Synopsis / Summary / Plot
Last issue Regent captured Miles Morales and added his Spider-Man powers to his super-suit. Now he's sent a distress text to Kamala Khan from Miles' phone. When Ms Marvel arrives Regent sneaks up using SM's camouflage mode and zaps her with the Spidey venom touch.
Later he combines camouflage with MsM's ability to grow large and stamps on young Nova. Camouflage plus Nova's high-speed rocket moves takes out Captain America (Sam Wilson), much to the alarm of his pet falcon Redwing. Tech from the Ghost (captured in #12) deals with Vision.
Dr Stillwell is concerned about straining the suit and Augustus Roman's body. But Roman is concerned that now he's started taking well-known superheroes the rest of them will come after him. So he's going for broke and adding the power of Thor to his CV. He catches her by surprise but she's not going down without a fight.
Iron Man and the original Spider-Man discovered Miles was missing last issue. Now Tony Stark and Spidey's 'boss' Peter Parker, along with Mary Jane Watson, visit Miles' parents to stop them worrying where he is. They say he's won a science contest funded by their companies, and will be incommunicado for a while.
Tony did a scan while they were there and confirms that Miles hasn't been there since he went missing. And his parents haven't heard from him. But Stark takes Parker to task for promising that Miles would be home soon - they don't know that. Peter says he always covered for his pal who is Spider-Man like that, and Spidey always returned.
Stark heads back to Avengers HQ and tells Parker to tell SM to join the team there. MJ doesn't leave with her new boss, she stays to talk to Peter. She says she prefers being with Tony - she doesn't have to keep up the constant pretence she had when she was in Peter/Spidey's life.
Regent has subdued Thor and he's transporting her back to the Cellar, the supervillain prison Roman's company runs, in a force bubble. Mjolnir is in there too, but he'd found that it wouldn't move unless its strap was around its mistress's wrist. He brings her down to the secret basement where he keeps his captured heroes (previously only minor ones). Stillwell puts Thor in a tank which will keep her sedated. Betty Brant is in another 1 because she accused Roman of being Regent last issue.
MJ has joined Iron Man and SM in the Avengers' abandoned airfield hangar. Edwin Jarvis tells them that the other Avengers aren't answering calls. Redwing flies in, which adds to the worry factor. Tony is surprised how friendly MJ and Spidey are. MJ reminds him, again, that she was dating Peter when they all lived in Avengers Tower and Tony and Peter built some armour for Spider-Man. This still doesn't ring true for Stark but Jarvis remembers dating Peter's Aunt May at the time.
Aunt May and husband Jay Jameson are going out for the evening. She hides the fact that she's coughing blood.
Augustus Roman now has a meeting with Harry Lyman who has suggested a joint venture between Empire Unlimited and Parker Industries, because PI also bid for the superprison contract and they developed some interesting tech for it. (But really he's here because he knows Betty came to confront Roman/Regent and he's not heard from her since.) Roman declines, claiming that his company isn't run for profit like others but to keep people safe from superhumans, not just villains but the heroes who fight them uncaring who suffers.
Harry says that villains can reform. He was a Green Goblin when he was Harry Osborn. And a PI employee used to be villain Clash. But now he develops tech like Webware which monitors your health. A new idea they are trying is to be able to locate someone by tracking their Webware device. So saying he clicks his own Webware and it tells him that Betty is here.
Roman immediately turns nasty and says Harry shouldn't have come alone like Betty. But another click sends a Spider-signal ...
... which alerts Spidey at Avengers HQ with a recorded message saying Betty Brant is missing and Augustus Roman is involved. MJ tells about her lunch with Betty and Harry last issue where they figured out the connection between Roman and Regent.
IM jets off with SM trailing from a webline. But Regent meets them midway. During the fight he uses Ghost tech, Spider-sense, Ms Marvel's elasticity and Vision's intangibility, confirming their fears.
Jarvis tries to contact other teams for backup but can't get any answers. And we see other superheroes in the Cellar's tanks.
And Regent uses Hyperion's eye-beams, Daredevil's radar sense, Iceman's freezing power and Quicksilver's speed alongside the strength of Thor. And he defeats them both.