Breakdown

Jack O' Lantern had to admit, the Trapster did excellent work. The Trapster was known for his ability to construct lairs and hideouts on very short notice, often riddling them with highly effective booby traps that earned him his official nickname. After he'd escaped from the Raft, that wing of Riker's Island Prison that was used to contain supervillains, Jack had contracted the Trapster to design a hideout for him in this abandoned subway station beneath New York City. It might have been a risk to let the Trapster know where he was, and invite him to construct this lair, but the Trapster was like fellow criminal technologists the Fixer and the Tinkerer in that none of them ever revealed confidential information about their clients, even to other clients.

The Trapster's work had been worth every penny that Jack O' Lantern had paid him, money looted from the many innocent and not-so-innocent people Jack had murdered over the course of his brief but extremely intense supervillain career. He was a terrifying sight, wearing a costume whose gauntlets and boots resembled skeletal limbs, whose chest guard was crafted to look like it was covered in tiny human skulls and whose head was a hideously carved pumpkin head glowing with holographic fire. Jack O' Lantern had only been on the scene for about a year, but he'd already become known as one of New York's most terrifying costumed criminals, even for a city already infested with costumed psychopaths, sadists and monsters.

On one of his earliest outings, Jack O' Lantern had been opposed by the spectacular Spider-Woman, a costumed superheroine who'd begun her career only a few months before Jack had started his. That initial battle had sparked a frenzied hatred in Jack O' Lantern, a hatred of the person who'd dared to interfere with his depraved, perverted 'fun', a hatred of the person who Jack believed personified everything he hated about humanity. Jack O' Lantern and Spider-Woman became caught in an increasingly intense blood feud, clashing several more times over the next year until Spider-Woman had finally defeated the pumpkin-headed madman.

That was far from the end of it, though. Jack O' Lantern had discovered Spider-Woman's true identity as Gwen Stacy, and once he'd escaped from prison he'd begun a carefully orchestrated plan to destroy her. Like no other of Spider-Woman's enemies, Jack O' Lantern could get inside her head. By playing on her anger and guilt, threatening her loved ones and reminding her that he knew who she really was and could strike at any time, Jack O' Lantern had made Spider-Woman increasingly uncertain and angry until she was finally in the right state of mind for the final phase of his plan.

Jack O' Lantern had kidnapped Kitty Pryde, his mutant niece and one of Gwen's closest friends, to use as bait to lure Spider-Woman here. In her heightened emotional state, Spider-Woman had let her guard down, and she'd fallen into the trap Jack had set for her. Now, he was exposing her to the fumes of Radix pedis diaboli, or "devil's foot root", a highly potent poison that caused horrible hallucinations, mental breakdowns and even death in anyone unlucky enough to breathe in the fumes it gave off when it was burned.

Now, everything was in place.

It was time.

SPIDER-WOMAN #54

"BREAKDOWN"

Spider-Woman seemed to have passed, out, but she slowly rose, fear and panic filling her mind as she struggled to get to her feet. Holding her head in her hands, she shuddered as she felt a horrible presence in the room, a certain indescribable something that she knew was coming, and that she knew she could not fight back against. The fumes of the devil's foot root seemed to take on strange yet maddeningly familiar shapes, even as Jack O' Lantern's mad laughter continued to echo in her ears.

Then the nightmare began. Spider-Woman was surrounded by babbling, laughing skeletons that danced in a circle around her, even as laughing jack o' lanterns formed themselves out of the ground and flew into the air before exploding in a chorus of further laughter. Crying ghosts flew in the air around her, as grotesquely malformed bat creatures flew through the air in strange, unnatural patterns, horribly croaking toads dangling from their claws.

