Essential Avengers: Avengers West Coast #86: Webs of Fear and Sorrow
September, 1992
Guest-starring Spider-Man! Spider-Woman at the mercy of DEATHWEB and THE MANIPULATOR! THE CHILLING FINALE!
Hey, Hawkeye! US Agent! You're supposed to be in the hospital! For web poisoning and shoulder acid! Get off this cover!
That aside, I do like Spider-Woman caught in the middle of this big Deathweb and Avengers conflict, torn between her concern for her daughter and her general heroic nature. While the Manipulator looms over everything, manipulatively.
Anyway.
Last times, in Avengers West Coast: Deathweb assassinated some people that were going to spill the beans on some dirt that one of the presidential candidates had. Then they attacked the LA convention center while Liberty Party candidate Michael Galvan was speeching.
Deathweb fought the Avengers, who were there Just In Case, managing to injure Hawkeye and US Agent but being forced to flee with Spider-Woman's daughter Rachel as a hostage.
Iron Man tried to tell Spider-Woman she was off the case because she was too emotionally compromised so she hypothetically flipped him the double birds and went back to her former government handler, Mike Clemson. Also, Spider-Man followed her.
But Clemson was working for government conspiracy, the Conclave, which hired the Manipulator who sent Deathweb. So the Manipulator uses hostage Rachel to manipulate Spider-Woman into fighting Spider-Man.
And that's where we are now.
Repeating the last moments of the last issue, just in case anyone forgot that Spider-Man is in trouble during the one month wait between issues.
Therak questions the Manipulator why he can't just beat 'em both up with his many strong spider limbs but the Manipulator tells Therak to stop being so dumb.
He wants to implicate Spider-Woman in murder crime so she'll have to join the spider-themed crime group. It's like how gangs make initiates do a murder, to weed out undercover cops, probably? Same general idea.
Spider-man reassures Spider-Woman that they can rescue Rachel together and that Deathweb doesn't dare harm the hostage, since she's their only leverage.
So he's very surprised when Spider-Woman belts him across the room and tries to psi-web him up.
Spider-Man: "For pity's sake, Avenger -- don't you see you're playing right into their hands? Don't force me to -- Aw, no! Not one of your psi-webs!" Spider-Woman: "It's the only way, don't you see? For Rachel to live, you have to die!"
Ooo, one of the greatest subcategories of contrived 'lets have him and you fight' comic book set-ups.
Spider-Man rips through the psi-web and tackles Spider-Woman into the bank of monitors, which start exploding and catching fire.
While Spider-Man is wondering how far he'll have to go so save his own life, Deathweb and co are worrying about the spreading fire.
Clemson fucks off, running out of the factory. Looking like an idiot when Deathweb easily trapdooraports outside in an instant.
Actually, the Manipulator was sorta expecting Clemson to not be able to run out before the factory exploded. He was just outright trying to kill the guy.
Then he has Antro trapdoor him and Therak away and tells Clemson he'd better keep running unless he wants to explain to the police why an abandoned factory burnt down.
Clemson does indeed keep fucking off but notes to himself that the Conclave can get someone else to middleman for Deathweb from now on. And if Spider-Woman makes it out of this, he's going to get his revenge on her. Because this is her fault somehow. Or he's still mad about being thrown into a wall.
Clemson kind of sucks.
I do doubt that Spider-Woman is dead because she was grappling with Spider-Man and Marvel isn't going to kill their specialest boy outside his own book. But in-universe, Clemson is being very optimistic considering the two heroes were in a factory that just exploded and is burning down.
Meanwhile, at the Avengers West Coast Compound headquarters, Scarlet Witch and Living Lightning are trying to reassure Larry Carpenter that the Avengers will provided security at the Liberty Party rally at the Hollywood bowl.
Iron Man is researching the venom he scraped off of Hawkeye's shoulder. And Wonder Man is fruitlessly trying to get him to discuss that both Spider-Woman and Spider-Man have gone missing.
Wonder Man wanders away from Iron Man, musing that the armored Avenger probably feels just as bad as the rest of the Avengers about Rachel getting kidnapped and can't bear to face her father. Who still doesn't know his daughter has been kidnapped because nobody told him.
Anyway, Deathweb THRAPP teleports in and starts kicking the shit out of Wonder Man.
He's having a bad time this arc.
After they clown on him for a bit, Arachne plants a device and all three Deathwebbers fuck off.
Wonder Man assumes that they were planting a bomb and starts ripping apart the console they stuck it in. But Iron Man tells him he'll take a look at it.
