Amazing Spiderman 684

[sherkahn]

Last issue, Otto Octavious has created a protective shield that can magnify or protect Marvel 616 Earth from Global Warming. He intends to use it, as a last act before he dies. Enter Spiderman and the Avengers, who plan to stop him.

The Sinister Six take on the Avenger's, and both groups have prepped for one another.

Surprise! Otto has better prep-time than Peter Parker, and the Avenger's get their butts handed to them. With Spidey left at his mercy.

We now rejoin the Ends of the Earth.



Silver Sable has tagged along, rescuing Spider-man and the Black Widow.
Out maneuvered and out gunned, Peter decides to try round #2 with more brains, more stealth, less brawn. His plan?

Shut down Dr. Octopus' ability to deliver on his end of the protective shield, and force the world to turn on Dr. Octopus. Spider-man's target: A Saharan desert former A.I.M. base.

and it's a trap, set by Dr. Octopus to have Sandman kill Spiderman and his allies.
But on the flight over, Spidey has reconfigured some of his tools on his suit... since this has now become a mental chess match, with both sides planning and counter planning against one another.

And we see how Sandman's powers can work. And work against him.


The dust spray is a mild radioactive tracer. That, with some of the other toys Peter's




There's a way to turn an enemies strength against him.

Comments

[mrstatham]

I'm sorry, but that is the biggest load of nonsense I've heard in a long time. On the surface, it's a fucking cool solution to beating the Sandman, but now Slott has to answer exactly how Marko can EVER be a viable threat again.

[ironspider]

Maybe Spidey doesn't have that special gas with him at all time? Maybe it's a one and done trick? Just shooting from the hip here.

[filthysize]

"He's evolved."

I just did it in two words. :P

[icon_uk]

Easy, from now on Sandman learns to keep his core grain in constant motion. He was never aware Spider-Man had intuited it's existence, he might never have known himself. But now he knows, things can be different.

[sherkahn]

It's actually a good explanation, as we've seen Marko function as large masses of sand and as tiny particles flowing through keyholes and the like.

I felt the same way about Iron Man being able to shut down Spidey's spider-sense with false alarms through pheromones.

[biod]

It probably wouldn't have worked if Flint had actually used all of the Sahara.

[kenwyn89]

I'm totally thinking along the lines of the Mummy.

[sir_mikael]

"Haha, I've removed your ability to control your form!"
Enormous masses of sand falls on them.
"Oooooh shit."

[nefrekeptah]

Because it's ONE tiny grain of sand amongst thousands, even when Marko's not channeling thousands of tons of sand? Because Spider-man typically doesn't have radiation tracers and hypnotic inducers on his person? If anything, this introduces a way Spider-Man can plausibly beat Sandman, who's an immortal shape-shifter and quite possibly one of the strongest villains on the planet, with out resorting to a Dues Ex Machina every time, making this a huge improvement.

[protogarrett]

Wow. Silver Sable. Haven't seen her since, like, the 90's. What's she doing here and pouchless?

[nefrekeptah]

Saving Spider-man's ass, apparently.

[darkknightjrk]

She actually appeared earlier back as a little cameo in a two-parter. I forget the exact context, but she kissed him after saving something that was going on. I'm fairly sure there's a post for it here.

[terrykun]

She's been appearing semi-frequently in NYC stuff since Shadowland.

[arilou_skiff]

Where? 'tis relevant to my interests.

[bewareofgeek]

Deus Ex Calcula?

[sherkahn]

SCIENCE!

[big_daddy_d]

[deepspaceartist]

[blueprintstyles]

how exactly is his plan evil?

[lascoden]

Don't know yet. Assuming he has some sort of ulterior motive.

[sherkahn]

Dr. Octopus'? We dont know yet. He was about to tell Spidey when they both got distracted.

[bewareofgeek]

"I'm going to ruin your reputation! Because I'm an infamous criminal mastermind, and you are a member of not one, but two well-known super teams! Clearly, I'm MUCH more trustworthy!"

[auggie18]

This does take place in the Marvel Universe, though. The place that thought giving a known psychopath an army of superhumans was a good idea.

[bewareofgeek]

Point taken.

"We hate and fear people with superpowers! Unless they are aliens, sorcerers, changed by science, or have really powerful gadgets! Those are OK!"

[nefrekeptah]

That fact that he introduced it by nearly killing literally everyone under the sun, for one.

[biod]

I don't know. It makes sense and all, but I kind of liked Marko as a loose conciousness who happened to use sand as a physical body.

[sherkahn]

There had to be a core piece of Marko, though, to add and subtract mass from. I never thought it would be just one grain of sand.

[sir_mikael]

I remember there was something weird going on when Venom ate some of Sandman. He totally lost control of his form for a while after that, which was odd considering we'd not seen that as an effect before. Maybe there was originally more than one control grain but he learned to manage with one after the Venom incident.

[drmcninja]

Who cares, we have Santo now, and he does it waaay better.

[biod]

Maybe it's because it's less bulky than the last time I saw it, but the new costume's growing on me.

[drmcninja]

My thoughts exactly, especially in that first page. But it still looks like a costume I'd rather see on Deadpool than Spidey.

[avantre]

They'd better make Sandman's next appearance extra-ferocious, because I know I'd be out for blood if someone brought my family into a fight.

[darkknightjrk]

Definitely--especially since the only reason Marko joined up with the Sinister Six was because with the cash and his criminal record clean, in his eyes there would be no viable reason for him not to be with his daughter again.

[crinos]

Yeah, gotta say that was kind of an A hole thing for Spidey to do.

Below the belt Pete. not cool.

[cyberghostface]

Par for the course with BND!Spidey.

[sir_mikael]

Pulling out the old Swarm-technique, eh Spidey? Whatever works.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

So, wait... "Sinister Four?"

What happened to number five?

[lascoden]

Electro got shot into the upper atmosphere by Thor.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Ah, okay. Thanks!

[drmcninja]

I mean, I'm sure this will be justified in the end, but maybe it would be worth it to see if Otto is actually fixing global warming first. I mean, Tony and Reed and the "trustworthy" people aren't doing anything about it, so why not at least give Otto a chance?

[stillanerd]

Except how much you wanna bet that Doc Ock's "solution" to reversing global warming is to create a new Ice Age? After all, if the "Octavian Lens" can alter Earth's temperature to make it extremely hot, it could easily alter the Earth's temperature to make it extremely cold.

[sherkahn]

Heck, it might be strong enough to fend off the Phoenix for a little while, too!

[thosefew]

In some Marvel future thing (I don't follow Marvel that closely) Sandman absorbs his daughter who has his powers. Would this mean there would be a means of recovering her?

[maridee42]

...wait, so Sandman is the Sahara?

[sherkahn]

That's where Dr. Octopus' manufacturing facility is.

[eyz]

Making Pete use his smarts, just like in the good ol' days :P
Nice! I like it!