Game Over

"I swear, you don't know what you're missing," Liz Allan said to her friends Kitty Pryde and Gwen Stacy, before a look of sublime joy crossed her face as she took another bite of her strawberry ice cream. Kitty was enjoying a cookies and cream ice cream, while Gwen had settled for vanilla, and the girls were sitting on a park bench as they enjoyed a break. They were at Empire State University's outdoor quad, having come to watch a 'battle of the bands' competition between several musical groups made up of ESU students, enjoying performances from up-and-coming talents like Three Dice Night, Undead Boxcars, the Waters Of Sylph, The Shooting Stars and Vintage Brokenhead.

"Strawberry is gross," Gwen shot back, as she wiped her mouth with a napkin. "I mean-ugh, what's that smell?" she asked, as her nose picked up a particularly strong scent of body odor.

"It's probably those guys," Liz replied, pointing out a group of hipster-looking students who were walking by the bench where the girls were sitting.

"I don't get it," Gwen frowned. "Why is it that so many people these days go out in public looking like they just got out of bed?"

"Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they don't shower," Kitty pointed out. "Would that explain the vintage clothing that looks like it came from Goodwill?"

"Well, vintage clothing has been popular for a long time now," Gwen replied, reminding her friends of the fact that they had all made good use of vintage clothing before, "but so many of them just look like slobs and hobos. I mean, we have our limits!"

"You guys don't get it," Liz interrupted them. "So many of these hipster-types see themselves as independent-minded, forward-thinking progressives who take pride in not adhering to the culturally-sheltered mainstream and embracing the counter-culture, including indie rock, intelligent art and cultural deconstructions."

"…Seriously?" Gwen asked in disbelief.

"I'm just repeating what they told me," Liz shrugged.

"I suppose that's what they like to tell themselves," Kitty muttered with a scowl. "I'm sure that the immigrants who are struggling to get by enjoy having to share neighborhood space with a bunch of pretentious, arrogant, slumming douchebags who appropriate their cultural fashions, pretend to show solidarity with them when they can afford decent meals and showers, make a big show about being independent thinkers when they're all a bunch of conformists in their own subculture, congratulate themselves on being superior to the rest of society, live off of Mommy and Daddy's trust funds and produce shitty 'art' while looking down their noses at anybody who dares to actually like anything that's mainstream or popular," she finally finished.

Liz and Gwen just stared at her.

"…Where did that come from?" Gwen asked in amazement.

"…Sorry," Kitty said in embarrassment. "I just get annoyed by people who make such a big deal about how different they are from the rest of us, and how that supposedly makes them special. It gets really galling when they don't have a care in the world, compared to what some of the rest of us have to deal with," she pointed out.

The girls resumed eating their ice creams in silence as they mulled that over. Gwen knew full well what Kitty was talking about, given the harassment she'd had to endure for being a mutant. Gwen's boyfriend, Randy Robertson, had also alluded to her the dangers that could come with being black in America.

She felt rather guilty for ruining the positive feeling they'd had just a minute ago, and so she decided she should try and change the subject.

"So, how was Harry's first semester as a Film student?" she asked Liz, referring to Liz's boyfriend Harry Osborn. Long under the thumb of his abusive father, business tycoon and supervillain crime lord Norman Osborn, Harry had been freed from his father's control ever since Norman had suffered permanent crippling and brain damage during a fight with Spider-Man earlier that year.

"He's never been happier in his life," Liz gushed, her spirits lifted immediately by Gwen's question. "He's like a whole new man, Gwen-he's finally living his life the way he wants to."

The mood brightened immediately, as their chatter moved on to other subjects.

Gwen hid her smile as she took another bite of her ice cream.

SPIDER-WOMAN #59

"GAME OVER"

Gwen was glad for the distraction. Unfortunately, when she returned home her mind had begun to drift back to three days ago, when she'd tried to prevent the supervillain assassin Black Mamba from murdering the owner of the theatre she was rehearsing at. As the spectacular Spider-Woman, she'd tried to fight Black Mamba but had somehow ended up hypnotized and defenseless from Black Mamba's mind tricks. Black Mamba had somehow conjured an image of her boyfriend Randy Robertson, which proceeded to attack her even as she was left paralyzed and unable to protect herself.