Above it all, Jack O' Lantern loomed out of the darkness, the perverted master of ceremonies. At first, she saw him in his true identity of Steven Mark Levins, who she'd originally met as the maternal uncle of her friends Kitty Pryde and Ben Reilly, before he shifted into his costumed form of Jack O' Lantern. He stared intently into her eyes, laughing madly before his head exploded in a gout of dark-red flame. Bizarrely, his head began to regrow, only this time it was the head of her father, the violent, abusive George Stacy.

Memories came flooding back to her.

The first, when she was a little child.

"George, please, don't worry! The loss of the Utrecht account isn't the end of the world-we'll figure something out, I know we will!" Helen Stacy tried to comfort her distraught husband, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Shut up!" George roared, rising from his desk and striking her across the face. "Do you even realize how long I spent working on this?" he continued, slapping her again. "You don't even know how many favors I called in to get the inside track with Utrecht! And then Simon turns around and stabs me in the back! The same way it's always fucking been!"

Sitting down, he took a long, hard pull at the bottle of beer he had taken to comfort his sorrows.

"George-" Helen began. "We'll find a way, we always do-"

"Don't insult me!" George shouted, striking again. "You're not the one who has to put up with those sons of bitches, laughing behind your back! They always screw me over like this! And what about you?" he demanded, shoving Helen back against the wall. "Ever since she came along," George snarled, spitting out the word as if it were an epithet, even as he pointed at the six-year old Gwen, "it's all I can do to keep us from losing the goddamn house!"

"George," Helen began.

Her husband's next blow knocked her to the floor.

Of course, as Gwen recalled, George never looked at her, even when he pointed at her.

Another memory, this one when she was a little older.

"Dad?" the ten-year old Gwen asked her father as she walked into his office.

"What the hell do you want?" George asked sourly, looking down disapprovingly at his only child.

"Is it true what you said on the phone?" she asked him.

"You're listening in on my phone conversations?" George scowled, his cheeks flushing in anger.

"Is it true that you wish you really wanted a son?" she asked him, shrinking back from his anger.

"Of course it is," George replied without missing a beat. "I was supposed to have a boy, a son who could carry on my name! You ruined everything when you came along, Gwen! You were an accident! AN ACCIDENT!" he roared, rising up from his desk. Gwen cowered and tried to back away, but George backhanded her across the face and knocked her flat on her back.

"Get out!" he shouted as she ran away. "Get out of my sight! You're a disgrace! A disgrace!"

Another memory, from when she was about seventeen and George was about to kick her and her mother out of the house.

"You want to know why I cheated on your mother?" George asked Gwen. "Why I've done it before, and why I'll do it again?"

Gwen merely stared back at him, an angry scowl on her face.

"All my life, for as long as I can remember, I wanted a son. I wanted someone who could carry on my name, who I could be proud of. Instead, I had you," he explained coldly. "I've been trying to have another son ever since. And so far, I've failed. At this rate, I'll never succeed."

"You…" Gwen did her level best to stay calm, but inwardly she was seething with rage.

"It makes me sick to think that you're the only thing I'm going to leave this world," George replied. "And to think, I could have had the child I always wanted, instead of the one I actually got."

All that pain and that rage, everything Gwen remembered from her childhood, came flooding back from seeing George's hateful, scowling face again.

Trapped in an iron cage hanging from the ceiling, unable to use her mutant powers to phase free because of the phase-proof ghost grabber Jack O' Lantern had wrapped her in, Kitty Pryde could only watch in horror on the TV monitor that displayed what was happening to Spider-Woman in the chamber that was now filled with the devil's foot root fumes. Jack O' Lantern was in fact her maternal uncle, Steven Mark Levins, although no one in the family had been aware of Levins's true colors until he'd been exposed as Jack O' Lantern after his defeat by Spider-Woman.

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like, Kitty?" Jack O' Lantern replied without looking at Kitty, ignoring her pleas as he kept his gaze fixed on the monitor. "To not only destroy someone's life, but to destroy their mind, their sense of self, their very identity? Tearing it apart, breaking it down, piece by piece? Because that's what I'm doing to Spider-Woman. She's built herself up with so many lies and so much bullshit, the things I hate most about her and about all the world, and she's used that as the basis for who she is. This is where I burn it all away, and show her the truth about herself."

