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Astonishing Spider-Man Vol 6 12

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Appearing in "Power Play - Part 1: The Stark Contrast"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 4) #12

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Synopsis for "Power Play - Part 1: The Stark Contrast"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 4) #12

In the Bryant Park, New York, Harry is helping Peter prepare for a gala for their company's charity, the Uncle Ben Foundation. Harry asks why Peter didn't bring a date, but he tells him that his last girlfriend was a mole (who also tried to kill him with his car) so he took a break from dating for a while. He remembers the last time he was at that park, for Aunt May's wedding, which Harry was not invited to. He tells him that it was full of drama anyway, with Mary Jane arriving at the last second and catching the bouquet. He is completely oblivious that MJ is right behind him. She says that she is there with her new boss, Tony Stark, who arrives to greet Peter. After the mindwipe, Tony only remembers Peter as the guy who used to work for him, helped him build the Iron Spider armor and lived in Avengers Tower with his girlfriend for a while, not remembering MJ was his girlfriend. Harry and MJ walk away to catch up, while Tony congratulates Peter for getting his company to the top from nowhere, saying he should enjoy his success. Peter insists on not throwing money around, but Tony tells him that that is what he has been doing by funding Spider-Man, whose adventures have resulted on destroyed jets and rockets that Peter had made just for him, satellites and the Rosetta Stone. MJ and Tony go to get a seat, meeting Augustus Roman, CEO of Empire Unlimited, while Harry takes Peter away to prepare him for his speech.

Harry leaves Peter at the podium, the latter telling him not to leave him alone with the shock of MJ being there, suddenly realizing the microphone is right in front of him. Luckily it's not on, a rare win for the Parker Luck. Harry goes to his seat, knowing that they are about to eat him alive, and bumps into Liz Allen and Ty Stone of Alchemax in the crowd. Liz says they don't have to pretend when their kids aren't with them and sends him in his way. Stone says that she is worried that Harry would be near when the "action" starts, but she says she only cares that their "friend" can do his job. Peter tries to start his speech, but remains frozen, thinking about how much he screwed things with MJ. But he is suddenly attacked from behind by the Ghost, who phased through the stage. He throws Parker away and calls the crowd hypocrites for donating to charities while feeding off the work of the poor (despite the fact that Alchemax hired him to do this), and turns his attention to August Roman, the man whose company privatized superhuman prisons, and blasts him with some kind of energy weapon from his hand. He explains that he is using hyper-density waves to blast air as hard as steel, stealing the design from Empire. But the Ghost is shocked the Roman is surviving that. Meanwhile, Parker and Stark change into their alter-egos, secretly and publicly, and attack the Ghost, but their attacks cancel each other out. They both start discussing who should fight the Ghost, both of them having a grudge against him. The Ghost just stares at the heroes fighting in disbelief.

While the heroes are, literally, calling dibs on the Ghost, Roman crawls away from the battle, upset that the so-called heroes are acting like children. Harry and MJ help him get away, the latter saying some things never change. Meanwhile, Spider-Man and Iron Man are still bickering. Spider-Man says that since the Ghost is an anti-capitalism villain, he should be fighting him since Parker Industries is doing better than Stark is. The Ghost thinks about that for a second, then agrees and blasts him away. After landing, Spider-Man realized Stark just pulled a "Duck season, fire!" on him. With Spidey out of the way, Iron Man attacks the Ghost with multi-vibrational repulsor rays, but they just phase through him. The Ghost compliments the innovating failsafes Stark came up against him, now that he has a low budget. But he says he made some improvements, too, and blasts him. Spidey arrives as the Ghost runs away and tries to use his Z-Metal against him. But since the Ghost saw him use that on YouTube, he protected himself against that, too. The chase leads them in front of a museum, where the Ghost asks if they are done, since he has other targets for the night. Iron Man and Spidey prepare for the next phase of a team-up, the actual team-up, and compare notes. They think that Iron Man's repulsor would have worked if it had something to vibrate inside of. So Spider-Man fires a Z-Metal webline through the Ghost and Iron Man channels his repulsor in it, the result taking down the Ghost. Spidey realizes that they just fought a Ghost; on the NY Public Library; and defeated him by "crossing the streams". But Iron Man screams "Ghost-busted" before him, beating him to the pun and getting the applause of the bystanders, much to Spidey's irritation.