That image of Randy had reopened some old wounds for Gwen. When Randy had first found out about her secret identity as a superheroine, he'd chewed her out for her letting her murderous archenemy Jack O' Lantern learn her secret identity. Since then, Randy had been making a conscious effort to support her being a superhero, and to support her own guilt and insecurities, but she could still sometimes see a look of anger in his eyes whenever they discussed it.

Rationally, she knew that the Randy who'd confronted her was just a creation of Black Mamba, who had somehow read her mind. That was obvious enough. Unfortunately, the painful memories Black Mamba had stirred up in Gwen didn't go away so easily. Worse than that, she'd also failed to stop Black Mamba from murdering her intended victim, who had been slowly strangled to death while Gwen was off in dream land. That guilt weighed on Gwen's conscience, too.

Gwen's mind whirled with it all.

Pain at the looks of anger she sometimes still saw in Randy's eyes, and guilt at being upset with it.

Anger at her failure to defeat Black Mamba and the fact that the killer had played with her head.

Guilt over her failure to save Horace Green from being murdered.

Tanya Sealy, alias Black Mamba, blinked as the sun came shining in through her window. Normally, she wouldn't have been sleeping this early in the day, but it had been a giddy few days, as she basked in the success of her first successful contract as a member of the Serpent Society, a band of snake-themed supervillains for hire. The rest of the Society had held a day-long party to congratulate her, a tradition that every new Serpent got to enjoy after their first successful mission, and after that she'd returned to training with the Serpents to keep her skills sharp.

"I didn't think you could get any more beautiful," Davis Lawfers, alias Copperhead, spoke up from where he was lying next to her, "but the sunlight is hitting you just right," he grinned.

Smiling at that, Tanya lay back down and kissed Davis, relishing his praise. Davis was the one who'd helped her get away from her previous career as a call girl, and he'd been with her every step of the way in training her in martial arts and helping her prepare to acquire her superhuman powers. It was thanks to him that Tanya, who for so long had to get by on her own as a stripper and then as an escort, had finally found a place where she felt like she belonged.

Smiling at that thought, she cuddled down with him again and went back to sleep, comforted in the knowledge of what she'd accomplished.

The next day…

Whether she was in front of a camera or up on stage, Gwen had always loved to perform. She immersed herself in the role, whether smiling invitingly at the viewer in a modelling photo, showing off the client's outfits on the runway, or reciting Shakespeare's lines while playing Desdemona alongside Randy in Othello. Today was no exception, as she was doing a photoshoot for Vaughn-Pope Cosmetics' upcoming summer collection. The cornflower-blue sundresses, beige wide-brimmed hats, deep yellow tops and off-white capri pants were impressive enough on their own, but combined with Gwen's beauty and talent they were sure to be hot-ticket items this season.

The shoot took four hours, but by the time they were done the lead photographer had told Gwen that Desiree Vaughn-Pope, the head of the company, would be very pleased with the results. Indeed, Gwen had been personally asked by Vaughn-Pope to do the work, given the fierce rivalry between her company and that of Roderick Kinglsey, the perverted fashion magnate who'd previously employed Gwen and then fired her after she hit Kingsley for sexually harassing her.

It was after she'd changed into her street clothes and was headed for the exit that one of the assistant photographers stopped her.

"You did an awesome job today," the guy said softly as he constantly glanced in every direction. He'd seemed pretty awkward the whole time, as if he were intimidated by Gwen and all the other beautiful models. The poor guy had seemed decidedly ill at ease before coming up to speak to her, as if he'd been mustering the courage to do it.

"Thank you," Gwen said gently as she smiled at him brightly. The warmth in her tone seemed to put the photographer at ease, and his next words were considerably more confident.

"How much do you know about anime?" the guy asked her.

"Ann-i-what?" Gwen asked in confusion. "I'm sorry, I've never really heard of it."

"…Oh," the guy frowned, as it was suddenly Gwen's turn to feel awkward. "Well, anime is sort of like cartoons, only it's often made in Japan. Have you seen shows like Sailor Moon or Pokemon?"

"That stuff's anime?" Gwen blinked in surprise. "I never really paid much attention to it," she shrugged. "Why are you asking me all this?"

"I'm actually a freelance guy," the photographer explained, "and I've been hired by this Japanese anime publisher to help manage the North American premiere of their new Slayers OVA at the New York Comic Con next week. I-"

"Oh-eh-what?" Gwen asked again, this time even more confused.

"Original Video Animation," the photographer explained, "sort of like a movie made of a TV series. Anyway, we're looking for some models to cosplay the main Slayers cast as part of the promotion of the film, and you'd be perfect for the role of Lina Inverse."

