Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #675

Background

Carlie and Spidey were investigating a series of high rise burglaries and deaths of teenagers. They were connected by the Vulture, who was using the teens to commit the robberies.

Story 'Partners in Crime'

Spider-Man and Carlie broke into the 18th precinct to examine the bodies of the deceased teenagers. They crawled through a vent to the morgue so Carlie could examine the corpse of one of the victims. She couldn’t do invasive procedures to avoid detection, which Spidey said he understood. She doubted that, as he was an Avenger and would get a slap on the wrist. She would lose her job and potentially face criminal charges. He started to take his mask off and she told him to put it back on. Seeing her ex-boyfriend’s face on Spider-Man’s body gave her the creeps.

At the Wake Nightclub, Toomes was going over the final heist of the night with his accomplices. It was a rare coin collection that had been evacuated during Spider-Island and was being returned. One of the teens said they’d never pulled a mid air heist before but Angela quickly shut him up. Toomes took a moment to speak with the new kid, telling him about a bird called the cormorant. A fisherman could teach the bird to do his fishing for him but would need to have a collar around its neck to prevent it from eating any of the catch. At the end of the day, the collar would come off and the bird would get one fish for its troubles. The teen said he understood and they were off.

The group left Toomes’s office and made their way through the club. Michael complained about the control that Vulture had over them and was told that he’d never have it so good. They get paid and they can fly. Also, they had free rein of the club to do whatever they wanted. Michael took a long look at Glory Grant, who was still at the Wake with Lewis. Lewis told him to back off but he was stopped when Angela picked him up by the throat with one hand. Lewis got thrown aside as the crooks made their way to the roof. Glory was angry that they hadn’t done anything but MJ said they knew better than to take on super creeps. She was going to make a phone call.

At the morgue, Carlie talked about how she’d been kicked off the case by her boss. Carlie had been one of Yuri Watanabe’s favorite students. When Watanabe was found to be the Wraith, he stopped trusting Carlie. Spider-Man assumed that Watanabe was spooked that Carlie had figured out her secret, which must have been unnerving for her. Carlie saw what he was getting at and told him to stop. She said she’d kill for a forensic lamp and he showed her his new utility belt. He’d created acid webbed, magnetic webbing, freeze capsules, spider tracers (now wired for sound) and spider signal with ultraviolet light. She said it must have taken a lot of time to make all of that, which explained why they missed the last Harry Potter movie.

In the ultraviolet light, a nightclub stamp showed up. Looking at the other two bodies showed the same mark. They didn’t know if the mark was an M or W. Carlie then noticed that her pendant was magnetically attracted to one of the victim’s body piercings. Putting together that magnetic fields were connected to falling from a great height put Spidey in the right direction. He said they needed to leave and get a bird’s eye view.

Inside the helicopter carrying the rare coin collection, one of the guards was explaining his spider island conspiracy theory. He read on the internet that there was no cure and was waiting for the pilot to grow extra eyes. They were interrupted by the teenagers, who were carrying energy weapons. They cut their way inside and quickly grabbed the case of coins. Michael took one of the coins and put it in his pocket before handing it over to one of the others. The helicopter blew up behind them and Michael was stunned that they let the guards and pilot die.

On a rooftop, Spider-Man and Carlie put together their theory on Toomes’s plan. They matched the dates of the burglaries with the “suicides” and found a flight plan. At that moment they both got phone calls. Carlie’s caller let her know about the helicopter attack. MJ called Peter letting him know that Lewis had been beaten up by guys that seemed “super villain-ish.” They had mentioned wings and weight and it had happened at The Wake. Spider-Man knew what he was up against, as a “wake” is a flock of vultures. He left Carlie behind and she followed him.

The teens were surprised to see the Vulture waiting for them before they arrived at the nightclub. He told them that he knew their exact weight before and after every heist and Michael was heavier by two coins. He snapped his fingers and Michael’s wings fell away, letting him drop to the street. Mike was saved by a web stretching between two building, as Spidey quipped about too many kids falling by the wayside. Toomes ordered the kids to go after him or else he’d drop all of them. Spider-Man bragged that he had a spider sense and knew kung fu just before they attacked him with the energy weapons.

Carlie arrived via a cab and the driver charged her $3.50 to drive her one block to The Wake. Seeing Spidey fight the Vulture-kids above her, she called out to change his webbing for the magnetized form. He did so and it blocked the radio waves from Toomes to his accomplices. They all fell into the web net. Spider-Man went after Vulture who had a water tower come to him via magnetism. He knew he could never hit Spidey, so he tossed it at Carlie instead. Naturally Carlie was saved and Vulture escaped.

She was still on the scene as the police chief arrived, complaining about Spider-Man. He threatened Carlie and she responded that Spidey was an Avenger and they had solved the case. The chief promised to be there when she screwed up and she promised to not screw up.

Later, Peter was working on his web shooters pondering how much had changed since the end of Spider Island. Carlie wanted nothing to do with Peter but was fine with working with Spider-Man. Meanwhile, Carlie went to talk to MJ about Peter. Peter had told MJ that Carlie knew his secret, so she was expecting her. She had a lot of stories to tell.

General Comments

I’m not sure what happened here. Maybe this had been intended to be a longer story but the ending felt rushed. I would have liked to have seen more but I guess “Vulture uses vulnerable teens as surrogate thieves” is a thin premise.

I liked how Adrian looked, vaguely Nosferatu. I’m not sure what happened to his wings. He could float in the air but how did he propel himself? He kept this wingless look in Superior Spider-Man #3. The wings were back in Superior Spider-Man #11.

More convenient coincidences moved the story forward. It was nice of the other officer and MJ to call our heroes at the same time. How did the cabbie only drive Carlie a half block? Was the nightclub that close to the police precinct?

I’m not sure why Vulture would cut the power to Michael’s wings when he still had the golden coins in his pocket. That would have been a little incriminating if they had been found on his body.

And now Carlie and MJ are friends I guess. Let’s see where that goes.

Overall Rating

I liked the way the story started in the previous issue but it kind of got half baked in the second half. Too bad that all it seemed to set out to do was introduce new web varieties and have Peter’s ex’s meet.