Appearing in "Chapter Three: Our Secret Wars"
Featured Characters:
- Spider-Man (Peter Parker) (Bonds to and loses the Venom symbiote)
Supporting Characters:
- Mary Jane Watson
- May Parker (First appearance)
- Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards)
Antagonists:
- Kraven the Hunter/"Spider-Man" (Sergei Kravinoff)
- Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius (Cameo)
- Ultron (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Wrecking Crew (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Wrecker (Dirk Garthwaite) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Bulldozer (Henry Camp) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Absorbing Man (Carl Creel) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Magneto (Erik Lehnsherr) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Enchantress (Amora) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Kang the Conqueror (Nathaniel Richards) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom) (Cameo) (First appearance)
Other Characters:
- Gwen Stacy (Mentioned)
- Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Human Torch (Johnny Storm) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Wolverine (Logan) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Hulk (Bruce Banner) (First appearance)
- Colossus (Piotr Rasputin) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Iron Man (Tony Stark) (Cameo)
- Cyclops (Scott Summers) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Captain America (Steve Rogers) (Cameo)
- Thor (Odinson) (First appearance)
- Rogue (Anna-Marie) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Thing (Ben Grimm) (Cameo) (First appearance)
- Invisible Woman (Sue Storm) (Cameo) (Main story and flashback)
- Parker Industries (First appearance)
- Claire Parker (First appearance)
- Benjamin Parker II (First appearance)
- Red Ghost (Ivan Kragoff) (Referenced)
- Vision (Main story and flashback) (First appearance)
- Police Officers (Cameo)
Races and Species:
- Humans
- Mutants
- Symbiotes
- Synthezoids
- Tigers (Cameo) (Dead)
- Rhinoceroses (Cameo) (Dead)
- Buffalo (Cameo) (Dead)
- Hippopotamuses (Cameo) (Dead)
- Lions (Cameo) (Dead)
Locations:
- Earth-2447
- Earth
- America
- North America
- United States of America
- New York State
- New York City
- Manhattan
- Hospital
- Parker Industries Tower
- Cemetery
- Kraven's Mansion
- Manhattan
- New York City
- Pennsylvania (Only in flashback)
- Allentown (Only in flashback) (Destroyed)
- New York State
- United States of America
- North America
- Europe (Referenced)
- Russia (Referenced)
- America
- Battleworld
- Earth
Items:
- Spider-Man's Suit and Web-Shooters
- Doctor Octopus' Tentacles (Cameo)
- Wrecker's Crowbar (Cameo)
- Absorbing Man's Ball and Chain (Cameo)
- Iron Man Armor (Cameo)
- Cyclops' Visor (Cameo)
- Captain Marvel's Suit and Shield (Cameo)
- Mjolnir
- Magneto's Helmet (Cameo)
- Doctor Doom's Armor (Cameo)
- Venom Symbiote
- Intangible Nuclear Missiles (Only in flashback)
- Anti-Radiation Suit
- Riffle
- Spider-Tracer-Tracker
- Sonic Weapon
Vehicles:
- Parker Industries Anti-Radiation Vehicles
Synopsis for "Chapter Three: Our Secret Wars"
With Spider-Man having gone missing for three weeks, Mary Jane Watson laments having to look after Peter's senile aunt May while being nine months pregnant with twins.
On Battleworld, Spider-Man takes part in the Secret Wars alongside his former mentor Reed Richards, vowing to find a way to return to Mary Jane. As Peter repairs his Spider-Armor, Richards approaches him and congratulates him on the success of Parker Industries. Peter apologizes for their falling out, the elderly Mister Fantastic asking if the machine nearby can perform nano-welds. Peter laments that Richards is a ghost of his past self, having pushed away all his friends and loved ones out of a misplaced sense of responsibility for Doctor Doom. Thor interrupts Spider-Man's inner momologue, saying that he looks like a mess. Noticing Thor and Hulk's costumes have been repaired, Spider-Man asks where he can find their tailor, and Hulk gives him directions. Sitting at a strange machine, Spider-Man holds out his hand and a black ball is deposited in his palm. His spider-sense goes off, but before he can react the ball unwravels into tendrils of living darkness and engulfs his arm.
Two weeks later, the Secret War ends and Spider-Man - clad in a new black suit with stylized white spider-emblems - returns to New York, overjoyed to finally be able to reunite with his wife. Spider-Man notes that something's off, unsure whether it's his new alien costume or just nerves after having spent weeks of nonstop fighting. As he enters the Parker apartment, Mary Jane storms out of the bathroom towelling her hair off and shouting at May for having let the water run while she was having a shower. She's initially shocked by the strange dark figure, but when Spider-Man withdraws the black suit from his face she's overjoyed to see her husband. MJ introduces Peter to his new children - Claire and Benjamin - and Peter is horrified that he missed their birth. MJ tells Peter that after several of the United States' preeminent superheroes disappeared, the Soviet Union launched a nuclear attack. Despite the Invisible Woman and Vision attempting to hold the nukes off, a superpowered Russian scientist named Ivan Kragoff had found a way to make the nukes intangible. Vision managed to divert a missile from striking Manhattan, but was at ground zero when it annihilated Allentown, Pennsylvania; being rendered permanently intangible.
