common defense people develop to supress harmful memories. Unfortuantely, all it does is make it more traumatic when these feelings come back up to the surface. Before she can continue, the pair are interrupted by one of Ashley's nurses. She tells the pair that Vermin has been located and hearing that he is in Scarsdale, she fears the worse. As she turns to ask Spider-Man for help, she discovers that the wall-crawler is already gone. As Spider-Man swings across the city, he thinks about how the Vermin's reapparance is bad timing as he needs time to process what he learned about himself, as well as finding Harry and getting him help.

Back at the Wheland mansion, Vermin has become aware of the police presence and becomes upset because authority figures have always hurt him. Vermin turns his anger toward his mother, who he blames for doing nothing to protect him while his father abused him. By this point, Edward's father has come out of his state of shock and recovered the pistol from his night table. He denounces the creature, saying that Vermin is not his son, and orders him out of his home or he will shoot. This confirms Vermin's worldview that he will no longer be Edward Wheland again and orders his rats to attack. As his father is knocked off his feet, Vermin decides to pass judgement on his father for his past crimes. Grabbing the pistol off the ground, Vermin decides to sentence to his father to death. However, Vermin discovers that he can't bring himself to pull the trigger and recoils away. The creature finds himself struggling between his two personalities, that of Edward who still loves his father and Vermin who wants him to pay for his crimes. That's when Spider-Man enters the room through the window. He tries to convince Vermin to return to Doctor Kafka to get help. Unfortunately, Vermin's hatred for the wall-crawler prevents Vermin from listening to reason. Vermin leaps at Spider-Man, pushing them both out of a window and onto the front lawn. As the authorities try to get into the house, they are swarmed by Vermin's army of rats.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man swings Vermin up onto the roof and once more tries to convince him to stop fighting. Vermin attacks in a blind rage, slashing open the side of the hero. Weakened from all his ordeals that night, Spider-Man is easily overpowered and sent slamming into the side of a chimney. Before Vermin can kill the wall-crawler, he is blasted from behind by the Green Goblin who intends to be the one to finally kill Spider-Man.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Ashley Kafka, Green Goblin, Vermin

Continuity Notes

1. Richard and Mary Parker were CIA agents who were killed while serving their country, as revealed in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5.

2. Kraven buried Spider-Man alive and he struggled to get free for two weeks. While underground, Peter dreamed of crawling through a tunnel and struggled with the balance between spider and man.

3. Edward Whelan was turned into the Vermin by Baron Zemo in Captain America #272.