"New Ways to Die" Part 4: "Opposites Attack"
Anti-Venom continues to inadvertently drain Spidey of his powers, despite the wallcrawler's protestations to stop. Meanwhile, Menace is giving Osborn an ultimatum: leave town and stop interfering in the politics of New York... or else!
Osborn radios the Thunderbolts, goading Menace to attack him. The new goblin accelerates his glider into Osborn lifting him off the ground. Osborn loses his radio; before he can give the code that will release Bullseye into the arena. Norman regards Menace with contempt. He easily escapes, and then detonates his enemy's glider at range with a muttered destruct command. It's all Osborn's tech, after all.
Down below, the Zeus has landed and Thunderbolt flunkies are trying to drag the unconscious Gargan on board. Anti-Venom takes exception to this and gives chase, finally releasing Spider-Man. Songbird and the Radioactive Man move forward to engage Anti-Venom.
We have two different fights here as the action switches between Venom and Spidey against the Thunderbolts, and Osborn against Menace. Menace is worried that Osborn and the Thunderbolts will inadvertently ruin his plans. He evidently has some complicated scheme, and is manipulating both sides of the political divide. He yells to Norman: "If you or your men capture the spider-tracer killer in Crowne's name it could upset everything."
Of course, Norman doesn't care about Crowne or politics, all he cares about is getting Spider-Man, and he says so. This incenses Menace, who beats Osborn to the ground in a fit of pique and then makes his escape across the rooftops. Osborn finds the encounter "enlightening". He also finds Peter's camera flashing away, taking photos of the fight below.
In that fight, the Radioactive Man cannot stop Anti-Venom, who has none of the weaknesses of the original Venom. Spidey's powers are on the fritz, but he is still able to hold his own against Songbird. As the Thunderbolts begin to pull out, Spidey retreats, leaving Anti-Venom to hitch a lift on the Zeus as it takes off.
Spidey changes back to Peter in an alley and then heads into the homeless shelter to help with the clean up (and to see that Aunt May is okay). Meanwhile, in an alley across the road a group of immigrants with lesions on their faces are staring at the remains of the FEAST centre: their "house of miracls".
At a diner, Ben Urich and Sally Floyd are waiting to meet with Sally's contact; the man who fed her information on Crowne's connection with human trafficking. They don't have to wait long before the contact, Mister Harry Osborn, puts in an appearance. Harry has files from his father's company proving that Crowne Industries and Oscorp have been working together to smuggle immigrants into the United States from China. Ben tells Harry that although his motivations in releasing this information may be pure, he is still a financial backer of Bill Hollister. As such, Urich is going to treat the evidence with suspicion.
After leaving the reporters, Harry hurries to the hospital where Bill Hollister is in intensive care. He meets Vin, who is trying to console Carlie, and goes into Hollister's private room where he finds Lily. He apologises for their argument before. Harry says that he wishes that Bill Hollister was his father, and that he was part of an entirely different family.
At Osborn Manor, Crowne and his goons face off against Norman and his better- armed goons. Crowne is complaining that Osborn is not moving quickly enough. The DB! has reported another spider-tracer murder. Osborn, rather disdainfully, points out that the most recent murder took place before the Thunderbolts arrived in New York. He leaves Crowne under no illusion who is in charge in their little relationship, and that further interference would be most unwelcome.
Osborn now enters a private room with the Radioactive Man, Songbird and Bullseye. He shows them the camera that he found on the roof by the FEAST centre. This is Spider-Man's camera. Evidently, he takes pictures of himself and then uses Peter Parker as a front man. Norman is most pleased to point out an additional discovery.
The camera automatically follows Spider-Man's every move. There is a sensor built into the spider on Spidey's chest that attracts the attention of the camera. With the camera they can trace the signal and arm the Thunderbolt's goon-squad with weapons that home in on Spidey and never miss. Combine that with Bullseye, and surely Spider-Man is as good as dead?
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