Superheroes are known more often than not for fighting. Fighting all day long. Punching, kicking, throwing superpowers around, etc. Superheroes fighting supervillains is one of the most exciting and fun parts of superhero comics. But occasionally, superheroes get into fights with other superheroes. Let's look at Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #125!
The story begins a week earlier at the offices of the Daily Bugle. J. Jonah Jameson is in a happy mood as usual.
Page 1, Panel 3
See? Livin' up to the nickname "Jolly Jonah"! Jameson is none too happy about the fact that there's a brand new Spider-Woman running around. This is the Julia Carpenter one, who first debuted during the original Secret Wars story. Naturally, Jonah is calling upon the man who's name headlines this comic, a Mr. Peter Parker, to get some pics of her. He's going to go on a trip to Denver, Colorado, where she was last seen. He thinks Julia and Spider-Man are criminals in cahoots, and he wants pictorial proof. Peter takes the assignment, as it allows him to kill two birds with one stone. He gets some money, and he can find out what's really going on with Julia.
As Peter swings off as Spider-Man, wearing his black costume at the time, he recalls he barely knows Julia. Since returning to Earth after the Secret Wars, she's seemingly become a criminal (Jameson did mention she worked with the Brotherhood of Mutants, but at that time, they had become a government task force known as Freedom Force).
So, what is Julia up to? Well, she has snuck her way into a storage area full of computer discs. A man named Clemson has given her the task of finding a particular disk. The arachnid-lady is searching for the right one, when some trouble erupts.
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Yup, it's the Wrecking Crew! They themselves are after the disk, presumably the same one that Spider-Woman is after. Thunderball finds the disk, but Julia is all alike, "I'll be having that, thank you!"
Page 6, Panel 4 "Yoink!"
This leads to a fight between Julia and the Crew. The supposedly-former heroine puts up a good fight, but the Wrecking Crew overpower her and have the numbers advantage. Four of them and only one Spider-Woman, after all. The Wrecker plans to finish her off, but Thunderball convinces him doing so would only create more problems for them...and mess with Thunderball's own plans. Yeah, he's been plotting against Wrecker here.
Julia wakes up, but this isn't something she's too happy with. Evidently, this Clemson fellow had her over a barrel for some reason, and she needed to get him that disk so she could live a normal life. She returns home, and gets some Riot Act from the baby sitter and her ex-husband over her not being around for her daughter Rachel very much due to her Spider-Woman work (although they don't know that).
It's here that we get a real idea of what happened to her after the Secret Wars. In Uncanny X-Men #206, she joined the Freedom Force because the pay was good...even though she never felt like she fit in with them. After all, they were all villains who only worked for the government to get out of jail time. In Avengers Annual #15, Freedom Force brought down both the East Coast and West Coast-based Avengers teams and brought them to the superhuman prison known as The Vault. Julia realized Freedom Force's actions were in the wrong, and helped break Earth's Mightiest out. This labeled her as a fugitive.
This is where the mysterious "Clemson" steps in. He's Mike Clemson, Julia's government handler. Julia had turned herself in, and had started doing clandestine missions for him. Publicly, she's still a wanted woman.
Yeah, I get it. It's a lot. The next day, Peter wakes up to hammering at his door. Turns out he's a bit behind on his rent. As in, four months behind on his rent. His landlady wants the money, or he's out.
At a hunting lodge, the Wrecking Crew are laying low, and it's here that we learn what this disk contains: plans for a super-bomb. Yes, a super-bomb. As in, it can make one massive kablooie.
We also get a bit of a prelude to the Avengers storyline Under Siege as the Crew discuss joining up with Baron Zemo's newest Masters of Evil to take on the Avengers in New York. We also get a small moment of humanization for the Wrecker as he is talking to his dying mother.
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Awww. Thunderball is doing a bit of plotting. You see, in Amazing Spider-Man #246-247, Thunderball got to have a bit of a taste of the power that the Wrecker can access with his enchanted crowbar. Combine that with the power he already has as part of the Wrecking Crew? Yeah, he can do some real damage.
That was three days ago. Since then, the Siege of Avengers Mansion has happened. This is a big disaster for Julia.
She should have taken the plane. Now, with the Crew under lock and key, she has no leads to finding the disc. She reports this to Clemson, who is actually thrilled. He can use this to keep Julia under his thumb for a little while longer. He tells her that the Wrecker is still free, which means he likely has it. She spots the Wrecker in Astoria, hiding on a roof near his mother's house. The house is under police guard, as they think he'll come by to visit her.
The Wrecker sneaks his way into a hotel. Julia follows him and spots the disc.
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Now, Julia could easily shoot one of her psi-webs to grab the disc quick and get the heck out, but nah. She decides to play Kool-Aid Man.
Naturally, this leads to them brawling. Spider-Woman puts up a good fight, but Wrecker is just tto strong. Peter Parker hears about this on a cab's radio, and swings into action. Spidey engages Spider-Woman, and manages to defeat her. The Wrecker then shows up and picks a fight with Spidey. Man, just fights upon fights here.
(fight fight fight)
Both of the Spiders are weakened, so Wrecker is able to beat them. He's about to finish them off, but then he hears the police. As such, he figures that escaping is more prudent. Peter gets Julia out, figuring he owes her for saving his life from the Wrecker. They talk a bit as they recover some blocks away. Julia tries to get Peter to see that she's not really a criminal. Peter wants to believe her as she sounds sincere. And he gets people thinking that he's the bad guy. He pulls out his camera and exposes some of the film, mainly his taking a photo of her unmasked. It's then that the Wrecker busts in. Turns out that in the fracas, the disk got, well...wrecked.
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Oops.
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