Later, at the Parker Industries building, Peter sees that the video of Stark stealing his quip has gone viral. Wanting to get back at Stark, he calls Pepper Potts via Webware. He tries to offer her a job, but she says no before he can even finish talking. Meanwhile, a prison transport brings a lot of criminals to the Cellar. There is only one superhuman among them, Tombstone. At the same time, Augustus Roman is giving Betty Brant of the Daily Bugle a tour of the prison. The inmates with powers are separated from the rest and kept underground, and the villains' tech is taken away to be studied by Empire Unlimited and re-purposed for peaceful purposes. Roman says that Empire Unlimited is making the world a better place. For normal people, that is. Betty says that she investigated him, how his wife and son died in the crossfire of Baron Zemo's famous siege of Avengers Mansion years ago. Roman says that that has happened to many people, which is why it is important that superhumans are contained and their powers are kept in the right hands. Hands that use them with responsibility. After the interview, Betty is escorted out of the prison, while Roman marches past pods where the superhuman inmates are drowned and their powers given to him, including Tombstone. Dr. Stillwell tells him that they are at full capacity for supervillains. Roman decides to begin the next phase. Stillwell is hesitant, but Roman, putting his Regent armor, says that the problem is not supervillains. The problem is superpowers. And the world will only be safe when he has all those powers, setting his sighs to the Avengers next.

Appearing in "Isn't It Bromantic? Part Four"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Spider-Man/Deadpool #4

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Synopsis for "Isn't It Bromantic? Part Four"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Spider-Man/Deadpool #4
  • Synopsis not yet written

Appearing in 3rd story

Reprint of the 1st story from
Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #1

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  • Humans (Main story and flashback)
  • Demons (Main story and flashback)

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Synopsis for 3rd story

Reprint of the 1st story from
Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #1
Miles' activities as Spider-Man are going well, but he begins to neglect school and his social life because of it. During a fight against Blackheart, the Avengers are knocked down. Miles puts the demon to flight, when the original Spider-Man arrives and finds him near the unconscious Avengers.

Appearing in "Worldwide"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 4) #1

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  • Zodiac (First appearance)
    • Leo Sect
      • Leo (First appearance)
      • Unnamed minions
    • Pisces Sect
      • Pisces (First appearance)
      • Unnamed minions
    • Gemini (Mentioned)

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Synopsis for "Worldwide"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 4) #1

In Shanghai, China, a commercial for a Parker Industries wrist-mounted smartphone called Webware plays as a group of Zodiac's Leo Sect speed down the highway, firing energy bolts behind them. Pursuing them are Spider-Man and Mockingbird, in a futuristic-looking Spider-Mobile. Spider-Man sings a theme song, and when Mockingbird tells him to stop he activates an auto tune function. Mockingbird tells him that her S.H.I.E.L.D. training affords her fourteen ways of killing him, and Spider-Man shuts the auto tune off just as he receives a message alert from Nick Fury Jr. who asks Mockingbird for a status report. She informs him that the Zodiac broke into Parker Industries' Shanghai branch and made off with its servers, which would allow them to hack into the Webware devices. Fury tells them to not let it fall into Zodiac's hands, and Spider-Man tells him he has no intention of letting S.H.I.E.L.D. have access to it either, cutting off Fury's protests by threatening to stop designing tech for S.H.I.E.L.D. if necessary.

As they swerve to avoid energy bolts, Spider-Man boasts of his superior driving skills, courtesy of his superhuman reflexes, Spider-Sense... and private lessons. In the driver's seat of the Zodiacs' getaway car, Leo tells his grunts to take out the road. As Mockingbird complains that the Spider-Mobile is slowing down, Spider-Man tells her not to worry about crashing because it has web-fluid airbags. The Zodiac thugs blow up a car, destroying the road, but as they gloat the Spider-Mobile tails them, driving along the underside of the overpass. Cheered on by the citizens of Shanghai, Spider-Man switches the steering over to Mockingbird and opens the roof, addressing his fans in Mandarin, which he picked up taking his driving lessons. The Spider-Mobile's wheels unfold into insectoid legs and it flips over, cutting off the Zodiacs' escape. Spider-Man jumps onto the hood of their car, displaying a couple of the new webbing types he developed: micro-coiled Z-metal "Bug Zappers" capable of being electrified, and shock-absorbing expanding web-foam. The Zodiacs' car crashes and Spider-Man checks on the citizens to see if anyone's hurt. When one of them reprimands him for letting the Leo Sect escape, Spider-Man states he's delegating their apprehension to Mockingbird, who knocks the grunts out and interrogates Leo as to why Zodiac has been trying to steal the Webware servers. Leo bites a suicide pill, but Spider-Man shoots him with an antidote he developed, griping that he's tired of them killing themselves. Mockingbird accuses him of adhering to his "no-one dies around me" idealism, but Spider-Man tells her he's not so naïve anymore and simply wants to save everyone he can.

