Lights Out

Ever since he'd gotten back from serving his country in the Korean War, Mr. Perkins had lived in New York. He knew the dangers of living in the city, particularly in the last ten years since people with superpowers had become commonplace all over the world but especially in New York. Despite it all, he still enjoyed his walks through Central Park during the day. He and his dearly departed wife had always bickered over the danger, but Mr. Perkins had been adamant about taking his walks. As he put it, he had refused to knuckle under to the Communists, so why should he knuckle under to the thugs who tried to prevent him from enjoying his freedoms?

For over fifty years, Mr. Perkins had somehow managed to avoid being mugged or caught up in some other criminal activity during his walks. Unfortunately, there was a first time for everything, and Mr. Perkins now found himself surrounded by a gang of four young hoods. Three of them wielded switchblades and the fourth carried a baseball bat, and they all had distinctly threatening looks on their faces.

"Cough it up, old timer," one of the thugs, the one wielding the bat, demanded as he held out his hand, swinging his bat menacingly with the other. The four thugs moved to surround Mr. Perkins, cutting off any escape he might have had.

"Cough what up?" Mr. Perkins replied calmly, not missing a beat. "I'll admit I've coughed some scary stuff up over the years. Is that what you had in mind?"

"You senile, or just deaf?" another one of the thugs demanded. "Cough up your wallet, pops!"

"…Pops?" Mr. Perkins frowned. "Young people these days…" he sighed, shaking his head sadly. "Didn't your mothers ever teach you any manners? I suppose not…"

"That's it, grandpa," the bat-wielding thug sneered, both hands on his bat now. "Either we get your Social Security bling, or you get this right between-"

"Wow, talk about desperate!" Mr. Perkins and the thugs heard a lilting feminine voice interrupt the thug. Looking around to see where the voice was coming from, they saw that it belonged to a young woman sitting on top of a lamppost. Both Mr. Perkins and his would-be muggers were caught off guard by her gorgeous figure, beautiful face and long black hair, but what truly caught them by surprise was the bright red and gold costume she was wearing. It took them a moment to recognize her as the spectacular Spider-Woman, and the thugs immediately flinched as they did so. They recalled what she was capable of, and all of the dangerous supervillains she'd fought and defeated, and weren't sure whether to attack or flee.

"As I was saying," Spider-Woman continued, a disgusted look on her face, "I'm frankly amazed at how desperate you losers are. Imagine, mugging an old man just so you can get some money in a pathetic attempt to score!"

"The hell you talking about, bitch?" the bat-wielding thug demanded. "We wanna score his money!"

"And I'm sure I know why," Spider-Woman frowned. "It's all part of your guys' pathetic, desperate attempt to pay a woman to do it with you. I mean, look at you guys-none of you are man enough to be able to get a woman on your own, so you're reduced to mugging someone for money to pay for a woman. Or are you trying to go for the 'dangerous bad boy' image? News flash, boys-women only go for that if the man is actually confident in his manhood. They don't go for whiny little boys that try to compensate for what they don't have downstairs."

"Come down here and say that, you bi-" the thug standing behind Mr. Perkins said, as Spider-Woman did just that. As she leapt down to the path, she fired a blast of energy from her right hand. The energy blast caught the thug square in the chest, knocking him out cold flat on his back. With her left hand, Spider-Woman released a thick strand of webbing that quickly entangled the other three thugs. In a few moments, she had dragged the fourth thug to join them and had them all entangled in a net of webbing.

SPIDER-WOMAN #57

"LIGHTS OUT"

"Are you alright, sir?" Spider-Woman asked as she turned to Mr. Perkins. The mocking, insulting tone she'd used to address the thugs was gone now, replaced with a polite, respectful one.

"Yes I am, young lady," Mr. Perkins nodded gratefully. "While I can't say I approve of the way you phrased things to those young hooligans, I appreciate your help."

"Yes, well…" Spider-Woman rubbed the back of her head in some embarrassment. "I said it that way mostly to keep them off balance and keep their attention focused on me."

