Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #10

Feb 17

Feb 17 Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #10

Into the Microverse

This story continues from Amazing Spider-Man Annual #24...

After being shrunk down in size, Spider-Man returns home to his wife Mary Jane, who is shocked to see Spider-Man in his diminutive size.[1] Trying to find a vantage point where he can tell Mary Jane what happened he accidentally knocks over a tin of flour. This causes Mary Jane to sneeze, sending Spider-Man flying out the window and onto a passing bird. Fighting off the bird, Spider-Man then falls into a nearby chimney. Landing back into his apartment, Spider-Man tells his wife that there is no time for explanations now and insists that they get into contact with Harry Osborn immediately. Unknown to them at the time, a mysterious being watches from afar via a monitor device. Going into a room where he has a number of creatures are held in cages, he gloats at his collection which he intends to include Spider-Man among its number.

Meanwhile, at an Oscorp lab, Harry Osborn examines Spider-Man and deduces that he is still shrinking. Asking the wall-crawler what happened, Spider-Man explains how he was at the Tomorrow Exposition when he suddenly shrunk. At first, he thought it was exposure to Ant-Man's shrinking gas that caused him to shrink. The two worked together to stop a group of terrorists from stealing a Quark machine. Afterward, they attempted to restore Spider-Man to normal size with Ant-Man's enlarging gas, but it didn't work.[2] After some examination, Harry thinks he can isolate what is causing Spider-Man to continue to shrink but it will take time. Unfortunately, a group of armed men arrives outside the building intending to rob the facility for the drugs they need for their illegal operations. When they storm the lab, Harry and Mary Jane try to tell them to stop, but Spider-Man leaps into action. Even though he is now microscopic in size, the wall-crawler still has his normal strength and he is able to knock the armed men around. Spider-Man knocks out all of the thugs except one that tries to shoot Harry. Spider-Man manages to snare the bullet with a web-line and redirect it. The bullet ricochets across the room, ultimately striking the gunman in the shoulder. However, this also knocks out Spider-Man.

When he wakes up Spider-Man discovers that he is even smaller than ever as he floats around in a slide with micro-organisms. With the masked hero still shrinking, Harry puts the slide into a vacuum chamber and tries to bombard Spider-Man with a positron energy beam. This still doesn't work and the wall-crawler continues to shrink to the point where he drifts into the Microverse. As he continues to shrink, Spider-Man tries to keep sane as he spirals past microorganisms, past molecules, and more. Eventually, he approaches what appears to be a planet. When he lands on the surface he is like a giant among the planet's inhabitants. A highly advanced society, they begin attacking the wall-crawler. They end up roping the hero down as though it is a scene out of Gulliver's Travels. However, Spider-Man continues to shrink in size. He shrinks down and down until he finds himself in a void-like outer space. There he is captured by a ship. No sooner than he is inside, the wall-crawler is attacked by tentacles that restrain him. Once the web-slinger is subdued his captor makes himself known. Spider-Man is shocked to discover that his captor is none other than the Psycho-Man.[3]

This story is continued in Web of Spider-Man Annual #6...

Continuity Notes

Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife here. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by the demon Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As such, they should be considered a common-law couple here.
Spider-Man's size change happened in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #24.
Spider-Man knows who Psycho-Man is, even though it appears that they had never met previously. However, they actually have met as seen in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #4-6. Although this was published years later, those occur prior to this story.

Pale Reflection

In order to be a more formidable fighter, Hobie Brown has accepted martial arts training from his brother, the famous martial artist Abe Brown. After getting knocked down during sparring practice, Abe dismisses his other students and tells his brother to get up. Hobie is unhappy with how his brother treats him in class, considering the fact that he is paying Abe to train him. Abe explains that Tae Kwon Do is about moral development and teaches one self-respect. This angers Hobie, who reminds his brother that he didn't have such moral development when he abandoned their mother after his father died.

An hour later, Hobie returns to his home in Long Island City. When he tries to surprise his wife Mindy, she flips him over her shoulder onto her couch by surprise. She explains that she has been taking self-defense as part of a rape prevention course she has been taking. Mindy then heads out to study for her thesis and asks what Hobie intends to do. Brown tells his wife that since the construction site he was working on is still closed, he decided to take up Silver Sable's offer for work.[1]

Soon, Hobie is at the Symkarian Embassy in his Prowler costume proving his skills while battling members of the Wildpack. Silver Sable is impressed that he was able to defeat a team of her mercenaries in record time. Sable tells the Prowler that her men will be docked a day’s pay, a harsh lesson on the price of failure that she wants the Prowler to remember. Hobie explains that he is familiar with harsh lessons when he first became the Prowler and started his career as a super-villain.[2] Silver Sable tells Hobie that his first mission for her is to protect Osborn Chemicals from the White Ninja, a member of a group of Japanese imperialists who are seeking to obtain a nerve toxin.

