I Am Legion

Yawning as she got out of bed, Gwen Stacy pushed back her long blonde hair and took a moment to admire herself in the mirror. Ever since she'd moved back home and become a couple with Randy Robertson, her stressed and harried demeanor had been replaced with a new brightness and warmth, as her eyes sparkled with a vibrant blue light. Surrounded by her friends and family, Gwen had begun to enjoy life once again.

Getting showered and dressed, Gwen came downstairs to the kitchen, where her mother Helen, her Aunt Nancy and cousin Jill were already cooking breakfast. Gathering up some toast and orange juice, she sat down to read the Daily Bugle, when she saw the front page story.

The Bugle's lead story described the people who were still in the hospital from the electrically-powered psychopath Supercharger's rampage at Macy's Department Store. Although the heroic Spider-Woman had managed to eventually defeat Supercharger, he'd murdered several people and sent many more to the hospital before she could stop him. Supercharger had originally tried to demonstrate his "love" for Spider-Woman by killing several people who'd criticized her online, although his "love' had turned to an insane hatred when the disgusted Spider-Woman had rejected his attempts to win her affection. That was the whole reason Supercharger had attacked Macy's, namely to force Spider-Woman to fight him so he could kill her for rejecting him.

Gwen would have been horrified and saddened by what had happened to Supercharger's victims no matter what. In this case, though, their suffering was doubly painful to her, given that she was the spectacular Spider-Woman and she was the reason that Supercharger had hurt all those people. She couldn't help but feel responsible for what had happened to them, particularly in that she hadn't been able to stop Supercharger before he hurt them.

Pushing her chair back and getting up from the table, Gwen hastily made her way back upstairs as she struggled to keep calm.

She'd woken up filled with happiness at how well things were going for her, but it still didn't take much to bring Gwen crashing back to Earth.

SPIDER-WOMAN #41

"I AM LEGION"

Doing her level best to hold back her emotions, Gwen didn't hear her mother Helen coming into the room. Sitting down next to her daughter, Helen put her arms around Gwen's shoulders in a comforting hug.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" Helen asked gently.

"That headline in the Daily Bugle," Gwen muttered sadly.

"That was pure bull," Helen shook her head. "I mean, how could the paper possibly blame-"

"You don't understand," Gwen interrupted her, before explaining about her first encounter with Supercharger and the whole reason he'd become a supervillain in the first place.

"He killed all those people to get to me," Gwen concluded, unable to look her mother in the eye. "It's…I feel like it's my fault…"

"No it isn't," Helen said firmly. "You did exactly what you needed to do, Gwen-Supercharger is the one who chose to kill all those people. Who's to say he wouldn't have just gotten obsessed with some other woman if he didn't focus on you?"

"I know, but…" Gwen trailed off. "He's not the only one of my enemies who'd do something like that to get back at me, either. Jack O' Lantern actually knows that I'm Spider-Woman! He already went after Dad to hurt me-what if he goes after you, Jill or Aunt Nancy?"

Helen frowned at that, trying to think of what she could say to Gwen even as she tried to keep her own worries under control.

It was then that Gwen remembered what she'd told herself the night she'd finally defeated Jack O' Lantern and brought him to justice.

"It's the same thing with Supercharger," she realized.

"What do you mean?" Helen asked in confusion.

"I used to worry about what Jack O' Lantern would do if he ever got out of prison and tried to get back at me," Gwen replied. "But I realized that if I spent all my time looking over my shoulder and didn't enjoy life, he'd win a small victory. Just like with Supercharger-if I spend all my time obsessing about him, he wins."

"Exactly," Helen told her. "You ready to go back downstairs?"

"Yeah, I guess," Gwen replied with a sad smile.

She continued to put on a brave face, and rationally she knew she was right.

Even then, the doubts and the guilt continued to linger at the back of her mind.

The Bar With No Name was renowned among the New York criminal class as perhaps the finest establishment in New York that catered to their kind. High class mobsters, costumed supervillains and vicious gangbangers came here to make deals, spend their ill-gotten gains and conduct business. The Bar served as a drinking establishment, a strip club and a brothel depending on its clientele's needs, and was considered strictly neutral ground for all the criminals in New York. Although the Kingpin was the bar's owner, independent supervillains and members of New York City's other crime syndicates were still regular customers.

