The Wolves of War

The story continues from The Spectacular Spider-Man #153...

The Lobo Brothers have launched their attack on Fisk Towers an hour early, ambushing the guards on the roof from a helicopter. In their werewolf forms, the Lobo Brothers easily slay the guards and make their way into the building. Inside the building, the Arranger is informed that the Lobo gang have arrived and are cutting through the security. The Kingpin's right-hand man begins to fear that this is a losing battle. Eventually, the werewolves make their way outside of the Arranger's office. Fearing for his life, the Arranger escapes through a secret elevator, narrowly avoiding the Lobo Brothers. Even though the Arranger manages to escape, the brothers are unconcerned as they have bigger fish to fry. They storm the Kingpin's office, finding the fat man sitting at his desk. They accuse Fisk of trying to assassinate them. The Kingpin denies it and calls them fools, angering the Lobos into attacking.

Meanwhile, eight blocks away, Spider-Man continues to try and make his way to Fisk Tower. However, he has been slowed after being injected by some kind of virus by J. Jonah Jameson. Seeing that he is too late to stop the battle, the wall-crawler struggles to get to the scene to find out what has happened. Also arriving on the scene is Detective Frank Farrow and the Daily Bugle's Joy Mercado and Nick Katzenberg. When they look inside they find a charnel house of dead mob enforcers inside. At that moment, Spider-Man has scaled the side of the building and looks into the Kingpin's window just as the police and the press arrive. The Lobo Brothers did not find the real Kingpin, but a dummy. The Lobo's have written a warning on the wall in blood, it reads "Kingpin - You can run but cannot hide." As Spider-Man turns to leave, he is spotted by Nick Katzenberg who snaps a photo of the wall-crawler. Exhausted, Spider-Man tries to make his way back to Forest Hills. Slipping into the basement, Spider-Man changes into Peter Parker and heads upstairs.

When he gets upstairs, he is surprised to see everyone is still awake. When Nathan tells Peter there has been a serious accident, Peter passes out due to the virus working in his system. Peter is haunted by bad dreams where he is being attacked by the Kingpin, the Lobos, and Hammerhead. Witnessing this battle are Nick Katzenberg and J. Jonah Jameson. Suddenly, Peter wakes up with a scream and is told by his wife Mary Jane that he has been sick for the past two days. Peter asks about the accident as he is worried about Aunt May, but he quickly forgets about this when he sees the front page of the Daily Bugle, which is accusing Spider-Man of being involved in the massacre at Fisk Tower. This angers Peter, who tells his wife how J. Jonah Jameson was responsible for his illness and how he has been acting strangely. Remembering the emergency again, he asks who was taken to the hospital and learns from Mary Jane that it was her cousin Kristy.

Soon they go to the Queens Medical Center where Kristy was taken when she passed out. Kristy brushes off the incident like it was nothing. Peter can't help but notice how thin Kristy is and the number of bruises on her body. Outside of Kristy's room, they meet with her doctor, Susan Ransom. Since Kristy's parents are in Europe, she tells the Parkers that Kristy had suffered a heart attack due to a combination of anorexia and bulimia. Peter is surprised by this because they have always seen Kristy eating. Susan explains that bulimia is a condition where one binge eats only to purge the food from the system later by inducing vomiting. Peter still can't believe that a young girl who is thirteen years old could have an eating disorder. Susan tells them that she was eleven when she developed one herself, and how it took fifteen years to get help. After they leave the hospital, Peter asks Mary Jane how she is doing. That's when Peter's wife explodes in anger, as she is tired of dealing with everyone elses problems especially since they are taking priority over her own. She is angry because her modeling career has been hampered, her life savings are locked in court, and she is living at Peter's Aunt May's house. Mary Jane storms off, and Peter decides to let her go blow off some steam. However, he realizes that he could be more supportive but he has been too distracted recently. Looking at a newspaper box and seeing the Daily Bugle's headline again makes Peter angry once more.

At the Daily Bugle, Nick Katzenberg makes another failed attempt to get Joy Mercado to go out on a date with him. She turns him down, but he brushes this off as jealousy since he is J. Jonah Jameson's "golden boy". Going to the washroom, Nick is confronted by Spider-Man. Trapping Katzenberg with webbing, the wall-crawler demands to know where Jameson is, as he isn't in the office. Nick cracks and tells the hero that Jonah is at his penthouse apartment. As soon as he hears this, the web-slinger leaves the cowardly Katzenberg blubbering in the washroom. When Spider-Man arrives at the penthouse, "Jameson" is ready for him, even explains how he has been working with Hammerhead to take advantage of the gang war. He pulls a gun and tries to blast the hero dodges it. However, the weapon fires pellets filled with cyanide gas. Suspecting something like this, Spider-Man holds his breath and rushes "Jonah" and pushes the two of them out into the living room away from the toxic gas. Demanding to know who this impostor is, Spider-Man soon discovers that he has been dealing with the Chameleon the whole time.

No longer needing to maintain his ruse, the Chameleon drops his disguise. He then blasts the ceiling, causing debris to fall on Spider-Man. While the hero is digging himself out, the Chameleon escapes in the private elevator. However, before Spider-Man can go after him, he hears a muffled cry coming from another room. He finds J. Jonah Jameson bound and gagged there. Later, the Lobo Brothers have returned to their hideout. Eduardo suggests that they give up on the gang. Carlos scoffs at this idea, figuring Glory Grant has been influencing him. He reminds Eduardo that they have the Daily Bugle's file on the Kingpin and they can use the information carried within to draw the Kingpin out of hiding.

This story is continued in Spectacular Spider-Man #154...

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Chameleon, Mary Jane Watson, J. Jonah Jameson, Kristy Watson, Kingpin (voice), Arranger, Eduardo Lobo, Carlos Lobo, Joy Mercado, Nick Katzenberg, Glory Grant, Nathan Lubensky, Ben Urich, Kate Cushing, Arthur Chekov, Victor Palermo, Rose Palermo, Susan Ransome

Continuity Notes

• The Arranger planned a failed assassination of the Lobos in Spectacular Spider-Man #143.

• Peter was injected with a virus in Spectacular Spider-Man #153. However, this is not really J. Jonah Jameson, but the Chameleon who took Jameson's place in Web of Spider-Man #50.

• Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife here. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by the demon Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As such they should be considered a common-law couple here as opposed to husband and wife.

• Kristy suffered a heart attack last issue due to her eating disorder.

• Of the various problems she mentions are her troubled relationship with her parents (Amazing Spider-Man #259), her friend Lorraine Mandell's drug addiction (Web of Spider-Man #49), Aunt May's heart condition (Aunt May has had heart problems since Amazing Spider-Man #9, and lastly Peter's sense of responsibility that came from the death of his Uncle Ben (Amazing Fantasy #15).

• Mary Jane was kidnapped by Jonathan Caeser from Amazing Spider-Man #307-309. Although Caeser was arrested for the attempt, he had been using his influence to affect Mary Jane's career and get both her and Peter evicted from their condo at Bedford Towers in Amazing Spider-Man #314 forcing the Parkers to move into Aunt May's house. Getting a place of their own has been hampered because Mary Jane's money had been tied up in a lawsuit against Caesar for the eviction.

• Glory Grant was convinced to steal the file by Eduardo in Web of Spider-Man #51.