"You need me to do some voice acting?" Gwen blinked, surprised and flattered all at once. "I've never done it before, but-"

"No, I'm wondering if you'd be interested in cosplaying," the photographer shook his head. "Cosplaying is when you dress up like one of the characters from the anime. Fans do it all the time, and so do professional models when we do photoshoots, promotional skits, things like that."

Gwen thought on that.

"So it's kind of like being a booth babe?" Gwen asked in surprise.

"Well…I guess you could put it that way," the photographer nodded. "I thought you'd be a natural fit. Are you interested?"

"Sure, I guess I could give it a shot," Gwen smiled. "What do I need to do?"

"Well, for one thing you'll probably need to get familiar with the new movie and the series," the photographer explained. "Give me your e-mail address, and I'll send you all the details…"

The creature sulking in the cell was weird even by supervillain standards. His skin was a deep blue in color, except for the orange lines running up his torso, legs and arms. At regular intervals, the orange lines expanded into circles with multiplier signs in their centers. Perhaps most horrifying was his eyes, which were another pair of these orange circles, surrounded by metal rims.

Once, he'd been known as Jonathan Gatesworth, the lazy slacker teenage son of ClarkeTech engineer Larson Gatesworth. Jonathan had shown himself to be a gifted computer programmer and engineer in his own right, but he had preferred to spend all his time slacking off, playing video games and reading dirty Japanese hentai manga. All of the computer programming he did was to indulge his interests, whether in developing cheats for World Of Warcraft or downloading obscene anime pornography off the Internet without paying for it. Larson had pretty much despaired of his son ever trying to use his talents constructively, lamenting the way Jonathan brought home C- and D-grades when he was easily capable of being a straight-A student.

That was before the accident that had led to the cells of Jonathan's body being fused with the self-replicating nanotechnology that ClarkeTech had been trying to develop. Jonathan had been tinkering with it himself without his father's knowledge, programming it with the traits of many of his favorite video game characters. He'd also programmed it with the appearance of a character called 'Netshape', which Jonathan had created to be the star of his own half-baked idea for a video game franchise. With the nanotechnology programmed with the abilities of so many different video game characters and now fused with the cells of Jonathan's body, Jonathan could shapeshift into real-life versions of these video game characters and use their special abilities for himself.

Choosing his own creation of Netshape as his default form, Jonathan realized the potential of his new abilities. He'd always seen how so many women both in fiction and real life tended to go for badasses and dangerous villains, and he realized that with the wealth and notoriety he could gain as a supervillain, he could get his own legion of groupies. Unfortunately, Netshape's plans had been derailed by the spectacular Spider-Woman, who'd defeated him during his first bank robbery. Since then, he'd been stuck the Raft, the facility for supervillains at Riker's Island prison. Since the Raft had no juvenile wing, he was kept in solitary confinement for his own protection. He hadn't even been able to escape during the mass breakout orchestrated by the Spot several months ago, as he wasn't allowed to leave his cell and he was otherwise closely guarded when he needed to move out.

In concession to the furious protests of prisoners' rights advocates and their media supporters, Netshape had been allowed access to the Internet and video games, so that he wasn't completely isolated. His Internet use was strictly observed, as well. In truth, these made Netshape feel as if he was hardly in jail at all-he didn't care about interacting with anyone else, and as long as he had his video games, his manga and his computer he was a happy man. What angered him, rather, was that Spider-Woman had derailed his plans. From what he'd seen in chat rooms and on message boards dedicated to supervillains, Netshape was seen as a pathetic loser, more due to his being a geek and his goals of becoming a dangerous supervillain than because of his being defeated by Spider-Woman. He was never so stupid as to try and post there, of course-if he had, the authorities would have noticed it and cut off his access, which he would never have been able to bear.

So now, all Netshape could do was stew in his cell, reading about how all the followers of the supervillain world mocked him. Even that wasn't necessarily the most depressing thing-he was going to miss the New York Comic Con this year because of his defeat at Spider-Woman's hands.

Cursing under his breath, Netshape logged onto the Comic Con's website and read through all of the announcements. Most of it was pretty straightforward, if appalling. Using anonymous screen names (as Netshape was frequently ridiculed and trolled if people ever found out who he really was) had already complained on Internet forums about such things as the film adaptation of Alan Moore's V Is For Vendetta, the 'Infinite Crisis' at DC Comics and the fact that Duke Nukem Forever still hadn't come out.

