Skin Deep

"Hi there!" the young woman said brightly, as she leaned into the frame of the video. "Welcome to my new YouTube channel! My name's Gwen Stacy, and I'm so glad you're watching my video!"

From her long blonde hair, to her bright blue eyes, porcelain skin, perfect smile and beautiful face, Gwen was a truly lovely sight to behold.

"Let me tell you a bit about myself. I'm 20 years old, almost 21, and I'm a junior in university at Empire State University. I love acting, beauty, dancing, modelling and fashion, and I'm here to share my passion," she continued with a grin.

She paused briefly to brush her hair back.

"I've always loved to perform. I'm fascinated by being able to step into a new role and take a walk in somebody else's shoes. When you do that, you can often learn a lot about yourself. I know it's definitely the case for me-I've played famous parts from Desdemona to Dorothy Gale, and they've all helped me grow as a person. I want to keep doing that, and setting up my YouTube channel is part of the next step in my journey," she continued.

Now, she looked a little self-conscious.

"That's why I'm going to show you things like monologue tricks, audition tips, and emoting techniques," she continued. "I'll also be doing things like makeup reviews, fashion tips, and dance moves. I'll even be vlogging about how things are going in my career. If you have any other suggestions for what I could do, just let me know!"

She smiled again, more hopefully this time.

"So if you'd like to join me, be sure to like this video and subscribe to my channel. Together we can learn a lot, and we can have a lot of fun, too!" she continued with a wink and a giggle.

"Bye!" she continued, blowing a kiss at the camera, with that hopeful look in her eyes.

SPIDER-WOMAN #82

"SKIN DEEP"

Gwen had selected several of her favorite headshots for her Tumblr account, along with a few other photos that she knew would let people get to know her. The picture of her Converse collection was a playful allusion to her obsession with shoes, and the shots of her hugging her teddy bear Theodore, aside from showing how cute she looked with stuffed animals, also showed how she could be young at heart, too.

After that, she added an image of her posing in her sexy Christmas outfit from last year. Then she added a couple more of her rollerskating in her Union Jack tank top and step dancing during the beauty pageant, both of which were from her trip to Daytona Beach during Spring Break earlier that year.

Finally, for good measure, she added a series of photos of her posing in different outfits. Aside from the expected minidress and bikini shots, Gwen also made sure to show how well she could rock a selection of different outfits. Many men were turned on by traditionally sexy clothing, of course, but Gwen had also noticed how they could be turned on by everything from coveralls to flannel shirts.

She had the video for her YouTube channel ready, the photos for her Tumblr site, and she knew she wouldn't have any trouble getting a Twitter account, either.

However, she still wasn't quite satisfied. She needed a theme to tie everything together, something that spoke to who she was, and what she wanted out of life. It had to be something easy to remember, and that would make people think of her whenever they heard it.

Toying with a lock of her blonde hair, Gwen smiled widely as she felt it come to her.

It wasn't long before Fire Heart-Fire Passion was up and running in all its forms.

Gwen smiled to herself, hoping that this would be the start of something new.

Nowhere to go from here but up, she smiled to herself.

"So, what do you think?" Gwen asked Kitty Pryde, Jill Stacy and Liz Allan as they ate lunch together in the Students' Union Building the next day. "Did I miss anything?"

"No, you look great," Liz shook her head. "I don't know how you do it, Gwen-I'd freeze up if I had to film a video like that."

"That's because you didn't see the first three takes where I screwed up," Gwen giggled. "And it's not like the whole thing was spontaneous, either-I had to spend a bit of time thinking about how to present it all."

"Yeah, but that's still something most people couldn't do," Liz reminded her. "Not to mention that most people wouldn't look that hot doing it."

They all laughed at that.

"We haven't done anything like this in a while, have we?" Gwen realized. "How are things with you guys?"

"Kong's everything I could ask for," Kitty said, before covering her mouth briefly to avoid burping. "Just the way he holds me, you know? He always makes me feel safe…"

A poignant silence followed, as the girls remembered what Kitty had had to endure in the past because of her mutant powers.

"How about you, Jill?" Kitty quickly followed up, realizing what she'd just done.

"Always the bridesmaid, never the bride," Jill sighed. "The freshmen who go to this school are all losers."

"Did you find that out before or after you dated them?" Liz asked pointedly.

