Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #9

Issue Details

Synopsis

ATLANTIS ATTACKS CHAPTER VI - THE SERPENT IN THE SHADOW Spider-Man has gone to the West Side Armory, where the Save Our Society organization has set up operations. The hero had recently seen a television news report about its founder, Doctor Tyrone, who has been miraculously curing drug addicts, and alcoholics. Thinking that Tyrone might be a fraud, Spider-Man goes to check it out and snap some photos for the Daily Bugle. However, when he arrives he is surprised to see a large crowd of New York City's downtrodden lined up to see Doctor Tyrone. Still, he decides to sneak inside and take pictures, as he hasn't be able to sell photos to the Bugle for a while.  Inside, Spider-Man witnesses as Doctor Tyrone manages to cure a drug addict with a single injection. As Spider-Man watches this play out, he catches a glimpse of Cloak watching from the window outside. Spider-Man goes outside to see why Cloak has come to witness this gathering as well. The vigilante tells Spider-Man that he is here for personal reasons and teleports away. As Spider-Man tries to make sense of going on, he is unaware that he is being watched by a being wearing a suit of armor.  Spider-Man then spots Cloak inside the building. Before he can do anything, Spider-Man has to dodge a barrage of light knives fired at him by Cloak's partner, Dagger.   Spider-Man leaps toward her, demanding to know why she has attacked him. Dagger believes that Spider-Man is trying to harm Cloak. Spider-Man tries to explain that he means no harm when Cloak returns, wrapping the wall-crawler in his cloak and teleports away, leaving Dagger alone. Dagger is left to wonder where the two men have gone, and can't shake the feeling that someone is watching her. She is not wrong, as she is being observed by the Deviant priest known as Ghaur. He has decided that she will be a perfect candidate for the Brides of Set. He tells his minions to have Tyrannus capture her, and leaves to continue working on constructing a new Serpent Crown. Meanwhile, Spider-Man is in the throes of a nightmare while traveling inside the Dark Dimension. He is soon dumped in Central Park by Cloak, who apologizes for the horrible visions the wall-crawler has witnessed, but he couldn't have the hero harm Dagger. Cloak quickly departs leaving Spider-Man in the care of people camping out in the park. After the web-slinger recovers from his ordeal, he ask the people why they are camping in Central Park. They explain that they are homeless and have nowhere to go. Spider-Man asks what they will do if they are driven from the park, and they tell him that they plan on going to the Save Our Society shelter. After he is fully recovered, Spider-Man thanks the homeless people for their help and swings away. As he leaves, he thinks about how he and his wife Mary Jane don't have it quite so bad not having a home of their own since they have Aunt May's place to stay.    Later, at the Holy Ghost Church, Cloak returns to Dagger and explains that he went to Doctor Tyrone's shelter in the hopes of using his miracle cure to end his constant hunger. However, he thinks to himself that it is a foolish dream, as he feels that Dagger would leave him if he was no longer cursed and relied on her to sustain his tortured existence. He tells Tandy that he needs to be alone for a while and teleports away. Dagger wonders why Cloak can be so blind as to see that she doesn't love him, and that she loved him since the day they met.  She recounts how the pair of them were runaways that were kidnapped by drug dealers who used them as test subjects for a new experimental drug that gave them their powers.  Her thoughts are interrupted by the arrival of "Doctor Tyrone" who is actually Tyrannus. He uses Lemurian technology to knock Dagger out and take her prisoner. He then has his Deviant allies to load her up in their ship and take her off to see Ghaur.   Meanwhile, Peter Paker is at the Daily Bugle developing his photos of the Save Our Society gathering. Taking a look at a photo of one of Doctor Tyrone's assistants, he notices a strange dragon-shaped tattoo on his wrist and decides to pay the shelter another visit. On his way out, he catches a news report about Atlantean attacks across the United States. Changing into Spider-Man, the hero wonders if the world is going crazy. He recalls of his recent battle with the Abomination alongside the She-Hulk.  As the wall-crawler web-slings across the city he runs into Cloak. Knowing that Dagger is in danger has put Cloak into a frenzy. Spider-Man calms Cloak down, and he shows Spider-Man a note that was left for him at the Holy Ghost Church telling him to go to the shelter. Spider-Man explains that he was heading there himself and agrees to help Cloak rescue Dagger. Arriving at the shelter, Spider-Man goes in through the window, telling Cloak to attack from above. As they prepare for action, they are once more observed by the mysterious man in armor. Inside, Spider-Man finds Brother Elton, the man with the strange tattoo and follows after him. Meanwhile, Cloak uses his power of intangibility to float through the building into the room where Tyrannus is keeping Dagger prisoner.   Tyrannus uses his powers to enthralls Cloak and tells him to procure a mystical book in Paris and bring it back. Unable to resist the power of Tyrannus, Cloak ends up teleporting that away to do just that. Elsewhere, Spider-Man comes across many of the shelter's drug addicts strapped to gurneys and wonders what is going on. Deciding to find out why Spider-Man continues his pursuit of Brother Elton. While below, Cloak returns with the Book of Kell an ancient text written by the Sons of the Serpent Cult. He hopes to use the book to gain more power than Ghaur. To repay Cloak for his assistance, he tells his minions to kill them. The attackers remove their cloaks revealing themselves to be Serpent Men. The shock of seeing the creatures shakes Cloak free of his trance. Cloak begins sending some of the Serpent Men through into the Dark Dimension, but there are too many. Tyrannus tells Cloak to give up, as these creatures are the product of Viper's serpent serum, the "miracle cure" he injected into the down-and-out of New York.  