"The devil's foot root is just a catalyst, my dear, the thing that opens the floodgates," Jack O' Lantern explained, in a cold, clinical calm that Kitty found even more bone-chilling than his frenzied rants and cackling. "I've been undermining her for weeks now, showing her that wherever she goes, I'm always there with her, watching and waiting, and that I can strike at any time. Everything she's told herself falls apart under that, Kitty, and she tries to deny it by striking back at me."

"But I know it's not true," Jack O' Lantern continued, his gaze never leaving the monitor. "All of Spider-Woman's pathetic little delusions are nothing compared to my showing her the truth about herself, that everything she's fought for, everything she's built her entire sense of worth and being around, is a lie. She'll realize that she's nothing, that she's worse than nothing!"

George, dressed as Jack O' Lantern, faded after that, replaced by an image of a spider. Spider-Woman knew what it symbolized, and how it represented her initial desire to spite her father and his hatred of mutants and superheroes. When her powers first manifested, she'd thought she had been a mutant, before the X-Men had informed her otherwise. As Spider-Woman, Gwen had begun fighting crime, but a long series of disasters, failures and tragedies had ensued.

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.

That was from when she'd fought Polestar for the first time, and had very nearly killed many innocent bystanders with her recklessness.

The Constrictor turned on the lights to get a better look at his victims, and he raised his eyebrows as he got a good look at Spider-Woman for the first time.

"So young," he mused, as he jolted Spider-Woman again. "Are you even out of high school, child?"

"What…why…why are you asking?" Spider-Woman slurred at him, still woozy from being slammed into the wall and from the shocks he had given her.

"Because I am curious to know just how long you have been operating as a costumed heroine, my dear," the Constrictor informed her. "I do not pretend to know what motivates you to engage in such a perilous activity, nor would I care to. But from your actions here tonight, it is clear that you are rather more inexperienced than the likes of Spider-Man, Daredevil or Captain America, all of whom I have battled over the course of my career."

"To that end, I would warn you of the perils of your chosen path as a costumed adventurer. I wonder whether, in your youth and inexperience, you had considered these possibilities when you first donned your costume, and just how dangerous our chosen profession can be."

The coils pinning Phil Urich suddenly came to life, wrapping around his head and neck as Spider-Woman frantically struggled to free herself, only to be shocked once again. She could only watch in horror as the coils rapidly turned Phil's head almost completely around, breaking his neck with a sickening crunch.

"My motivation for dressing the way I do is money," the Constrictor continued flatly as he recalled his coils, freeing Spider-Woman and Phil's lifeless body, which both slumped to the floor. "It's why I use these electrical coils, and why I use the devices that disabled Ben Urich's burglar alarms and unlocked his front door. My advice to you, young one," he told her as she crawled over to Phil's body and helplessly tried to revive him, tears in her eyes, "would be to consider precisely why you wear your costume, and what you hope to accomplish by wearing it. As I have shown you, this life is far more dangerous and far less glamorous than you have presumably imagined," he finished, making his way out the door as Spider-Woman sat down next to Phil Urich's corpse, her head in her hands.

She vaguely remembered phoning the police and making up some brief statement about how she had seen the Constrictor enter the house on her nightly patrols, and suspected he was up to no good, before she had swung off into the night, taking a long, circuitous route around the city before returning to her apartment several hours later.

She stumbled into the bathroom still in her costume, tearing off her mask before pausing to look at her various bruises, contusions and electrical burns. She then stared blankly into the mirror for several minutes, before she vomited into the sink, ambled into her bedroom and collapsed on the bed without changing out of her uniform.

That was from when she'd completely and totally failed in her responsibility to protect Phil Urich.

