Fortune's Fury

Wantag, Long Island, an elderly woman is watering the plants in her home, unaware that she is in the sights of a sniper. Suddenly a shot rings out and the old woman is dead. The assassin reports back to his employer that their target is down and that there are two only two more left. Later, Peter Parker is going to the cemetery to pay his respects to his Uncle Ben.[1] This time around, he has come alone as his wife Mary Jane is at a shoot for "Secret Hospital", and his Aunt May is missing.[2] As he heads to the gates, his spider-sense warns him of danger as he walks into the view of a sniper scope. Suddenly, Peter is no longer in his sights as if he suddenly disappeared. However, the sniper turns his attention to his true target, the former adventurer known as Dominic Fortune who is leaving the cemetery with a group of men. Hearing Peter calling out to him, Dominic turns to wave causing the sniper to narrowly miss him.[3] Dominic and his men dive to the ground and fire back, but the sniper flees in his car.

After checking if Peter us okay, Dominic explains that he is a marked man. Peter assumes that Fortune had come to the cemetery to visit his parents, but learns that he is really coming to visit his son Jerry.[4] He takes Peter to see Jerry's grave, telling Parker that his son was murdered by his foe Simon Steele.</ref> He asks Peter if he can get access to the files at the Daily Bugle to learn what he can about Simon Steele, telling him that the authorities have been useless in making the war criminal see justice.[5] When Peter tells him that he can't, Dominic becomes angry and storms off, vowing to kill the Nazi once and for all.[6] Dominic's devotion reminds Peter of how he felt after he heard his Uncle Ben was murdered. Changing into Spider-Man, Peter swings across the city. Thinking how close he was to killing the burglar who shot his Uncle, Spider-Man decides that he owes it to Fortune to make sure he doesn't go over the edge.

While at the heavily guarded Fifth Avenue home of Simon Steele, the former Nazi checks to see how the progress on a new computer virus that Sabbath Raven has been preparing for him. She reports that it can successfully eliminate all digital records regarding Steele since the United States government has eliminated his amnesty granted near the end of the war. With his records about to be eliminated and all those who are still alive to testify against him for his wartime crimes, Steele is on the brink of escaping justice again.[7] Once their work is done, Steele tells Sabbath that they will then flee to South America where they can start their lives over.

Meanwhile, at the Daily Bugle office, Peter Parker is going through the Bugle's digital archives to learn everything he can about Dominic Fortune and his foe Simon Steele. He reads about Dominic's early adventures with Sabbath Raven during the 1930s. He reads an interview given by Fortune where he explains that just before World War II really began, he and Sabbath were in Rotterdam. When they had an argument, Raven fled and that was the last time that Fortune saw her. Mere hours later, the Germans invaded Rotterdam. When Fortune rushed back to their hotel to get Sabbath, she had disappeared without a trace.[8] Forced to return to the United States, Dominic entered the army and returned to fight in the war three years later. After the war, Dominic used every resource at his disposal to try and find Sabbath Raven in Europe, but found no trace of her. Eventually, Fortune was forced to return to the States. After Sabbath's gambling boat was taken by creditors, Fortune started a new life, getting married and having children. As the years passed, he grew old and an increasingly embittered Dominic Fortune was put in the Restwell Retirement home. That's when Peter first met him, and also, as Spider-Man, helped Fortune defeat Turner D. Century. He also reads recent news about how Fortune's recent encounter with Simon Steele led to the death of his son, and that the seemingly youthful Sabbath Raven was actually the daughter of Sabbath and Steele's brother. Still, the true fate of the original Sabbath Raven is still unknown. As Peter leaves the archives, he is stopped by Kate Cushing. She tells him that another witness to Simon Steele's crimes has been identified and is being held under police protection. She asks Peter to try and get in and get exclusive photos.

