Untold Tales of Spider-Man Annual 1997
It's Always Darkest...
David Lowell is watering his plants on the roof of his apartment building when he is joined by Mary Kelleher, a young neighbor who has an interest in plants. After she tells him how their spider-plant is doing David's wife starts yelling at him to come downstairs as he will be late for work. Suddenly, the smile fades from David's face as he goes about the drudgery of another workday. Hours later, Spider-Man is swinging past the Osborn Industries building just as David Lowell -- glowing with energy and wearing a strange outfit -- comes crashing out of one of the windows in order to dodge bullets being fired at him. Ranting and raving, David vows to get revenge, and overhearing this Spider-Man thinks the man to be a threat. Unfortunately, when the wall-crawler tries to web up Lowell, he has enough strength to snap through it. As Spider-Man struggles to get his opponent under control, David blasts a vat of chemical waste that spills onto the wall-crawler. This causes enough of a distraction for Lowell to escape. Covered in the fetid liquid, Spider-Man decides to go home to try and wash the stink off of him. Rushing home, Peter takes a shower which at least gets the smell off him. Deciding to take the day off, Peter checks in with Aunt May before heading off to the Daily Bugle to sell his photos to J. Jonah Jameson and see if Betty wants to go out on a date later.
Back in Manhattan, David Lowell flies across the city finding it more and more difficult to think. Below, Karen Page, Matt Murdock, and Foggy Nelson are heading home after their workday. Suddenly, Murdock senses David's passage with his radar sense. Fearing that this might be a danger, Matt tells his colleagues that he forgot something at the office an excuse that allows him to slip into an alley and change into Daredevil. When the Man Without Fear confronts David Lowell, he refuses to allow Daredevil to stop him like Spider-Man attempted to do either. While at the Daily Bugle, Peter has finished selling his photos to Jameson. When he asks Betty out on a date, she tells him that she is busy with work and Peter leaves just as Jonah gets a call about Daredevil battling the person who fought Spider-Man earlier that day. Unfortunately for the publisher, Peter is already gone when he tries to find him. While down on the street Peter notices that it is starting cloudy outside and wonders if a storm is coming. Meanwhile, the battle between Lowell and Daredevil has attracted the attention of Giant-Man and the Wasp who are nearby signing autographs for fans. However, they are also poorly prepared to stop Lowell. It's at this moment that Daredevil begins to notice that it is getting cold outside.
Across the city, others are beginning to notice something is going wrong outside. At the Baxter Building, the Invisible Girl interrupts another one of Mister Fantastic's attempts to cure the Thing to turn her the attention of her teammates outside.[1] While at Avengers Mansion, Edwin Jarvis interrupts Captain America as he reviews footage of his foe Baron Zemo.[2] At Stark Industries, the darkening sky gives Iron Man a chance to get away from the accusations of Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts who believe that the hero had something to do with the disappearance of their boss, Tony Stark.[3] At the medical practice of Donald Blake, the doctor tells his nurse -- Jane Foster -- that he is going out for some fresh air. In reality, he goes up to the roof where he transforms into Thor so he can investigate the strange occurrence as well. At the Sanctum Sanctorum, Doctor Strange senses a disturbance across the city and sends his astral form out to learn the source of the panic. Lastly, the X-Men are flying into the city from Westchester under orders of their leader Cyclops, who reminds the X-Men that in the Professor's absence they must protect humanity from any threat, be it human or mutant.[4]
Unaware of what's happening, Peter Parker returns to Forest Hills where he bumps into his classmates. Flash Thompson tells him about a radio report about the battle in the city, telling him that the media is dubbing the villain "Sundown" and that he is fighting every hero in the city. This prompts Peter to rush home to get his costume despite the fact that it still stinks after being doused in chemicals. As Spider-Man web-slings into the city, the gathered heroes are finding Sundown increasingly difficult to defeat as though he is getting stronger as the world around them gets darker and colder. Meanwhile, Spider-Man returns to Osborn Industries in order to learn what he can about what gave Sundown his powers. There he overhears some scientists talking about how one of their coworkers -- David Lowell -- went insane after Norman Osborn shut down his Photogenesis project. Swinging over to the administrative wing, he overhears Norman Osborn deflecting questions from the board of directors of his company. Learning that Lowell was working on some kind of solar absorption process, Spider-Man figures he has learned what he can about the situation and leaves to learn more about David Lowell.[5] Back in the office, Norman Osborn is relieved that he was able to quash Lowell's project after he noticed that it was similar to the Goblin Formula that was created by his former partner Mendel Stromm.[6] As the heroes of the city begin to falter against Sundown, city officials try to get ahold of Bruce Banner in New Mexico. Unfortunately, nobody knows where Banner is currently bouncing around the desert as the Hulk.[7] While off the coast of Manhattan, the Sub-Mariner watches that battle in the city and decides that it is of no concern to him before heading back to his home in Atlantis.
