Polar Opposites

Hey, Gwen!" Jill hugged Gwen Stacy as she came into the Stacys' townhouse. With final exams over and the Christmas holidays now underway, Gwen was coming to stay with her mother, aunt Nancy and cousin Jill until classes resumed in January.

"How have you been?" Helen Stacy asked her daughter quietly as they embraced.

"A lot better, now that I'm here," Gwen smiled. "It's so nice to see you again."

"How were exams?" Aunt Nancy asked as she came into the foyer and hugged Gwen in turn.

"Stressful," Gwen sighed, "but I think I did pretty well, all things considered. I even got some acting work," she continued, telling them about the documentary Randy Robertson was filming, and the role she had gotten in it.

"You going to be hanging out with Harry and Liz at all?" Jill asked her.

Gwen was caught off guard by the question for a moment.

"Probably…why?" she finally replied.

"Because I want to see Harry again," Jill sighed wistfully.

A rare smile found its way onto Gwen's face, before she burst out giggling.

It was truly good to be home.

SPIDER-WOMAN #7

"POLAR OPPOSITES"

"Any news from Karen Page?" Aunt Nancy asked Gwen as they did the dishes after supper that night.

"She said we have a really strong case," Gwen said as she scrubbed a frying pan, "but I'm not so sure we should go through with it."

"What do you mean?" Nancy asked in amazement.

Gwen told her aunt about her father's e-mail.

"He mentioned how complicated it could be," Gwen muttered as she handed the frying pan over to Nancy and began cleaning the stew pot. "And that it could be far more complicated than we originally thought. You can guess what that means," she sighed, her shoulders slumping in frustration.

"Do you want me to tell your mother?" Nancy asked, before Gwen shook her head vigorously.

"No!" she exclaimed, before calming down. "No, we can't let her know about this, she couldn't take it," Gwen insisted. "We'll find a way to get through this…I'll handle it."

"What will you do, then?" Nancy asked.

"Whatever I have to," Gwen said determinedly, fire in her eyes.

She took a deep breath, as Nancy placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.

Lost in thought as she walked into the Coffee Bean, Gwen just barely managed to react in time before she bumped into a young woman with neck-length hair dyed a deep black, very pale skin, and dark clothing. The young woman recoiled in surprise, dropping the books she carried in her arms.

Mumbling an apology as she bent down to help the other girl pick up the books, Gwen was surprised to recognize the girl as Maguire "Maggie" Beck, a student in her Drama class known for her strange personality and propensity for Goth music. Maggie blinked in surprise as she recognized Gwen, quickly putting her copy of Sleepy Hollow in her shoulder bag as she got to her feet.

"Gwen?" Maggie started, raising an eyebrow. "What brings you here?"

"I'm meeting a friend for lunch," Gwen said quickly. She turned to leave, until Maggie caught her by the arm.

"Let me guess…they're not here, are they?" she smiled, as Gwen looked around to see that Liz had not yet arrived. "I just got here too-want some coffee until they arrive? I'm buying," she offered with a slight grin.

Shrugging, Gwen accepted, getting a coffee and sitting down with Maggie to wait for Liz.

"I really liked your rendition of Portia for the Drama finals," Maggie told Gwen. "She's a really strong figure-I probably would have done her if I hadn't done Abigail instead," she continued, referring to the character of Abigail Williams from Arthur Miller's play The Crucible.

"Yeah, you were really good too," Gwen said slowly.

"Good roles like that are so hard to come by, though," Maggie sighed. "It's just like the superheroes in this city-it's a total sausage fest! That's why I like Spider-Woman so much," she enthused.

"Spider-Woman?" Gwen was caught off guard.

"Well, yeah," Maggie grinned. "She gives and takes it as much as any male hero! I mean, why should guys have all the fun?"

Gwen only raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sure she'd be flattered," she said dryly.

"I'd really like to see her take on some female supervillains, too. It's just as bad with the heroes-why are so many of the biggest villains male? What, like we're not smart or tough enough to compete with the likes of the Green Goblin or Doctor Doom? I mean, there's Mystique from the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, that rainbow woman Spectra, and a couple of others, but they're only drops in the bucket," Maggie shook her head sadly.