One of the supervillains who entered the bar was a slender young woman in bright gold body armor, accented with a silver helmet, facemask, gloves and boots. Her long blonde hair fell down past her shoulders through an opening in the back of her helmet, and she carried herself with the practiced ease of someone who'd become accustomed to her role in a very short time.

Looking around at the crowd and ignoring the leers and wolf whistles she was receiving, Moonstone soon found what she was looking for. Three costumed criminals, each one more bizarrely clad than the last, were sitting drinking at a table. One of them was a tall and muscled Hispanic man with dark brown hair and a matching goatee, clad in a jaguar-patterned vest and pants, dark blue boots, and gauntlets with wickedly-edged claws on the fingertips. The second one was a man dressed in dark blue and silver body armor, wearing a ghoulish skull mask on his face and a voluminous purple hooded cloak. The last person at the table was a petite woman with dead white skin, clad in a strange outfit of thick blue material, with a white hood, cape, gloves and boots, all of which were made of fake fur.

Moonstone recognized Jaguar, Mr. Fear and the Ice Princess from their activities as part of the Tomorrow Legion, and so she was unfazed as she sat down to join them with a Pina Colada in her hand. She noted that the other three villains were quite pleased to see her, and with the way they easily resumed their conversation after she'd sat down indicated that they were probably glad that she was there.

"You're back to freelancing?" Mr. Fear shook his head in disappointment at Jaguar. "Once again, your're at the mercies of the crimelords. And you," he said, turning to the Ice Princess, "you're back to robbing banks. Even when you steal more lucrative items, you have to contend with the extortionate rates charged by the fences who resell the goods for you! I know you have a taste for higher end merchandise, but that makes it all the harder to sell!" he pointed out.

"It's still better than being treated like a lackey by Doctor Octopus," the Ice Princess spat in disgust. "Jack O' Lantern promised us that we could cause more mayhem and make more money than ever, and look what happened when Octopus took over."

"You guys are talking about the Tomorrow Legion, right?" Moonstone spoke up. "I know just how you feel-Octopus made me recover that Enervator for him, and what did I get out of it? Nothing!"

The disgruntled scowls and nods told Moonstone that she'd quickly won them over.

"At least the crimelords pay up when you get the job done," the Jaguar muttered darkly, his moustache twitching in aggravation. "But competition for jobs is fiercer than ever these days. A lot of the old-school killers are becoming supervillains just so they can stay in the game…"

"That was the thing I really liked about the Tomorrow Legion," Moonstone replied, putting just the right tone in her voice so it sounded as if she suddenly realized it. "We were in charge. We got to keep all the money, and we got to call all the shots-"

"Except that Doctor Octopus ran it like it was the Sinister Six," Mr. Fear interrupted her in a rasping voice, "and it all fell apart. Jack O' Lantern had the right idea to start with!"

"Isn't that because he actually stuck to what the Legion was originally meant for?" Moonstone asked. "I mean, I wasn't part of the Legion's first crime spree, but didn't Jack always try to get input from the rest of the group and coordinate their plans?"

"No, you're absolutely right," the Ice Princess pointed out. "We were able to come and go when we chose, we could keep working for the other crime syndicates, we could freelance or just continue robbing and killing by ourselves. We were in control!" she snapped, her eyes gleaming brightly.

"Well then, who says the Legion is really dead?" Moonstone asked the other criminals seated around the table. "It's as much a concept as anything. I mean, couldn't someone bring it back if they wanted?"

Moonstone noted the looks of interest on the faces of Jaguar and the Ice Princess, and knew that they were both thinking about what she'd just said. She couldn't make out Mr. Fear's expression behind his impassive skull mask, although the way he suddenly looked up in the air implied that he was also giving the matter serious thought. He'd been one of the villains who'd applied for the leadership of the Tomorrow Legion when Jack O' Lantern had first proposed it, and although he'd lost the vote he was no doubt eager to revive the Legion on terms more suitable to him.

