The Extremist Part Three

With the Extremist threatning his life, Mayor J. Jonah Jameson is escorted by security to a secret bunker in long closed IRT station below City Hall.[1] Once they get Jameson into the secure bunker, the two security guards are shot dead by the Extremist who managed to get in despite their efforts. Appearing before Jameson, the Extremist muses that this room will suit his purposes perfectly. Outside, Spider-Man is arriving at the scene after learning that the Extremist was targeting the mayor in order to draw out the wall-crawler. The web-slinger comes crashing in through one of the window to offer his aid. At first, the guards draw thier guns, but one of them remembers how Spider-Man helped save Shadow Command recently and decides to allow the web-slinger’s aid.[2]

In the bunker, the Extremist has handcuffed Jameson to the desk and has rigged the automated defenses to shoot either Jameson (if he moves) or whoever opens the door trying to get in. Jameson is unafraid of the Extremist, telling him that this will do nothing to stop him from shutting both Spider-Man and the Extremist down. Jonah’s captor is unimpressed by this display of false bravado as he can read Jameson’s aura and knows the truth. He knows that Jonah’s vendetta against Spider-Man stems from jealousy over the fact that the web-slinger stole public attention from his son.[3] Jonah tells the Extremist to keep his psychological assessments to himself, insisting that Spider-Man is a menace. The Extremist then tells Jonah that the web-slinger is actually his intended target and if he wasn’t to see an end to Spider-Man all he need do is keep his mouth shut.

Back upstairs, the security agents are fighting among themselves to decide if they should trust Spider-Man or not, prompting the web-slinger to go looking for the Extremist. That’s when the villain appears and, grabbing Spider-Man, makes the web-slinger intangible and tosses him down into the middle of a city council meeting. Spider-Man then turns things around by tricking the Extremist into entering the reporter’s bullpen. There, Spider-Man tells a mob of reporters that the Extremist is actually Tyler Smithson and his mother suffered from Münchausen Syndrome, who believed her son was a mutant. The whole time his mother was trying to convince her son that he was special. He then tells everyone that the Avengers have detailed files on Smithson, from denied insurance claims to lawsuits against doctors who didn’t support her claims. Spider-Man tells the Tyler that for what it’s worth he feels sorry for him. With the truth being exposed, the Extremist begins losing his cool and orders Spider-Man to shut up but the webs-linger isn’t done yet. He drops the final truth bomb on his foe, revealing to the press that Tyler’s mother was killed during a recent confrontation between the Hood and Mister Negative, which was the catalyst for Tyler becoming the Extremist.[4] “Don’t you talk about my mother!” bellow the Extremist and then, composing himself, tells Spider-Man that he is patronizing his crusade against the “grey” as a Freudian quirk. He knocks Spider-Man to the ground and prepares to shoot the web-slinger in the back of the head with his gun. However, the web-slinger surprises him by being able to grab the barrel of the weapon and crush it with his bare hands. The Extremist can’t believe this happened as he was intangible at the time. That’s when Spider-Man reveals that after their last encounter he figured out how his foe’s powers and determined that they were created by bioelectric reaction in his cells. To that end, he dug out an old device that he once used against the Vulture to short out the Extremist’s powers temporarily.[5]

Even though he is disarmed, the Extremist reveals that the weapons he used only channel the power that is inside him the whole time and begins wildly firing energy blasts. Spider-Man evades these attacks and manages to hit the Extremist in the face, knocking back his hood revealing his face had been grotesquely experimented upon. Tyler reveals that he never was a mutant, but after he got a settlement in his mother’s death he used that money to hire Doctor Trauma to give him the powers that his mother claimed he always had so he could begin his crusade against the “grey”. Spider-Man quickly webs up the Extremist’s hands together. When he demands to know where Jonah is, Tyler agrees to bring the web-slinger to him. By this time, J. Jonah Jameson has noticed that there is a camera in the room recording this scene. What he doesn’t know is that the video is a live feed being broadcast on the Spiderfail website and is currently being watched by reporters at the Front Line. Still, knowing that this situation is being recorded, Jonah warns Spider-Man of the trap as he opens the safe room, allowing Spider-Man to evade the barrage of laser blasts from the guns mounted in the room. However, while doing so, Spider-Man inadvertently allows the Extremist to grab the electromagnetic scrambler and deactivate it. He furious confronts Jameson, demanding to know why he tipped off Spider-Man to the trap when he hates the web-slinger so much. Jameson explains that he wasn’t going to let Spider-Man get killed on camera because it would lead to his political downfall. Furious, the Extremist is about to kill Jonah, when Spider-Man quickly leaps in the way and holds a mirror up in front of his foe.

