A Day in Someone Else’s Life

It’s half-past midnight in New York and a couple have been cornered in an alley by some muggers. Luckily, Cloak and Dagger arrive to stop the thieves.[1] That’s when Spider-Man also arrives on the scene. Cloak tries to tell the wall-crawler that he and Dagger have the situation under control when suddenly, Spider-Man punches Dagger in the face. Later, just after 4 am in Hell’s Kitchen, a fishmonger and his crew record cell phone footage of Spider-Man attacking Daredevil.

In the early hours of the morning, Captain America is watching the news, which is full of stories about Spider-Man attacking other heroes. Rogers is concerned that Spider-Man’s recent probation didn’t go far enough and orders Jarvis to call the rest of the Avengers.[2] Captain America reminds his fellow Avengers about Spider-Man’s recent and negative encounters with the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, and Thor.[3] In addition to this, he more recently killed the mass shooter known as Massacre and brutally beat Screwball and the Jester.[4] When the Avengers confronted him recently, Black Widow concluded that Spider-Man was having a hard time trying to come to terms with the death of a friend.[5] However, things have continued to escalate, with Spider-Man hiring a private army to take down Shadowland.[6] Cap concludes that they need to take down Spider-Man.

Later that morning, Spider-Man is chasing Gravity across the city. He catches the hero in a web and is about to shoot him with a gun. When Gravity starts screaming, it causes Spider-Man to pause and then leave. Nearly 2 hours later, Spider-Man has attacked Luke Cage and Iron Fist. At 8:39 he is clashing with the new Sun Girl. It’s nearly 10:00 am when he fights with Moon Knight. Twenty-five minutes later he is punching out Doctor Strange. It’s almost noon when Spider-Man has broken into the Baxter Building and battling the Fantastic Four as the frightened children of the Future Foundation watch in terror. Bently-23 thinks Spider-Man has come for him, but it quickly becomes clear that he is actually after Ant-Man. No sooner has he started the fight, Spider-Man abruptly leaves.

On the roof of the Baxter Building, Spider-Man scans the city for signs of whatever it is he is looking for. That’s when the Avengers arrive and order him to stand down.[7] Spider-Man tries to resist but is quickly restrained by the Hulk and Thor. Spider-Man tries to tell them that there is a virus that he needs to stop. Iron Man isn’t overly concerned because he is no physically there, remotely piloting his armor from another location.[8] That’s when lenses in Spider-Man’s mask detect that Hyperion has been infected with the Carrion virus. Before he can warn the Avengers, Hyperon then uses his atomic vision to blow up Iron Man’s robotic body.[9] The Avengers then scramble to take control of the situation. Both Thor and Captain Marvel try to restrain Hyperion while Spider-Man arrogantly explains to Captain America what is going on. Apparently, the Carrion virus has been jumping from hero to hero across the city all day long.

As the rest of the Avengers keeps Hyperion busy, Spider-Man rushes to the weapon he created to destroy the Carrion virus. Unfortunately, when he gets to the weapon it gets damaged by Hyperion’s atomic vision. Carrion, speaking through the superman, gloats because it believes that Spider-Man cannot defeat him. That’s when Thor strikes Hyperion with a bolt of lightning. This only stuns Hyperion momentarily. That’s when the Hulk and Captain Marvel pile on. Although they are shrugged off it gives Spider-Man the time to get the weapon ready. Carrion meanwhile is attempting to full bond with Hyperon and tries to sow dissent by claiming Spider-Man’s weapon will also kill the host. Spider-Man convinces Captain America to trust him and he blasts Hyperion with the weapon. As he predicted, the device destroys the Carrion virus, but spares the host.

With the crisis over, Spider-Man tells Cap and the other Avengers that the person responsible for unleashing Carrion is one of his old foes and assures them that he can handle them on his own. When Captain America tries to bring up Spider-Man’s probation, the wall-crawler mocks them for being serious about that and tells them to call him if they ever need him to save the day again.

The next day Otto heads to his secret hideout in Battery Park. He is convinced that he has tricked all of Spider-Man’s allies to accept the “new” web-slinger. However, he has decided that instead of being part of an established team he will create one of his own, a superior team. This will include former members of the Sinister Six he has captured and has been holding prisoner in his secret lab.[10]

Elsewhere, Carrion has reformed and returned to the Jackal’s hideout. The Jackal is pleased with this phase of his plan and tells Carrion and a clone of himself that it is now time to move on to phase three: Kill Spider-Man.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Spider-Woman, Wolverine, Captain Marvel, Hyperion), Carrion, Jackal, Cloak, Dagger, Daredevil, Edwin Jarvis, Gravity, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Sun Girl, Moon Knight, Doctor Strange, Fantastic Four (Ant-Man, Medusa, She-Hulk, Miss Thing), Future Foundation (Mik, Korr, Turg, Tong, Bentley-23, Onome), Old John Storm, Mysterion, Vulture, Chameleon, Electro, Sandman

Continuity Notes

1. It should be noted here that at the time of this story, Cloak and Dagger had swapped powers following Spider-Island: Cloak and Dagger #1-3. This will remain the status quo until Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 4) #6-8.

2. Spider-Man was put on probation by the Avengers as the team had grown concerned about his increasingly violent behavior (more on that below) See Superior Spider-Man #8.

3. This is a brief recap of Avenging Spider-Man #16-18.

4. Spider-Man later went on to kill Massacre in Superior Spider-Man #4-5 and later beat up Screwball and Jester in issue #6.

5. The Black Widow would be wrong, Spider-Man’s change in behavior is due to the fact that Doctor Octopus has taken over the wall-crawler’s body, as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #698-700. The death she is talking about is the apparent death of Silver Sable who seemingly perished helping Spider-Man stopping one of Doctor Octopus’ schemes in Amazing Spider-Man #682-687. Sable actually survived as we’ll learn in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #33.

6. Spider-Man took down Shadowland in Superior Spider-Man #14.

7. Otto states that all of the years he spent fighting Spider-Man destroyed his body. As revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #600, Doctor Octopus was suffering from a degenerative disease that was slowly killing him. This prompted his eventual scheme to steal Peter Parker’s body.

8. Spider-Man states that Stark is in space “again”. For a time, Iron Man went into space and would often help the Avengers on Earth by remotely piloting a suit of robotic armor. He went into space in Invincible Iron Man #527 and would not return until Iron Man (vol. 5) #17.

9. Spider-Man mentions that Hyperion is from another dimension and is trapped in this reality. How Hyperion got trapped on Earth-616 and joined the ranks of the Avengers was detailed in Avengers (vol. 5) #1-4.

10. So far, Spider-Man has captured the Sandman, Electro, the Chameleon, Mysterion, and the Vulture. These foes were all apprehended in Avenging Spider-Man #17 (Sandman), 18 (Electro), 20-21 (Chameleon), and 22 (Mysterion). There isn’t a specific story that depicts Spider-Man capturing the Vulture, but it likely happened behind the scenes following the Vulture’s incarceration at the Raft in Superior Spider-Man #11-13.