"After, of course," Jill replied, the ghost of a smile playing around her lips. "You think I wouldn't at least give them a chance first?"

They giggled again.

Gwen sipped at her latte with a wide smile on her face.

For all her problems up until now, things were looking pretty good.

Francis Fanon only shook her head as she contemplated what to do next. With the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in jail, no thanks to the X-Men, and Nate Grey now residing with them, no thanks to the spectacular Spider-Woman, Francis was left without much in the way of options. There were contingencies she could call on, of course, and she intended to. But the X-Men knew they hadn't caught her, so they were going to be on the alert for her striking.

What they, and Spider-Woman, were less likely to be expecting would be some form of vengeance on the interfering web-slinger.

Unfortunately, since Francis didn't know much about Spider-Woman, her options for revenge were somewhat limited.

Unless…

She might not have been able to get revenge on Spider-Woman directly, but there was more than one way to squash a spider…

"Any changes?" Dr. Bernard McKenzie asked, looking over his patient's medical chart.

"I'm afraid not," Nurse Linden shook her head. "He's still running a high fever, and he doesn't seem to be responding to any kind of treatment."

Dr. McKenzie only shook his head. It was likely those damn designer drugs he had been trying to steal.

In all his years as a doctor, he'd seen countless examples of humans nearly killing themselves through their own stupidity, but the people who used designer drugs had always struck him as being the most idiotic of all. Even he hadn't always heard of the bizarre chemical mixtures that could be found in a lot of that trash-and all too often, the people who tried to take them ended up permanently brain-damaged, or dead in the worst cases.

In River Verys's case, it was even worse. He'd gotten splattered with the flaming chemicals from some drug paraphernalia, and had ended up stabbing himself multiple times with a dirty knife he'd been carrying. The resulting chemical burns hadn't been like anything Dr. McKenzie had seen before, and the blood poisoning he'd received from his knife wounds left him running a high fever.

Either of them would have been enough to kill a man, and Dr. McKenzie was surprised that River hadn't succumbed to his wounds yet.

That was when the patient's heart monitor began fluctuating, as his body began to thrash.

"Jesus hell!" Dr. McKenzie cursed, tossing the chart aside as he set to work. "Nurse, get me the dialysis machine, stat!"

It was a matter of seconds to set the machine to work, but those were seconds that River Verys couldn't afford to spare.

Dr. McKenzie was never happy when a patient died in his care-something that happened all too often in the crime-ridden cesspool that was New York City-but he couldn't feel much sympathy for this guy.

Rolling his eyes in disgust, he alerted the coroner, hoping they would take this dumbfuck away soon so he could resume his rounds.

Gwen tried to focus on her homework, and not on what she'd seen in the news that morning. Two hundred people were dead, the results of a psychotic supervillain who called himself Fever Pitch orchestrating a series of coordinated suicide bombings across the city. The maniac hadn't really explained why he'd done it, ranting something about the "Inferno", whatever that was.

Gwen shivered at that thought. In fighting crime as the spectacular Spider-Woman, she'd seen how many criminals, especially the costumed ones, committed crimes for reasons that simply didn't make sense. The Brothers Grimm had been obsessed with putting on some sort of bizarre stage show; Joystick and Scorpia seemed to get a sick thrill out of it; Supercharger did it out of some sick, perverted lust for her as Spider-Woman; and Jack O' Lantern simply did it all because he knew it was wrong.

Shaking her head, Gwen tried to push the thoughts out of her mind when she was suddenly started by her phone ringing. Picking it up in surprise, she was surprised to see that it was Jonathan Caesar, part-owner of the Gloom Room A Go-Go nightclub she used to work at, and who had gotten Gwen her last acting job in the late April Reese's film.

"Hi, Mr. Caesar!" Gwen said in surprise. "How are you doing?"

"I'm alright," Caesar said on the other end. "How about you?"

"I'm…alright," Gwen said after a moment, not wanting to put Caesar off by mentioning how she really felt after seeing the carnage on TV. "What's going on? Is the Gloom Room reopening?"

"There was no salvaging the Gloom Room, I'm afraid," Caesar replied, "and since then the Flashback Club has pretty much stolen the demographic. No, I was calling to ask if you'd be interested in appearing in a new film in December."

"Oh, I'd love to!" Gwen said in surprise. "What kind of movie would it be? Is it another indie project?"

