Blood Simple

Captured by Hydra, Peter Parker finds himself locked in a cell with Morbius the Living Vampire. With the creature consumed by bloodlust, Morbius lunges at Peter. While in a nearby lab, Hydra subjects the novice hero known as SHOC to tests so they can unlock the secrets of his powers. As Peter struggles for his life, minions of Don Fortunato watch in amusement. They might not understand why their boss has associated their gang with Hydra, but they are entertained by the results. Meanwhile, Doctor Andrea Janson provides a status update to Don Fortunato, who asks his master if he is happy with the results so far. Emerging from the shadows is Baron Strucker, the leader of Hydra, who tells the Don that he is not happy at all. However, he explains that he will never be happy until Hydra has made itself the most powerful terrorist organization in the world and complains that this project is taking too long. Having to report back to operations in Asia, Baron Strucker leaves Fortunato in charge, hoping that things in New York can continue without his direct supervision. Crown also hopes that his lover, Doctor Janesn, succeeds as in his current condition he does not have much life left. After she assures him that she will succeed, Crown teleports Baron Strucker away.

As all this is happening, nobody is aware an army of armed men is storming Don Fortunato's Long Island compound. While down in the holding cell, Peter continues to struggle with Morbius. As he fights back, he reminds himself that Morbius isn't naturally an evil person, that he suffers from a rare blood disease.[1] Just when Peter can't hold out anymore, the armed men storming the facility blast the guards and then enter the cell, blasting Morbius as well. Just as Peter is about to thank the people who have come to rescue him his spider-sense begins going off. That's when he sees who is in charge of this group of rescuers and is blasted into unconsciousness as well. They then break into the lab and takes out everyone inside before leaving with SHOC. When Crown and Don Fortunato return home a half-hour later, the mobster is furious that someone is interfering with his plans. Crown is also furious because his beloved Andrea is dead -- and with it all hopes of being restored to normal -- and vows to avenge her death.

Elsewhere, Peter Parker wakes up to find himself shackled up with Morbius and SHOC. They are confronted by their jailer, the mobster known as Hammerhead. Hammerhead can understand why SHOC and Morbius were prisoners of Don Fortunato but is really curious why he is interested in a seemingly normal person like Peter Parker and threatens to shoot him if he doesn't talk. Caught in a life or death situation, Peter considers using his spider-strength to break free from his cuffs. However, before he can act SHOC breaks free of his bonds instead, explaining that Peter is a harmless innocent caught up in all of this because of him. Hammerhead orders SHOC to stand down, threatening to shoot Peter and pointing out that there are armed guards all around them. Once more, Hammerhead demands to know why Don Fortunato is. Peter counters by asking what Hammerhead wants from them. Hammerhead pistol whips Peter for speaking out of turn but explains that the Fortunato mob is a poison on the city, particularly because of their association with Hydra. However, Hammerhead isn't just doing this out of the goodness of his heart, but particularly because Fortunato and his Hydra allies are muscling into his criminal operations. Hammerhead then tells SHOC that he wants the hero to help him bring down Fortunato and Hydra. With Peter Parker's life on the line, SHOC agrees to help. Sending his men to deal with Morbius, Hammerhead takes Peter and SHOC to hide hideout in Manhattan to talk about his plan. The reason why he wants SHOC on his side is to deal with the super-powered elements of Fortunato's operation, namely the man known as Crown.

SHOC is interested to know where Crown's power comes from, and Hammerhead has the intelligence on that. He explains that Hydra has been interested in replicating SHOC's powers. Although they have managed to do so, the process kills those who use it after a few years. That the process was created by a scientist who tried to stop his experiments when he learned that he was actually working for Hydra. Hydra in turn, sent Crown to kill this scientist and steal his notes, a task he failed. SHOC reveals that this scientist was his father and hearing all of this, agrees to help Hammerhead despite protests from Peter.[2] However, Hammerhead appeals to Peter by talking about the families of his men that are at risk of getting to hurt if Hydra continues to operate in the city.[3] Then, as a gesture of good faith to SHOC, Hammerhead orders his men to drop Peter off somewhere. In reality, Hammerhead's men take Peter up to the roof where his spider-sense begins buzzing. There, they shove Peter off the roof to fall to his death. Leaving without checking that he is indeed dead, they don't see that Peter has clung to the wall with his spider-powers. Glad to finally have a moment alone, Peter begins changing into Spider-Man.

Before they go back inside, the two men who just tried to kill Peter look up and see a massive Hydra ship hoving over them. Just as they do so, Crown and his men teleport onto the rooftop. Inside the building, a pair of guards watch over Morbius, who is still shackled up. They are distracted when a nearby window is shattered as a result of the surprise attack. This distracted them long enough for Morbius to break free and get the drop on them. By this time, Spider-Man has finished changing into his costume when a firefight between Hammerhead's goons and Hydra breaks out. Caught in the crossfire is Gabriel, the young son of one of Hammerhead's mobsters. With the family members of Hammerhead's gang in danger, Spider-Man decides to focus on saving their lives before stopping the fight. That's when Hammerhead and SHOC join the fight. Leaping across the crossfire, Spider-Man shields Gabriel with his webbing and tries to get the boy to safety. To his surprise, Spider-Man is punched in the face by the boy, who has a grudge against the wall-crawler for sending his uncle to prison. As the boy tries to run off, the web-slinger tackles him and drags Gabriel off to safety. If things weren't hairy enough, Morbius emerges onto the rooftop and begins attacking the Hydra agents as well.

By this point, SHOC And Crown are battling it out. It is here that Crown points out that the same power that they share is also killing SHOC as well. Spider-Man tries to pull Crown off SHOC, however, Crown isn't willing to give up until SHOC is dead. He explains that his lover -- Andrea Janson -- was working on a cure for them all, but Hammerhead murdered her, ruining any chance of being made normal once again. Hammerhead then begins shooting at Crown, telling the two heroes to get their acts together, reminding them that there are innocent families in the building. Unfortunately, Crown has other plans and commands the Hydra ship above to bombard the entire building with the same energies that he and SHOC harness. This incapacitates everyone and threatens to kill them all. The only one left standing, Morbius refuses to allow this to happen and grabs Crown and leaps up toward the Hydra ship. Realizing that Crown is trying to overload himself and explode, SHOC helps Spider-Man use his webbing to create a massive shield to block the energies from the ship. When Morbius and Crown collide with the ship above, they are both seemingly destroyed in a massive explosion.[4]

Knocked down by the blast, Spider-Man and SHOC are quickly surrounded by Hammerhead and his men. Hammerhead thanks the wall-crawler for his help protecting the families and decides to let him go. However, he warns Spider-Man when they meet next it will be as enemies. In the aftermath of the battle, Spider-Man asks SHOC what he is going to do next. SHOC explains that with Crown dead, he is going to use his powers to help as many people as he can before they kill him.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, SHOC, Morbius the Living Vampire, Hammerhead, Hydra (Baron Strucker, Crown, Don Fortunato, Doctor Andrea Janson), Angel

Continuity Notes

1. Peter recalls how Morbius recently bit him. That was in Spider-Man #77.

2. The scientist in question was Professor William Fields. His murder was depicted in Spider-Man #76.

3. Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife here. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As such they should be considered a common-law couple here.

4. Although Crown and Morbius are seemingly killed here, they both resurface in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #4 and 8 respectively.