"Quite so," Mr. Perkins smiled. "In any event, I was clearly wrong when I lamented today's young people. But we do have something of a problem-I'm afraid I don't have one of those new-fangled portable phones on me. I presume that you do?"

"No room on the costume," Spider-Woman shook her head, "but these sorry excuses for men ought to…there we are," she nodded, as she retrieved a phone from the pocket of one of the thugs' jackets.

It didn't take the police long to respond to Spider-Woman's call, or to dispatch some officers to respond. In the meantime, Spider-Woman was left to wait with Mr. Perkins until the officers arrived. Sighing in pain, Mr. Perkins had moved to sit down on a nearby bench, and Spider-Woman moved to join him.

"I never could get the hang of that fancy new technology," Mr. Perkins shook his head. "I don't know how your generation manages to understand it all."

"Sometimes I wonder that myself," Spider-Woman smiled. "…Are you alright?" she asked after a moment, seeing the way Mr. Perkins was breathing.

"It's just my rheumatism," he assured her. "Take some advice from someone who's been around the block a few times, child-make the most of your youth. When you get to be my age, you'll miss being able to run and jump the way you used to."

"I fully intend to," Spider-Woman assured him. "Are you sure you'll be alright getting home and everything?"

"Of course," Mr. Perkins assured her. "I'm not ready for a rocking chair just yet," he chuckled.

Spider-Woman only laughed at that.

Returning to her Aunt Nancy's townhouse, Spider-Woman changed out of her costume and back into her street clothes, resuming her civilian identity of Gwen Stacy. She paused a moment to admire herself in the mirror, grinning at her reflection. During her morning patrol as Spider-Woman, she had stopped two muggings, one break-and-enter and one convenience store robbery. It would have been three muggings, except that that would-be victim was equipped not only with bear mace but hard-soled boots that she used very well when smashing would-be muggers in the face with her martial arts kicks. Gwen hadn't even needed to intervene on that one, but it made for a fun show and she was even able to congratulate the woman before the police arrived.

Ever since Gwen had returned from her Spring Break vacation two days ago, she had been very busy. Final exams were coming up soon, and like every other Empire State University student, she needed to resume her studies. In addition to that, she had resumed her patrols as Spider-Woman, knowing full well the dangers that New Yorkers lived with every day and that could strike whenever they were least expected.

In addition to that, Gwen was also thinking about what she was going to do for a summer job. In between studying and superheroing, she hadn't had much time for acting or modelling work. Her last gig had been with Desiree Vaughn-Pope and her new line of thigh-high sports socks for women, but that had been a while ago. Gwen was less than happy with that, but at the same time she knew she was probably lucky to get it owing to Roderick Kinglsey's smearing her in the modeling world. She'd rejected his advances and hit him when he sexually harassed her last year, and while she didn't regret her actions she felt a keen sense of frustration at the lack of work she'd probably be getting.

Gwen still had a few hours before her first class on Tuesdays, so she decided to catch up on her e-mail. Much to her surprise, she had over seventy e-mails, or five times what she would ever normally have waiting for her. Looking at the first one, Gwen raised her eyebrows at the gushing praise the writer had for her looks, before jokingly proposing marriage to her. Many of the rest of the e-mails continued in that vein, praising her for how gorgeous she was and how much style she had. In particular, they referred to how they'd seen her on the Miss Spring Break pageant she'd won when she was in Daytona Beach.

A large number of other e-mails were requests for friendships on Facebook, and Gwen was more than a little surprised at just how much recognition she'd gotten from winning the pageant. She decided that she'd look at them some more later and determine which ones were safe enough to reply to or friend on Facebook, once she got home from school.