Still, Cloak fights on, even though the odds are greatly against him.   Meanwhile, Spider-Man continues to follow Brother Elton, still curious about the serpent tattoo on his wrist. The design looks similar to the Sons of the Serpent he fought some time ago.[Continuity 8] His pursuit takes the wall-crawler outside, where he sees shelter staff loading patients into ambulances to be taken upstate. Curious, the web-slinger sneaks into the back of one of the ambulances in order to see what is being done to these poor people. Back inside, Cloak continues to struggle against his attackers, but he is quickly losing ground. Suddenly, the wall explodes, smashing a steam pipe. As the creatures back away from the steam, Cloak manages to rescue Dagger. Unsure what happened, the couple decides to leave while they still can. As they teleport away, their departure is observed by the mysterious man in armor. Once the pair is gone, he walks away. Cloak and Dagger appear on a nearby rooftop, there Cloak suggests they find Spider-Man, but Dagger feels ill, and her neck feels like it's on fire. While back at the armory, Spider-Man watches in horror as one of the "cured" drug addicts turns into a Serpent Man. As Cloak debates on getting Dagger help or assisting Spider-Man, the wall-crawler is confronted by Tyrannus and his minions.   Cloak decides to take Dagger to safety, leaving Spider-Man at the mercy of Tyrannus and his Serpent Men. Before the wall-crawler can fight off his attackers, Tyrannus uses his powers to lull Spider-Man into a trance. FREEFALL At a construction site on Manhattan's Lower East Side, a construction worker falls off the scaffolding. Seeing this, Hobie Brown tries to swing out on a rope to try and catch his co-worker, but misses, and watches helplessly as the man falls to his death. Although his co-workers comment Hobie with his bravery, he still feels horrible that the man still died. His employer, Jerry Sapristi tells Hobie that the dead man was Neal Mulligan, one of their best girder walkers. He also notes that the police said that Mulligan was an undocumented immigrant from Ireland. Still, Hobie doesn't think this man deserved to die. Sapristi tells Hobie to take the rest of the day off. He decides to take up the offer so he can clear his head before his wife takes him out to dinner.   Later, at Hobie's apartment in Long Island City, he finds a note from his wife telling him that she will be out late that evening due to her classes. After foraging in the fridge for some food, Hobie decides to work on redesigning his Prowler equipment for more practical use. By the time Hobie's wife Mindy returns home, Hobie has fallen asleep at his drafting table. When she wakes him up, Hobie tells her about what happened that day. He then shows her his newly designed compact glider that opens when someone falls from a high place. She asks Hobie when he intends to sell the design, but he insists that there are still kinks to work out. As Mindy goes to the bathroom to get changed, she wonders why Hobie never has the confidence to sell his inventions. She decides to try and cheer him up with some romance, but when she comes out of the bathroom, Hobie has fallen asleep again. Deciding to do something about Hobie's lack of confidence, she decides to take his blueprint with her the following morning.   The next day, during Hobie's lunch break, Mindy comes to visit her husband at the construction site. When he comes down to see his wife, she tells him that she found a prospective buyer for his designs. His angry because she did so before he could finalize the designs and patent them. When he asks her who she sold the designs to, she tells him that it was Hammer Industries. This angers Hobie even more. However, that evening, he feels bad for being so mad at his wife. However, she wasn't aware that Hammer Industries was involved in her being set up as a patsy in the Transcorp stock fraud.  Changing into the Prowler, Hobie goes to the Hammer Industries location to steal back his designs. However, on the way, he witnesses the escape of a costumed thief who has stolen some blueprints from a building. When the man uses a taser on one of the security guards, the Prowler tires to stop him but is too late. After checking to see if the guard is okay, the Prowler is shocked to see the costumed attacker has a modified version of his glider design.   However, the Prowler is able to damage the glider, sending the man falling. This time, the Prowler is able to rescue the man. Removing his mask and demanding to know what he is doing, he learns that the man's name is Charles Weiser. Charles tells the Prowler that his wife threatened to leave him if he didn't get a promotion at Hammer Industries. Justin Hammer then told him that he could have the promotion if he used the prototype glider to steal some plans from one of Hammer Industry's competitors. The Prowler decides to give the guy a break, and tells them to tell Hammer that the glider design was flawed and then resign, warning Weiser that he will be watching. Soon, Hobie returns home to his wife and tells her not to worry, that he straightened things out with Justin Hammer. The next day, while at work, Hobie is told that coroner reported that Mulligan was killed by a blow to the head that knocked him off the girder. Hobie wonders if it was really an accident, or if Mulligan was murdered. THE 25 MOST IMPORTANT WOMEN IN MY LIFE