Seeing his own aura, Tyler Smithson realizes that it’s exactly the same as Jonah’s and realizes that he’s a total fraud. This startling revelation makes the Extremist lose control of his intangibility and he is shot by the laser cannons. With the danger now over, Spider-Man frees Jonah who tries to convince the web-slinger he couldn’t let another person — even Spider-Man — die due to his inaction. Spider-Man isn’t convinced, and tells Jonah to keep an eye on his soul mate while he goes to find a medic.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, the Extremist, J. Jonah Jameson

Continuity Notes

1. The security detail states that this secret bunker was installed after the Civil War that took place in Civil War #1-7 and practically every Marvel book at the time.

2. Spider-Man mentions two times he helped save the city. The first was helping prevent a Skrull invasion in Secret Invasion #1-8. The second was when he saved the city when the Lizard was activating the lizard-brains of citizens in Amazing Spider-Man #630-633. Lastly, one of the guards mentions how Spider-Man recently saved NYPD’s Shadow Command. That was in Amazing Spider-Man #602-604.

3. He’s referring to the time when Spider-Man saved John Jameson’s life when he was trapped aboard an out of control space capsule. This happened in Amazing Spider-Man #1. When the Extremist looks at Jameson’s aura he sees that various Spider-Man foes that Jonah bankrolled, they are…..

   • The second Spider-Slayer robot first seen in Amazing Spider-Man #58. Jameson has actually bankrolled the creation of a few including the original (Amazing Spider-Man #25) the third (Amazing Spider-Man #105) and the fifth (Amazing Spider-Man #166)

   • The Scorpion, who was created by Farley Sitwell, whose experiments were funded by J. Jonah Jameson in Amazing Spider-Man #20.

   • Lastly, there’s the Human Fly, created by Farley’s brother Harlan (also funded by Jameson) in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #10.

4. The gang war between the Hood and Mister Negative was documented in Dark Reign: Mister Negative #1-3.

5. The device Spider-Man is using here is the same one he used against the Vulture way back in Amazing Spider-Man #2.

Negative Reinforcement

Trying to find information on the Eastern Wind so Boomerang, her husband’s killer, can’t make a plea bargain, Jackpot finds herself at Ryker’s Island trying to stop the Black Dragon from getting Boomerang for his masters.[1] Unfortunately, Jackpot is ambushed from behind by Black Dragon’s minions who use electrified whips to knock her out. She is awoken not long after by NYPD Detective Mahoney. He tells her that the Black Dragon managed to slay Boomerang. The only witness to the killing was another inmate who has already lawyered up and is not talking. Jackpot recognizes the witness as Doctor Phillip Hayes, aka the Rose, the man who originally hired Boomerang to murder her husband. Amused to see Jackpot, Hayes tells her that he made a deal with the Eastern Wind, giving them intel on Boomerang in exchange for them going after Jackpot’s daughter, Mattie.

Furious and needing answers, Jackpot grabs one of the Black Dragon’s minions and demands information on their scheme. When he refuses to talk, she begins crushing his balls. The masked minion relents but, before he can talk, a booby-trapped rigged in his costume electrocutes the man to death. Searching his body, Jackpot is able to discover a small camera planted on the costume as well. However, Detective Mahoney believes that Jackpot must have killed the man in cold blood and tries to put her under arrest. However, she pleads her case that in order to track down who was responsible for the hit on Boomerang he’ll let her go and investigate this further.

She takes the recording device to Mister Fantastic at the Baxter Building who is able to track the signal. However, when he asks why Jackpot has returned to costumed heroics, she explains that she needs stop the people who know her real name don’t figure out the alias she is now living under. However, when Reed gives her the location he tells her that the address isn’t going to solve her problems. Jackpot admits that Reed isn’t wrong but needs to send a message to her enemies that her family is not to be fucked with.

She comes crashing in on the hideout, leading to a clash with Mister Negative, who demands to know why Jackpot is so interested in Boomerang. As Negative overpowers her, Jackpot realizes that Hayes played her for a fool and that nobody in the Eastern Wind knows anything about her. When Jackpot refuses to talk, Mister Negative reveals that Boomerang is still alive, explaining that they faked his death in order to debrief him before deciding to kill him or not.

Recurring Characters

Jackpot, Mister Negative, Phillip Hayes, Fred Myers, Mister Fantastic

Continuity Notes

1. Boomerang killed Jackpot’s husband in Amazing Spider-Man Presents: Jackpot #1-3.

Continuity Errors

• Black Dragon, for some reason, is called Red Dragon in this story.