Amazing Spider-Man Vol 4 #12: Power Play - Part 1: The Stark Contrast

Dan Slott, Giuseppe Camuncoli

In the Bryant Park, New York, Harry is helping Peter prepare for a gala for their company's charity, the Uncle Ben Foundation. Harry asks why Peter didn't brought a date, but he tells him that his last girlfriend was a mole (who also tried to kill him with his car) so he took a break from dating for a while. He remembers the last time he was at that park, for Aunt May's wedding, which Harry was not invited to. He tells him that it was full of drama anyway, with Mary Jane arriving at the last second and catching the bouquet. He is completely oblivious that MJ is right behind him. She says that she is there with her new boss, Tony Stark, who arrives to greet Peter. After the mindwipe, Tony only remembers Peter as the guy who used to work for him, helped him build the Iron Spider armor and lived in Avengers Tower with his girlfriend for a while, not remembering MJ was his girlfriend. Harry and MJ walk away to catch up, while Tony congratulates Peter for getting his company to the top from nowhere, saying he should enjoy his success. Peter insists on not throwing money around, but Tony tells him that that is what he has been doing by funding Spider-Man, whose adventures have resulted on destroyed jets and rockets that Peter had made just for him, satellites and the Rosseta Stone. MJ and Tony go to get a seat, meeting Augustus Roman, CEO of Empire Unlimited, while Harry takes Peter away to prepare him for his speach. Harry leaves Peter at the podium, the latter telling him not to leave him alone with the shock of MJ being there, suddenly realizing the microphone is right in front of him. Luckily it's not on, a rare win for the Parker Luck. Harry goes to his seat, knowing that they are about to eat him alive, and bumps into Liz Allen and Ty Stone of Alchemax in the crowd. Liz says they don't have to pretend when their kids aren't with them and sends him in his way. Stone says that she is worried that Harry would be near when the "action" starts, but she says she only cares that their "friend" can do his job. Peter tries to start his speech, but remains frozen, thinking about how much he screwed things with MJ. But he is suddenly attacked from behind by the Ghost, who phased through the stage. He throws Parker away and calls the crowd hypocrites for donating to charities while feeding of the work of the poor (despite the fact that Alchemax hired him to do this), and turns his attention to August Roman, the man whose company privatized superhuman prisons, and blasts him with some kind of energy weapon from his hand. He explains that he is using hyper-density waves to blast air as hard as steel, stealing the design from Empire. But the Ghost is shocked the Roman is surviving that. Meanwhile, Parker and Stark change into their alter-egos, secretly and publicly, and attack the Ghost, but their attacks cancel each other out. They both start discussing who should fight the Ghost, both of them having a grudge against him. The Ghost just stares at the heroes fighting in disbelief. While the heroes are, literally, calling dibs on the Ghost, Roman crawls away from the battle, upset that the so-called heroes are acting like children. Harry and MJ help him get away, the latter saying some things never change. Meanwhile, Spidey and Iron Man are still bickering. Spider-Man says that since the Ghost is an anti-capitalism villain, he should be fighting him since Parker Industries is doing better than Stark is. The Ghost thinks about that for a second, then agrees and blasts him away. After landing, Spidey realized Stark just pulled a "Duck season, fire!" on him. With Spidey out of the way, Iron Man attacks the Ghost with multi-vibrational repulsor rays, but they just phase through him. The Ghost compliments the innovating failsafes Stark came up against him, now that he has a low budget. But he says he made some improvements, too, and blasts him. Spidey arrives as the Ghost runs away and tries to use his Z-Metal against him. But since the Ghost saw him use that on Youtube, he protected himself against that, too. The chase leds them in front of a museum, where the Ghost asks if they are done, since he has other targets for the night. Iron Man and Spidey prepare for the next phase of a team-up, the actual team-up, and compare notes. They think that Iron Man's repulsor would have worked if it had something to vibrate inside of. So Spidey fires a Z-Metal webline through the Ghost and Iron Man channels his repulsor in it, the result taking down the Ghost. Spidey realizes that they just fought a Ghost; on the NY Public Library; and defeated him by "crossing the streams". But Iron Man screams "Ghost-busted" before him, beating him to the pun and getting the applause of the bystanders, much to Spidey's irritation. Latter, at the Parker Industries building, Peter sees that the video of Stark stealing his quip has gone viral. Wanting to get back at Stark, he calls Pepper Potts via Webware. He tries to offer her a job, but she says no before he can even finish talking. Meanwhile, a prison transport brings a lot of criminals to the Cellar. There is only one superhuman among them, Tombstone. At the same time, Augustus Roman is giving Betty Brant of the Daily Bugle a tour of the prison. The intimates with power are separated from the rest and kept underground, and the villains' tech is taken away to be studied by Empire Unlimited and repurposed for peaceful purposes. Roman says that Empire Unlimited is making the world a better place. For normal people, that is. Betty says that she investigated him, how his wife and son died in the crossfire of Baron Zemo's famous siege of Avengers Mansion years ago. Roman says that that has happened to many people, which is why it is important that superhuman are contained and their powers are kept in the right hands. Hands that use them with responsibility. After the interview, Betty is escorted out of the prison, while Roman marches past pods where the superhuman intimates are drowned and their powers given to him, including Tombstone. Dr. Stillwell tells him that they are at full capacity for supervillains. Roman decides to begin the next phase. Stillwell is hesitant, but Roman, putting his Regent armor, says that the problem is not supervillains. The problem is superpowers. And the world will only be safe when he has all those powers, setting his sighs to the Avengers next.   źródło opisu: http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_4_12 źródło okładki: http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_4_12