Moonstone did well to suppress her smile.

If Jaguar, Mr. Fear and the Ice Princess simply discussed it with the rest of the supervillain community, she could continue to discuss the Legion with other supervillains and get more and more of them to spread the word. Doing this would reinforce her in their minds as the person most associated with the Legion.

If Mr. Fear or another villain decided to be more proactive and reestablish the Legion themselves, so much the better.

"Do you think we should tell Aunt Nancy and Jill about my being Spider-Woman?" Gwen asked her mother as they ate dinner later that week. Jill had gone to a football game her high school was playing in, while Nancy was out visiting a friend from her college days who'd recently moved back to New York.

"I don't know," Helen shook her head. "Do we really want them worrying about you?"

"Yeah, but isn't it unfair that you know, but they don't?" Gwen wondered. "And what about Randy or Kitty, or any of my other friends?"

"The problem with a secret is that it's not a secret anymore if you tell everyone," Helen reminded her, rubbing her chin at the thought. "You'd have to trust every one of them with your secret identity. Are you really willing to do that?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Gwen blinked.

"What if they accidentally let it slip one day? What if one of them gets angry at you and exposes you out of spite? What if one of them is forced to give up your secret to a criminal? And they'd be stressed and worried about you all the time-is it really worth putting them through that?" Helen pointed out.

"But I put you through it," Gwen frowned.

"You never intended to," Helen reminded her. "I just found out by accident. And I can't stop you from doing this-I know how much it means to you," she finished. Neither Helen nor Gwen needed to be reminded of the abuses they'd suffered in George Stacy's broken home, and the role it had played in driving Gwen to assume her costumed identity.

Gwen gave that no small amount of thought. The last thing she wanted was to give her friends and family any more cause to worry. And for that matter, how many of them really understood why she needed to fight crime as a superheroine? Aunt Nancy and Jill probably would, but Gwen still found herself hesitating when she realized how much they might worry about her.

And then there was Randy. He'd always been there for her when she needed him, helping to keep her spirits up when she was having problems and always providing a sympathetic ear. Gwen knew he'd probably understand why she fought crime as Spider-Woman, although again she realized he might worry about her.

Gwen was at a loss as to what to do. She realized that her mother had a point about the risks in telling other people her secret, but she didn't feel right keeping secrets from her loved ones. Randy, Aunt Nancy and Jill especially weighed heavily on her conscience-they were more than just friends to her. If her mother knew about her secret, then why couldn't they?

She needed to test the waters, at least.

It was all Vince Gonzalez could do to avoid throwing his remote control through the TV. Every time he turned it on, no matter what he was watching, the only thing he saw was Spider-Woman. She was the only thing he'd managed to see ever since he'd heard about Supercharger's killing spree at Macy's Department Store. Once again, Supercharger had run amuck because of Spider-Woman. The only difference between this murder spree and his second one was that he'd done the first one to try and show his perverted "love" for Spider-Woman, and the second one was to force Spider-Woman to fight him at Macy's.

He'd still been overseas in Iraq when he'd heard about his sister Michelle's murder by Supercharger. Michelle had previously criticized Spider-Woman on her anti-superhero Internet message board, and Supercharger had fatally electrocuted her as a way of getting Spider-Woman's attention. Despite all his efforts, Vince hadn't been able to get back in time for Michelle's funeral, as their parents were so desperate to get it over with that they'd buried Michelle as soon as they could.

Mom was never the same after being the one to find Michelle's burned corpse on the ground. Dad tried to take care of her, he really did, but with his asthma there was only so much he could do. By the time Vince managed to muster out of the army and come home to the U.S., the damage was already done. Mom had suffered a complete nervous breakdown, and Dad had suffered a fatal attack without Mom to help him.

Now he saw Supercharger going on another murder spree related to Spider-Woman, this one at Macy's. Parents lost their children, children lost their parents, the holidays turned into blood and death. So many more people were experiencing the suffering, the pain and the loss that Vince had.

All because of Spider-Woman.

With the rise of costumed supervillains in society, criminologists had debated endlessly about the impact they were having on the crime world and the justice system. One of the most heatedly-debated topics was how costumed criminals differed from their non-costumed colleagues.

