Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #13
Emergence
Prologue:
It is a rainy evening in New York City, as Office Angela Cairn sits at home in her apartment in the East Village.[1] On this gloomy night, Angela can't take her mind off her friend and former partner Jackie Kessler. Kessler was one of the police officers who tried to stop Vermin on the night that he tried to escape from Ashley Kafka's care.[2] To try and get her mind off of Jackie's death, Angel begins shuffling through a set of Tarot cards. When she turns one over, it depicts the image of a bat.
Her thoughts are interrupted by a phone call she had been waiting for. A serial killer the newspaper had started calling the "Mutilation Killer" had struck again. She is convinced that these murders have been committed by Vermin, even though everyone claims that he was cured.[3] She goes to the scene of the crime to investigate the scene for proof. As she looks around the darkened warehouse, she is suddenly ambushed from behind and is knocked out. When Cairn wakes up, she finds herself strapped into a strange chair. She is then confronted by the Mutilation Killer. It is not the Vermin as she suspected, but another one of Baron Zemo's mutates. The killer explains that it has taken Angela to Baron Zemo's old hideout and strapped her into the machine that Zemo had used to transform his mutates. The killer then goes on to say that unlike the other mutates, it enjoys its new form and wishes to show Angela what it is like to be transformed. With that, the Mutilation Killer activates the machine, which jolts Angela with unknown energy. However, instead of being transformed, Cairn appears to be killed by the process. The Mutilation Killer then carries Angela's lifeless body and throws it into the waters outside of Zemo's hideout.
An entire day passes, and on the following night, Angela Cairn is reborn. Emerging from the waters on bat-like wings, the now mute Cairn discovers that she has been transformed after all and flies off into the night sky.
Now:
Spider-Man has come to the clinic run by Doctor Ashley Kafka, where he is happily greeted by Baron Zemo's mutates are undergoing treatment to restore their humanity. He is also greeted by Kafka and her assistant Edward Whelan, the man who used to be Vermin. Kafka invites the wall-crawler into her office and explains that her new clinic has been doing well, particularly thanks to the assistance of Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. Unfortunately, she has not been making the progress she was hoping for. They are confident that they will cure them eventually. After confirming that Edward has not had a Vermin relapse, the wall-crawler leaves. Although everyone else thinks that Ashley will succeed with the others much like she did with Edward. However, she is concerned that Edward may have been a unique case and the others won't be cured in the same fashion.
On the roof of Kafka's building, sits Angela Cairn who has been listening to their conversation. As Spider-Man swings away from the building, Cairn swoops past him, almost making the hero fall to his death. She returns to her apartment to get a better look at herself and is horrified by the transformation that she has undergone. Even more upsetting is that she discovers that she is incapable of speech. She then loses her temper and begins trashing her apartment. As it turns out, Spider-Man was checking in on Edward and the mutates to determine if they were somehow connected to the Mutilation Killer. Convinced that this was the case, the wall-crawler is now heading to Angela Cairn's apartment to see what else the police may have learned about the killer. As he arrives, he witnesses as Angela comes smashing out of her apartment window and flies away. Unaware of her transformation, and thinking this may be the killer, Spider-Man follows after her. The two begin to battle, Angela being driven by the emotions that are at work during the scene. Suddenly, she unleashes a mental blast that floods Spider-Man with her emotions. This stuns Spider-Man long enough for Cairn to make an escape. When the web-head recovers from the attack, he doubles back to Angela's apartment to look for clues. However, all he finds are a number of Tarot cards scattered all over the floor.
While back at Baron Zemo's hideout, Angela Carin returns to confront the Mutilation Killer. The killer laughs when it gets a look at her. When Angela lashes out at the killer, it decides to mock her further by assuming her human form. The fight is interrupted by Spider-Man, who thinks that the real Angela Carin is being attacked by a creature. He tries to stop her, but Angela manages to use her emotion channeling abilities to convince Spider-Man who she really is. When the killer tries to convince Spider-Man that it is Angela Carin, Spider-Man strikes it instead. The blow causes the killer to resume its natural form. Angela attacks the killer and is about to kill it, but Spider-Man reminds her that she is a police officer and she must not let herself stoop to the killer's level. Angela stops herself, and agrees to allow Spider-Man to contact the authorities. After the killer is taken away by the police, Spider-Man tries to convince Angela to get treated for her transformation. However, Carin refuses, deciding to make sense of her transformation. After she flies away, Spider-Man heads for home, hoping that Angela cane find a sense of purpose and destiny following her transformation.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Nocturne, Ashley Kafka, Edward Whelan
Continuity Notes
The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted as part of the New York City skyline here. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. The original towers were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, and have since been replaced by the Freedom Tower.