He - and then Wonder Man and Scarlet Witch - assumes that if it WAS a bomb, it would have already gone off. So it's probably something not bomb.
And Iron Man x-rays it to find it is not a bomb, it's a 'telemodule,' with a recorded hologram message on it.
When Iron Man plugs the telemodule into a display thingy, it projects the hologram message.
Hologram the Manipulator: "I chose this personal means to inform you that Spider-Man and Spider-Woman are dead. But this child is safe with me... and will be unless the Avengers West attend the rally tonight. A word to the wise."
The hologram message ends and Larry Carpenter changes his tune. Worried about his daughter (duh), he begs the Avengers to stay away from the rally. He'll get extra police protection assigned but the Avengers must stay away!
At the scene of the factory exploding and burning down, the factory exploded and burned down. The firefighters have come, gotten the fire put out, and have left. I don't know a lot about firefighting but would they just completely leave a location where there was a fire?
Anyway, they do.
And it turns out that Spider-Man and Spider-Woman aren't dead. They're living out yet another instance of Spider-Man's tendency to get buried under a mountain of debris. Thanks to Spider-Man having the good sense to create a cavity with his webbing and having Spider-Woman reinforce his webs with hers.
So they're buried but they have a little space to work and as Spider-Man tells her, he's been buried worse than this before. They can totally get out of this and it will be inspiring as heck.
But Spider-Woman has given up the task as hopeless. She's feeling guilt over trying to kill Spider-Man. Despite Spider-Man telling her he could tell at the time that her heart wasn't really in it. And more importantly, Julia has given up because he thinks there's no way she can save Rachel.
So Spider-Man sweetens the motivation pot. He tells her that he put a spider-tracer on Rachel when Deathweb grabbed her. He was saving telling her as a last resort because he wasn't sure if the tracer is still on her but dammit, get fired up with adrenaline like those women who lift cars off of babies or whatever!
Boom. Now Spider-Woman can say she lifted a heavy thing. Which is a rite of passage that all Spiders gotta do. Probably. I haven't done the math. But I bet Miles Morales has lifted heavy thing. I think Mayday Spider-Girl has, too.
Later, at the Liberty Party Hollywood Bowl political rally, Michael Galvan is getting the crowd fired up. He's turning the Avengers' unexpected absence into a boon by talking up the LAPD's ability to handle Deathweb if they show up. And that the police will also definitely solve the murder of that attorney who died at the start of this arc! Which has nothing to do with Michael Galvan, no sir!
Galvan: "While the Republicans and Democrats play games with the economy, we'll make this country's streets safe again..."
Larry Carpenter is listening to the speech from backstage and he has Doubts. How can he believe in law and order strong on crime third party candidates when his daughter is being held hostage.
Spider-Woman shows up and Larry tears into her that she's going to get his daughter killed.
But then Spider-Man also shows up with Rachel in tow.
Seems Deathweb left her locked up and unguarded in a Gardena trailer park.
Considering what a big operation the Manipulator is implied to be running, it's amazing he couldn't even spring for a babysitter. A normal, non-powered babysitter wouldn't have stopped Spider-Man and Spider-Woman but he really left his hostage entirely unattended?
What an idiot.
Speaking of idiots, Larry now tears into the heroes for presumed recklessness, saying they just barged into the trailer grand-standing and could have put Rachel in danger.
Julia tries to put his mind at ease? I think? by unmasking and revealing that she's actually his ex-wife and so wouldn't have done anything to endanger Rachel (except bringing her to the convention where she got kidnapped?). It does not work. Now Larry even more angry.
Larry Carpenter: "So this is what you've been up to, since you followed us out here! I don't know how you managed to bull your way into the Avengers West --but when the court learns you've been endangering your daughter, running around with masked musclemen -- you'll be lucky if you see Rachel in my presence on Christmas Day!"
Then he drags off a crying Rachel as Julia hangs her head and thinks maybe Larry is right. Maybe it would be for the best for her to lose all custody to her daughter.
ANYWAY DEATHWEB IS VERY INCONSIDERATE SO THEY DON'T LET THIS EMOTIONAL BEAT SIT. THEY THRAPP ONTO STAGE AND KILL MICHAEL GALVAN.
Wow. I really called that one wrong. I thought Galvan was the candidate that the Conclave was trying to get elected.
One of the police rush Deathweb and gets a belly full of venom from Antro but one good twist deserves another. That's not a cop, that's Living Lightning disguised as a cop.
The Avengers West heard and understood Larry Carpenter's plea for them not to risk his daughter by showing up and they said but what if we did anyway? But in disguise??