"That's pretty much the only kind I sponsor," Caesar replied with a chuckle. "But I think you'll like this new director, Gwen-he's a lot nicer than April Reese was. I sponsored that girl for her talent, not her manners."

"Well, yeah, I'd love to be in it," Gwen continued. "When exactly would we start filming? I have finals, and-"

"It wouldn't be right away," Caesar said. "I'll have my assistant e-mail you the details. I just called because I like the personal touch," he continued jovially.

"Well, thanks a lot!" Gwen said, a smile crossing her face. "Did you maybe want to meet for coffee sometime?"

"You know, that'd be really nice," Caesar answered, "but I have to go right now. How about I have my assistant e-mail you the details along with it?"

"Sure," Gwen smiled. "See you soon!"

She was still dismayed by what she'd seen on the television, but she was also cheered up by the idea of some new modelling work.

That gave her an idea, and so she booted up her computer and opened her e-mail account, eager to see if Fire Heart-Fire Passion had achieved its goals.

The first e-mail that caught her attention also caught her completely by surprise.

Hi Gwen,

I recently caught wind of your new YouTube channel, and I'd be interested in having you come and do some photoshoots for our new 2009 spring collection. We'd be shooting in December, so we wouldn't do it until after your final exams are over.

Would you be interested? We'd love to have you come back-let us know!

Yours,

Desiree Vaughn-Pope.

A wide grin crossed Gwen's face, as she clapped her hands eagerly.

Things really were looking up.

"So, what did you think?" Randy asked Gwen once he'd finished his presentation.

"I have to admit I never put that much thought into Family Matters," Gwen shrugged. "I mean, I used to watch it and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air every now and again when I was little, but...I…"

"…What do you mean?" Randy asked in confusion.

"…My father didn't like me watching what he called…you know how he felt about women and mutants, right?" Gwen sighed.

"Oh yeah," Randy frowned. "Let me guess-he didn't think much more of black people, did he?"

"That's…one way of putting it," Gwen sighed, distinctly uncomfortable with the subject. "You do make a really good point, though-about how black media often has to fit within a white-dominated context," she continued, remembering all too well how out of place she felt at Randy's family reunion, when she'd been one of only a few white people in an otherwise black environment. It had been an entirely new experience for Gwen, one that had clued her in to how Randy could feel at some gatherings.

"It served a couple of different purposes," Randy explained. "Those kinds of shows were kind of a challenge to whites in their own way, breaking the stereotypes and showing the diversities in our communities. And for our own people, it was a reminder that we didn't have to settle for those stereotypes either-we didn't just have to be living in the ghetto, and we could go as far as any white person in society, if we wanted to. We were showing ourselves that we didn't have to settle for being second-rate. We could make our own paths in life-they weren't set down for us," he continued, his eyes gleaming brightly.

"See, that's a perfect conclusion to your presentation!" Gwen said brightly, caught up in the passion with which Randy had been speaking. "That's what your presentation needs-say it like that, and you'll get an A for sure!" she enthused.

Randy smiled in satisfaction for a few moments, before he suddenly began blinking, as the emotion he had been feeling began to lift.

"…Wow," he said slowly, shaking his head. "I'm not sure what even came over me."

"The strength of what you believed in," Gwen reminded him with a grin. "That's what it is-I mean, doesn't it tie right back into the whole point of your presentation?"

"…Yeah, I suppose it does," Randy grinned.

Gwen just grinned and winked at him.

They sat in silence for a few moments, as Randy put away his laptop.

"So, what do you have planned for Thanksgiving?" Randy asked her, as they got up and began walking towards the bus stop.

"Probably just dinner with my family," Gwen replied. "Grandpa Lieber's probably going to stop by, too."

"How'd you like to join me for Thanksgiving brunch?" Randy offered. "Grandma Martha's going to treat us all to a meal at the Heritage," he continued.

To his surprise, Gwen frowned and looked away.

"What's wrong, Gwen?" Randy asked in surprise. "You don't want to come?"

"…It sounds like it should be one of those family-only things," Gwen said quietly, still looking away from Randy.

"Are you kidding me?" Randy asked, surprise turning to shock. "Why would you think-"

Gwen didn't reply, only shaking her head.

"Is it because of my parents?" Randy asked, more gently this time.

