Web of Spider-Man (vol. 2) #5
Gauntlet Origins: Vulture
Now
The Vulture is doing time in the Vernon C. Bain prison barge. One day while sitting in the cafeteria he catches a news broadcast about the new Vulture and wonders why everyone is wearing red these days.[1] That’s when a gang of Neo-Nazis surround him and tell him that their leader, Purves, wants to see him. Dragged back to the cell block, Toomes is brought before the hulking white supremacists who starts by asking if Toomes is a Jewish last name. Adrian retorts by saying that Titus Purves is the type of name that fits with inbred, wife-beating, meth-abusing, white trash. When one of the other racists tries to punch Adrian for insulting their leader, Toomes grabs his fist and then begins applying force to his wrist, threatening to break it. Having grown weary of these racist clowns, Toomes asks what Purvis wants to say. That’s when Titus hands over a cell phone and says someone wants to talk to him. It turns out, Adrian’s daughter Valeria is on the phone who tells her father that a gang of bikers have shown up out front her house and are threatening to harm if and her son if he doesn’t do what Titus asks. Ending the phone call, Titus Purves says he needs to get out of this prison and that he became interested in Adrian Toomes when he learned that he was being transferred to the barge due to overcrowding at the Raft.
He knows that Adrian invented a power harness back in the day and that his business partner was trying to cheat him. In response, Toomes stole back his invention, added wings to it and began a life of crime as the Vulture, frequently clashing with Spider-Man.[2] Titus points out that Toomes could have made a mint off the patent, but that’s neither here nor there. One particular fact that interests Purvis was one particular incident when the Adrian was able to fashion a make-shift flight harness using items found around the prison machine shop and escape from prison.[3] Titus then has Adrian Toome write down the the list of components, telling him that his Aryan brotherhood has members inside the prison system who will make sure the necessary parts end up at the prison so Adrian can build Titus a harness to escape from the barge. When Titus asks if Adrian has a problem with that, the super-villain pauses to think about it and then — with a big smile on his face — tells Titus that it won’t be a problem at all.
Later that Month
When Adrian is finished working on the flying harness, Titus arranges for a prison riot and threatens the guards into turning the other way. One of them leads Titus Purvis and Adrian Toomes up to the exercise yard. There, Titus is fitted with the flying harness and soon begins to soar out of the prison. No sooner is Purvis gone do two of his fellow white supremacists arrive to shiv Toomes because he has outlived his usefulness. That’s when two African-American prisoners come up behind the skinheads and cut their throats.
Returning to his cell, Adrian Toomes contacts Titus via the microphone he installed in the harness. He tells the bigot that there was a reason why he never patented his invention was because on the day he confronted his business partner about embezzling money from the company. Gregory Bestman didn’t deny it. He looked own upon Toomes like a carrion bird does its prey. It was at that moment Adrian Toomes vowed never to be weak again and began looking for weakness in everyone. At that moment, as bikes arrive at the Toomes residence, they are shocked when a pair of black military truck arrive and the men inside open fire upon them with automatic weapons. He then explains that he discovered a weakness in Titus Purvis when he decided he needed Adrian Toomes to get him out of prison. To that end, it took nothing to convince the African Nation that he kill the leader of the Aryan Brotherhood in a way that could not be traced back to them. As Titus begins to float higher and higher into the atmosphere, Toomes explains that his device is basically an electromagnet so it was just a matter of rigging it to send Titus floating up into the upper atmosphere where could suffocate. These are the final words that Titus Purvis hears before he dies. When one of the guards tells Adrian that it is lights out, Toomes looks out the window and watches as the body of Titus Purvis burns up on re-entry and makes a wish before retiring for the night.
Recurring Characters
Vulture, Valeria Toomes
Continuity Notes
The new Vulture, Jimmy Natale, first appeared on the scene recently around the time of this story. He first appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #592. At the tie of this story, the new Vulture was part of the Kravinoff family’s gauntlet against Spider-Man as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #623-624.
Before becoming a criminal, Adrian Toomes started Bestman and Toomes a small electronics firm with partner Gregory Bestman. Bestman ended up embezzling money from the company. When Toomes violently confronted Bestman it ultimately led to Gregory outing him from the comapny, as explained in Amazing Spider-Man #241. Stealing his harness he developed the Vulture identity, first clashing with Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #2.
Adrian Toomes fashioned a make-shift harness to escape from prison in Amazing Spider-Man #7.
Nobody
Under the alias of Henry Jones, Ben Reilly scrubs at a toilet and thinks about how this job makes people talk around him like he is invisible. He is satisfied with this because he would like to erase the past because It’s not even his past. Reflecting on his past, he thinks about how the names Henry Jones and Ben Reilly are just aliases for the truth, that his real name is Peter Parker. At least, that’s what he thought it was until he discovered that his memories were all implanted in his mind by Miles Warren, and that he was nothing more than a clone of the real Peter Parker. After this discovery, he left New York City to find a life for himself.[1] For a time, Ben Reilly built a life for himself and found love with a woman named Janine Godbe. She was on the run from the law and the two found purpose in one another until the day she died.[2] HIs thoughts are interrupted when one of a his co-workers — a total bully — tells “Henry” to stop day dreaming and shoves Ben’s face into the toilet he’s been cleaning. Furious, Ben turns around ready to fight, but stops himself and goes to the sink to wash his face. Despite the fact that Ben didn’t do anything, the look he gives his co-worker is enough to silence him.
After the end of the workday, Ben goes to a bar where he has a single drink, since he’s got a very low tolerance to alcohol. The fact that he can’t drink away his sorrows is another thing he can blame on the real Peter Parker. As he walks home, Ben suddenly feels his spider-sense go off. He tries his best to ignore it, the same thing he’s done since coming to Portland, because he doesn’t think he is a hero, but this time he can’t ignore it. Not far away a gang of men have broken into a home and are furious that the couple that live there don’t have much money. With her husband Samuel down on the ground and in need of medical attention, his wife takes one of the gang members upstairs to get the money out of Samuel’s sock drawer. Her daughter, Cheryl, is left downstairs with the other two home invaders. Upstairs, the leader of the burglars is furious to discover that they only have $50 and decides to get his money’s worth by raping the woman right then and there. Thankfully, Ben Reilly arrives and uses his spider-powers to sneak up and knock out the man before he can commit this horrific act. Ben then goes downstairs where the other thieves are starting to get nervous that they haven’t heard from their boss. They fall just as quickly as their leader. Ben then tells Cheryl that she is safe and the police are coming before leaving the scene.
The next day, Ben Reilly’s daring rescue makes front page news, with the media wondering who the mystery man was. Reading the story on the job the following day, Ben thinks about how he doesn’t want to be a hero like Peter Parker, because in his experience he has learned that everything in life if fleeting and eventually everything is taken away. When his co-worker comes in to make fun of him, Ben has had enough and shoves him in a garbage pale and hits the open road to find someplace new where they don’t know his name.
Recurring Characters
Ben Reilly
Continuity Notes
For more on the origins of Ben Reilly, the Amazing Spider-Clone, check out Amazing Spider-Man #149, as well at The Double story arc (Web of Spider-Man #117, Amazing Spider-Man #394, Spider-Man #51, Spectacular Spider-Man #217) and the Parker Legacy arc (Amazing Spider-Man #400, Spider-Man #57, Spectacular Spider-Man #233)
Ben Reilly’s romance with Janine Godbe is documented in Spider-Man: The Lost Years #1-3. Janine’s “death” is all a falsehood, Kaine — another clone of Spider-Man — forced Janine to fake her suicide. They will eventually be reunited in Spider-Man: Redemption #1-4.
