Marvel Heroes (UK Magazine) #26 (Story 2)

Background

Peter Parker (which is to say, Spider-Man) features in this backup tale.

In the first story of Marvel Heroes (UK Magazine) #26 (Story 2), we learned that A.I.M. was planning a mission in New York. Well, there's no surprise there. New York seems to be the home of 90% of all of the super-villain activity in the Marvel Universe.

And since this crime involves science, it naturally takes place at... Empire Stat... oh, hang on. I think somebody forgot what university Peter Parker attends. Everybody's favorite wall-crawler seems to have swapped to "New York University" just for this story. Specifically, the "Science" Faculty.

Yeah. "Science". 'cos it's... "Science" stuff.

Story 'Graduation Day'

Peter Parker is helping out one of his fellow science buddies named Mark as he works to fine-tune his "particle generator". Don't sweat the details. All you need to know is that it's a high-tech experimental gizmo that Mark is presenting at the college "science fair", that being the last pre-requisite for completing his undergrad degree.

But be that as it may, the other important attribute of Mark's research project is that A.I.M. has sent two bad guys to go steal it. Naturally, with Peter Parker hanging around, it isn't long before Spider-Man interferes with their larcenous plans. Hey, a meddling arachnid gotta do what a meddling arachnid does best.

Sadly for Spidey, he manages to get himself tagged by a concussion blaster and temporarily takes himself out of the action. The only way for Mark to save the day is to use his remote control to overload and explode the gizmo. The distraction gives Spider-Man enough time to recover and then take out the last of the bad guys. Unfortunately it also destroys Mark's chances of presenting at the fair, and consequently means that he will fail to graduate.

But wait, all is not lost. The next day, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill turns up to offer Mark funding to complete his course, and to also offer him a job when he has done so. And how does she know about all this? Well, it seems a little spider told her.

General Comments

This is a great example of what you can (and should) do in a six-page out-of-continuity story. There's super-spies, science gizmos, Spidey, Peter, supporting cast, and real human problems. There's plenty going on, but it's not all blown out of proportion. In short... this stuff is nicely done.

Overall Rating

This is a tidy little standalone story from guest writer James Peaty.

Four webs.

Footnote

By the way, in the real world you don't actually get to do any real research in an undergrad physics degree... that's the preserve of the masters and doctorate students.

Still, they do well compared to maths students. Even PhD students in pure mathematics often don't get to do any original research... there's just too much existing stuff to learn first!