You'd think that its kind of reckless to risk a young child's life to protect a politician but case in point: the Avengers only revealed themselves because they saw Spider-Man and Spider-Woman were here and deduced that they had rescued Rachel.
Therak frets that they didn't bring their hostage with them but Arachne is sure that they can handle the Avengers just as easily as they did before. More easily! The Avengers are down Hawkeye and US Agent!
Except: here's the thing. Deathweb had the information advantage in the first round. The Avengers are known figures and Deathweb is new. Now the Avengers know what Deathweb can do AND have been planning for a rematch.
Scarlet Witch even calls out to Wonder Man that they're doing Plan A so I guess she was the one who was planning. I'm happy when writers remember that Scarlet Witch has been doing this gig for decades and could probably lead the team herself if she wanted.
Per the plan, Living Lightning immediately shorts out Antro's armor, since they learned from Hawkeye's electrical disruption arrow that would work.
And big, tough fighty guys Iron Man and Wonder Man go to engage big, tough fighty guy Therak.
Meanwhile, Spider-Man and Spider-Woman take turns punching Arachne in the face. Spider-Man is generally mad at people who take children hostage and kill people and Spider-Woman is specifically mad about the child that was held hostage.
Arachne manages to shoot her toxic web at Wonder Man, hoping to take him out of the fight so Therak has less on his plate. But the thing about Wonder Man is that he's an energy being shaped like a man. That kind of poison doesn't work on him.
With the rematch fight immediately going poorly for Deathweb, Therak tells Antro to get them out of here. Even with his armor shorted out (and I guess that verifies that there's a dude under that metal), Antro can still manage to teleport Deathweb away.
However.
Plan A accounted for that. That's why Scarlet Witch wasn't participating, despite not being distracted the whole time by being punched in the face.
She was focusing and reserving her energy for one big fight-winning hex. Twisting probability so that Deathweb teleported right back onto the stage, at a pre-planned point. So that the Avengers could blast them with all of their might the instance they popped up and before Deathweb could realize what happened and try to dodge or block.
SCARLET WITCH: MVP.
With Deathweb captured and Antro's ability to teleport disabled by removing his helmet, which is apparently where the teleport is stored, the Avengers wonder what all of this was about.
Like me, Iron Man was pretty sure that Deathweb was covering Galvan's ass by killing people that were going to air his dirty laundry. Y'know, up until the point where they killed Galvan. Now this whole thing is a bit more inexplicable.
So if not Galvan, then who benefits from this?
IMMEDIATELY, Galvan's running mate Wilson Lambert takes to the podium and delivers a stirring speech on how he's going to pick up the standard for poor deceased Michael Galvan, taken before his time, and he will carry Galvan's message of law and order to the American people!
Oh. Galvan was a martyr and Lambert is the puppet that the Conclave thinks will be easier to control. Especially if the mob connections are his, giving the Conclave blackmail material to keep him in line for their own goals.
Okay. That makes sense.
Meanwhile, outside the Hollywood Bowl, Larry Carpenter is pulling Rachel towards his car. They can't go home because Deathweb might know where that is so he's going to take her somewhere else, somewhere safe.
The Manipulator, who is here now: "Is anyplace really safe in these troubled times?"
The Manipulator tells Larry that he employed Deathweb but they turned out to be so incompetent that he "should have known better than to trust them even to baby-sit."
Wow. Harsh but not untrue.
Anyway, the Manipulator is here to re-kidnap Rachel because there's value in having a hostage that gives him some leverage against the Avengers.
But Larry jumps between this menacing costumed man and his daughter and starts punching at him.
The Manipulator: "Oof! You really shouldn't -- exert yourself, Mr. Carpenter. After all, even a man in good physical condition has been known to have -- a heart attack!"
And he puts his hands on Larry's chest and the man screams in pain and collapses.
But Larry bought time for Spider-Man and Spider-Woman to show up and now they're between the Manipulator and Rachel.
Spider-Woman: "Why don't you order me to kill you this time, Manipulator? Now that I might just manage!" The Manipulator: "You again?! Outraged motherhood plus super-powers -- a formidable combination, even by my meticulous standards!"
And he doesn't want to fuck with that at all.
So the Manipulator throws a smoke bomb and fucks off, vowing that he's going to ditch the spider motif for his next scheme. It didn't work out.
Spider-Woman runs over to Larry, who is slumped against his car, clutching his chest.
Larry admits that he's known for months that he had a weak heart and that's why he was throwing himself into this new, high-profile PR job. Despite Rachel thinking that her dad just wanted to make money for the sake of money, he was trying to make money to provide for her.
