Amazing Spider-Man #576
Family Ties Part 2
Spider-Man has made the mistake of underestimating Hammerhead after the mobster killed the members of the GFL2K gang. Hammerhead, with his new metallic skeleton and kevlar skin, has beaten Spider-Man into submission. Adding insult to injury, Hammerhead has also dislocated Spider-Man’s jaw, making him incapable of dispensing his usual witty banter. The mobster is about to kill him when one of the surviving gang members, Dunk Winslow, tries to shoot Hammerhead. However, this does nothing as the villain now has bulletproof skin. He tells Dunk and his younger brother, Anthony, that he is giving them one last chance to join Mister Negative’s gang to die. This gives Spider-Man enough time to strike the rotting floor with enough force to send himself and Hammerhead falling down to the apartment below, allowing Spider-Man to make his escape. Despite his broken bones, Spider-Man grabs up Dunk and Anthony and flees the scene. As they leave, Dunk manages to shoot Hammerhead right between the eyes. At first, he thinks the mobster is killed when he falls out the window and onto the street below, but Hammerhead simply gets back up, as if it was nothing. Spider-Man crash lands in a nearby dumpster, where he slams his face in order to knock his jaw back into place. This surprisingly works, and Spider-Man manages to web up his mask to his face before he blacks out, ensuring that nobody can remove his mask. Spider-Man has a nightmare about Hammerhead undergoing augmentation by Mister Negative, deducing why he’s trying to force people to join up with the newcomer to the crime scene.[1] When Spider-Man wakes up hours later, he discovers that both Dunk and Anthony are gone, and, adding insult to injury, they rolled him while he was passed out.
The following morning, Peter’s roommate Vin Gonzales is shocked to see how roughed up Peter is. He makes an excuse that he was working on a piece for the Front Line about gang violence and got too close to his subject. While Vin sees them as animals, Peter tries to convince him that they are just scared children. Vin points out that, regardless of what one’s views are, he shouldn’t underestimate gang members as they are trained as soldiers from day one. Later, at the offices of the Front Line, Peter and Norah Winter presents the photos of Hammerhead and convince Ben Urich to let them follow the lead on Mister Negative’s attempts to consolidate all the city’s gangs.[2]
Meanwhile, Hammerhead’s body is being examined by Doctor Trauma who is initiating repairs. As she is working, Mister Negative goes over Hammerhead’s number and is impressed with how Hammerhead’s success rate since his power augmentation. Hammerhead says that if Mister Negative is going to go up against the Maggia he’s going to need loyal followers who also fear him. That’s when Hammerhead gets a phone call that deeply amuses him.
By this time, Peter and Norah are in the Bronx looking for Dunk and his brother Anthony. Peter is able to find Dunk by tracking the spider-tracers he stole the night before. When they find him, Dunk says that Hammerhead kidnapped his brother in order to force him to join Mister Negative’s gang. He then shows Peter and Norah a text message he got from the mobster asking Dunk to meet him at the MTA trainyards. Dunk intends to go and kill Hammerhead and save his brother. While Norah and Dunk are preoccupied with the text message, Peter slips away so he can change into Spider-Man and rescue Anthony himself. At the trainyards, Spider-Man finds Anthony and a bunch of other young kids in a bus. Thinking they are all prisoners of Hammerhead, Spider-Man is shocked when they all draw guns on him. As it turns out, Anthony and the other young people have decided to accept Hammerhead’s offer, knowing it could mean their getting a ton of money. He convinces the other kids that they don’t want to shoot him and they all drop their guns, but Anthony requires further convincing. That’s when Hammerhead arrives, having answered Anthony’s call. Spider-Man can’t believe that Hammerhead would stoop so low as to recruit children to his cause, but Hammerhead once again tells the wall-crawler that Mister Negative is ushering in change and that they must embrace it or die.
Spider-Man then puts up a web-barrier between himself and Hammerhead so he can get the children to safety. That’s when Norah and Dunk arrive on the scene. Spider-Man then sneaks up on Hammerhead and yanks him out of the bus. This time, the wall-crawler avoids getting within Hammerhead’s reach. Eventually, he gets close enough to strike a blow powerful enough to dislocate Hammerhead’s hip, incapacitating his foe. Seeing Hammerhead getting soundly defeated by the wall-crawler convinces Anthony and his classmates not to side with Hammerhead. The photos of Spider-Man’s battle, with a focus on the wall-crawler steering kids away from a life of crime ends up the front-page story on the Front Line. Later, Norah congratulates Peter for a job well done, even though she is still mad at him for ditching her to get photos. After some more backhanded compliments, Peter insists that Norah doesn’t know him that well to make such sweeping judgments of him. However, to prove her point, she tells Peter that he won’t let her pay for dinner when they go out to celebrate that evening.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Mister Negative, Hammerhead, Doctor Tramma, Norah Winters, Ben Urich, Vin Gonzales, Dunk Winslow, Anthony Winslow
Continuity Notes
Mister Negative recruited Hammerhead after he was left for dead following a shooting in prison. Negative had Doctor Trauma replace Hammerhead’s skeleton with metal and line his skin with kevlar. This all happened in Amazing Spider-Man Extra! #1.
This reminds Ben Urich of the first time the Kingpin fell. There is a lot behind this reference:
He is referring to the events of Daredevil #300 when the Kingpin’s criminal empire was dismantled by Daredevil.
This led to many gang wars as mob bosses all over the city tried to seize control of the underworld. This included Hammerhead’s gang, Silvermaine’s Maggia faction, Don Fortunado’s mob with it’s ties to Hydra, as well as Norman Osborn. Urich’s extensive coverage (and the subsequent return of the Kingpin) was covered in Spider-Man: Made Men #1.
The Kingpin returned to New York following X-Men (vol. 2) #64.
The Kingpin fell a second time in Daredevil (vol. 2) #81, although he was late released from prison in Daredevil (vol. 2) #93.