While most of Gwen's fan mail surprised her, there were a few other e-mails that got her hopes up. One was from Richard Banks, who she recognized as the director who'd been holding auditions for that production of Othello that she'd auditioned with alongside her boyfriend Randy Robertson. The e-mail, directed to all the actors who'd auditioned for roles, consisted of Richard Banks explaining that he'd had to postpone his production for various personal reasons. Because of that, he intended to make his production of Othello part of this year's Shakespeare In The Park festival, and he invited everyone to join in.

Gwen grinned at that, always ready to perform one of the Bard's classics, particularly if it meant performing alongside Randy.

The next e-mail was a message from Vaughn-Pope Cosmetics congratulating Gwen on winning the Miss Spring Break pageant, and informing her about the company's plans for its summer collections. The company rep who'd written the e-mail had asked for when Gwen might be available for auditions, as they'd been so impressed with her past work for them they wanted to give her the inside track. Gwen eagerly wrote back, noting that she wouldn't be available until after final exams were over but that she would be eager to join in once finals were done.

The last e-mail was perhaps the most intriguing. It was from Tom Ferguson, the radio DJ who'd directed a production of The Wiz that she'd starred in alongside Randy. Mr. Ferguson had been very impressed with her performance, and he'd let her know about the production of Les Miserables that she'd auditioned for. This time, he was writing to let her know about some TV roles that he thought she would be interested in, and where to go to audition.

So far, Gwen had only ever done stage acting. The only TV work she'd done had been for commercials, but who said she only had to stop there?

Rubbing her chin thoughtfully as she logged out of her e-mail account and shut off the computer, Gwen saw the new possibilities open up before her.

For most of her life, Tanya Sealy had gotten by on her own. From her hard life growing up to working as a high class call girl, Tanya had known what danger was like. Even if her high class position was less immediately dangerous than working as a streetwalker, Tanya still had to deal with clients who sometimes vented their frustrations on her, and whose wealth and power protected them from most retribution. Normally she forced herself to accept the beatings and abuse, but she'd killed more than one john in self-defence when her life was in danger.

Some of her regular clients were costumed supervillains, who were known for their substantial incomes. Several of them were part of the Serpent Society, a group of mercenary killers whose costumes and codenames were based off many different types of snakes. One member of the Serpent Society was a man named Davis Lawfers, codename Copperhead, who had taken exception to the abuse Tanya had suffered from some of her other clients. When she'd refused to tell him who had hurt her that way, Davis had offered her a position in the Society. At first she thought he was crazy, given that she had no superpowers and wasn't a trained fighter. Davis brushed off her concerns, pointing out that he could train her himself and that the Society would be able to give her some superpowers. Tanya had agreed, realizing that if she didn't she could look forward to more uncertainty and violence from men with short tempers and long wallets.

Davis spent the next several months putting Tanya through her paces with exercises meant to build up her endurance and martial arts lessons to teach her how to fight. The other Serpents had also taken turns training her whenever Davis was out on a mission as Copperhead, and it didn't take Tanya long to make friendships with them. Much to her own surprise, Tanya found she had a natural flair for martial arts, and after all of the Serpents' training she found herself matching them blow for blow in their sparring matches. The exercises had done her a world of good as well. When she'd first started with Davis, an hour's worth of exercise had left Tanya drenched in sweat and ready to collapse. Now though, she could go for four times that long and only be winded.

Today, though, there wasn't going to be any training. According to Davis, Tanya was now ready to receive the superpowers that would make her the new Black Mamba.

"Why now?" Tanya asked Davis as they stepped into the laboratory. "Was I not ready before now?"

"No, you weren't," Davis shook his head. "Black Mamba's powers require great physical and mental strength from their user. I wasn't just training you how to fight-I was training you so you'd be ready for this. I didn't want anything to happen to you, Tan."

Tanya frowned at that.

"What happened to the first Black Mamba?" Tanya asked.

"She got killed by the supervillain 8-Ball during a failed mission," Davis explained. "Are you ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Tanya nodded. "I'm not going back to my old life."

"That's my girl," Davis smiled proudly, kissing Tanya on the cheek.

She blushed at that.

