Spider-Man and the X-Men #4
Now
The All-New Sinister Six, led by the Swarm, has successfully robbed a bank. But as he leads Delilah, the Squid, Killer Shrike, the Melter, and 8-Ball outside they are confronted by Spider-Man and his students in the X-Men’s special class. The young X-Men easily take down the members of the Sinister Six. However, when Hellion uses his powers to blast all of the bees that make up the Swarm’s body, Spider-Man scolds him for potentially taking a life.[1] When the police arrive they also try to arrest Spider-Man, prompting him and his students to make a hasty retreat.
Earlier
At the Jean Grey School, Spider-Man meets with Storm in her greenhouse. She is not pleased with Spider-Man, particularly since he and his students disappeared for three days. Spider-Man explains, again, that it wasn’t his fault that he and his students were kidnapped twice in a row. Storm still can’t believe that Logan would ask the web-slinger to come and teach the special class.[2] Spider-Man admits that he doesn’t want to be there either as he has a life of his own outside of being Spider-Man that is probably following apart right now.[3] He would be wrong, as at Parker Industries, his colleague Sajani Jaffrey is pleased with Peter Parker’s absence because they can actually get some work done. He decides enough is enough and tells Storm the real reason why he was asked to come to the school: Wolverine believed there was a traitor within the special class and asked Spider-Man to find out who because he didn’t trust Storm. This angers Storm who lashes out at Spider-Man with bolts of lighting. The web-slinger evades them and tries to diffuse the situation by saying he said that to be a jerk and explains the real reason was that he wanted outside eyes to examine the situation. Spider-Man went into this with no stakes, but now he actually cares about what happens to the students even though they always make fun of him. Finally, Spider-Man gets Storm to laugh, but not with one of his lame jokes, but how he relates to how a Bamf Demon stole his shirt.
Storm guesses that Spider-Man isn’t around teenagers very much. This leads to them talking about how they were as teenaged superheroes, always arrogant, judgemental, and dismissive.[4] They then start considering who the traitor might be. Spider-Man has his eyes on Hellion and Glob Herman, but he doesn’t know who they might be working for.[5] Storm admits that she still doesn’t like Spider-Man but asks him to find the mole and to teach the other children.
Now
When Spider-Man and the special class return to the school they are approached by the Beast and Broo. Beast is not happy with the way that Spider-Man flouts school rules and challenges him to a science-off during the Jean Grey School’s science fair which is scheduled for tomorrow. Spider-Man gathers his students and tells them that they are going to recreate Sauron’s DNA analyzer and elect Rockslide and Shark-Girl as team captains. This upsets Hellion, who has actually led a team of X-Men, but he backs down when Rockslide and Shark-Girl take offense.[6]
Meanwhile, Storm has called a meeting with Marvel Girl to order her to stop trying to scan Spider-Man’s mind. Rachel doesn’t understand why Storm is closing this investigation and reminds her of the future she came from. Storm dismisses her, and Rachel wonders why she didn’t reveal that she knows that Spider-Man is Peter Parker, the owner of Parker Industries and how that concerns her. This is because, in her timeline, industrialists were responsible for the Sentinel and Hound programs that hunted down and exterminated mutants.[7] She decides to disobey Storm’s orders and continues to try and probe Spider-Man’s mind. However, she discovers that something is blocking her out, making Rachel even more suspicious than ever before.
At that moment, Spider-Man has his students split up into two teams. Glob Herman is disappointed when he is picked last and Spider-Man sends him to go find No-Girl.[8] Herman then walks past the lab where the Beast’s team is working on a hemi-wavelength sympathizer and sees the Beast taking over for the students because he doesn’t want to lose to Spider-Man. He eventually finds No-Girl in Spider-Man’s office and isn’t particularly interested in what she was doing in there, only that she comes with him. Soon, Spider-Man’s students are well on their way to rebuilding the DNA analyzer. While Shark-Girl’s team builds the physical device, Rocksline’s group works on computer programming. While everyone is busy, Glob pulls Rockslide aside and asks how he went from being a big dumb bro like him to a team leader. Rockslide says that the change happened when he realized that Spider-Man was an okay guy and actually started trying. When he started doing that, he go to like how people started respecting him. She suggests to Herman that if he does the same thing people will start respecting him as well.
Soon it is the day of the science fair and as Spider-Man and Beast’s students are demonstrating their inventions, Marvel Girl tries to probe Spider-Man’s mind. She finds opposition from No-Girl, who reminds her professor that reading the minds of others without their permission is wrong. This leads to a psychic battle between the two that spills out from the astral plane to the real world. It’s then that Rachel manages to learn the identity of the traitor in their midst, but No-Girl erases her memory before she can reveal who it is. Beast and Storm tell Spider-Man to get his class under control. The web-slinger pulls the special class out of the gym and scolds No-Girl for what is going on. While he is lecturing her Beast’s team activates their portal device and people are frightened by what came out from the other side.
Spider-Man and his team rush inside and are shocked to see a Bamf Demon possessed by a symbiote. That’s when Deathbird and two of the Brood — also wearing symbiotes — emerge from the portal. Deathbird informs them that SWORD has fallen and Earth will be the next conquest of the Brood/Symbiote Imperium.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, X-Men (Storm, Beast, Marvel Girl, Hellion, Rockslide, Ernst, No-Girl, Shark-Girl, Glob Herman, Eye Boy, Transonic, Velocidad, Nature Girl, Broo), Sinister Six (Swarm, Delilah, Squid, 8-Ball, Melter, Killer Shrike), Deathbird, Brood, Klyntar, Sajani Jaffrey, Elias Wirtham
Continuity Notes
The Swarm survives this attack and will resurface again in Deadpool and the Mercs for Money #3.
At the time of this story, Wolverine is dead. See Death of Wolverine #1-4. He will be resurrected again in Return of Wolverine #1-5.
Spider-Man quips that he only hangs upside-down in front of a woman when he is about to kill her. This is a reference to the iconic scene of Spider-Man kissing Mary Jane in the film Spider-Man 2.
Storm wonders how Professor X put up with her when she was younger and thought she was an African goddess because of her mutant powers. For more on this see Giant-Size X-Men #1.
Spider-Man wonders if Magneto might be the leader of the mole. Storm then points out that Magneto is actually part of X-Men team led by Cyclops. Magneto joined up with this team of X-Men in Uncanny X-Men (vol. 2) #1.
Hellion was once a member of the Hellions Squadron, a group of X-Men trainees from New X-Men (vol. 2) #2 through 23.
Rachel comes from an alternate future timeline designated Reality-811, aka the Days of Future Past reality. In this world, mutants are hunted by Sentinels and either terminated or placed in concentration camps. For years, Rachel was a Hound, mutants forced to hunt their own kind. She eventually broke free and traveled to the modern day of Earth-616 to try and prevent her future from happening. For more on this see Uncanny X-Men #141-142, 188-189, 199, 479, New Mutants #18, Excalibur #52, 64, 75, Wolverine: Days of Future Present #2, X-Men Unlimited (vol. 2) #11, Unlimited Access #2.
Herman complains that nobody likes him and his friend, Quentin Quire, won’t return his text messages and wonders if he is still mad that Herman tried to kill him recently. Glob Herman and Quentin Quire’s friendship dates back to when they were founding members of the Omega Gang back in New X-Men #135. Later while Quire was a member of Wolverine’s X-Men, Herman was recruited into the Hellfire Academy leading to a clash between the two schools. See Wolverine and the X-Men #25-35.
