Spider-Man wakes up on a snowy roof, recalling he had been
shot by Nick Fury. And if he’s alive, so must Black Widow/Nancy Rushman, shot
with the same gun. So he sets out to find Nick Fury….
At SHIELD headquarters, Nick Fury is curious about Black
Widow and he gives orders that she be ready for interrogation by sunset, to
find out where her true loyalties lie. He also wants to know why Black Widow
called him with a dire warning about impending disaster and why Val de las Fontaine disobeyed
orders and tried to kill the Widow….
Peter Parker visits the Daily Bugle’s head librarian Maggie
McCulloch to find out where SHIELD HQ is; she directs him to the telephone
book. There’s a phone number but no address so the lady suggests he phone them
and ask for their address. So he calls but suspects the address is fake as it
didn’t match the telephone exchange. Pete goes to the exchange’s building and
dashes past security into an elevator, zooms to the top floor, changing into
his Spidey togs on the way, and escaping out of the hatch….
Meanwhile, in the basement, Dr. Ames receives a message
telling him to kill Black Widow. In a trance, he heads to her bed and prepares
to stab her with a scalpel—then she suddenly revives and punches him out,
shocked at her violent nature (as she still thinks she’s teacher Nancy Rushman).
The only clothing she can find is the Black Widow outfit so she puts it on and
goes looking for an exit. She is spotted by an agent but Spidey appears and
knocks the guy out. An alarm sounds, “Nancy” starts to panic so Spidey knocks
her out and carries her through the ventilation ducts to the roof and away….
Aboard the SHIELD Helicarrier, Viper is in command via a
mind-controlled Clay Quartermain; learning that Dr. Ames has failed to kill the
Widow, she orders Silver Samurai to use his teleportation ring to deliver
Boomerang to Manhattan to hunt down and kill Spider-Man and Black Widow; SS
wants to kill Spidey himself but she denies him….
Suspecting that an enemy is controlling SHIELD, Nick Fury
makes a call from a public telephone to borrow an agent from a colleague in
another intelligence agency [next issue the agent is revealed to be Shang-Chi].
Meanwhile, he continues to wonder what’s going on with Black Widow, setting out
to follow her by the bug he planted in her costume…and Boomerang follows him….
Peter Parker awakens Black Widow at his apartment, saying he
is a friend of Spider-Man. He asks her name but the memory of being tortured
causes her to freeze up with confusion and start screaming. Pete calms her down
but Nick Fury crashes into the room and takes them both prisoner at gunpoint. Heading
to Fury’s car, Pete’s Spider-Sense goes off and he pushes the other two aside
as Boomerang’s bomb blows up the car. As Fury fights off the villain’s attacks,
Pete steals away and changes into Spider-Man. Boomerang blasts Spidey with one
of his boot jets and the hero plummets, stunned. Black Widow dashes over and
catches him. Spidey heads to the roof and clobbers Boomerang. Then Silver
Samurai teleports in and holds off the heroes until Boomerang recovers then the
two baddies teleport away, confusing the heroes. But while “Nancy” isn’t sure
of her identity, she does remember that sinister plans are afoot….
Excelsioring your collection