Gwen blinked a couple of times, turning her gaze farther away from Randy, but he could still see the tears she was trying to hide.

"Gwen, what happened?" Randy asked.

"It's nothing, Randy," Gwen said, quietly again.

"Don't give me that," Randy said, putting a finger on her chin and turning her face to meet his. "You know you're a bad liar, Gwen, so don't even try. Now what happened?"

Gwen only frowned, remembering the nasty accusations Louise had directed towards her. Even recalling the memories, she hated the idea of causing a rift between Randy and his mother. While Louise Robertson had misunderstood why Randy had been so upset, she was only angry at Gwen because she was convinced that Gwen was the reason the boy she loved so much was suffering.

Randy, on the other hand, only felt frustrated.

He had heard the invectives his parents used to describe Gwen to each other…

…and not just to each other.

For a moment, he recalled the image of Gwen sitting with that Nate Grey character.

Then, he felt a well of anger rise up in him.

He looked over at Gwen, who was leaning on his shoulder, the sparkle gone from her eyes.

He felt even angrier.

Those who didn't know Todd "Ray-Ray" Iainuzzi might have been forgiven for thinking his mood never changed, given the perpetually angry glower on his face. The glower matched well with the rest of his face, ranging from the red, bloodshot eyes to the perpetual shadow of a beard, and his tangled, dirty-blonde hair. His T-shirt was sleeveless, exposing his thickly muscled arms and the tattoos on his biceps, matching images of eyepatch-wearing skulls holding knives in their teeth.

When he kicked open the door of the pizza restaurant, everybody in the place froze, not daring to make a move.

They knew better than that, although that knowledge didn't always help them.

Todd stomped through the main dining area towards the kitchen, before stopping at one table. Turning and reaching out with one large arm, he hauled a middle-aged man to his feet and dragged him forward, until he was staring into the older man's eyes.

"Who the fuck do you think you are?" Todd sneered.

The man only swallowed hard.

"Answer me when I'm talking to you!" Todd snarled, his voice rising.

"Nobody…I…I'm nobody…" the man stammered.

"Then why were you looking at me like you're some big shot?" Todd demanded.

"I…I wasn't!" the man replied, now shaking with fear.

"So you're calling me a liar, huh? Is that it, you little cocksucker?" Todd continued.

"No…no!" the man begged.

Todd relaxed his grip on the man, and for a moment he felt a palpable sense of relief.

That was before his stomach exploded with pain, as Todd jammed his knife into the man's belly.

Dropping the bleeding man where he stood, Todd strolled over to the kitchen and took the bag of food the terrified chef was holding out for him, before turning and leaving.

Even after he slammed the door behind him, the people in the restaurant remained as still as statues for several long, agonizing minutes.

The look on Donald Gill's face as he talked to Cicero Viceconte was as cold and hard as the winter storms he took his supervillain name from. His snow-white hair and skin, along with his ice-blue eyes, would have been giveaways by themselves. Even they paled in comparison, however, to the superhuman ice- and cold-generating powers he had acquired after an accident involving liquid Freon chemicals. As Blizzard, Donald Gill had embarked on a short-lived career as a supervillain, having been defeated by the spectacular Spider-Woman during her first encounter with a costumed criminal.

The Gill family were a notorious collection of reprobates, repeat offenders, petty criminals and chronic jailbirds, and Donald had carried on the family tradition even before he'd become a supervillain. However, while the Gills had been involved in bank robbery, drug dealing, car theft, and any number of other offenses, it was a point of family pride that none of them had ever been convicted for murder, or for any kind of sexual offense.

Hence it was no surprise that Donald had been disgusted when the owner of Papa Cicero's, as the pizza place was known, had recounted to Donald what had happened at his restaurant.

"How long has he been doing this, Cicero?" Donald asked.

"Six month," Cicero replied, his Italian accent still noticeable despite the two and a half decades since he'd immigrated to New York. "He keep making me pay protection, he increase it every time every two week. He make me give free food too, most expensive thing on menu! I barely getting by, Donald-I don't know how much longer I can pay bills! Todd will ruin me!" he continued, putting his face in his hands.

Donald only stared calmly at the older man, who was trying to restrain his tears. He'd lost count of the number of times he'd spent his criminal gains at Papa Cicero's, and it sickened him to think that the Vicecontes, of all people, were suffering at the hands of a psychopath like Todd.