Dropping the unconscious Supercharger in front of the police, Spider-Woman walked past them to see the carnage Supercharger had wrought to lure her out. Burned bodies, destroyed displays, parents mourning their children, children mourning their parents, Christmas presents destroyed, all around her the holidays had become a nightmare. Her mind reeled at the horror, tears forming underneath her mask as she realized what Supercharger had done.

All around her, the mourning victims looked up at her, some of them with gratitude, and others with anger.

"This is your fault!" one man shouted, cradling the body of his badly injured wife.

"That maniac killed my son because of you!" a woman shouted, her eyes red from crying.

"I…" Spider-Woman trailed off, almost too horrified to move.

"She saved us from that maniac!" another woman interrupted the first. "He would have killed us all if Spider-Woman hadn't stopped him!"

"Bullshit!" the first woman snapped. "He didn't kill your son!"

"No, he killed my daughter!" the second woman scowled.

"And you're just letting her go?" the first woman asked incredulously.

"It wasn't her fault!" the second woman insisted.

Arguments were flaring up all around her, and Spider-Woman knew that her presence wasn't helping things. Springing into the air, she swung off to where she had hidden her elf uniform, doing her best to hold back the tears.

Returning to the half-destroyed Santa display in her elf uniform, Gwen didn't even notice that her many bruises, cuts and electrical burns made her blend in with the other badly injured survivors of Supercharger's attack. All she could think about was the fact that Supercharger had come here to try and kill her, and in so doing murdered at least a dozen people.

Worst of all were the crying children gathered in a small huddle near the display. One little boy was crying for his mommy and daddy, while another looked sadly at his father being taken away by the paramedics. Some of the other mall employees, as well as some of the customers and police officers, were already starting to distribute candy canes and hot chocolate to the kids. As the children ate, the adults sat down next to them, keeping them company until their family members-or in the worst cases, Child Services-could come and take them home.

Gwen did the same thing, passing out some cookies and cocoa to a group of worried-looking siblings who were holding one another.

It was all she could do.

Supercharger, the psychotic stalker whose sick "love" with Spider-Woman had turned to murderous hate after she'd condemned him, had gone on a rampage that killed many innocent people to force her to fight him. All of those bystanders had lost their loved ones during the Christmas holidays, which were supposed to be one of the happiest times of the year.

'IT'S ALL SPIDER-WOMAN'S FAULT', SUPERVILLAIN VICTIM SAYS

Shocked by what she read, Gwen clicked on the link and read about Vincent Gonzalez, how Supercharger had murdered his sister Michelle, and how his family had fallen apart after that. Aghast, she read about how Vincent considered it her fault that Supercharger had murdered first all the people who'd criticized her online, and then all the people at Macy's Department Store to force her to fight him. According to Vincent, Supercharger would never have done those things if not for Spider-Woman.

"He got powers so he could express his sick love for her," Gonzalez was quoted as saying. "Supercharger wouldn't have done that if Spider-Woman hadn't led him on the way she did."

The article concluded by describing the website Vincent had launched, dedicated to expressing how much he hated Spider-Woman, and provided a link to the site itself.

Clicking on the link, Gwen was taken to a website that reiterated many of Vincent's points about the chaos perpetrated by the likes of Jack O' Lantern and Supercharger being Spider-Woman's fault, the lack of control she'd displayed in her early fights, and how much Vincent wanted to make her life hell the same way she'd supposedly done to his.

If you've lost a loved one because of Spider-Woman, Vincent had written, then post here and tell me just how much you hate her. Tell me what you'd like to do to her, how you'd like to pay her back for what she's done to you. Let her know just how you feel, and show that stupid bitch the truth about her pathetic, miserable life.

Reading through the comments, Gwen felt an equal amount of horror and rage rising up within her. Many of the comments went even further than Vincent's, calling Spider-Woman a bitch, a whore, and even more vulgar names related to her gender. Some of them described, in sickeningly graphic detail, what they would have liked to do to her if they could.

