Ultimate Spider-Man: Hollywood, Part 4
Issue: #57
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inker: Art Thibert & Scott Hanna
Colors: J.D.Smith

Spider-Man finds himself taped to a seat in the passenger section of an airplane. Otto Octavius emerges from the plane’s cabin and proceeds to pull off Spider-Man’s mask, punch him several times, and pull one of Peter’s teeth with the mechanical arms. We see another of the arms resting on the shoulder of the pilot flying the plane, holding him hostage as well. Octavius uses Peter’s own web-shooter to web his mouth shut. Peter is being brought along as a security measure, in case Octavius needs him as a hostage. Octavius muses that Peter is doing the whole Spider-Man routine as an attention-getting ploy because his father is gone. He accuses Spider-Man and various other people of standing in the way of his plans for a decent life. Then, because they have twenty minutes before the plane lands, Octavius tells Peter what happened while he was unconscious.

In a flashback, we see Octavius take a cab driver hostage. Outside the Lincoln Tunnel, the police and a variety of SHIELD agents have gathered to take Octavius back into custody. A car sails through the air, causing everyone to duck, and a familiar figure appears at the tunnel entrance, walking on four mechanical arms. The SHIELD agents open fire (while a cameraman from the Spider-Man movie crew begins filming). When the smoke clears, the SHIELD agents discover that Octavius has substituted the cab driver for himself in the mechanical harness; they’ve killed the wrong man. Octavius can control the arms even when he’s not wearing them. As SHIELD calls in reinforcements, the arms escape over the rooftops, reuniting with Octavius in a car a couple streets away. He drives to the Rockefeller Air Field and finds a family about to board a private plane. Octavius takes the pilot hostage and steals the plane. The action returns to the present.

The plane has arrived at its destination, but the pilot has trouble convincing the air control tower to let them land. He’s finally given permission, but the plane suddenly plunges downward. When Octavius steps out of the cockpit, he finds the main door open. Spider-Man has escaped.

In the Parker home in New York, Gwen Stacy lets herself into the basement lab and begins looking around. She finds a trunk and, breaking the lock, discovers a Spider-Man outfit inside. Gwen, who believes that Spider-Man killed her father, has found out Spider-Man’s secret identity, and now blames Peter for her father’s death.

Submitted By: Seldes Katne