Tanya Sealy knew that, in some ways, costumed criminals were really no different than villains who didn't wear fancy Halloween outfits. In her career as a call girl, successful criminals with money to burn had been some of Tanya's best customers. Supervillains who'd just pulled off a successful bank robbery or assassination had employed her services time and again, and they typically paid better than a typical street hood or mob thug.

Tonight Tanya was preparing for the arrival of one of her favorites, lighting the candles in the darkened hotel room and wearing a Christmas-themed teddy. She was no older than her mid-twenties, although Tanya already had more worldly experience than most women twice her age. Soft music played in the background, which Tanya used to get her customers in the right mood. Not only did they typically have more pleasure when they were relaxed, but they also typically paid out more money than they would have otherwise.

The knock at the door came just as Tanya had lit the last candle. Opening the door, she saw him standing there expectantly. He was impeccably dressed in a sharp suit and tie, carefully groomed and coiffed, the image of a perfectly respectable businessman. The only thing that suggested otherwise was the large briefcase the man carried, which rattled slightly as he put it on a table.

He found his appearance rather useful, particularly when it came to escaping the police. After all, no one would ever question such an upstanding and decent member of society!

"I'm not late, am I?" Davis Lawfers asked Tanya as he sat down and begin to undress.

"No, you're right on time," Tanya assured him. "How'd it go?"

"Pretty good," Davis grinned. "Vincent Mangano never knew what hit him. What about you?"

"It's been…alright," Tanya hesitated.

"What do you mean?" Davis asked, noting the pause in her voice. "Jesus, Tanya…" he trailed off, noting the bruises on the lower parts of her body. "What the hell happened to you?"

"It's…nothing," Tanya shook her head.

"Bullshit, it's nothing!" Davis said in concern. "Who did this to you, Tan?"

"It doesn't matter," Tanya insisted.

"Yes, it does!" Davis said, taking Tanya's hand in his. "You can't let them do this to you!"

"They're paying customers!" Tanya argued.

"That doesn't give them the right to treat you like a fucking punching bag!" Davis snapped, his voice rising in anger and concern. "Now, who did this to you?" he demanded again.

"What are you going to do if I tell you?" Tanya shot back. "You're going to kill him, aren't you?" she asked Davis, glancing towards the briefcase on the table.

"…Not if you don't want me to," Davis sighed, although he wasn't the least bit happy about it. "I'm just worried about you, Tan. You deserve better than this."

"Oh really?" Tanya asked sarcastically. "What, you think you're going to pull a Pretty Woman on me? Like that's really going to work!"

"No Tanya," Davis shook his head. "I'm just saying that…" he trailed off.

"Maybe, if I talk him into it…" Davis muttered to himself.

"What are you doing?" Tanya asked him, frowning.

Davis hesitated for several minutes, realizing just how crazy he was for even thinking about it.

"Why don't you join us?" Davis finally mustered the nerve to spit it out.

"…Join you?" Tanya asked him incredulously. "I'm an escort, not a killer!"

"You mean the way you didn't kill those johns who got too violent with you?" Davis pointed out. "Besides, we've had an opening ever since 8-Ball killed Black Mamba," he explained, referring to a failed operation where some of Davis's fellow mercenaries had been unable to protect the Lobo Brothers' heroin shipments from the costumed supervillain 8-Ball, who'd been hired by the Kingpin to destroy the shipment.

"But…God…you guys are murderers," Tanya's mind reeled at the thought.

"So are most of your other customers," Davis explained. "Think about it-do you really want to spend the rest of your life dodging punches from middle-aged perverts old enough to be your father?"

Tanya and Davis both recalled how she'd looked after her last session with George Stacy before his murder.

"Not to mention that, once you lose your looks, it's pretty much game over," Davis continued. "We make better money over a longer period of time. You, of all people, should know the kinds of nest eggs supervillains build up!"

Tanya thought about that for a long time.

Joining the Serpent Society was about the last thing she'd ever considered, but then she already knew several of them. She'd serviced Cottonmouth, Rattler and King Cobra, and now Copperhead was offering to make her a member.