Larry: "Maybe... n-neither of us... was quite as bad... as the other one thought... huh, Juliaaa..."
And he dies.
Feels like his last words were him trying to say that he understands how her being Spider-Woman tied into her unexplained absences and that he didn't actually think she was a bad mom.
Geez. I didn't expect him to die right after learning her secret ID. It seemed like something that was really going to complicate the custody disagreement but maybe that's why he did die.
Now Julia has custody by default. Now Julia is a full-time superhero and single mother. Use your Avengers money to hire a reliable babysitter. Squirrel Girl technically exists, is a good babysitter, and Iron Man knows her. Break continuity and hire her.
Anyway. Inside the Hollywood Bowl, Lambert is delivering Galvan's old speech and hyping up the crowd fro the Liberty Party. But he makes an important addition to the speech.
Lambert: "The economy is an important issue in this election -- and so is health care -- but the most important issue of all is the fear that grips Americans -- when they step out of their own front doors! Let Michael Galvan be the symbol of the fight against the kind of lawless terror we witnessed here tonight -- and let these assassins be speedily punished -- yes, even executed --!"
It's not hard to see the gears in Lambert's head turning.
Deathweb wasn't supposed to be captured. He's worried that they'll spill the beans under police interrogation.
He made a mistake here, though. Deathweb is tied up but they're not unconscious. They just heard Lambert try to throw them under the bus.
Problem 2: the Avengers are here. And Lambert tries to get the Avengers to summarily execute the supervillains they have at their mercy. And that's just not how the Avengers roll.
If the Avengers weren't on the stage, Lambert maybe could have spurred the crowd into performing mob justice. But the Avengers aren't going to do a murder.
And when Lambert states that he wants Americans to know he's not afraid of Deathweb, Arachne pipes up to say he never had to fear them. Because, for some reason, their orders were to kill Galvan but on no account were they to hurt Lambert.
Arachne has put 2 and 2 together on that one. And she asks Lambert if he can explain for the crowd why those were Deathweb's orders. And he suddenly gets very nervous and stammery.
And the crowd sees that Lambert was clearly affected by the accusation and suddenly isn't sure that Lambert is their guy.
The Avengers discuss amongst themselves and decide, oh, this makes sense.
Iron Man: "Maybe Galvan's real job -- though he didn't know it -- was to be assassinated." Wonder Man: "You mean -- so a man too lackluster to make a good candidate could sail into the White House -- on Galvan's blood?!"
I think even with the martyr angle, the Liberty Party would have had a hard time overcoming Americans' disinterest in third parties. But it's a halfway decent clever political conspiracy. You know, if superheroes didn't exist and the assassins weren't going to spitefully spill the beans because the candidate was going to try to clear up loose ends right in front of them.
Lambert tries to get the crowd back on his side by launching into the speech again but he's lost them. The crowd wanders away, having gained and lost faith in him awfully quick.
Scarlet Witch wonders whether they'll ever know the truth of everything that unfolded here.
Iron Man: "Killers only confess in public on 'Perry Mason' reruns, Wanda."
Good point. The Manipulator was handling this. There's not going to be a direct link between Lambert and Deathweb. Probably no legal fallout is ever going to fall on him. The suggestion that he got his running mate killed is enough to sink his political career.
Iron Man ponders that if Deathweb was just making false allegations, the implosion of Lambert's political aspirations is a real tragedy. Before Living Lightning points out that it's a tragedy anyway because multiple people are dead.
Which Iron Man concedes.
And that was the Deathweb arc. Julia Carpenter gains one arch-nemesis and loses one ex-husband. The Avengers witness the implosion of a third party ticket that might have been a contender. And Spider-Man was around because spider-theming draws him near.
We're doing annual events and Infinity War for a while. When we get back to Avengers West Coast it will a story that Wolverine is guest-starring in.
First Spider-Man and then Wolverine? Is the book not doing well that it needs to bring in those two popular guys for a boost? I know that the book has something like fifteen issues left in the run before it gets revamped into Force Works. I wouldn't think it was in dire 'we need a celebrity cameo' straits but what am I supposed to think about back-to-back Spider-Man and Wolverine guest-star stories?
Anyway. Next time, the annual event Assault on Armor City. Featuring annuals for Darkhawk, Avengers West Coast, and Iron Man.
Follow @essential-avengers. Does any other liveblog have such a high frequency of ex-husbands dying of heart attacks? Probably not. Consider liking and reblogging and commenting and printing out this post and stapling it to the wall.
