Spider-Man #608 — Nick Peron

Feb 11

Feb 11 Spider-Man #608

Darkness Encroaching

With his scheme to destroy Spider-Man coming to fruition, the Dark Man uses his mystical powers to observe the wall-crawler after his television appearance. Spider-Man is signing autographs from his British fans, surprised by the number of people in this country are excited to see him. Suddenly, Spider-Man's spider-sense goes off and he is ambushed by the dragons that he dreamed about the previous evening. Setting up his camera to snap photos, the wall-crawler battles the dragons, saving the life of a child caught in the middle of the bout. Suddenly, the creatures vanish in a puff of smoke as though they were never there. Then the wall-crawler is attacked by the cyborg called Assassin-8. Blaming Spider-Man for the accident that turned him into a cyborg, the mercenary attacks the wall-crawler. As the hero dodges his blasts as well as saving those caught in the crossfire, the wall-crawler plugs Assassin-8's arm blaster with webbing causing it to explode. Knocked out from the blast, Spider-Man takes a look at his attacker, whose mask was knocked open by the explosion, and doesn't recognize who his attacker is.

Recovering his camera, Peter Parker goes to the Daily Herald, the Daily Bugle's British Affiliate. The publisher is impressed by his photos and offers to have Peter cover stories while he is visiting. He is then introduced to the paper's sports reporter, Richard, as well as Mai Ling, who operates the wire press service. Getting to know them, they ask Peter how his trip has gone so far, and he tells them it has been hectic. That evening, Assassin-8's inert body is being guarded by two British soldiers. Suddenly, the cyborg springs to life and kills the two soldiers before fleeing the scene vowing to destroy Spider-Man once he has repaired his damaged weapons system. The following morning, Peter Parker wakes up and discovers that all of the newspaper headlines are praising Spider-Man for his action the day before, much to his surprise. This is a surprising change to Peter, who thinks he could get to like this country. This is being observed by the Dark Man, who gloats as Spider-Man is playing right into his hands.