"I don't have any superpowers," she pointed out. "And I don't have much training, either."

"So?" Davis shrugged. "We can get you some powers, if you want. As for training, I can train you. Besides, you already know how to take care of yourself."

Tanya only blinked at that.

"There really are two of you in there, aren't there?" Dr. Karla Sofen asked the Brothers Grimm thoughtfully as her patient frowned. "Not just two personalities, but two actual people literally sharing one body. How is that even possible?"

"It's chimerism," Percy Grimes explained.

"Of course it is," Dr. Sofen nodded. "But this is all but unheard of. It's a miracle of modern science!"

"Even if these types of things are becoming more and more commonplace these days?" Percy pointed out, raising an eyebrow. "The fantastic turns into the mundane. It's a common theme throughout history."

"How true," Dr. Sofen nodded. "And I must say I'm surprised-you show an intellectual side that Barton decidedly lacks."

"He's an overgrown child," Percy spat in disgust. "All the power we have, and he wastes it on conjuring twisted childhood nightmares to scare people with. Disturbing, yes, but not truly terrifying!"

"And what would you do if you were the one in control?" Dr. Sofen asked. "You've seen how I can hypnotize Barton into submission. What if I were to hypnotize him into yielding control of your powers to you?"

"Then I could finally indulge some of my own ideas," Percy grinned. "Ever since we first encountered Spider-Woman, I've come more and more to realize that Barton had the right idea. In fact, I rather like his idea of becoming a criminal showman, but he went about it completely the wrong way. Why warp peoples' childhood fantasies, when we could give them a real touch of the macabre? Look what artists like Munch, Dali, Goya and Bosch have come up with! We could provide a touch of class, even as we go from mere shock to value to inspiring true terror in our victims!"

Dr. Sofen merely raised an eyebrow at this.

"I have to say, you sound quite a bit more assertive than you used to," she pointed out.

"Like I said before, I've come to like Barton's original ideas," Percy said. "I'm just increasingly frustrated with his stubbornness and refusal to listen to any of my suggestions for new material for the act. His creations give Spider-Woman a hard enough time as it is, but my material will give her nightmares!" he grinned.

"So you consider Spider-Woman the straight woman in your act the way Barton does?" Dr. Sofen asked.

"I might as well," Percy sighed. "Chances are that if I try and embark on a performance, she'll be the one to try and stop me. And I suppose it adds a certain dramatic flair to the proceedings."

"And if she tries to intervene?" Dr. Sofen asked.

"It should be pretty obvious, shouldn't it?" Percy replied, raising an eyebrow.

Christmas Eve was everything Gwen could have hoped for. Grandpa Lieber had come down for a visit, and he'd made the ham he'd brought with him into a delicious Christmas dinner for the Stacy family. After that, she'd gone out to meet Randy for an evening of dinner and dancing. The nightclub Randy had taken her to was hosting the performances of an up-and-coming singer who called herself Lady Gaga. In celebration of the holidays, Lady Gaga was performing uptempo remixes of classic Christmas songs.

Gwen could have done without that, having been forced to listen to Christmas music almost every day for the past three weeks during her job as an elf in the Macy's Santa Claus display. It was a minor inconvenience, though, especially considering the fun she was having with Randy and the looks she was getting from the other guys in the club. Her Christmas-themed attire didn't hurt either. Wearing a red sweater, a green jumper, white thigh-high stockings, black knee-high Santa boots and a sassy little Santa hat to top it all off, Gwen was the hottest thing in New York on a very cold night.

"I have to admit, it's pretty catchy," Gwen said to Randy as they sat down to catch their breath as the song finished. "Her stage act probably takes it too far, though."

"She never would have gotten as much attention if she didn't do that, though," Randy pointed out, as Lady Gaga bowed to the audience and left the stage to take a break. "She played at the Lollapalooza Festival this year. Derrick Deja told me she's even gotten a record deal."

"Seriously?" Gwen asked in surprise.

"Why are you so surprised?" Randy asked her.

"Don't mind me," Gwen smiled. "I'm just not all that big on Christmas music-I've been listening to it every day for the past three weeks!" she explained.