That came from the hate campaign Vincent Gonzalez had directed against her.

"It won't be long now before she has her breakdown," Jack O' Lantern seemed to grin behind his pumpkin mask as he watched Spider-Woman on the monitor. "She's reflecting on all the times she's failed, all the times she's let people down, all the times she just made things worse."

"Oh yes, it's time!" Jack O' Lantern exulted, revelling in the sick feeling he got from realizing that his most hated of enemies was completely at his mercy, and that all of his work, all of his plans, were finally coming to fruition.

He started to laugh again, a slow, menacing giggle that eventually began to grow into a higher-pitched cackling and finally the loud, insane howling that Kitty heard in her nightmares.

That laughter was carried through the speakers, which Jack O' Lantern had turned on, into the chamber where Spider-Woman was trapped. If Kitty heard Jack O' Lantern's laughter in her nightmares, Spider-Woman heard it all the more often in her nightmares. The spider had faded from her vision now along with her other memories, replaced only by a leering, laughing pumpkin head, laughing insanely as still more memories flooded through her mind.

Memories of Jack O' Lantern setting off a firebomb in the bank he was robbing.

Memories of Jack O' Lantern slashing the throat of the man who'd tried to help Spider-Woman during their battle at the Plaza Hotel.

Memories of Jack O' Lantern murdering her father George in cold blood after she'd failed to stop him.

Memories of Gwen's Aunt Nancy and all the other people being held hostage by Jack O' Lantern.

Memories of Jack O' Lantern revealing to Spider-Woman that he knew her true identity.

Memories of Jack O' Lantern calling her to let her know that he was watching her, that he knew where she was, that he could strike anywhere and at any time.

Memories of Jack O' Lantern entering her house and leaving the jack-in-the-box that brutally drove that message home.

Memories of Jack O' Lantern and the dozens of people he'd murdered, many of whom he'd killed because they were supporters of Spider-Woman, and that she'd failed to protect.

Spider-Woman heard the pumpkin head speaking. Even though its words were blurry and indistinct, its message was all too clear as it pointed out the misery she'd caused, how everything she'd struggled for was a failure, and everything she believed was built on a lie.

Soon, it all came crashing down.

Spider-Woman had nearly gotten to her feet, but she fell back against the wall and slumped down to a sitting position. She tried to get up again, but this time she fell to her hands and knees and remained in that position.

She simply had nothing left.

Realizing that his work was done, Jack O' Lantern turned to a control panel on the wall and entered a command to remove the gas. Once that was done, he entered into the chamber, eyeing Spider-Woman carefully. She did not move from her position as he entered, and barely reacted as he grabbed her arm and forced her to her feet. Making sure that his body was blocking the monitor, he reached out with his free hand and lowered Spider-Woman's mask to get a good look at her.

Anyone else looking at Spider-Woman would have been stunned to see the dead look on her face. Her expression was blank and calm, and her eyes reflected none of the inner spark or passion that had defined them for so long.

Jack O' Lantern gave a satisfied smile and replaced Spider-Woman's mask. Her spirit was broken beyond redemption, he knew, and she would be receptive to his words.

"The truth hurts, doesn't it?" Jack O' Lantern rasped to Spider-Woman, who continued to stare blankly ahead. "That's the difference between you and me-I realize what a sick, fucked up world this is, and I don't try to pretend that it's anything other than that. Every time you tried to pretend that anything you did mattered, every time you tried to protect those snivelling little hypocrites out there, you were lying to yourself. You had the power and the ability to crush anyone who stood against you, and the motive to do it…and you wasted it all. How ironic that it took me, of all people, to show you just how stupid you really were."

"But this is where it all ends," the pumpkin-headed psychopath continued. "Now that I've shown you just what this world is like, you'll regain your old fire, all the anger and hate that defines what you really are. Nothing, and no one, can stop us!" he exulted, as Kitty only sobbed faintly in the next room.