Parker Industries arrives at the ruins to help clean up the radiation, Peter - wearing a hazmat suit - passing his hand through the Vision's motionless body. After Peter returns to the mobile lab, Reed Richards asks Peter if he had any luck. Peter says that the newly-invented radio-sponges should be able to save the area. Pulling out a newspaper, Richards informs Peter that there is trouble at home, the front page showing a man dressed in a replica of Spider-Man's black suit holding a rifle. Spider-Man grumbles that he never used to have crazy copycats and wonders if he should transform his black suit into a replica of his red-and-blues. As it does so, Richard tells Peter that he's discovered something about his former protege's new costume: it's alive, a symbiote that's trying to physically and mentally bond with him. Peter says that he already knows, shocking Reed, and explains that analyzing it was one of the first things he did; wearing it sparingly to stave off a full bonding and giving Mary Jane a means of subduing him should he lose control of it. Horrified, Richards asks Peter why he would put himself at such risk, and Peter states that he's getting older and slowing down, but that the black suit gives him an edge. Richards protests that Peter doesn't need to be able to lift cars to help people, but he's interrupted by an urgant phone call from MJ: Aunt May has wandered off with the twins.
Peter barges into the apartment, desperate, and is accosted by a pair of police officers. MJ breaks up the fight, and Peter is relieved to see his children are safe. As the police officers leave, one of them tells MJ to keep in touch in case she needs any more recommendations. Peter asks what the police officer meant, and MJ says she's thinking about putting May in a senior's home. Peter vehemently refuses, snapping that May looked after him since he was a child; but MJ angrily orders him to look after her. As the babies begin to cry, MJ says that she's used to being neglected and treated like a runner-up for Gwen Stacy, but now that Peter is a father he can't afford to neglect them any more. As Peter storms off, the symbiote transforming into his black suit, MJ snaps that he's become addicted to it. Peter orders the symbiote off of him and into a containment unit, snapping that he doesn't need it. MJ asks if he knows what he does need, Peter donning his old red-and-blues as he says he needs some air.
Web-swinging over the city, Spider-Man laments that MJ was right and that he shouldn't have stormed out on her, and that even if the United States is at war with the Soviet Union he needs to be with his family. As Spider-Man struggles to cope with the stressful mess of his life, his inner monologue is interrupted by his spider-sense going off and he turns to see his black suit-clad imposter aiming a rifle at him. Spider-Man dodges and tackles the imposter, quipping that they make guns that fire more than one bullet now. Ripping off the imposter's mask, he is shocked to see Sergei Kravinoff leering at him. Grinning maniacally, Kraven takes advantage of Spider-Man's surprise to stab him in the chest with a knife. As he collapses, Spider-Man is overcome by shock that Kraven - who doesn't even have any superpowers and had been dismissed as a joke - would be the one to kill him. As Spider-Man realizes the knife was laced with a knockout drug, Kraven states that their birth countries - the United States and Russia - are at war, but that he has come to consider the United States his home too. Kraven states that he loved hunting beautiful things and that Spider-Man was the most-beautiful of them all, but that he has begun to weaken as age. As Spider-Man begs Kraven not to kill him, Kraven tells his longtime enemy that he's dying of cancer and that he wants to give Spider-Man a warrior's death lest he suffer the same fate. As Kraven retrieves his rifle and takes aim, Spider-Man protests that he has a wife and children, but Kraven pulls the trigger. Spider-Man regains consciousness in a coffin, being buried alive in a grave and rapidly running out of air.
At Parker Industries, Mary Jane laments to May that she's used to being neglected, but she thought that after the twins were born things would be different. She hears a cracking sound from Peter's lab, and rushes in to see the symbiote breaking free of the containment unit. As the symbiote flows past her, MJ realizes that its desperation means something's happened to Peter and rushes after it.
In the graveyard, Peter mentally apologizes to Mary Jane for being too old and weak to return to her. The symbiote burrows into the grave and bonds with him, giving him the strength to rip free of the grave. Spider-Man, under the symbiote's control, stops a pair of thugs from mugging a man in an alley, terrifying them into fleeing. Hunting down Kraven, Spider-Man - his voice distorted by the symbiote - snarls that Kraven stabbed, shot, and buried him alive. Roaring that he's going to kill Kraven, Spider-Man transforms into a bulky monster with distorted eyespots, claws, and a fanged maw; but is interrupted by Mary Jane, who is holding a sonic pistol. Kraven gleefully gushes that Spider-Man has finally done it and become the predator he was meant to be, calling Spider-Man's monstrous transformation beautiful. Realizing that he's losing control of the symbiote, Spider-Man releases Kraven and tells Mary Jane to do it, retracting the black suit from his face and saying that he loves her. MJ shoots Spider-Man with the sonic pistol, blasting it off Peter, who collapses as it slithers away. Peter apologizes to MJ for everything, saying that he tries so hard to do things right, but that it always falls apart. The next day, MJ separates from Peter, taking the children and leaving him alone with May, heartbroken.
Standing naked before a window, Kraven speaks to his late mother and says that he is finished and intends to take his own life before he can succumb to cancer. Noting the beautiful sunset, Kraven laments that he cannot hunt the sun and sits on a chair, putting the barrel of his rifle into his mouth. Before he can pull the trigger, the symbiote lunges from the shadows and flows up the rifle, latching onto him.
Solicit Synopsis
THE REAL-TIME LIFE STORY OF SPIDER-MAN CONTINUES!
It’s the 1980s and Peter’s life gets upended with wars both global and secret. And death stalks him at every turn. With a family and a world to protect, can he save everyone before it’s too late?Notes
- Although the story is an obvious reference to Kraven's Last Hunt, Kraven's suicide being prevented by the symbiote can be seen as a reference to how Eddie Brock was about to take his own life before being possessed by the symbiote.[1]