Tanya Sealy had never met the Wizard, the genius scientist who had found employment with the technocratic terrorist organization A.I.M., but Davis had assured her of his skills. Now, strapped down on the operating table, wearing a helmet on her head that was connected by a bunch of cables to a large computer whose use Tanya couldn't even begin to fathom, she could only swallow hard, reminding herself that she'd made the right decision.

When the Wizard began operating his weird machine, everything seemed to go black for Tanya for a moment. Then the darkness began to take on a life of its own, as she felt a connection being formed to something well beyond anything she could have ever imagined. The darkness embraced her and made her its own, even as she embraced the darkness and made it her own. They were separate and yet as one.

She could see through the darkness, vaguely sensing the others who were connected to the darkness and could wield it as she did. For all that they were separate people, they were intimately linked by the darkness, now and forever.

Something else was born in her mind-the ability to see other peoples' most intimate and cherished thoughts in the form of what they loved the most. When she awakened, she found she could see it in the Wizard, she could see it in Davis, and she could see it in the other Serpents. Even though the Wizard had explained everything to her, it was still amazing and unbelievable all at once.

Tanya had been able to intuit the intimate thoughts of her clients before now, and she suspected that was why these powers were so suitable for her. Now, though, her gifts had progressed beyond anything she would have believed possible.

Most of all, she saw Davis's most cherished and intimate thoughts, and knew that she would never be alone again.

Jackson Arvad removed his hat and sunglasses as he walked into his high-class apartment, smiling as he congratulated himself on his success. Once he'd shut the door behind him, he proceeded to remove his street clothes, completing the transition to his bizarre appearance. His shoulder-length blonde hair was normal enough, but his pure golden eyes and the green bodysuit he wore, complete with a bright golden starburst on his chest, were bizarre indeed. He was more popularly known as Will O' the Wisp, one of the new breed of criminals known as the supervillain.

Before he'd gained his superhuman powers, Jackson had been an engineer at the Roxxon energy company. His obsessive work ethic and desire to cut as many costs as possible might have earned him the respect of his coworkers, if he hadn't undermined and betrayed so many of them in his efforts to rise up in the company hierarchy. It had caused him problems with his wife as well, who eventually began having an affair with one of the coworkers Jackson had stepped on after she became so frustrated at his neglecting her for work. Even that wasn't the worst of it, as Jackson's refusal to install expensive safeguards during an experiment at work killed six people and exposed him to a massive amount of electromagnetic radiation. Roxxon had subsequently fired him for negligence, and it was sheer neglect on the police's part that he was not charged with negligent homicide.

Blaming everyone but himself for his problems, Jackson began suing not only Roxxon, but also the families of the people who'd been killed by the explosion, claiming that their accusations against him were slander. He lost every one of his lawsuits, bankrupting himself in the process as his wife Maureen ultimately left him. It was then, with his bank accounts empty and his reputation ruined, that his ability to manipulate his own body's molecules began to manifest. Developing the ability to manifest as a glowing ball of light with the power to control machines, hypnotize people and slam into things like a meteorite, Jackson realized he could use his powers to take revenge on the people he believed had wronged him.

Naming himself Will O' the Wisp in a subtle blast at his mythology-loving ex-wife, Jackson became a professional supervillain and saboteur for hire, committing his own robberies even as he began sabotaging industrial operations for hire. In doing so, he'd had multiple run-ins with the spectacular Spider-Woman, developing a particular loathing for her. By defeating him and sending him to jail, she'd prevented him from participating in the Tomorrow Legion, an informal supervillain crime syndicate. Fortunately, he'd gotten his revenge when he'd brutally defeated her during his successful attempt to murder his ex-wife Maureen and her new fiancé.

Since then, Will O' the Wisp had resumed his supervillain career, pulling off a series of lucrative robberies even as he continued working as a saboteur for hire. He'd even branched out into hired assassinations, having recently been hired by the Kingpin to murder the Roxxon executive Carlton Beatrice. Always eager for revenge against one of his former Roxxon colleagues, the Wisp had an easy time of disposing of Beatrice. Infiltrating the electrical systems of the elevator Beatrice was stepping into and causing the elevator to fall more than thirty stories before crashing was mere child's play. It was even more pleasurable when Beatrice's death was ruled an accident.