Spider-Woman just stood there blankly, listening to Jack O' Lantern's words.

Jack O' Lantern's words, everything he'd shown her, had all but overwhelmed her mind.

It all just made so much sense…

…but that was when she heard the call.

It was a faint voice, seeming to linger on the verge of her mind, pleading for help.

Behind Spider-Woman's mask, her eyes flickered as she tried to ignore the voice.

Jack O' Lantern clearly hadn't heard the voice, and neither had Kitty, apparently. They were both still acting the same way as before.

Jack O' Lantern's revelations still weighed heavily on her mind, but now she felt something pushing back, something that stubbornly refused to give in against the numbness Jack O' Lantern's words had driven her into.

The mental tug-of-war continued for several moments, until a crack appeared in the numbness.

A memory slipped through, unbidden.

"It's funny," Gwen smiled sadly. "I used to hate him, I used to want to see him get what he deserved for everything he did, but now I just feel so...I mean, you pretty much summed it up," she finished.

"Hey, that's normal," Grandpa Lieber assured her. "Lots of people have mixed emotions about just about everything."

"Yeah, but it's more than that…" Gwen trailed off.

"How do you mean?" Grandpa Lieber asked.

"…Where does it all end?" Gwen asked, a faraway look in her eyes. "People are still getting killed by these sick gang wars. Criminals and supervillains might get defeated and hauled off to prison, but most of them just end up getting out again. This gang war might have stopped, but as soon as one of those crime lords thinks he can get a leg up, he's just going to start it all over again. More people die, more lives are ruined, and the criminals just go back to jail until the next time they get out."

Grandpa Lieber hesitated on that one.

"You still have people dying because they can't afford to get proper food or health care," Gwen continued. "Oil spills still pollute the oceans, mutants and gays still run the risk of getting killed just for being who they are, and people still abuse their loved ones. I know I shouldn't…I really do…but sometimes I can't help but wonder what the point of it all is, with the way the world is."

"In that case," Grandpa Lieber wondered, "what's the point of even doing anything at all? Why bother, if it won't really change anything in the long run?"

"Well, I never said-" Gwen tried to reply.

"See, that's the thing," her grandfather smiled. "No one can solve all the world's problems. There are more issues than anyone can resolve in a lifetime. But that doesn't prevent us from trying to make the world at least a little better, right?"

Gwen looked at him curiously.

"Everything everyone can do as an individual can either make things better, or make them worse," Grandpa Lieber reminded her. "Anyone who stands up for mutant rights, or who tries to donate money or time to charity, or who tries to protect someone else from a criminal or a bully, helps out in their own ways. Each of those actions might not mean a whole lot by themselves, but when they all add up they make the world a lot better off than it could otherwise be."

"And people often don't fully realize the good they do, do they?" Gwen smiled.

"Who says wisdom only has to come with age?" Grandpa Lieber chuckled. "No, that's something I've always believed in. Racists, murderers, supervillains and the like are always going to exist, but that doesn't mean the rest of us can't do some good in the meantime."

Gwen's smile grew wider.

"Thanks, Grandpa," she said gratefully.

"Anytime, honey," Grandpa Lieber reassured her.

That made Spider-Woman pause. She'd initially forgotten what her grandfather had told her, and at the time she'd thought he made a lot of sense. But that was before she'd failed to stop the likes of Jack O' Lantern, Supercharger and Vincent Gonzalez from going on their murderous rampages, rampages meant to strike at her.

Their victims had needed her, and she'd failed them…hadn't she?

"Hey, sweetie!" Helen Stacy greeted her daughter as Gwen came home later that afternoon. "How was your day?"

"Pretty good, Mom," Gwen smiled, although the smile was too strained for Helen's liking.

"…What's wrong, honey?" Helen asked, immediately concerned.

Gwen opened her mouth to speak briefly, and then seemed to think better of it. To Helen, it seemed like she was trying to decide whether to say anything or not, until it was clear Gwen came to a decision.

