Blackout Part 1

The Vulture is plotting a huge heist that involved knocking out the power in Manhattan to cover his theft of the ten most expensive pieces of jewelry under the cover of darkness that he can fence for a fortune in Europe. His first hit is home of Archibald Piece, frigtening his wife terribly. Easily disarming Archibald, the Vulture forces the couple to open their safe and hand over the valuable necklace called the Heavens of Aphrodite.

At that same moment, Spider-Man is in a parking garage stopping a group of carjackers.[1] However, when they try to get away in a stolen vehicle he quickly webs it up. That’s when officer John Douglaston and his partner arrive on the scene. Douglaston hasn’t seen Spider-Man in action before and is quite impressed and offers the wall-crawler some donuts. However, when Spider-Man hears a radio bulletin about the controlled blackout and robberies, he thanks the officers and takes off to investigate.

At this same money, the Vulture has broken into the home of Jill DeMarley to steal another valuable necklace. However, he learns that she lost it in a divorce with her former husband. Annoyed by this setback, the Vulture kidnaps Jill’s daughter and threatens to kill her in a burning building if she doesn’t agree to help him recover the necklace from her ex-husband. To demonstrate he is serious, the Vulture shows off a chemical compound that he can excrete from a talon he constructed on his hand. A single drop on her cell phone causes the electronics to catch fire.

As the Vulture leaves with the little girl, Spider-Man happens to spot him and tries to rescue the girl. Unfortunately, Spider-Man gets jolted by the Vulture’s talon aswell as getting doused with the checmical he uses to cause the blackouts. At that moment a city crew is exmaining damage done to one of the transformers that the Vulture destroyed. They discover that the chemical compound can be tracked by infared and they can use that to stop the next blackout before it can happen and radio this to the police.

By this point, Spider-Man tries to follow affter the Vulture, but is forced to stop the chase when he hears the cries for help from a shop owner trying to protect his business from looters. Spider-Man swings down and rescues the man but he inist that Spider-Man take the time to protect his business from the looters. While Spider-Man tries to explain that a little girl’s life is in danger, a police helicopter appears, having traced him due to the chemicals that have seeped into his costume and begin opening fire on the wall-crawler.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Vulture, John Douglaston, Jill DeMarley, Tamara DeMarley

Continuity Notes

1. The narrative of this story makes refernece to Spider-Man’s origins and the death of Uncle Ben in Amazing Fantasy #15.