Peter takes a cab out to the building where the witness is being kept and spots some men trying to break in. Changing into Spider-Man, Peter confronts the assassins and easily incapacitates. He then notices another group trying to force their way into the building at ground level. However, they are pushed by Silver Sable and her Wild Pack who had been hired to protect the witness. Sable wants the assassins alive so they can learn the location of Simon Steele. Spider-Man swings in to assist in the capture of the would-be assassins. After the killers are rounded up, Spider-Man asks if they are also watching over Dominic Fortune. Sable assures the wall-crawler that Dominic is fine because he has hired his own mercenaries as well as some of her own men. As if on cue, Silver Sable gets a call from her other agents who report that Dominic Fortune is under attack. Spider-Man tags along with Silver Sable and assist in stopping the armed killers who have come to eliminate Fortune. Unfortunately, it costs the life of one of the members of her Wild Pack. Inside, Dominic Fortune insists on going after Steele himself, however Silver Sable wants to take him in to face justice for his war crimes. While questioning one of the assassins, they learn Steele's location. After hearing this, Fortune drops a smoke bomb in order to escape and go after Steele on his own.[9]

Dominic and his mercenaries flee in a car, but Spider-Man manages to tag it with a spider-tracer so they can follow it. Soon, Fortune and his men storm the fifth avenue home of Simon Steele and begin gunning down Steele's hired men. Dominic rushes upstairs and confronts Simon Steele and the younger Sabbath Raven. He quickly disarms both and is about to eliminate Simon Steele when Spider-Man, Silver Sable, and the Wild Pack arrive. Sable orders Dominic to stand down and threatens to shoot him. Spider-Man gets between the two and convinces Dominic. Suddenly, another person enters the room and tells Dominic not to let Steele make him a murderer. To everyone's surprise, it is the elderly Sabbath Raven. However, before any answers can be given, Simon Steele and his niece drop a glass barrier between them and the heroes and abscond with the real Sabbath Raven. As they make their escape, Simon Steele tells Sabbath to stop crying and in order to prevent their being followed, Steele activates a device that causes his fifth avenue home to explode.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Dominic Fortune, Kate Cushing, Silver Sable, Simon Steel, Sabbat Raven (Von Lundt), Wild Pack, Sabbath Raven (Morelli)

Continuity Notes

1. Peter's Uncle Ben was killed by a robber's bullet in Amazing Fantasy #15.

2. Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife here. However, years later, their marriage was erased from history 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.

3. Dominic Fortune knows Peter Parker because he briefly lived at the Restwell Nursing Home with Peter's Aunt May in Marvel Team-Up #120.

4. Jerry Fortunov died during his brief stint as the new Dominic Fortune in Iron Man #212-213.

5. Peter previously helped Fortune get access to the Bugle's files in Web of Spider-Man #10.

6. Both Dominic Fortune and Simon Steele were alive and active during World War II, and are not subject to the Sliding Timescale as their pasts are locked into that era. However, as of this writing, there is no official explanation of how Dominic or Steele could still be active in the modern age and still be relatively young. As seen in Avengers 1959 series, Dominic was allies of both Nick Fury and Kraven the Hunter, two men who had access to age lowing formulas. It could be logical to assume that Dominic had access to these formulas. In the case of Simon Steele, the Nazis had access to many forms of age slowing and stasis creating chemicals, so the possibility that his aging was slowed or being put in some kind of stasis is a possibility.

7. The elderly woman who was shot at the beginning of this story is suggested to have been alive during World War II. As the Sliding Timescale continues to push the modern age forward, it becomes increasingly impossible for someone with a natural aging process who was alive during the war to still be alive. There is no official explanation for this. Typically, in situations like this, editions of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe state that the individual in question is a relative of the wartime individual. One could assume that this is the case here, and she has evidence of war crimes committed upon a family member who was alive during the war.

8. Historically, the invasion of Rotterdam by the Nazis occurred on May 14, 1940.

9. Dominic Fortune states that he knew Silver Sable's father. Dominic and Sable worked together alongside Nick Fury and his "1950s Avengers" as seen in Avengers 1959 #1.