"The last thing anyone needs is more supervillains," Gwen smiled in spite of herself.

"Well, yeah," Maggie said as she finished her coffee and stood up to leave, "but wouldn't it be cool if there really was a kickass female supervillain?" she grinned as she left.

Gwen thought on Maggie's words for several minutes, until she was jolted out of her reverie by Liz's voice.

"Hey Liz," Gwen said slowly as her friend sat down. "How were exams?"

"Horrible," Liz sighed. "I mean, I think I did alright, but I was about to have a nervous breakdown. How about you?"

"They went alright," Gwen replied off-handedly. "But…well…there's something I need to tell you about."

"I'm listening," Liz started. "You know I'm always good for it…"

"I'm just really pissed off at my dad right now," Gwen began, her voice taking on an acid edge. "Mom and Dad are going through a really ugly divorce right now, and Dad, well…he's been making threats."

"Threats?" Liz's eyes widened. "Then why don't you-"

"It's nothing illegal…technically, at least," Gwen shook her head. "He'll probably try to cut us off financially if we go through with it."

Liz frowned, a pained expression on her face.

"I just…I don't know what to do right now!" Gwen continued in frustration, her face a mask of anger. "I hate it, I absolutely hate it, but we still need Dad's money to help pay our bills. I've been having a terrible time finding work recently, and Mom still isn't up to getting back to work herself."

"What's the matter?" Liz asked.

"None of your damn-" Gwen began in a fury, before she swallowed hard. "She's just really ill right now. She's been through a lot."

Liz just nodded, her frown getting deeper. To Gwen's surprise, Liz seemed neither hurt at her outburst, or surprised at what she was saying.

"Kitty said something about that video you're going to be in with Randy Robertson?" Liz tried to change the subject.

"Yeah," Gwen smiled. "I'm really excited-I love that kind of hoofing that he'll have me doing. I love to dance…when I'm up there, it's like the whole world disappears, and it's just me and the stage," she enthused. "I can leave everything behind, and just lose myself in the moment."

"That's what I always wondered about the theater," Liz wondered, "what's it like to just take on a new role like that?"

"It's not as hard as you think," Gwen answered. "Putting on a costume and taking on a new role is something we all do at one point or another. You're into Nursing, right? When you put on your uniform, or a doctor puts on his gloves and mask, that's the part of you that takes over, just like with a police officer or a firefighter. Writers step into the minds of their characters, people ranging from professional athletes to politicians put on their 'game faces', thinking about what to say and do. Depending on the costume we put on, we show different parts of who we are."

Liz only stared back thoughtfully.

That night…

Unless they operated on the basis of alternating day and night shifts, most businesses did not require their employees to be at work at two o'clock in the morning. Even Justin Hammer, well known in the high technology industry as a demanding taskmaster, never went that far.

Looking at Thomas Duffy, technical assistant for Hammer Industries, working alone in the laboratory long after his coworkers had gone home, it would be easy to assume Hammer's employees were on the verge of a perpetual nervous breakdown. Sweat poured down the front of his face and into his bloodshot eyes, which he occasionally wiped away with one trembling hand while taking regular shots from a thermos full of coffee with the other.

Along with the thick layer of stubble on his face, his disheveled clothes and his greasy, unwashed hair were all clear signs of the fact that he had gone three days without sleep, working nonstop on the new high-tech battle suit Hammer Industries had been developing to sell on the supervillain black market. Duffy saw the work on his suit as an opportunity, his big chance to prove himself to his bosses, and he was determined not to let it slip through his fingers.

Working eighteen years in the same job without a promotion or a raise would do that to a man, as would having his wife run off with the television repairman.

Duffy continually muttered to himself as he worked, flinching at the memories that continued popping up...of always being yelled at by his father for not being more like his athletic brother…of always being mocked by his mother for not being more like his academic sister…of never getting the girl…of being overlooked for all the scholarships, no matter how hard he worked…of being turned down for one job after another…of being stuck in the same damn menial job for almost two decades while people a good ten years younger were being promoted ahead of him…

"Better…always someone better…" he muttered under his breath.

This new suit of battle armor, with its magnetic control abilities, was sure to be a hot item on the black market, for groups like HYDRA, the Secret Empire, A.I.M., or the Leader.

