Monsters Part One

Carlie Cooper is on a date when suddenly, Spider-Man comes crashing onto the patio in the middle of a fight with the Vulture.[1] She tells her date that she owes him a drink and puts on her police badge and gets ready to get down to work. When the Vulture tries to get away, Spider-Man snares him with a web-line and spins him around before finally throwing him.

As Spider-Man takes off after his foe, the police arrive on the scene. Carlie tells them to take witness statements while she follows after the two combatants. Spider-Man and the Vulture’s battle takes them to a local shipping yard.[2] As Carlie arrives on the scene, the Vulture’s acidic spit melts through the rope of a suspended shipping container. When it hits the ground, screams come from inside. Carlie realizes that there are people trapped inside and tries to get them out but the doors are jammed. Luckily, Spider-Man comes back and rips them off their hinges. When he tries to make his usual jokes, Carlie tells him to stop because these people are hurt. They turn out to be undocumented immigrants who were smuggled into the country illegally. When Carlie asks if the Vulture might be involved, Spider-Man doesn’t think so because this doesn’t involve his usual modus operandi. When officers arrived on the scene, Spider-Man takes off.

The whole scene ends up on the front page of the Front Line, landing Carlie in hot water. She has to explain why she was involved to her boss. However, she points out that her stumbling upon a human trafficking operation is more important than the press the department has been getting. He reminds the lieutenant of the current human trafficking statistics and how it is a huge problem. She insists that they have to do something but that’s when their discussion is interrupted by two FBI agents. They are Special Agents Charles Devonshire and Vito Casio, and they are taking over the case from the NYPD. They have been investigating this operation for the past two years and they have a court order for Carlie to hand over all evidence related to the case. When Carlie tries to appeal on behalf of the victims, Devonshire says they’re the immigration department’s problem.

After the FBI agents leave, Carlie asks the lieutenant if there is anything that can be done. He suggests that she follow through on the Vulture angle. She calls in a favor for a friend who was doing legal work for Redray Shipping. Later, she returns to the scene of the crime and is barred from crossing by an FBI agent. That’s when she bumps into Peter Parker who offers to buy her lunch to make up for the trouble she got in for his photos. He pauses for a moment because he has a feeling that they are being watched, unaware that the Vulture is spying on them from a nearby rooftop. Agreeing to speak off the record, she tells Peter that she had been looking into Redray and discovered that they are a shell company and that the shipping container came in from the Ukrane. Peter promises to look into it using the Front Line’s resources.

In reality, Peter goes out as Spider-Man and begins roughing up crooks to get information. Meanwhile, Carlie goes by the immigration detention center unaware that the Vulture is still observing her movements. She is soon called back into her lieutenant’s office and reprimanded because Agent Devonshire photographed her walking around outside the detention center. Carlie goes back to her desk after being chewed out and briefly considers laying low until this blows over but decides against it. Calling Peter Parker, she asks to meet with him so they can go over all the information on Redray he was able to find. They meet up at a bar and there Peter tells her that the owner of Redray Shipping is Balik Vorski, who has ties with the Russian mobs.

As Carlie gets information on Balik Vorski, Vorski is getting information on her from a mole within law enforcement. Vorski doesn’t like that she is looking into his business and orders her dealt with. By this time, Peter and Carlie part company to continue their investigations. However, Peter’s sudden departure irks her. However, this is so Peter can change into Spider-Man and nab an assassin who is waiting to put a bullet in Carlie. However, while Spider-Man is busy with this hired gun, the Vulture swoops in and nabs Cooper. He then asks her why she is looking for him.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Vulture, Carlie Cooper

Continuity Notes

This issue is part of the 50th anniversary of Spider-Man. Previously canceled Spider-Man titles were briefly brought back with new .1 issues that continue where the series left off. While the first volume of Sensational Spider-Man ended with 33 issues in 1998, this story takes place in during the “Brand New Day” era of Spider-Man. Chronologically, according to the Marvel Chronology Project, this story takes place after Amazing Spider-Man #594.

1. The narrative of this story states that it takes place not long after J. Jonah Jameson was elected mayor of New York City. That happened in Amazing Spider-Man #591.

2. Spider-Man wonders how the Vulture got out of jail after the last time they fought. This was in Amazing Spider-Man #592-594.

Topical References

• Carlie Cooper provides some statistics about human trafficking. These figures should be considered topical as they were relative to the time in which this comic book was published in 2011. I’d like to think that the statistics are lower, but I somehow think they are actually more depressing now than they were back then because the real world is a dumpster fire.

• Agent Devonshire refers to US immigration as the INS, aka Immigration and Naturalization Service. However, the INS was split up into three different organizations in 2003: US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aka the people who lock children in cages, and US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), aka the build the wall motherfuckers.