Spider-Man under the ‘hypnotic’ charm of Dr. Faustus! After Spidey uncovers Faustus’ sinister plot, the wall-crawler is made to believe that his worst enemies are on his trail! Faustus has a master plan that will leave residents of New York City under a hallucinogenic trance. Will Spider-Man snap out of it in time to save the day?
Madness is All in the Mind!
At the end of the previous issue, Spider-Man defeated a group of thugs, only to have Captain America's foe Doctor Faustus step out of the shadows and reveal himself as the leader of the gang. Spider-Man says that he thought Faustus was dead after he tried to blackmail New York a while ago (in Captain America #192), but Doctor Faustus reveals that he had survived falling out of the plane he was in because he had secretly worn a parachute, due to his fear of heights. Spider-Man is about to attack Faustus when Doctor Octopus spontaneously walks through a wall, and starts fighting Spider-Man, whose punches have no effect on him. More of Spider-Man's villains appear, before Faustus yells at them to disappear, and they do, having apparently been some elaborate illusion.
Doctor Faustus then tells Spider-Man he needs his help, and surprisingly, Spider-Man agrees. When one of Faustus' men is sceptical about whether Spider-Man is under Faustus' control or not, Faustus reveals that the smoke from his trick cigarette is actually influencing Spider-Man's mind. The thugs then use a laser cannon to blast through a wall, and Faustus tells Spider-Man to help them find any traps in the building they enter. Spider-Man finds out that the corridor they've broken into has hidden triggers which fire stun beams at anyone who touches them, but using his spider sense, he guides Faustus and his men through the corridor safely. However, one of the men missteps, and activates the lasers, which begin firing everywhere. Spider-Man, however, deactivates them for good by flipping to the end of the corridor then breaking the power box which controls them.
Whilst this is happening, a mysterious man is shown around Aunt May's old house by a real estate agent. He quickly agrees to take it, and when the real estate agent leaves, he swears that he'll find the secret he was looking for the first time he came to it.
Meanwhile, Doctor Faustus, his men, and Spider-Man have all reached Faustus' goal: a vaccine to a new virus that has come out recently. Faustus reveals that he's going to add a psychogenic additive to the vaccine, so that when everyone in the country is injected with the virus, he'll be able to control them. Unknown to Faustus, whilst he is ranting on about his world domination plans, Spider-Man is recovering from the gas from the cigarette, and is back to normal. He quickly takes out Faustus' men once more, but Faustus gets away after blowing some more smoke into Spider-Man's face, which stuns Spider-Man for a minute. However, he manages to stop him after all, by reconnecting the power box for the laser corridor, so that Faustus inadvertantly activates the lasers, and is stopped.
Notes
- Features the Hostess Cup Cakes ad, Iron man In Rust Be My Destiny!
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