Vermin's escape from captivity was depicted in The Spectacular Spider-Man #178.
Edward Whelan was cured of transforming into Vermin in The Spectacular Spider-Man #194-196.
Through the Window
Now calling herself Nocturne, Angela Cairn happens upon two men beating up on a young man in an alleyway. She comes to the man's aid, savagely beating his attackers. She then flies the boy to a nearby hospital where he is given immediate medical attention.
Nocturne can't help but relate to the boy and flies across the city to the home of her mother. Looking through the window, she sees her mother going through moments of Angela's youth. Since Angela was presumed to have been a victim of the Mutilation Killer, her mother cries. Seeing the agony her mother is in causes Nocturne to shed some tears as well.
When her mother falls asleep in a rocking chair, Angela enters the house. Later, her mother is woken up by a breeze and discovers that the bedroom window is open. She closes it, and turns back to the box of memories and discovers that one of her daughter's earrings is missing. She figures that she must have misplaced it somewhere and it will eventually turn up, unaware that Angela had taken it.
Flying away from her old family home, Angela has put the earing on one of her ears as a momento of her former life as she tries to figure out whoshe wants to be.
Recurring Characters
Nocturne
In Your Eyes
A crow flies into an open apartment window and lands on a wheelchair inside. Suddenly, the crow disappears in a swirl of fog, leaving Jesse Black Crow in its place. Waking up, he thinks that he has fallen asleep in his chair once again and dismisses everything as nothing more than a dream. Depressed about his current condition, he decides to go to bed and enters a fitful sleep.
Jesse's depression has drawn the demonic figure known as D'Spayre, who seeks to revel in his misery once destroying the guardian that protects Jesse Black Crow. Suddenly, Jesse transforms into the supernatural being known as the Black Crow. The Black Crow transforms into his namesake and attacks D'Spayre. The demon responds by changing forms into a three headed beast and tries to crush Black Crow. As they struggle, D'Spayre explains that he revels over the fact that Black Crow's secrecy has caused his host a great deal of dispaire.
Ultimately, Black Crow defeats D'Spayre, explaining that he anticipated the demon's arrival and that his attack was a final test for his host. As the Black Crow returns to Jesse's body, D'Spayre retreats, vowing to destroy Black Crow some day. When Jesse wakes up, he assumes it was all a dream, when suddenly the voice of the Black Crow speaks in his mind, telling him that the entire experience was true. Learning for the first time who he truly is finally puts Jesse Black Crow's mind at ease.
Recurring Characters
Black Crow, D’Spayre
Jaded Perceptions
Hobie Brown is at the Sons of the Tiger Martial Arts Studio, where he and Hector -- a fellow student -- spar against Hobie's brother Abe and his partner Lin Sun. Although Hector shows promise and may eventually earn his brown belt, Hobie is easily knocked down. Seeing the jade amulets that Abe and Lin wear, he asks if he will get one someday as well. Abe explains that these are the mystical jade amulets that he, Lin, and Bob Diamond wore as the martial artists known as the Sons of the Tiger.[1] Hobie notices that Abe is developing a strong bond to young Hector. As Lin brings Hobie into his office, he explains that Abe has focused a lot of attention on the boy as many of his students are getting scared away by some crooked developers that have been trying to force them to close their martial arts school.
Inside of the office, Lin Sun shows Hobie he recently redesigned suit of armor. Suddenly, they are a crash from the studio outside. The villain known as Killer Shrike has come to trash the place in another effort to force Abe and Lin to close their studio. Although Abe and Lin try to stop the villain, his high tech weapons easily incapacitate them. Shrike then grabs Hector and tries to make an escape. However, by this time, Hobie has put on his Prowler outfit and attacks Shrike. He warns the villain that because he was helpless to stop the death of a child in the past, he refuses to allow Hector to come to harm.[2] The Prowler frees Hector but is injured by Killer Shrike. In order to bluff Shrike, Abe and Lin put their fake amulets around the Prowler's neck.
Although he has a broken wrist, the Prowler manages to get up and knock out Killer Shrike. Convinced that amulets had given him increased power, however, the Prowler soon learns that these are only plastic replicas. The real amulets were returned to K'un-L'un some time ago, and Hobie was able to defeat Killer Shrike under his own power.[3]
Recurring Characters
Prowler, Abe Brown, Lin Sun, Killer Shrike
Continuity Notes
The trio obtained the amulets and were active from Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #1-19 when the amulets were passed on to Hector Ayala who later became the White Tiger.
The Prowler was helpless to stop the murder of a young boy in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #21.
The Amulets ended up back in K'un-L'un in Power Man and Iron Fist #74.