Netshape sourly noted the guest list appearing at the convention this year. The director of V Is For Vendetta, the writers of 'Infinite Crisis' and the director of Duke Nukem Forever were all going to be there, which made him seethe with rage.

It was then that he saw the announcement of a new dub for the One Piece anime, and an invitation to meet the cast.

Netshape had never been fond of dubbed anime, and he'd been aghast at what the first dub of One Piece had been like. The idea of a new dub made him so angry that-

-all of a sudden, Netshape suddenly found himself transforming. Almost immediately, he had taken on the form of a man in what looked like blue body armor, with a white helmet. An explosive bomb appeared in his free hand, ready to explode whenever he commanded it.

For a moment, Netshape could only stand in silence, astonished that his powers had somehow returned even though he was fitted with the special restraints used to disable superhuman powers and prevent villains from using their abilities to escape from jail. The restraints, developed by no less than Reed Richards himself, could disrupt particular energy waves and fields, which in turn neutralized the vast majority of superhuman powers through a process Richards described as 'harmonizing.' To prevent any damage to their wearers' health, however, Reed had specifically ensured that the manacles would not disrupt their natural body functions.

And Netshape's abilities, bizarre as they were, were not superhuman. They were part of his body's natural functions, owing to his cells' fusion with the nanotechnology that was constantly reproducing and dying inside him along with his body's cells. Netshape could have used his abilities to escape any time, but he had foolishly assumed that the manacles prevented him from doing so.

An evil smile crossed his face as he stood up from the table he was reading at, and threw the bomb at the wall.

"I swear, that's the last time we ever play tennis again," Gwen shook her head to Randy as they left the Empire State University locker rooms the next day.

"Hey, at least you can say you tried it," Randy pointed out to her. "I mean, it's not like I played like Arthur Ashe myself," he joked.

For all her skill at everything from martial arts to dance, and even with her superhuman powers, Gwen had proven to be utterly incompetent at tennis. First Randy had demolished her in a singles match, and then they'd both gotten their heads handed to them when they tried playing against another couple.

"Yeah…" Gwen muttered, looking away from Randy.

"What's wrong?" Randy asked in concern.

"I…" Gwen trailed off, as the bad memories from her fight with Black Mamba flashed through her mind.

"You still feeling bad about what happened with Black Mamba?" Randy asked, more gently this time.

Gwen nodded, although Randy noticed that she still wouldn't look him in the eye.

"That's not all there is to it, is there?" Randy persisted.

"I…" Gwen trailed off.

"…Gwen?" Randy asked, now really alarmed.

Taking a deep breath, Gwen told Randy about what Black Mamba's mind tricks had done to her, and how they'd stirred up some old, uncomfortable memories.

"Believe me, I know that's not how you feel," Gwen said, the strain evident in her voice, "but it just reminded me of how I let Jack O' Lantern find out my secret identity and put everyone in danger," she said sadly. "I don't know exactly what she did, but somehow Black Mamba was able to read my mind and bring back all my old memories."

"It's…it's okay, Gwen," Randy reassured her, as he hugged her briefly.

They resumed walking in silence, although now Randy was the one ill at ease.

Although he hated to admit it, he was still angry that Gwen had somehow let her worst enemy discover her secret identity. By all account, she had no idea what she could have done wrong, but the fact remained that it had still happened. Randy was also angry at himself for the way that he continued to berate Gwen despite her obvious distress.

More than that, he was also concerned that now Black Mamba might have discovered Gwen's secret identity. Obviously it wasn't Gwen's fault-she was probably caught completely off guard-but that realization didn't comfort him at all.

He considered himself lucky that he was able to conceal his hesitation as he released Gwen and they continued their walk.

The next week was very busy for Gwen, as she wrapped up the Vaughn-Pope photoshoot and began preparing for her role as this Lina Inverse character. Gwen had been utterly baffled by the episodes of Slayers that she'd watched to get an idea of what the series was about, viewing it as a collection of overdone Dungeons and Dragons clichés with a bizarre comedy twist, but she had to admit that the character of Lina struck a chord with her. Lina's fiery personality reminded Gwen of her own, and the almost reckless destructiveness that Lina caused in her adventures reminded Gwen uncomfortably of the lack of control Gwen had displayed in her own early battles as Spider-Woman.

