Day One

Fear Itself continues from Invincible Iron Man #503..

New York City. Hour Six of the Fear.

At the head office of Roxxon Oil, CFO Robert Christensen begins to panic because the company’s crooked business dealings will come to light and people will soon come for him. Elsewhere, Karen Anderson is eight and a half months pregnant. Her husband is leaving because he doesn’t believe it’s his child and she fears that she is going to die giving birth to the baby. John Russel has been unemployed for six months and missed paying his mortgage for the first time. Fearing the bank will come and take his home away, he begins loading his gun. In the sewers, a lone rat begins to skitter along some pipes.

Elsewhere in the city, Naveed Moshtaghi drives his taxi through the city. His mind is consumed with the same thing he’s been afraid of for over a decade. His fear becomes a reality when his taxi is hit by a car by a car running the light. He gets out of the taxi, upset that he got hit. The man in the other car also gets out of his car and accuses Naveed of being a terrorist. He is soon joined by an angry mob of bystanders that have been whipped up into a bigoted frenzy. Before he is swarmed, Naveed tries to tell them he is from Brooklyn, but his logic falls on deaf ears.

Luckily, Spider-Man happens by and pulls Naveed to the safety of the rooftops. The web-slinger doesn’t have time for this, as this was the third person he saved from the mob, and he’s trying to reach his Aunt May.[1] When Naveed asks what’s happened to the city, Spider-Man has no words for the fear that has gripped New York. He can only watch as a lightning storm rages overhead. Spider-Man tries calling his Aunt May again, but the cell networks are bogged down and he can’t get through. In frustration, the web-slinger punches a hole in a nearby chimney before breaking down.

Naveed can understand Spider-Man’s frustration as he too is trying to get home to his family. Spider-Man asks how the taxi driver can be so calm in all of this. Naveed admits that as a second-generation Iranian, he has lived with the fear of something like this happening his entire life, but he stays calm because he has a family and they need him. Spider-Man collects himself and thinks that he’s never felt this level of fear before. He tells Naveed to get home safe and continues on his.

Eleven Hours of the Fear

Robert Christensen calls his wife to apologize, and she thinks he is leaving her. He is, but not in the way she thinks. Shattering the window of his office with a chair, Robert stands at the window and contemplates jumping. Karen Anderson suddenly goes into labor three weeks early, just as she feared. She tries to call an ambulance, but her cell phone has no service. John Russel loads his gun for the first time in his life and his hands begin to tremble. In the sewers, the lone rat is joined by others and their numbers continue to grow.

Spider-Man is still pressing on but has to stop regularly to help his fellow New Yorkers. His first stop is to help evacuate a burning subway tunnel. Next, he stops an officer who has lost his mind and begun firing his shotgun into the crowd. His third stop is to save an injured cop from an angry mob. He next stops to rescue a child who had fallen into the water.

Hour Fourteen

The staff of the Daily Bugle is watching as the chaos unfolds across the planet. As they begin to lose feeds from the other side of the globe. Mayor J. Jonah Jameson has had a satellite phone couriered over to Joe Robertson so he can stay in touch with him during this crisis. As usual, Jonah blames this situation on Spider-Man. With news rolling in about the Avenges trying to mitigate the crisis, each reporter heads out to do what they do best, report the news.

Hour Fifteen? Maybe Sixteen

Spider-Man has just checked on Carlie Cooper and determined she was safe, although she is afraid everyone she’s arrested is going to get her. He still hasn’t found any sign of his Aunt May. He has to stop his search in order to prevent a man from ramming his van through the front of a police station. As he pulls the driver out and hands him to the police, the bomb the drive planted in his van blows up. Miraculously, nobody is seriously hurt.[2] However, the police officers — succumbing to the fear — blame Spider-Man for the blast, prompting the web-slinger to flee.

Hour Twenty

Robert Christensen stands up on his window ledge and waits for them to come. Karen Anderson has managed to leave her home but cannot find a single ambulance or taxi. Worse, she can’t feel her baby moving inside her. John Russel has given in to panic and begins opening fire at anyone who comes anywhere close to his home. While back in the sewers, the army of rats continues to grow.

By this time, Spider-Man has reached Aunt May’s apartment at Central Park West. However, the unit is deserted and her cell phone is on the kitchen counter. Peter fears that she is dead and begins to cry. Composing himself, he discovers that he is almost out of web-fluid and his stashes seem so very far away. Having lost all hope, Spider-Man wishes that someone could just come and help him.

Hour Twenty-Three

Spider-Man finds Robert Christensen and tries to convince him to step down from the window ledge. However, the web-slinger is briefly distracted by a rat — of all things — perched by Robert’s foot. This momentary distraction is all it takes for Robert to jump. Spider-Man’s web-shooters are completely empty, forcing the wall-crawler to leap after him. Grabbing Christensen, Spider-Man then reaches out and manages to cling to the side of a balcony, breaking their fall. As he tries to help Robert get onto the balcony, it suddenly breaks sending them falling again. This fall isn’t as high and Spider-Man lands on the roof of a car, hid body breaking Robert’s fall. Spider-Man is thankful that Robert is alive, but the fall has knocked him out.

Laying in the trash, Robert Christensen is suddenly glad that he is still alive even though he was attempting to take his life moments earlier. Elsewhere, Karen Anderson can’t go a step further and stops to rest on the porch of a nearby house. John Russel rushes to the door, ready to defend his home from this new intruder.

Back in the Financial District, Spider-Man struggles to get up while trying to keep his own fear in check. The force that has been commanding the rats has now become aware of his presence and it fears that the web-slinger has come to harass him, as he always does. Spider-Man suddenly gets swarmed by an army of rats that come pouring out of the sewers. These rats are under the command of Vermin, who intends to destroy Spider-Man once and for all.

… Fear Itself continues in Fear Itself: The Worthy #1

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Vermin, Joe Robertson, Ben Urich, Betty Brant, Norah Winters, J. Jonah Jameson, Robert Christensen, Karen Anderson, John Russel, Navee Moshtaghi

Continuity Notes

1. Spider-Man broke off from the Avengers at the start of the chaos to try and find his Aunt May in Fear Itself #1.

2. Spider-Man mentions here that he has lost his spider-sense. This happened in Amazing Spider-Man #654. This will remain the status quo until Amazing Spider-Man #671.

Topical References

• The man who attacks Naveed Moshtaghi of being a terrorist references car bombs in Times Square. This is a reference to the failed terrorist attack that happened on May 1, 2010. This should be considered a topical reference as that failed terror attack happened about a year prior to this comic being published.

• Real-World TV Networks: BBC