Yes, life was good for Will O' the Wisp.

Things were about to get even better, too-with the help of the technologist-for-hire who called himself the Fixer, the Wisp had discovered that one of New York's most exclusive private schools was having its end of year prom at the Waldorf-Astoria. What was particularly impressive in this case was just how many of the graduating students were the children of high-ranking Roxxon executives and employees.

Those sons of bitches had made him lose everything he ever cared for, so why not pay them back in kind?

The thought brought a disturbing smile to his face, even as his eyes glowed brightly.

Gwen knew that she'd done pretty well on her first final exam, and after she'd taken it she'd spent the rest of the morning and afternoon studying. Needing to take a break after all her hard work, Gwen had suited up and gone out on patrol as Spider-Woman. She was going to spend the next week and a half concentrating on her final exams, but once that was done she intended to resume finding summer work.

The only question was what to do. That job with Vaughn-Pope Cosmetics was a definite yes, and she had every intention of replying to the company's offer. Doing Shakespeare In The Park wasn't particularly lucrative, but it did give her an opportunity to keep her stage skills sharp while she looked for other things that paid better, and as a bonus she'd probably be co-starring with Randy if she was lucky. Doing some TV work would be the real prize, though. All of her previous television experience was in doing commercials, and she'd only ever acted on stage, but even just a bit part on a TV show could open doors that she would have never had access to otherwise. Maybe-

Spider-Woman immediately dropped that train of thought as her spider senses were triggered. One of her abilities was to mark people she knew with special pheromones that she could use to trace their location. Oftentimes Spider-Woman locked on to those pheromones when she actively willed it, but on a few other occasions her spider-senses activated on their own whenever the person some of her pheromones were marked with were in a situation of interest to her.

Unfortunately, this was almost never a good thing. Either someone she cared about was in danger, or one of her supervillain enemies was engaging in some new criminal activity.

A determined look crossed Spider-Woman's face as she changed the direction of her web-swinging, following the trail her spider-senses marked out for her.

Upper Redwood Academy was one of the most prestigious private schools in all of New York State. It had educated generations of future business and political leaders, graduates who typically moved on to study at elite Ivy League schools like Princeton and Harvard. The students of Upper Redwood typically wanted for nothing, knowing that they could count on their parents to get the very best for them. One of those perks was a graduation party at the swanky Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, and the graduating class of 2008 was enjoying it to the fullest.

Many of the students were in each other's arms, enjoying the dance as a slow, romantic song played in the background. The electric mirror ball hanging from the center of the room's ceiling slowly spun around, projecting its lights so that the partygoers seemed surrounded by a galaxy of stars. For several long moments, they did not notice as the mirror ball began to spin more quickly, as its flashing became more and more bright and erratic. All of the students, parents and staff soon began to turn to watch the glowing lights, becoming completely entranced by their hypnotic glow.

Sinister laughter filled the room as a second ball began to emerge from the mirror ball. This second ball was a bright sphere of golden light, which gradually coalesced into the human form of the Will O' the Wisp. Looking all around him, he smirked at his victims, who were all completely entranced by the glowing light he generated from his body. They were completely under his power, and he could make them do whatever he wanted.

Using the knowledge that the Fixer's bot program had gathered for him, the Wisp gathered the students who were the children of the high-ranking Roxxon employees, while shuffling the other students and staff off to the side. He had no intention of killing anyone not affiliated with Roxxon, and would be quite comfortable simply taking all of their money and valuables. The Roxxon employees and their families were the ones who he intended to make suffer.

Will O' the Wisp made the students dance in perfect time with one another, laughing and congratulating himself on their perfect choreography. He made them sing in chorus, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and punch each other in their faces. Soon, he tired of his game, and ordered the rest of his slaves to bring the students the knives they would need to kill one another.

