First Blood

Peter Parker and his wife Mary Jane are on a carriage ridge through Central Park when suddenly Peter's spider-sense begins warning him of danger.[1] Suddenly, shots ring out spooking the horse pulling the carriage. When the horse bucks, both Peter and Mary Jane are thrown from their seats and land in the nearby forest. Separated from her husband, Mary Jane is confronted by a group of armed mercenaries calling themselves the Silver Squad. The group consists of Slambeaux, Twit, Ripster, and Purty Larry. They explain that they are seeking out her husband in order to exploit his connection to Spider-Man in order to obtain a sample of the wall-crawler's blood. Mary Jane keeps them distracted long enough for Peter to slip away and change into Spider-Man. While Spider-Man ambushes them, Mary Jane tries to help by hitting Slambeaux in the head of the rock, sending him bowling over into Twit and Ripster. When Purty Larry tries to shoot Mary Jane, Spider-Man strikes him in the head with a web-ball, throwing off his aim.

Dodging the bullets fired by his attackers, Spider-Man soon finds himself surrounded by the mercenaries. He leaps up in the air and witnesses to his horror as the Silver Squad opens fire upon themselves anyway. That's when he discovers that these aren't human beings at all, but highly sophisticated androids. Ultimately all the androids except for Ripster are damaged beyond repair. However, Ripster is still suffering damage when Spider-Man plugs the barrel of her bazooka with webbing. The entire battle is being monitored by the Silver Squad's mysterious employer who has decided that his current plan is no longer working and decides that Spider-Man must die. By this time, Mary Jane has returned to Spider-Man's side after calling the police. As she worries over him, his spider-sense goes off and he manages to shove his wife out of the way, saving her from being clobbered by Ripster's now-useless weapon. The wall-crawler decides to take the battle away from his wife, and begin luring Ripster as far away as possible. Soon the NYPD arrive on the scene. Seeing the remains of the androids come as a shock to the police officers on the scene. Meanwhile, Spider-Man lures Ripster to a number of abandoned buildings so that nobody else gets hurt during their battle. Up on the rooftops, Spider-Man manages to use a web-line to pull away Ripster's bazooka.

That's when Ripster charges at him, swatting away web-balls along the way. Once close enough, she pulls out an energized knife. Spider-Man evades her attacks and strikes her as hard as he can. The blow sends her into the side of a water tower where Ripster explodes. Unfortunately, this is not the end of the android, as it pulls its mangled body out of the flames. As she resumes her attack, the wall-crawler demands to know who hired the Silver Squad to attack him. Ripster tries to tell, but the damage done to her body has also affected her ability to talk. As the web-slinger tries to swing away, Ripster grabs him and forces him into a fall. Unable to use his web-shooters, Spider-Man is forced to twist around so that Ripster takes the brunt of the fall. The fall knocks Spider-Man out, but Ripster -- the last of her faux humanity stripped away -- takes Spider-Man prisoner. When the police prepared to shoot, but Mary Jane calls out to them to stop, lest they hit Spider-Man. His distraction allows Ripster time to rip through the pavement into the subway below. Running through the tunnels, Ripster takes Spider-Man to the secret lair of her master, the mobster cyborg known as Silvermane. Seeing his old foe alive comes as a shock to Spider-Man.[2]

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Silvermane, Ripster

Continuity Notes

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

2. Spider-Man's surprise that Silvermane is alive because the mobster was seemingly killed in Amazing Spider-Man #284. How Silvermane cheated death this time around is revealed next issue.