"It has to do with my being Spider-Woman," Gwen said, as she took off her jacket and boots and sat down with Helen on the couch. She then told Helen about her failure to stop Will O' the Wisp from murdering his ex-wife and her new husband, the vitriolic criticism Vincent Gonzalez had thrown at her after the Wisp's murders, and the harassing phone call she'd gotten from Jack O' Lantern, warning her that he always knew where she was and that he could strike at any of her loved ones.

"…I almost don't know what to think anymore," Gwen shook her head. "I mean, I remember everything you've told me, and Grandpa Lieber told me, about all the good I've done and the people I've helped, but then I remember all the times I failed and how it'll be my fault if Jack does anything to harm you or anyone else I care about. And then I remember my responsibilities to myself and how I pushed myself too hard, but then I get ashamed of myself for feeling selfish and-" she began babbling, before Helen put a finger on her lips to stop her.

"You're still blaming yourself for all this, aren't you?" Helen told her.

"…What do you mean?" Gwen asked, her guilt turning to confusion.

"When your father…did what he did to me," Helen explained, choosing her words carefully, "I felt like it was my fault, all of it. I kept trying to tell myself that what he was doing was wrong, but then I started feeling guilty, like I was letting him down. I felt ashamed of myself, like I wasn't being a good enough wife to him. Whenever I got angry at what he was doing to me, I felt like I was being selfish."

Gwen sat silently for a moment as she took in what Helen was saying.

"But that was different," she protested. "Jack O' Lantern and the others-"

"It's not different at all," Helen insisted. "People like Will O' the Wisp and Jack O' Lantern made their own choices long before you ever got involved, Gwen. The only thing you're doing is trying to stop them, which is exactly what you're supposed to be doing!"

"But I failed to stop them," Gwen pointed out. "Jack O' Lantern killed Dad, and-"

"-and you succeeded in saving me, Jill, your Aunt Nancy and a bunch of other people," Helen reminded her. "What about all those sixty people that Jack O' Lantern would have murdered? Wasn't Nancy one of them?"

"But-" Gwen began.

"-what about Vincent Gonzalez?" Helen scoffed. "Who cares? At least you're out there trying to help people! When was the last time this Gonzalez character ever did anything like that? Besides, how was it your fault that Supercharger was insane?" she said in disgust, her voice rising.

Gwen only blinked at the intensity in her mother's voice.

"Are…" she trailed off, not sure of what to say.

"I'm just fed up with you being put through all this crap by people like Gonzalez and those supervillain freaks," Helen explained, an intense light in her eyes, "and I can't stand seeing you put yourself through the same crap that I did to myself when I was with your father. Please don't make the same mistake I did, Gwen-you deserve better than that."

Gwen just sat there for several moments as she let her mother's words sink in. She'd been trying to tell herself the same things over and over again, but for some reason she'd never managed to fully convince herself.

"Thanks, Mom," she smiled up at her mother, as her eyes sparkled with renewed vigor.

"Anytime, honey," Helen reassured her, brushing back a lock of Gwen's hair that was dangling in front of her face.

…The numbness in Spider-Woman's mind was fading, as everything came flooding back to her.

It was only much later, after Jill and her mother had gone to bed and the rain had stopped altogether, that Gwen found herself sitting on the balcony of her Aunt Nancy's townhouse, looking out over a city which had, temporarily at least, regained some of its sanity after the horrors Jack O'Lantern had subjected it to.

Despite her fatigue, Gwen had found that she just couldn't sleep. Her mind kept returning to Steven Mark Levins, wondering why she and he had both put on their costumes and done what they did. Levins embraced his inner monster, using his Jack O'Lantern identity to act out his darkest, most depraved fantasies…so why did she continue to act as Spider-Woman?

Why was she still putting on her costume, constantly risking her life despite the problems it caused her personal life?