The shattering of glass at the other side of the room made Will O' the Wisp turn around in alarm. His prisoners stopped dead in their tracks as he let up his control of them, forgotten as Will O' the Wisp stared daggers at the spectacular Spider-Woman, who charged into the room.

"Spider-Woman," Will O' the Wisp said calmly, his voice dripping with hatred at the arachnid heroine. "I might have known you, of all people, would try to ruin my fun. Remember what happened last time?" he reminded her, the look on his face changing to an ugly leer. "The way you failed and let those innocent people die? It's going to happen again, my dear, and you won't be able to stop it any more than you did last time!" he cackled.

"That was then," Spider-Woman replied, equally calmly. "This is now."

"Just keep telling yourself that, child," Will O' the Wisp smiled, as he shifted back into his golden sphere form. "Just keep telling yourself that!" he repeated, as he glowed brightly. His hypnotized slaves immediately sprang back to life, some of them charging at Spider-Woman with the knives they had been bringing the students the Wisp was targeting, others gathering chairs to attack her.

Her heart pounding, Spider-Woman leapt into the air and swung overhead, releasing her webbing to ensnare as many of the students as she could. Given how the Wisp had gathered them all in the center of the ballroom, it was clear that they were his targets. Unfortunately, while she was swinging through the air Spider-Woman couldn't hope to avoid Will O' the Wisp rising up like a shooting star to slam her head-on. Her entire body shuddered with pain as the Wisp knocked her off balance, and before she could counterattack the Wisp had focused his lights directly on her. The lights flashed brightly, dazzling Spider-Woman's eyes and leaving her unable to avoid being hit again by the Wisp's spherical form.

Spider-Woman lost her grip on her webline and fell towards the floor, crashing heavily on a table and causing it to collapse. She was immediately surrounded by hypnotized partygoers, who slashed at her with their knives and beat at her with chairs. Spider-Woman tried to defend herself as best she could with her webbing, but she still couldn't fully see and she didn't dare use her sting blasts on the hypnotized people. Soon, however, they backed away as the Wisp came down in front of her.

Will O' the Wisp shifted back to his human form, and his lights were glowing again. Spider-Woman found her muscles growing stiff and she was unable to look away, her brain increasingly numbed as she fell under the Wisp's hypnosis.

To the Wisp, this was even better than he could have expected. Not only was he going to have sweet revenge on so many of his old friends from Roxxon, he was also going to have his revenge on the little spider-brat who'd been such a thorn in his side for so long. Will O' the Wisp had already humiliated Spider-Woman the last time they'd fought, brutally beating her and killing his intended victims. Now, once she watched the Upper Redwood students slit each other's throats, Spider-Woman would be made to do the same thing to herself.

As she had been hypnotized, Spider-Woman's mind filled with memories of what had happened the last time she'd failed to stop the Wisp. Now, those memories struggled within her mind against her hypnosis. None of the other people in the room had any previous experience with the Wisp's lights, or a knowledge of what they could do, but Spider-Woman did, and they helped her fight off the numbing of her thoughts. Unfortunately, she was still unable to move, as her body remained stubbornly stiff. Try as she might to move, she was simply stuck.

Spider-Woman's frustration rose as she realized she didn't have much time. Will O' the Wisp had directed the rest of his hypnotized slaves to kill the students, although they were getting tangled in the webbing Spider-Woman had spread all over the students. It wouldn't keep them at bay forever, and unless she acted fast…

That was when Spider-Woman got an idea. Instead of simply trying to move her body, she focused on her hands, which were raised in front of her in a vain attempt to shield her eyes from the Wisp's lights. The Wisp was standing in front of her, but he'd turned his back, confident that she couldn't move. That proved to be a mistake, as Spider-Woman's hands flashed and blasted him square in the back with her sting blasts. Once again, the Wisp's slaves stopped moving as their master let up his control over them.