Despite her lack of enthusiasm for the source material, Gwen had little trouble getting a handle on the character, and she meshed perfectly with her fellow cast members as they rehearsed the comedy skits and sales pitches they would be making to the crowd. The rest of the cast was surprisingly diverse-some of them were actors who were there because they needed the money, but some of the others were genuinely enthusiastic anime fans and were more thrilled to be dressing up as their favorite characters than they were about getting paid. They weren't what Gwen had expected, either-they were aspiring entrepreneurs, athletes and office workers who all shared a similar enthusiasm for anime, comic books and other things that were typically associated with "geek" culture.

The New York Comic Con was even more of an eye-opener for Gwen. She had never realized just how widespread the appeal of video games, tabletop RPGs, comic books, anime or science fiction. Her stereotypical assumption had always been that they were meant either for little kids or obsessive, overweight basement-dwellers. The sheer variety of people at the convention astonished her, as people of every race, gender, appearance and occupation thronged the convention. Many of them were dressed in surprisingly elaborate costumes, put together with as much effort as anything Gwen had ever seen in professional productions. Nor were they all awkward and obsessive-many of them were also very friendly and approachable, and Gwen would have been quite eager to pose for pictures with them even if she wasn't being paid to do so.

The crowd at the Slayers OVA booth was both large and enthusiastic, and they loudly cheered Gwen's performances. Any sense that Gwen felt that she was out of place had long since dissipated as she launched into her role, and indeed she began to understand the passion so many of the fans felt for this and other anime series.

Disguised in his Duke Nukem form, Netshape frowned in disgust as he looked around at the convention. Getting out of jail hadn't been too difficult, particularly since he was in the less-guarded youth wing of Riker's Island. He'd shifted into his Donkey Kong form to break out of his shackles, blown some holes in the walls of the cells with his Bomberman form, and then shifted into his Sonic the Hedgehog form to escape before the guards could catch him. He'd used his Super Mario and Duke Nukem forms to get around in public after that, disguising himself with stolen clothing. Now, at the New York Comic Con, his eyes narrowed as he looked around for his prey.

All of a sudden, there they were, just beyond the promotional booth for the new Slayers OVA. In the next room, the cast of the new One Piece dub was having a question and answer session with fans.

A wicked grin crossed Netshape's face as he cracked his knuckles, just the way the real Duke Nukem always did at the start of every level. Pulling the massive gun off his back, Netshape cocked his weapon and pointed it straight at the room where the One Piece cast was sitting, as the light reflected off his sunglasses.

"IT'S PARTY TIME!" Netshape leered as he began firing rounds into the room. Screams and cries erupted all around him as convention-goers fled in terror, desperate to escape. Within seconds, several of the One Piece voice actors had already been killed, as had several other convention-goers unlucky enough to be in his line of fire. That didn't bother Netshape at all, as he shifted into the form of Kratos, from the God Of War series, and began swinging his enormous flail weapons at the panicking victims.

I know a lot of superhero fans attend these conventions, Netshape grinned, laughing wildly as people were crushed and broken by his flails.

Let's see if they'll still call me a loser after this!

The gunfire had caught Gwen off guard as much as the rest of the Slayers performers, but unlike the rest of them she ran towards the gunfire to see what was going on. At first she thought it was just some random madman with a gun, not really recognizing the Duke Nukem character, but then when the Duke Nukem creature shifted into Kratos Gwen suddenly recognized the unwelcome sight of the video game villain Netshape. The first time they'd met, Netshape had been robbing a bank in order to make a name for himself as a supervillain, so that he could attract his own legion of attractive groupies. Now, he was clearly trying to do the same thing again.

As she ducked and weaved through the panicking crowd, looking for some place to hide and change costume, Gwen realized she couldn't decide what angered her more, the horrible things Netshape was doing, or the disgusting reasons he was doing them for.

Netshape was in his Sonic the Hedgehog form now, running through the complex, smashing display tables and mowing down anybody who got in his way. In particular, he was hoping to find the editors of DC Comics and the director of V Is For Vendetta, eager to let them know what one particular fan thought of their work.

Although he was running at amazing speeds in his Sonic form, Netshape was able to stop almost on a dime as he saw the wall of spider-webbing spring up in front of him. Shifting immediately into his Duke Nukem form, he looked around quickly as he saw a familiar red-and-gold clad figure clinging to the pillar that one side of the web was attached to. She was springing down at him, firing a pair of greenish sting blasts, one from each hand, her pretty face suffused with a look of anger and disgust.