Levins claimed that I represent everything he hates,Gwen realized, still not entirely sure what he meant. I could have stopped being Spider-Woman, she thought, but every time I see a crisis, I just can't help myself…

It used to be that she'd begun putting on a costume purely to spite her father, knowing his hatred of both mutants and superheroes. She'd reacted out of anger, viciously beating the supervillains she fought and very nearly hurting many innocent people with her recklessness.

Now, though…

She'd saved literally dozens of lives tonight, not to mention all the other people she'd been able to help as a superheroine. Whether it had been the people kidnapped by Moonstone, the Brothers Grimm or Tarot, the other people Firebrand or Supercharger had tried to murder, or her family when they'd been threatened by the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants or the Constrictor, what would have happened to them if she hadn't been there to protect them?

The results had already been all too clear tonight. While the city's other superheroes and the police had thwarted many of the villains, the Tomorrow Legion had taken almost two dozen lives, victims who died because no one was there to defend them. And then there were all the people whose livelihoods had been damaged, quite possibly even ruined, by the trauma they'd suffered or the money they'd lost when a bank was robbed or a shop was destroyed.

Gwen recalled how angry and helpless she used to feel when she saw her father abusing her mother, how she wished she could have done something.

Now that she had her powers, she could.

And did.

Spider-Woman had recalled how she'd realized that Levins would win a small victory if he made her constantly look over her shoulder, and dwell on everything he'd done and could do to her…

The numbness shattered, as the fire returned to Spider-Woman's eyes. Anger filled her once more, but this time it was solely directed at Jack O' Lantern and everything he'd done. Images raced through her mind as she recalled all of Jack O' Lantern's grisly crimes, all of the innocent people he'd made to suffer, all of the lives he'd destroyed.

Jack O' Lantern hadn't even noticed Spider-Woman stirring, completely caught up in his own raving, but the sting blast Spider-Woman fired at him certainly got his attention. Only his finely honed reflexes saved him from getting blasted, but even they couldn't stop Jack from staring in stunned silence at Spider-Woman, for several moments.

"You said I always lied to myself," Spider-Woman said calmly, as her hands clenched into fists and began glowing with the greenish energy of her sting blasts. "You said I wasted my power, protecting people who couldn't defend themselves. You said that this world was sick and depraved. You said how ironic it was that it took you to make me realize just how stupid I'd been."

"You…you…" Jack O' Lantern started, hardly able to believe that all of his plans and his efforts hadn't broken his arachnid foe.

"You were right about one thing, at least," Spider-Woman continued, a grin spreading slowly across her face. "It really is ironic that you, of all people, reminded me how stupid I was to ever listen to you in the first place. You almost made me forget everything that my loved ones taught me and all the people I've been able to help, the people who remind me that I'm not alone. I know I'm not perfect, Jack-God knows I've failed more than once-but I nearly forgot about everything I've succeeded at, too."

"Damn you…" Jack O' Lantern hissed, his own wrists glowing with the energy of his wrist blasters.

"It hurts, doesn't it?" Spider-Woman smirked. "All of your planning, everything you hoped for…and then it's all gone, just like that! Thank God for that-I mean, that pumpkin is so last season, and the way it just clashes with the chest armor…ugh," she scoffed in mock disgust.

"You…YOU!" Jack O' Lantern screamed, completely mad with rage. "I'LL KILL YOU!" he continued, leaping on his hover disc in one quick motion and charging at Spider-Woman.

"Alright, you bastard," Spider-Woman shot back as she charged at Jack O' Lantern in turn, "let's party!"

(Next Issue: Spider-Woman has overcome her inner demons, but her troubles are just beginning as she finds herself in a life or death struggle with Jack O' Lantern, her most hated of enemies. With her own and Kitty Pryde's lives hanging in the balance, can Spider-Woman survive against Jack O' Lantern's insanity? All this and more in Spider-Woman 35: Darkness And Light!)