Livid with anger, Will O' the Wisp turned back to Spider-Woman. Focusing all of his control on her, he forced her to step forward, intending to kill her himself. To his great astonishment, she stubbornly refused to step forward, her mind becoming clearer as she fought his commands.

"You just don't know when to quit, do you?" Will O' the Wisp shouted as he resumed his sphere form and charged at Spider-Woman. Catching her dead on, he drove Spider-Woman back and smashed her into the wall once and again before he re-formed his arms and wrapped them around Spider-Woman's throat. Rising into the air, he held Spider-Woman by the throat and began to squeeze, intending to crush her windpipe right then and there.

Will O' the Wisp was so intent on trying to strangle Spider-Woman that he didn't notice her blasting him once again at point-blank range with her sting blasts. The Wisp howled in pain and fell back, releasing Spider-Woman as she caught herself with a webline. The Wisp came at her again in his shooting star form, but this time Spider-Woman was ready for him and swung herself out of the way. Spinning around on her webline, she blasted the Wisp and knocked him off balance. As the Wisp's glowing sphere form flickered, its integrity damaged by Spider-Woman's sting blasts, Spider-Woman kept up the pressure, repeatedly blasting him until he finally resumed his human form and fell unconscious, crashing to the floor.

Extending her webline, Spider-Woman lowered herself to floor level before she began freeing the people she'd entangled in her webbing. The partygoers began coming out of their trances as Spider-Woman freed the last of the people from her webbing, and confused babble erupted around the room as they wondered what had happened.

Several of the people around Spider-Woman noticed her presence.

"What the hell are you doing here?" one female graduate asked, an angry sneer on her face. "Didn't you fuck up the last time you tried to help those people at the Libertine?"

"How many people got killed this time?" one of the fathers asked.

"Nobody got killed!" one of the other parents called out, as a couple of them hefted the unconscious Will O' the Wisp. "It looks like-"

The dismayed cries from several of the parents who worked for Roxxon, as well as other people who were familiar with New York's supervillain population, were the cries of people who recognized Will O' the Wisp.

"That was Jackson Arvad!"

"My God, did he try to kill us?"

"Is everybody okay?"

Spider-Woman wasn't entirely sure what to say, and wasn't sure if she should leave. The reception she was getting from the partygoers standing closest to her wasn't exactly friendly, and-

"You saved us!" one of the students exclaimed, turning to Spider-Woman in gratitude. "Oh, thank you so much!" she continued.

"What do you mean, she saved us?" the first student who'd confronted Spider-Woman demanded.

"Are you deaf or something?" the other girl demanded. "Spider-Woman saved us! That crazy Will O' the Wisp guy tried to kill us, and-"

"What the hell are you talking about?" the first student demanded, but her answer came in the form of an excited chatter as more and more of the crowd began to understand what she'd done for them. Some of the partygoers still looked skeptical, but any protests they made were drowned out by the loud cheers and cries of gratitude directed Spider-Woman's way.

Spider-Woman was somewhat astonished at the response, having become so used to people insulting and deriding her because of issues like her past failures or Vincent Gonzalez's hate campaign directed against her. The praise was relieving and gratifying all at once, something she hadn't gotten as Spider-Woman in a long time.

Spider-Woman basked in the praise for a while until the police came and hauled the unconscious Will O' the Wisp away. While she left before the media reporters arrived, the footage of her battle with Will O' the Wisp, taken on the hotel's security cameras and the cell phones of many of the partygoers, was all over the news the next morning.

Gwen went to sleep that night comforted and reassured, and the news coverage the next morning was a pleasant surprise indeed.

Things were finally looking up for her.

(Next Issue: As another school year comes to a close, Gwen seeks out summer work with Desiree Vaughn-Pope and the other job opportunities she's offered. Unfortunately, things become much more complicated when she crosses paths with Black Mamba, who participates in her first mission as a member of the Serpent Society! All this and more in Spider-Woman #58: Snake Charmer!)