Soon, the Prowler is on the scene, however, after hours of waiting where nothing happens. When his guard is down, he is struck with throwing stars. Landing on the ground, he is attacked by the White Ninja. When the Prowler begins to rely on the various devices in his arsenal, the White Ninja wrecks them. Ultimately, the Prowler uses a round-house kick to knock the White Ninja down. This blow also knocks his mask off revealing the White Ninja as none other than his brother Abe Brown. Looking to get even with Abe, the Prowler launches another attack but Abe easily restrains him. This all turns out to have been a test set by Silver Sable to teach Hobie Brown that he and the Prowler are the same people with the same weaknesses.

Recurring Characters

Prowler, Mindy Brown, Silver Sable, Abe Brown, Wild Pack

Continuity Notes

Hobie was working on a construction site that was closed after a mysterious death in The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #9. He was offered a job with Silver Sable International in Web of Spider-Man #50.
Hobie Brown became the Prowler in Amazing Spider-Man #87 starting off as a criminal. However, Spider-Man managed to convince him the errors of his ways.

The Choice

This story continues in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #24...

The Sandman is walking along the beach at Coney Island thinking about how his life has changed when he decided to go straight.[1] His thoughts are interrupted by his former partners the Wizard and the Trapster who want him to rejoin them in the Frightful Four. However, the Sandman refuses their offer, insisting that he has gone straight. The Trapster is ready to start a fight, but the Wizard tells him to stand back and asks the Sandman to explain himself. He tells them that going straight and having a normal life has been worth all the gold in Fort Knox. He even tells them how he has become close friends with the Thing.

Although the Trapster is spoiling for the fight, the Wizard once more tells him to stand down and decides to respect the Sandman's decision. Soon, he and the Trapster leave, and the Sandman feels good for standing up for what he believes in. However, once his two former foes were merely playing along. The Wizard suspects that if they make the Sandman a wanted fugitive again he will have no choice but to join them. By this point, the Sandman has returned to the Casada home where he rents a room. There he finds Rosa Casada crying at the kitchen table. She tells him that the police came to their home to question her son, Carlos. But he refused to talk to either the police or herself. Since Carlos reminds the Sandman of when he was a child, he decides to go upstairs and try to talk to the boy. Getting into the kid's room, the Sandman gets the boy to talk. He tells the Sandman that the police came asking for Carlos' cooperation on an investigation with a gang he used to run with that had recently started robbing liquor stores.

Carlos doesn't want to choose between his friends or the authorities. However, the Sandman points out that he needs to do the right thing before someone gets hurt. The Sandman finishes their talk that not making a decision is still making a decision. This makes him realize that his business with the Wizard and Trapster is far from over. The Sandman then goes to the train yard where the Wizard and Trapster are hiding out. They think he has come to sign up with them again, however, he has actually come to turn them into the authorities. When the Trapster tries to blast the Sandman with his paste from behind, the Sandman dodges it and it hits the Wizard instead. Their former ally then easily incapacitates the Trapster. When the Wizard threatens to expose the Sandman, he counters by warning the Wizard that they will end up in the same prison and he wouldn't like that.

A few days later, the Sandman returns home to hear that Carlos is upset. Going up to ask the boy what's wrong, Carlos tells him that he made his choice too late. His friends tried to hold up another liquor store, however this time the store owner had a gun.

Recurring Characters

Sandman, Wizard, Trapster, The Cassadas (Carlos, Rosa)

Continuity Notes

The Sandman decided to reform in Marvel Two-In-One #86.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

On a mission for Silver Sable, the Rocket Racer is speeding down I-71 South in Medina County, Ohio. He has come to stop a pair of highjackers who call themselves the Pack Rats. As he tries to catch the two thieves in their dune buggy, they activate a jamming device that shorts out all of the Rocket Racer's devices causing him to crash on the side of the road.

As he falls unconscious, his mind drifts back to a few days earlier in New York City. How he was hired by Silver Sable International to locate Bert and Hubie Packer as they stole some technology from their client. When the Racer wakes up, he finds Sheriff Andy Taylor standing over him. He helps the young man up, telling him that he knows about his mission and invites him back to the sheriff's office to repair his gear. After briefing the Racer on the Packer brothers and offers his assistance in their apprehension.

The Racer accepts the offer and Sheriff Taylor brings him to the Bar With No Name, which has been closed since the Scourge of the Underworld murdered all the super-villains that were in the establishment at the time.[1] When they are ambushed by the Pack Rats and their stolen technology. However, the Rocket Racer fails to surrender even when they jam his technology again. He manages to capture the Packers with the aid of Sheriff Taylor. With the two criminals in police custody, Sheriff Tayler takes the Rocket Racer out fishing to celebrate.