"Spider-Woman!" Netshape leered as he dodged her sting blasts and fired back. "I suppose it's a good thing I'm in my Duke Nukem form-he was always the character who dealt best with the babes!"

"SHUT UP!" Spider-Woman shouted in anger, dodging Netshape's shots as she tried to entangle him with her webbing. "I swear to God, Netshape, you're going to-"

"Ah-ah-ah," he reproached her, shifting to his Sonic the Hedgehog form and effortlessly darting out of the way of her webbing. Netshape darted at Spider-Woman before she could react, hitting her with a punch enhanced by his super speed. Running back and forth, he repeatedly hammered Spider-Woman before he shifted into his Kratos form. Swinging the flails he carried in his hands, Netshape hit the dazed Spider-Woman and sent her flying into the wall. She crashed and slumped down to the floor, and was forced to dodge as Netshape shifted into his Super Mario form and began throwing fireballs at her. Unfortunately, slowed by pain, she wasn't able to dodge the last one, which caught her head-on and scorched her all over.

Shaking her head as she got to her feet, Spider-Woman spun a barrier of webbing to block the next fireballs. Springing up and over it, she shot her sting blasts at Netshape, forcing him to change shape again as she regrouped. This time he had taken the shape of Donkey Kong, and as the giant necktie-wearing ape he was flinging tables and other furniture at her. Those types of clumsy attacks didn't do much to deter Spider-Woman, and she was getting her second wind now as Netshape kept constantly missing.

Cursing in frustration, Netshape transformed yet again, this time into the white-helmeted, blue-armored figure of Bomberman. This time he was flinging bombs at Spider-Woman, exactly what she'd been hoping for. She caught the bombs with her webbing and tossed them back at Netshape, just as she had done the first time she'd fought him.

"I'm insulted!" Netshape shouted, as he dodged out of the way by changing into his Sonic form and then shifting into his Duke Nukem form. "Just how stupid do you think I am?" he demanded, thinking that Spider-Woman had expected him to fall for the same trick twice. Enraged at the insult, he began shooting rapid automatic fire, following Spider-Woman as she stayed one step ahead of him.

Finally, Spider-Woman shot a sting blast straight up into the air, cutting through the cable of a spotlight that came plummeting down towards Netshape, who was standing under it. Cursing, the video game killer dodged, but he was off balance as Spider-Woman tagged him with a webline and yanked on it with all her strength, causing Netshape to come flying towards her. The velocity Netshape was approaching Spider-Woman at made her punch all the more devastating, even though she was careful to pull it.

Netshape gasped in pain as the blow hit him in the chest, shifting back to his normal dark blue form as he fell unconscious. Gasping for breath, Spider-Woman began tying him up with webbing before she looked around at the death and devastation that Netshape's rampage had left in its wake.

The police had been busy helping to evacuate the convention-goers until now, but they finally came up to take Netshape away as Spider-Woman left to where she'd hidden her Lina Inverse costume.

The New York Comic Con was postponed indefinitely, in part because of the damage Netshape had done but also out of respect for the fourteen people who'd died during Netshape's rampage. As it turned out, Netshape had attacked the convention to try and kill the people he blamed for the decline of several of his favorite franchises, and more generally to show just how dangerous he really was. The deaths he caused meant that he would be tried as an adult, and this time he had a pair of power-restraining shackles, specially modified by Reed Richards himself, that would prevent him specifically from using his nanotechnology powers.

He goes on a killing spree just because he's mad about some of the changes people made to these franchises, and because people see him as a loser? Gwen thought to herself in disbelief, reading the coverage in the Daily Bugle the next day. That's just…I…

Gwen couldn't stomach reading the newspaper anymore, as she folded it up and put it in the recycling bin.

And to think, Gwen thought to herself as she cleaned up her breakfast dishes, I used to consider myself a head case for still being a superhero even after I'd sorted out all my issues with my father…

(Next Issue: As Spider-Woman, Gwen resumes the hunt for Black Mamba, even as she tries to work out her issues with Randy. At the same time, she begins rehearsals for her role in Othello, and also starts attending auditions for the TV roles Tom Ferguson told her about. However, all of this may become a moot point when Gregor Shapanka, the original Blizzard, breaks out of jail and goes on a crime spree using his newly acquired natural ice powers! All this and more in Spider-Woman #60: Cold Heart!)