Perhaps it would have even earned Duffy the promotion he so badly desired.

On the other hand, it would be difficult to tell, since Duffy had made a serious miscalculation when assembling the final prototype…a miscalculation he did not notice until he had put the suit on to perform some final tests and made the mistake of powering it up.

The resulting explosion of magnetic energy leveled half the building.

Gwen set out for Empire State University the next morning, having promised Randy to secure some rehearsal space for the tap dancing movie he planned to film with her contacts in the Drama department. When she arrived, she was surprised to see the number of cars in the university parking lot, as well as the TV crews carrying equipment into the university auditorium, until she remembered about the fierce debate that was taking place. It about keeping 'Christ in Christmas', or something like that, and how far society should go in adapting the Christmas holidays to new immigrants and cultures.

Gwen only shrugged and walked on, as she cared nothing for politics, and indeed only read the Daily Bugle for its Arts and Entertainment section and the articles Kitty wrote. On her way to the Drama department, where students and staff alike were taking advantage of the holidays to use the otherwise empty school facilities for their own projects, Gwen was suddenly distracted by the loud screams and crashes that came from the auditorium, and the camera crews scrambling over to investigate the trouble.

Once again, Gwen found her instincts taking over as she made her way into the nearest building. Finding a washroom, she quickly changed her costume and became Spider-Woman, before leaping out a rear window and making her way back around to the university auditorium.

As she entered, Spider-Woman was surprised by the destruction she saw, a trail of twisted metal and wreckage. Metal appeared to have been ripped right out of the wall, or flung into it with devastating force, as water leaked from destroyed plumbing and live copper wires sparked dangerously, forcing Spider-Woman to step warily as she followed the damage.

The path of destruction led Spider-Woman to a section of the building where Empire State University often hosted displays of precious treasures and museum artifacts when they went on tour. On this occasion, it held a collection of beautiful Faberge eggs and other priceless treasures from the old Russian Empire, gathered just before its fall. No doubt worth a fortune, they were a fine prize for any criminal.

The being Spider-Woman saw looting the displays caught her completely off-guard. It appeared to be clad in a suit of bulky silver-gray armor, with a blood-red torso, thighs and elbows, sheathed in an aura of bluish-white magnetic energy, except that bits of flesh and bone protruded through cracks and holes in the armor. Horrifyingly, Spider-Woman realized that the creature was not simply wearing a suit of armor, but was, if anything, welded with it, the armor's circuitry and metal fused completely into his body. Just like with Firebrand, who was clad in plates of white-hot metal shrapnel that had melted into his skin, the armor of this thing, whatever it was, had become fused with its body, creating a monstrosity of flesh and metal that hummed with a life all its own, continually glowing from the magnetic energy it emitted.

"What are you?" Spider-Woman demanded as she fired a sting blast at the metallic thing. The creature whirled around and took the bolt straight to the chest, staggering back with a growl of pain.

"My name is…Polestar," the thing rasped, its voice a sibilant hiss somewhere between human speech and the crackling of electricity. "And you…" it hesitated, before glancing briefly at the news media already filming the robbery, "shall die."

Spider-Woman suddenly found herself dodging frantically as much of the broken metal in the room suddenly rose up all around her, stabbing, slashing and striking at her with frightening speed. Spraying her webbing around to entangle much of the debris, and deflecting the rest of it with her sting blasts, Spider-Woman unleashed a double shot of webbing at Polestar, who simply raised a barrier of metal out of the floor to deflect it. Not to be outdone, Spider-Woman simply charged forward and leapt over the barrier, hitting Polestar hard with a vicious jump kick to the head that sent him staggering back, before subjecting him to a flurry of punches and a double sting blast that sent him flying back to crash against the wall.

She raised her hands for another strike, but was forced to dodge as Polestar used his magnetic power to rip the metal door in the wall next to him right off its hinges and send it flying at her. As she rolled out of the way, Polestar simply brought the door around again, as it slammed her viciously in the back. Stunned, Spider-Woman could only stagger to her feet before the door twisted into a cylinder, almost crushing her before she broke free. Tangling the pieces in her webbing, Spider-Woman swung the whole thing like a flail at Polestar, who rolled out of the way and placed himself between her and one of the camera crews filming the battle. Again raising the metal debris in the room with his magnetism, Polestar quickly dropped it and rolled out of the way as Spider-Woman swung the large metal shards on the end of her webbing at him once more.

