Spider-Man and the X-Men #6
The students of the X-Men’s special class are all waiting for their professor, Spider-Man, to return. It’s only when they notice that both No-Girl and Ernst are also absent that they worry that their teacher has gotten himself kidnapped again. However, Hellion gets them to calm down by asking who would want to capture them to begin with.
The answer to that question would be one of the X-Men’s greatest foes, Mister Sinister. He has Spider-Man strapped to a table and tells Spider-Man that his genetic contribution will advance humanity’s knowledge. Ernst apologizes for betraying him. Spider-Man forgives her, saying that some people have a reason for going bad. Sinister says there is nothing evil about wanting to get closer to creating homo perfectus, the perfect human. With the help of Ernst, Sinister is getting a step closer to that reality as she has helped him collect DNA samples from everyone that lives at the Jean Grey School.
Still, Spider-Man doesn’t understand why Ernst would assist Mister Sinister in such a way. Sinister explains that Ernst is a biological anomaly, as she was purposefully constructed. He believes that she has a psychic defense that manifests as her prodigious strength, suggesting that her mind can force its will on reality, however she doesn’t really have any control over this power. As for why Ernst was chosen to betray her teammates, he leaves it for her to say. Breaking down into tears, Ernst explains that she wanted Mister Sinister to build a body for No-Girl.
Meanwhile, the special class have not given up trying to figure out where Spider-Man went. Going to his room, they discover the scene of a fight. At Hellion’s encouragement, each member of the group begins to piece together what happened and deduce that Spider-Man has been taken to an old mill near the school.
At that moment, Spider-Man wakes up from blacking out and tries to convince Ernst that Mister Sinister is evil and to set him free. That’s when Sinister wheels in his completed creation. He then reveals No-Girl’s new body, which he has tranasplanted No-Girl’s brain. When she wakes up she is horrified by what hs been done to her, but when she tries to fight back she discovers that Mister Sinister somehow controls her bodies.
When the special class arrives out front of the Nelson & Nelson paper mill, they find no sign of trouble. That’s when Eye Boy’s sensitive vision detects that their teacher is being kept at the grocery store across the Clarendon Mart aross the street. The fight through a bunch of traps and the Nasty Boys as Eye Boy leads them to a storage closet. Breaking through the door they enter Mister Sinister’s secret lab. Sinister is ready for them and reveals his new team, the Sinister’s Six which includes clones of Wolverine, Iceman, the Beast, Firestar, Nightcrawler, and the No-Girl Storm.[1] Although they feel like they are out of their league, the special class fights back. When Ernst tries to join her teammates, Mister Sinister forces No-Girl to jolt Ernst with her newfound lightning powers.
Meanwhile, Glob Herman manages to get Spider-Man free, but the web-slinger has run out of web-fluid.[2] Instead of joining the fight, he convinces Hellion to take the lead and guide his fellow students to victory. As No-Girl is forced to continue attacking her friend, she tells Ernst that she didn’t want a body like this. Meanwhile, Spider-Man tricks the clone of Firestar to nuke the genetic samples that Mister Sinister has collected. As Mister Sinister blasts Spider-Man, the other students are beginning to faulter. Shark-Girl is so weakened by her battle with the clone of Wolverine that she reverts back to human form. Still, Hellion is proud of her and gives her a kiss.
Meanwhile, No-Girl convinces Ernst that siding with Sinister was a bad idea. Ernst realizes the errors of her way and pushes toward No-Girl’s new body while shrugging off the continued jolts of lightning. Sinister vows to destroy them all but by this time Ernst has managed to rip No-Girl’s brain free from its new body. As Spider-Man prepares to join the battle with the kids he is struck in the back of the head by the Wolverine clone so hard that he blacks out. When he wakes up he finds himself back at the Jean Grey School with Storm waiting by his bedside.
With Spider-Man awake, she says they need to talk and suggests they go somewhere comfortable. Storm’s idea of comfortable is a training session in the Danger Room. As they destroy robots, Storm asks the web-slinger what he was trying to teach the students. He says he was trying to teach them the importance of using their powers responsibly, but he didn’t think it was practical advice for a mutant. Storm doesn’t agree, pointing out that his students were able to take on Mister Sinister without any loss of life, no easy feat. In fact, as they tell it, they all worked together to make sure the people inside the mall got to safety putting public safety ahead of stopping Mister Sinister. When it comes to Ernst, Storm tells Spider-Man that there is no need to argue on her behalf because her classmates already did it.
Spider-Man is touched by all of this and even sheds a tear when they all refer to him as “Professor S”. When he returns to class he sees that his classmates are all glum. As it turns out, they are upset that they couldn’t save the clones as they started melting after Sinister fled. Spider-Man tells them that it is impossible to save everyone and what matters is that they had they were trying to do the right thing. He is proud of them for learning how to work as a team and use their powers responsibly.[3] He then learns that Eye Boy asked No-Girl out and wishes the two luck. Unfortunately, despite his happy occasion, Spider-Man tells them that he has to go as he has other commitments but assures them that the special class isn’t dismissed yet.[4]
A month later the special class is bored one day when they realize that they are almost late. They rush to the city where Spider-Man is waiting for them, saying that they took long enough to make it. They then go out on patrol together.[5]
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, X-Men (Storm, Beast, Marvel Girl, Hellion, Rockslide, Shark Girl, Glob Herman, Ernst, No-Girl, Eye Boy), Mister Sinister
Continuity Notes
The Wolverine clone is depicted as having claws made out of bone. Wolverine’s claws are actually bone coated in Adamantium as we learned in Wolverine (vol. 2) #75.
Spider-Man asks the children not to kill any of the clones, saying he’s got a soft spot for them. This is because Spider-Man has had his own experience with clones daying back to Amazing Spider-Man #149.
Spider-Man brags about Storm calling him as cool as Wolverine, calling himself the “new” Wolverine. That’s kind of tasteless considering that not long before this Wolverine died. See Death of Wolverine #1-4. He will be resurrected in Return of Wolverine #1-5.
Spider-Man states here that he is a member of three different teams. At the time of this story, Spider-Man has been a long-standing member of the New Avengers since New Avengers #1, a member of the main Avengers since Avengers (vol. 4) #1, and has been running his own company, Parker Industries, since he learned he had the company in Superior Spider-Man #31.
Spider-Man says “To Me, My X-Men” here which is the iconic first line uttered by Professor X back in X-Men #1.