As they return to Parker Industries to check out the crime scene, Mockingbird teases Spider-Man for his dramatic speech. A young Chinese woman, Lian Tang, exits a nearby vehicle and reprimands Spider-Man for taking the Spider-Mobile without her permission. When Spider-Man brushes her complaints aside by stating it's his car, Lian snaps that the Spider-Mobile doesn't belong to him but to her and Peter, since they designed and built it together. Lian threatens to report Spider-Man to Peter, saying that they are very close in a manner that implies physical intimacy, and Mockingbird quietly teases Spider-Man for sleeping around. Changing the subject, Spider-Man introduces her to other members of his staff: Min Wei, Peter Parker's personal secretary; Dr. Yao Wu, the head of the bio-tech division; and Phillip Chang, in charge of renewable energies research. Min inquires as to Peter's whereabouts since he has a press conference in ten minutes, and Spider-Man remarks that he knows where to find Peter as he enters an elevator. Changing out of his costume and into a business suit, Peter psyches himself up for the worldwide press conference.

Later, in front of a crowd of reporters, Peter denounces rumors that he built the Webware industry in China to exploit cheap labor, stating that he's paying fair wages and is not out to build a fortune, but to build the future. Citing his Uncle Ben, Peter explains that his intent is to make sure that the world superheroes risk their lives to save is one worth saving, announcing the Uncle Ben Foundation - using technologies to help the less fortunate and improve standards of living around the world - as his next venture. When a reporter accuses him of being a "poor man's Tony Stark" for having Spider-Man as the company's mascot and his personal bodyguard, Peter replies that unlike Tony he capped his salary at a middle management level. After the conference ends, Peter asks Min Wei how he did, and she reveals his fly was down and tells him the corporate jet is waiting to take him back to the States. On board the jet, Peter places a call to Hobie Brown, who's been operating as Spider-Man in San Francisco. Hobie laments that he'd rather be out as the Prowler, and Peter remarks that he pays Hobie more than he himself makes, asking him to come to a wedding that evening.

That evening, Peter, Hobie, and Sajani Jaffrey attend the wedding of Max Modell and Hector Baez. Despite them having fallen out during the time Otto Octavius swapped minds with Peter, Max congratulates Peter for Parker Industries' success and Sajani for being appointed manager of the company's European branch. Hector thanks Peter for putting him and Max in charge of the company's west coast operations, the Parker Institute for Technology, but Peter informs them there were a few last minute changes: he renamed the institute the Horizon University in honor of Max's now defunct Horizon Labs. Peter says that while he couldn't get any of Max's intellectual property back from Alchemax, he cut a deal with Liz Allan for the name. While Max is touched by this gesture, Sajani pulls Peter away to dance, using the opportunity to criticize him for his humanitarian approach instead of dominating the global market. Just as Sajani makes an ominous remark about taking things into her own hands, Peter's Spider-Sense goes off and Zodiac's Pisces Sect emerges from the bay. While Peter offers himself up as a distraction, Hobie changes into his Spider-Man costume. Pisces reveals they are after Peter's Webware specifically, because it has access to restricted data caches. Hobie - as Spider-Man - intervenes, and Peter tells Sajani to help the wedding guests - former Horizon Labs employees - find cover. Hobie's lack of a Spider-Sense gets him knocked out of the fight, and Peter realizes that he could be killed. Encrypting his Webware, he gives it to the Pisces Sect, who depart as the police arrive. Peter tells Hobie to change into his Prowler costume and that they'll retrieve the Webware together before Zodiac undoes his encryption, while the Horizon Lab alumni lament that they'll find themselves targeted by supervillains again, reminiscing over past incidents.

Peter confronts Sajani, who assumes that he's going to ask her out, but instead he reveals that he knows that someone in the company has double-crossed him and that he's well aware that she'd been sabotaging his projects to undermine his authority and usurp control of the company, and that she had colluded with supervillains in the past, making her his number-one suspect. Peter lets her off with a warning that he won't tolerate her insubordination anymore, and a dismayed Sajani returns to the Parker Industries HQ in London, where she's greeted by Anna Maria Marconi and the Living Brain. Sajani irately tells Anna to call an emergency senior staff meeting and advance their nanotech program to Phase Three, brushing aside Anna's protests. Once Sajani is out of earshot, Anna jokingly orders the Living Brain to terminate her, but he responds that his programming prevents him from complying. Anna remarks that she'll have to upgrade his sarcasm-detection software and sets off to comply with Sajani's orders. The Living Brain follows and offers to assist her, making her remark that ever since his last upgrade he's become clingy, not realizing that the Living Brain contains a copy of the consciousness of her deceased lover, Otto Octavius.

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