Avenging Spider-Man #8
Ends of the Earth Epilogue
This story continues from Amazing Spider-Man #682-687….
Now
In Guatemala, Spider-Man has just saved the world from Doctor Octopus and is now searching for signs of Silver Sable, who seemingly perished in the battle. He refuses to give up hope of finding her alive, but the Black Widow pulls rank to get him up to the surface before his oxygen supply runs out.[1] Spider-Man reluctantly returns to the surface where Horizon Lab’s ship, the Zenith. There, Max Modell and Uatu Jackson are overseeing the life support system that will keep Doctor Octopus alive while the Avengers transport him to prison.[2] When Spider-Man joins the others, Captain America orders him to accompany them to the Raft, convincing him that the Black Widow and SHIELD will continue their search for any sign of Silver Sable. Cap tries to convince Spider-Man that Sable was a soldier and knew what was on the line. However, this does little to convince Spider-Man, who knows that — deep below her icy exterior — Silver Sable was a caring woman. He then begins telling Cap a story about when he came to realize this….
A Few Years Ago…[3]
At the time, Doctor Doom had just announced that he was going to marry Princess Lenka of Symkaria and make her his queen. At the time, Spider-Man was busting purse-snatchers in New York when Silver Sable used her resources to send a request for his assistance over the electronic billboards in Times Square.[4] Spider-Man went to the rendezvous point where he finds Silver Sable waiting for him in a limo. Also inside were Doctor Strange and Princess Lenka. Sable told Spider-Man that he needed him to marry the princess right away, promising to pay him handsomely for his assistance.
As it turns out, they want Spider-Man to marry her to thwart Doctor Doom’s attempts to do the same thing. Doctor Strange explains that Lenka is the seventh daughter of the seventh daughter born of noble blood. This has given her great mystical potential to either become or give birth to the next Sorcerer Supreme. For years, Doctor Strange has had the nation of Symkaria hide the princess to prevent other mystics from manipulating her unique position. However, now that Lenka is 21, her father had her removed from her mystical sanctuary and offered her to Doom because he doesn’t believe in magic. Doctor Strange has since hired Silver Sable to get Lenka out of the country. Doom intends to use the girl in a mystical ceremony that would take her own life. The only way they can prevent this is if Lenka marries a man she truly loves, and that person turned out to be none other than Spider-Man. After they explain all of this, Spider-Man tells them that he’s flattered but he has a girlfriend.[5]
That’s when the limo was ambushed by Doctor Doom who had come to recover his would-be bride, believing that she had been taken against her will. Silver Sable tries to use her long-standing relationship with Doom to convince him to leave the girl alone, but he refuses and knocks Sable aside. That’s when Silver’s team, the Wild Pack, came in but were similarly repelled by Doom. Taking command of the situation, Doctor Strange orders his allies to come to him so he can conjure a Pentagram of Farallah to protect Lenka. This spell teleports them across the city and Strange casts the Obscuring Mists of Valtorr to hide them from detection while they plan their next step. In the aftermath of the battle, Lenka has decided that Spider-Man is not fit for her hand in marriage and mentions how a pastry boy in her village named Marek pledged to marry her, but she sent him away to protect him. Silver Sable is annoyed with the royal for keeping this to herself until now because they could have saved themselves a lot of trouble had she mentioned it sooner. Strange points out that for their plan to work, Lenka has to be married to someone she truly loves and the wedding has to be genuine.
As it turns out, Lenka sent Merak to New York City, Spider-Man offers to collect him while Doctor Strange and Silver Sable take Lenka back to the Symkaria embassy. Spider-Man quickly finds Merak at his apartment and races him to the embassy. There, the couple are reunited and ushered into the bunker beneath the building for the wedding to take place. As they were doing so, Doctor Doom arrived and begin fighting his way through the embassy’s defenses. Spider-Man, Silver Sable, and Doctor Strange are the last line of defense but Doom easily swats them aside. Sable refuses to stand down and tells Doom that she will do whatever it takes to stop him from succeeding. Suddenly, Doctor Doom decides to end hostilities because he senses that his foes were successful and departs before his presence attracts the attention of the Fantastic Four. With the battle over, the newlywed couple come up from the bunker having just consummated their marriage.
It was then that Silver Sable began demanding that Doctor Strange pay for the damages done to the embassy. However, Strange did not have that kind of money. Sable was stern on her demands until she saw the smiling couple and softened a bit, deciding to wave the fee just this one time.
Now
Spider-Man concludes his story by telling his fellow Avengers that Silver Sable only pretended to be motivated by money and that she truly cared about her country, her family, and her friends. By this time, they have arrived at the Raft where they rush Doctor Octopus to his cell. Once Otto has been hooked up to life support, Spider-Man pays a visit to his old foe to tell him that his master plan was a failure and that he is going to die knowing that he has been defeated. Outside the prison, Spider-Man joins his teammates and tells them that despite his victory he won’t be able to rest until he finds out what happened to Silver Sable.
Back in Guatemala, Black Widow orders the SHIELD divers to make another sweep of the ocean floor, telling them to stay sharp as they never know what they might find there. As they swim away none are aware of a golden octo-bot that has crawled out of the wreckage of the base.[6]
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Silver Sable, Doctor Doom, Avengers (Captain America, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Spider-Woman), Max Modell, Uatu Jackson, Bella Fishbach, Doctor Octopus, WIld Pack (Powell)
Continuity Notes
Silver Sable seemingly drowned in the undersea complex of Doctor Octopus in Amazing Spider-Man #687. However, she survived as we’ll learn in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 5) #33.
Doctor Octopus has been suffering from a degenerative illness after years of head injuries since Amazing Spider-Man #600.
According to the Marvel Chronology Project, this flashback takes place not long after the Infinity Gauntlet event. Per the Sliding Timescale that would place this flashback as taking place about five years prior to the main story.
Sable’s message asks him to meet her where the “watched Fortune’s ship come in.” This is a reference to the events of Web of Spider-Man #72, when Spider-Man and Silver Sable assisted Dominic Fortune on a mission.
At the time this flashback takes place, Spider-Man was actually married to Mary Jane Watson circa Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. However, after Mephisto altered reality in Amazing Spider-Man #545, the couple never got married. Despite this, they were still in a committed relationship.
This device will ultimately return to New York and play an instrumental part in a mind swap between Doctor Octopus and Spider-Man. See Amazing Spider-Man #698-700.