Polestar rolled one way, even as the camera crew cursed and scattered. By sheer luck, none of them had been crushed by the pieces of metal Spider-Woman wielded. As they tried to run to safety, they suddenly stopped short, as a sting blast blew a fair-sized hole in the wall just in front of them. Shouting in terror, the camera crew scattered again, as another sting blast struck the wall right where they had been standing.

Web-swinging over Polestar's flying debris, Spider-Woman landed in front of him and viciously punched him into the main foyer of the auditorium, where stunned spectators had gathered to watch the battle. Electrical copper wires erupted from the floor and steel pipes were ripped out of the walls as Polestar focused his magnetic powers, surrounding Spider-Woman with a creeping mass of metal that threatened to engulf her.

With fire in her eyes, Spider-Woman sprayed her webbing in a wide arc around her, ripping the metal debris free and sending flying in random directions, ignoring the loud crashes and the screams of the people who tried to dodge the metal shards she was throwing in every random direction. At first, she barely heard the shouts and curses directed at her, concentrating only on Polestar, who had crafted a barrier for him to defend against her next sting blasts.

"You appear to be doing more harm than good!" Polestar taunted her, as he pulled a light fixture out of the ceiling to drop on Spider-Woman. "Is there nothing you can do to stop me?" he continued in a mocking tone.

Her eyes suddenly flaring in rage, Spider-Woman caught the light fixture and carelessly flung it off to the side, just barely avoiding striking a young couple who stood in shock. Her next sting blast shattered Polestar's barrier, and blew him back. Taking to the air, he sent the broken shards of metal flying at Spider-Woman before she could dodge, cutting her and drawing blood in several places. She seemed not to care as she took to the air, spun a web and swung up to the ceiling, before she sprang down again and caught Polestar in the chest with a vicious double kick, stunning him and sending him crashing to the ground, as several bystanders ran out of the way. Again ignoring the cries and curses of the people around her, Spider-Woman swung down to floor level and began beating Polestar viciously, until he fell limp in her arms. Shooting a look of pure hatred at Polestar, she threw him up into the air and delivered a vicious haymaker that sent him flying across the room to crash heavily into the opposite wall, before he slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Spider-Woman advanced on the unconscious criminal, intending to web him up for the police, but then the bystanders all around her came to block her path.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" one man snapped at her.

"You almost took my head off with that piece of metal you threw!" a woman cursed her.

"You could have killed us!" another man shouted.

Blinking in surprise, Spider-Woman seemed to register the people around her for the very first time. She looked around in amazement at the wreckage all around her, the dents in the wall from where she had thrown the debris, the damage done by her sting blasts, and the shaken, angry people.

Faster than anyone could react, she spun a web and swung out the front doors. By the time anyone could get there to look for her, Spider-Woman was gone.

Gwen took only a few minutes to book the theater space she needed, and managed to avoid the police who had come to arrest Polestar, as well as the media who were in a frenzy over the battle. She walked back to Aunt Nancy's home in a daze, silently thinking about what she had been doing since she had decided to put on that costume, the uniform that marked her as Spider-Woman.

One moment she was saving people from house fires and muggings, the next she was putting them in danger with her recklessly throwing things everywhere and firing her sting blasts in every direction while beating supervillains half to death. Guiltily, she realized she had put a number of innocent people in danger with her anger. She had put her costume on, in part, simply because her father hated superheroes and everything they stood for…

"Are you alright?" Jill asked Gwen in surprise as she stumbled into the house. "What happened to you?"

"Where are Mom and Aunt Nancy?" Gwen asked her.

"Out getting some last-minute Christmas shopping done," Jill replied. "But what happened to you?"

"I got caught up in that fight between Spider-Woman and that weird magnetic guy," Gwen sighed. "I take it it's on the news?"

"You bet!" Jill said, leading her back to the TV. "The media's going nuts about how much damage Spider-Woman did! It's a miracle that no one was hurt! The people they're interviewing said she was crazy!"