"How'd that work out, anyway?" Randy asked her.

"It was…tiring," Gwen grinned, "but it was a lot of fun, too. All those little kids were so cute!" she giggled. "How were things going with you?"

"Exhausting," Randy sighed. "The Christmas rush is always our busiest time of year. Plus, I'm going to be auditioning for this new production of Othello."

"Othello?" Gwen asked in surprise. "Is it paying work?"

"Yeah, but not too much," Randy said. "The schedule's pretty good, though."

"Where do I sign up?" Gwen grinned. "I love Shakespeare!"

"You do realize that if you get the part of Desdemona, we're both going to end up dead at the end, right?" Randy replied jokingly.

"The same thing happened to Romeo and Juliet," Gwen reminded him.

"How true," Randy sighed, before he finished off his drink.

"I'm glad you took me out tonight," Gwen smiled warmly at Randy.

"Why's that?" Randy asked.

"For one thing, I enjoy your company," Gwen pointed out, as she reached into the inner pocket of her thick winter jacket and retrieved a small wrapped package. "And for another, it gave me a chance to give you your present," she grinned as she handed the wrapped present to Randy. Unwrapping it eagerly, Randy's eyes lit up as he saw what it contained.

"Hey, this is great!" Randy smiled widely, holding up the copy of the Luke Cage biography. "How'd you know I wanted this?"

"I saw you dress as Luke Cage for Halloween, remember?" Gwen pointed out. "I figured you'd be a big superhero fan."

"Well, I'm not really a superhero fan," Randy shook his head.

"What do you mean?" Gwen blinked in surprise. "You like Luke Cage, and-"

"Luke doesn't exactly count," Randy explained. "He doesn't wear a mask or hide behind some fancy codename. Everybody knows who he is, and what he's capable of. But the rest of those costumed guys really bother me."

"…What?" Gwen asked, summoning all of her acting skills to keep her shock from showing. "Why do they bother you?"

"What do we really know about them?" Randy frowned. "Who keeps them accountable when they screw up? How do we know that they won't become criminals themselves? And besides, they end up being responsible for half the crap the supervillains put this city through-remember when that Psyko monster caused that supervillain jailbreak to get back at Sleepwalker? Or how about the time that the Sinister Six kidnapped all those people to force Spider-Man to fight them? I mean, you even saw it yourself with Spider-Woman and Supercharger," he concluded, a sharp edge in his voice.

Gwen visibly flinched at that.

"Oh my God, I'm sorry," Randy gasped. "I shouldn't have said anything. It's still bothering you, isn't it?"

"…Yeah," Gwen mumbled as she tried to calm down. Her mind was indeed reeling at everything Randy had been saying, although not only for the reasons that he thought.

"I'm sorry, Gwen," Randy apologized. "Maybe this little guy can help you feel better," he smiled sadly, reaching into the bag he'd brought with him to the club and handing Gwen a wrapped present of her own.

Opening it up, Gwen found that Randy's present was a light brown teddy bear with a bow wrapped around his neck. He was so adorable that Gwen felt her sudden stress go away almost as suddenly as it appeared.

"He's so cute!" Gwen gushed. "Thank you so much!" Gwen smiled, reaching out to kiss Randy.

Once again, Gwen realized just how lucky she was to have Randy, and how he treated her like a queen. She also realized that she probably couldn't tell him about her being Spider-Woman, given Randy's feelings on the subject.

So what, then? Gwen wondered. Does that mean I just lie to him? What kind of a girlfriend does that make me?

And besides, she continued, how do I know he isn't right about what happened with Supercharger?

Feeling happy, sad and uncertain all at once might have been an unusual thing for most people, but Gwen was becoming more and more used to it.

(Next Issue: As Gwen struggles over how to reconcile her relationship as Randy with her crimefighting responsibilities as Spider-Woman, she finds that her problems are just beginning when Vincent Gonzalez begins a public hate campaign against her. To make matters even worse, Dr. Karla Sofen breaks the Brothers Grimm out of Ravencroft Asylum as part of her larger plans to revive the Tomorrow Legion! All this and more in Spider-Woman #42:Sibling Rivalry!)