Spider-man Database

Sensational Spider-man Vol. 2 Issue 36

Cover scan uploaded on Apr 10, 2007 by WallCrawler

Synopsis:

Submitted by: WallCrawler on Apr 07, 2007

Six days ago:

“Don't be stupid. And don't make me fight you.”

We find Spider-man in the middle of trying to talk some sense into another... Spider-man? Perhaps more spider than even the real Spider-man, this other version has mutated beyond the extent that Peter Parker has – this one has grown extra eyes and mandibles, and who knows what else. Spider-man tries to reason with the impostor, letting him know that the process that is going on to metamorphosize his body will eventually kill him, and that he has a friend who is working on a cure.

In the lab of Dr. Curt Connors, we find out that Spider-man has convinced the impostor to come with him. Connors is optimistic that this live subject will aide him in creating the antidote to whatever is causing this. He takes the moment to express his concern for Peter's Aunt May (see Amazing Spider-man volume 2 issue 538.) He asks if there's anything he can do. Peter only asks him to pray, that his aunt's strong – a fighter.

“In the meantime, you focus on the kids. On finding a cure for them.”

Peter expresses his feelings of responsibility for these impostors, these doppelgangers, and how he's going to track down as many of them as possible before they degenerate as far as the subject now in Dr. Connor's care.

“And after you catch them? Where will you put them?” Asks Connors.

The present:

We interlude to a pair of policemen in the hallways of a holding cell ward going over the information they've gathered on their prisoners. The play the part of bringing the audience up to speed on the Spider-man impostors that the real deal has manged to round up in the past six days – that they're all homeless males aged 13 to 18, all abducted by an unknown male assailant, and taken to an undisclosed location to be cared for until they were experimented on with some unknown vector to turn them into these Spider-man dopplegangers, and then released back into civilization, apparently complete with varieties of outfits worn by Spider-man. Incidentally we are shown three in variations of the red and blue costume (one that looks like the “first appearance” costume and two that look like more modern variants,) two black costumes, the “spider-armor” from Web of Spider-man #100, the “spider-hulk” from Web of Spider-man #70, the Scarlet Spider, and even Ricochet, one of the four personas Peter Parker used during “Identity Crisis”. Just then, Dr. Connors shows up, ostensibly to give them the antidote.

We cut to Spider-man in the middle of yet another battle with a doppleganger, whom he quickly dispatches and webs up. As he starts to swing toward the police station that is holding the other impostors, he says to himself that Dr. Connors should already be there to administer the antidote that he's been working around the clock to create.

We cut back to that very man as he tries to explain the dire situation that the impostors are in – how they will continue to transform until they're more spider than man, and that he's created an antidote to destabilize the chemicals in their bodies and keep them from changing further. The prisoners aren't swayed – being homeless and desperate, they welcome their new powers. That being inhuman is nothing new to them, because that's how they felt already. Connors tells them that they will receive the antidote whether they agree to it or not. Just then the are alerted to a new impostor, hanging from webs at the front door.

Meanwhile, Jordan Harrison, a student of Peter Parker's before he had to go into hiding, is panicking inside his new temporary home, trying to smash a one-way mirror with a chair. There are posters of heroes on the walls around him, but he only wants to break that mirror. He succeeds in only breaking the chair.

“Why are you doing this???” he exclaims in desperation.

On the other side of the glass, in what looks like a sewer or subway tunnel, we see Calvin Zabo watching his newest subject.

“It's because you're just like Peter Parker. And therefore, the ideal control subject.”

We rejoin the aforementioned Peter as he meets with Reed Richards at a Times Square restaurant, Chevy's, because it's touristy and no one will notice them there. Richards has been administering the antidote to Ethan Myers, the most profoundly mutated subject of these experiments. The conversation between the two of them is strained, uncomfortable, made so because of the rift that the Superhero Civil War has created throughout the hero community.

Reed reveals a tracking device he found on Ethan – it's not unlike a GPS tracker, or a spider-tracer, thinks Peter. They discuss how whoever is doing this has experimented, tagged, and released these kids like some kind of wildlife researcher. Peter thinks he can use this tracer to home in on the point of origin, to find the base of operations of this madman.

As Peter gets up to leave, Reed stops him – to try and let him know he's “not alone in this.”

Peter retorts “If I am... It's because you and Tony put me there, Reed.”

Reed expresses his concern for May, which at first makes Peter mad, but he then softens and expresses his appreciation.

Reed found more evidence on Ethan Myers during his examination – microscopic traces of dust and silt that reminded him of samples he took during a battle with the Mole Man in the subway tunnels under the city. Spider-man begins his search there.

We cut back to Calvin Zabo, as he makes an entry into his audio journal about his experiment. He reveals that the purpose was to discover why a 15 year old boy would decide to do good after acquiring the power that Spider-man did. So he found subjects to work on, and released them back into the city to find out what they would do with their newly acquired powers. He meant to round them back up himself after a week, but Spider-man, not unexpectedly, intervened and did so himself, elsewhere.

Just then, Zabo sees on one of his surveillance monitors, the one and only Sensational Spider-man.

“I wish I could say I'm surprised...”

He speaks to his audio journal yet again, saying he has to go away now – that the next voice we hear won't be his, but that of his “associate:”

EDWARD HYDE.