Previously, Gwen would have been angry, even furious, with what the people on TV were saying.

But now, she couldn't help but wonder if they were right.

The battered, broken Polestar sat impassively in the holding cell at the Raft, where he had been taken after the police arrested him to be kept until his trial. He stared intently at the television set in the community viewing room, taking in every detail of the local New York news coverage that detailed his robbery attempts.

"The name's Thomas Duffy," he was saying to the reporters, "but that's Polestar to you," he spat.

"This your first time?" a tall, thin blond man sitting next to Polestar asked him, gesturing at the television. The man's arms were manacled with the special restraints manufactured by Stark Enterprises, a device used by law enforcement agencies worldwide to prevent superhuman criminals from using their abilities to escape.

Polestar shifted, and fixed his gaze on the man sitting next to him.

"And you are?" he asked slowly, his eyes narrowing.

"The name's Electro," the blond man grinned. "People usually don't recognize me without the star mask and the green tights. Like I said, is this your first time?" he asked again.

"Yes, it is," Polestar nodded slowly.

"Friendly piece of advice, rookie," Electro began. "It's always toughest the first time. Some guys get in here, or in Attica, they realize they can't take it, and they go straight. You wanna be a supervillain, you've gotta commit to it. If you wuss out, no one'll ever take you seriously as a villain again."

"I assure you," Polestar smiled, "I am more than committed. Indeed, I have already scored the first success of my newly chosen career."

"How's that?" Electro wondered. "Doesn't look like you got any money…"

"I received something much more important than mere money," Polestar rasped.

"What's that?" Electro asked, now genuinely curious.

"Recognition," Polestar grinned. "They know who I am, and they'll never be able to escape that knowledge."

"Who?" Electro asked.

Polestar only laughed.

"I mentioned my real name out loud and on the news, didn't I?" he smirked.

Electro only raised an eyebrow at this.

Over the next couple of weeks, Gwen occupied herself with many different tasks, including Christmas shopping with Liz and Kitty, decorating the Stacy house for Christmas, and trying to take a rest from the stresses she faced. Leaving her Spider-Woman costumes securely locked in her bedroom, Gwen found herself enjoying the time she spent with her family, being able to put aside her worries about her father, even more so when she saw her mother smile for the first time in a very, very long while. Going out as Spider-Woman proved to be the furthest thing from her mind. Oddly enough, the entire city of New York was quietly muted over the holidays-even the criminals and supervillains had apparently decided to take some time to rest.

"You seem a lot better," Liz said to Gwen as they danced at the club that New Year's Eve. "Is it going alright?"

"For the moment, yeah," Gwen nodded as they sat down to take a break. Liz was breathing heavily, but Gwen was barely winded, owing to the additional stamina she received from her spider-powers. "I'm a lot better than I would have been, considering Felicia's nowhere to be seen."

"She had some sort of private party at her mansion," Liz rolled her eyes. "I take it you didn't get an invitation either?"

Gwen just scoffed in reply.

"It's going to be back to the grindstone before too long, though," Liz sighed. "My schedule's packed next semester. How about yours?"

"It's probably going to have to be a little lighter," Gwen replied, "since I'm probably going to need more free time for work. I would have liked to get in for that rendition of Sleeping Beauty that Alyssa Conover was in, but I was too busy with finals and everything else. The problem is, though, that I've just had a terrible time finding work lately…"

"Haven't we all," Liz said glumly. "Harry's dad said that with the way things are going right now, the economy's going to be in the toilet before long."

Gwen suddenly flinched, bluntly reminded of her own potential money problems if her father went through with his threats. Once again her mind began whirling with the images of her battles as Spider-Woman, how she had defeated Blizzard, Will O' the Wisp, Firebrand, the Brothers Grimm and Polestar one after another.

Then, a strange thought passed through her mind, that caught her off guard.

Why hadn't she seen Marie-Ange Colbert at all during final exams?

(Next Issue: Gwen begins the filming of Randy's tap dancing documentary, even as she is confronted with the dual questions of how to respond to her father's threats, and whether she ought to continue as Spider-Woman. She is forced to put the answers on hold, however, as she is soon confronted by the abductions of the mysterious being known as Tarot! All this and more in Spider-Woman #8: Written in the Cards!)