Web of Deceit

Spider-Island continues from Venom (vol. 2) #7…

Shang Chi dreams that he is carrying his prey, cocooned in webbing to an abandoned mansion. He feels nothing over what he is doing except for an irresistible compulsion to carry out his dark task. Inside the mansion, he catches his reflection and sees that he has become a massive horrific-looking spider.

Shang Chi wakes up in his apartment with Silver Sable waiting on him. She tells him that he has been asleep for over twelve hours.[1] As Shang Chi has been sleeping, Silver Sable has been trying to locate the Bride of Nine Spider’s hideout based on Shang’s nightmares. Luckily, with the entire island of Manhattan quarantined she has been able to narrow things down five possible locations. Searching each location would take too long, but in Shang Chi’s most recent dream he saw the building was close to Convent Avenue. This narrows things down considerably and Shan Chi is on his way. Unfortunately, Silver Sable cannot accompany him because she is busy investigating trouble spots in spider-plague-infested Manhattan.

As Shang Chi heads to Hamilton Heights, he thinks about what Madame Web said to him earlier about how he would meet two women in darkness, one shiny the other fading as well as a man who is not a man and a spider who is not a spider. Forcing his way into the abandoned mansion he discovers that someone has lit the building with candles. As he enters, he narrowly avoids a large blade trap that punches a hole in the rotting floor. He manages to evade the trap thanks to his newfound wall-crawling ability. However, he lets go of the wall when his arms suddenly and momentarily change into spider legs. His head suddenly begins to throb and when he looks at a nearby mirror he sees the reflection of a hideous spider.

When he turns around, the massive blade he dodged and the damage it caused is gone. Looking back at the mirror he sees only his own face looking back at him. Suddenly, the face in the mirror takes on a female form and pleads with him to help her get out. Shang decides to go upstairs, but when he finds webs stretching across the hall he decides to avoid any possible traps by crawling along the ceiling. In one of the bedrooms, he finds the Bride of Nine Spiders suspended in the middle of a massive spider web. They two fight it out until Shang Chi manages to find the cocooned Iron Fist and frees him. Together, the two martial artists are no match for the Bride of Nine Spiders and she is quickly knocked out.

Suddenly, Shang Chi feels another wave of sickness fall over him and he begins throwing up blood. As Iron Fist checks to see if he is okay, the Bride of Nine Spider’s master comes out of hiding. This entity is the massive spider-god known as Ai Apaec. He reveals that he has allied himself with the Queen, the being who is trying to change everyone into spiders. In exchange for his assistance, the dark god was offered the Bride of Nine Spiders as his thrall. He had made the Bride to bring him mortals to feast upon. However, she has been fighting the Queen’s influence she had brought Ai Apaec her fellow Immortal Weapons instead, beings unfit for his own consumption. When Iron Fist prepares to fight th god is amused that he would face him alone. However, Shang Chi gets up, having grown four additional arms, and tells Ai Apaec that his friend does not fight alone.

Recurring Characters

Shang Chi, Ai Apaec, Silver Sable, Bride of Nine Spiders, Iron Fist

Continuity Notes

1. Shang Chi states here that he keeps a cat because it reminds him of an old friend who came and went as he pleased. This is likely a reference to Shen Keuim, aka the Cat, a martial artist of equal skill that Shang Chi first met in Master of Kung Fu #38-39.