Iainuzzi's no better than the rest of those freaks in the Raft, he thought to himself, referring to most of the rest of the supervillains who he'd done time with before being paroled. With the obvious exception of that sweetheart Marie-Ange Colbert, alias Tarot, they were sick, twisted monsters that committed their crimes as much for pleasure as for profit. Even without their powers, they were terrifying to anyone who wasn't as hardened as Donald himself, or the superheroes that fought them.

That was the crucial difference between them and Todd, though. While the supervillains were dangerous, Todd was a cowardly little pussy who only picked on his victims because he knew they couldn't fight back.

Then again, if he challenged Todd street rules…

…Yeah, it's going to be street rules, Blizzard realized.

River Verys hardly knew where he was, feeling as if he was adrift in a haze. He could occasionally hear voices, and occasionally sensed things being inserted into his skin.

Hear them, feel them, imagine them…

See them when I awaken…

All of those things paled in comparison to the searing agony that flowed through his veins, the sensation that his skin was moving and was trying to tear itself off.

Shred it, rip it, slash it…

Make it hurt so good…

River liked the pain, given how much it distracted from the hunger he was feeling, a sickening feeling of starvation that made him want to feed.

Tear an arm off, tear a leg off, tear my head off…

All to feed, I'm so hungry…

"Goddamnit!" cursed Dr. McKenzie as he worked frantically. "How's this even possible?"

He wasn't expecting an answer, of course, as he worked frantically to keep River Verys alive. Verys was now shaking violently, as if he were suffering an epileptic seizure, whereas before he'd been in a coma.

The machines keeping Verys alive beeped frantically all around him, almost as if in time with his thrashing. To Dr. McKenzie's horror, Verys began foaming at the mouth, globs of foam pouring down his cheeks. At the same time, pustules began to rise up all over his skin before they burst, leaking pus and bile and soaking the bandages covering his chemical burns even as they seeped into his stab wounds.

As suddenly as it had begun, however, the beeping and the thrashing stopped, as River's body fell limp.

There was nothing left but a dull tone, the sound of the dead.

Fucking junkie, Dr. McKenzie thought, turning away in disgust as he prepared to fill out the paperwork.

Dr. Sophia Truth had joined the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner Of New York back in 1985 as a young resident fresh out of med school. In her twenty-three years on the job, she'd seen many gruesome sights. However, the corpse of River Verys was unsettling even to an experienced pathologist, covered as it was in burst sores, skin shriveled from burn scars and the remains of foamy bile around his chin and lips.

While she'd read Dr. McKenzie's report, Dr. Truth hadn't quite believed it until she saw the gruesome results for herself. In between the chemical burns, and suffering multiple self-inflicted stab wounds with an uncleaned and potentially infectious knife, Dr. Truth had been amazed that this poor bastard had even survived as long as he did. It had been several days before he died, and now it was her job to figure out exactly what had killed him.

She had her back turned, preparing her instruments, when she heard the sound. It sounded like paper being ripped, except accompanied by a squishing echo and the sound of water pouring all over the ground.

Whirling around in alarm, she screamed at the horror she saw arising from her operating table.

The SWAT team members had responded quickly to the alarm, but not quickly enough. By the time they arrived, all they found was the corpses of the eight people who had been on duty at the office that evening.

They might have been forgiven for misidentifying the eight victims as being many more, given how badly they had been mutilated. Body parts had been strewn about at random, blood and bile spattered on the walls, as if whatever had done this was in a maddened frenzy.

Even that wasn't the most disturbing thing, of course. As the investigators would later find out, many of the body parts had large chunks torn out of them, chunks that simply couldn't be accounted for.

Following the trail of the carnage, they eventually came upon the autopsy room, the apparent site where the first slaughter had begun.

They found a large pile of torn skin, ripped to shreds, a mist of dried blood, and a scattering of sticky grey fibers.

(Next Issue: Gwen's career appears to be on the rebound, as she begins working with Desiree Vaughn-Pope and Jonathan Caesar. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for her personal life, as her relationship with Randy becomes increasingly strained due to Randy's increasing conflict with his parents over his relationship with Gwen. Spider-Woman may not live long enough to worry about it, however, when she is confronted with the nightmarish monstrosity that calls itself Tendril! All this and more in  Spider-Woman  #83: Night Of The Hunter!)