By this time, Spider-Man has arrived at David Lowell's apartment building and overhears his wife talking to the police. He hears how she has a very low opinion of him and threatened to divorce David if he didn't use his scientific skills to earn enough money so she could live in luxury. The wall-crawler is spotted by Mary Kelleherman who asks the hero to help her friend. Spider-Man agrees to try and talk David down and swings off to the scene of the battle. At that moment, the battle is taking place over top the Daily Bugle. When Spider-Man arrives he pulls aside Mister Fantastic and Iron Man to tell them what he has learned about Sundown's power. Realizing that he is drawing his power from the sun, they try to get Thor to block out the sun with heavy storm clouds, but Sundown manages to blast the thunder god out of the sky. With no time for his allies to build a device to drain Sundown of his powers, Spider-Man swings in to try and talk sense into him. Spider-Man tries to convince David that his wife and co-workers are concerned for his well being, but Lowell laughs this off, knowing that the web-slinger is lying. That's when Mary comes up on the roof to try and tell David to stop. Thinking this is some kind of trick, David unleashes a blast. It's only when he strikes Mary hand that he realizes what he has done and stop fighting. After Thor rushes Mary off to get medical help, David surrenders to the authorities. As he is being taken away, Spider-Man takes photos, even though they probably won't be worth much. As he leaves, the web-slinger considers all the things that happened that pushed David into his rampage and wonders what sort of future Lowell will have once he is finally released from prison.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Sundown, Mary Kelleher, Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man, Wasp), Donald Blake, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Girl, Human Torch, Thing), Doctor Strange, X-Men (Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, Angel), Aunt May, Karen Page, Foggy Nelson, J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, Edwin Jarvis, Pepper Potts, Happy Hogan, Jane Foster, Wong, Flash Thompson, Liz Allan, Tiny McKeever, Jason Ionello, Norman Osborn, Betty Ross, General Ross, Hulk, Sub-Mariner
Continuity Notes
Reed Richards states that he is attempting to improve on the partial and temporary cure given to the Thing by Diablo. Diablo gave the Thing a temporary cure in Fantastic Four #30.
Jarvis questions if Captain America is looking for a means of avenging the death of his partner Bucky. As revealed in Avengers #4, Cap believes that Baron Zemo is responsible for the death of his partner Bucky. However, unknown to everyone at this time, Bucky survived as will be revealed in Captain America Vol 5 #8.
At the time of this story, nobody knows that Tony Stark and Iron Man are the same person. This would be later revealed in Iron Man Vol 3 #55. As such, when Tony was forced to remain in his armor following the events in Tales of Suspense #59, leading his co-workers to wonder if he was the victim of foul play. Tony will find a solution to this problem in Tales of Suspense #63.
At the time of this story, Professor X left the X-Men in the care of Cyclops in X-Men #7. Xavier will rejoin the team in X-Men #9.
The details of what actually happened to David Lowell are revealed in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 1997.
Mendel Stromm was Norman's former partner whom he was arrested for embezzling money from his company, as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #37. As revealed in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1, Stromm developed the first version of the Goblin Formula. Norman found a copy of this formula in Spider-Man #-1 and exposed himself to it, as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #40.
At the time of this story, the general public is unaware that Bruce Banner is secretly the Hulk, something that doesn't become common knowledge until after Tales of Suspense #77.
