Mob Mentality

"God, this is such a white girl's playlist," Randy Robertson said with a smile as he looked at his girlfriend Gwen Stacy's smartphone. "Taylor Swift…the Jonas Brothers…Selena Gomez…Lady Gaga…Victoria Justice…Justin Bieber...I mean, haven't I taught you anything?" he continued, looking up at Gwen.

"What did you expect?" Gwen said, raising an eyebrow. "Besides, you didn't finish looking," she continued, gesturing at Randy to keep reading her playlist.

Randy continued scrolling down for a few seconds, before a broad smile crossed his face.

"Marvin Gaye…Alicia Keyes…Nicki Minaj…Michael Jackson," he said, nodding approvingly. "That's more like it!"

"I just couldn't get into Tupac or any of the other hip-hop guys, though," Gwen said, shaking her head. "I like the R&B and pop stuff just fine, but hip-hop just doesn't do it for me."

"Nobody's perfect," Randy said with a smile, before he handed Gwen's smartphone back to her.

He and Gwen hadn't seen each other as much as they would have liked over the last couple of weeks. They were both busy with their studies, and with final exams coming up they were both spending much of their free time studying. Even when Randy and Gwen weren't studying, they were still pretty busy. Randy was getting more and more responsibility at HABQ-FM, the radio station where he worked, and was working with Kitty Pryde on some community activism. Gwen was managing a rapidly growing social media following with her Fire Hearts-Fire Passion pages, in between regular acting and modelling work. Gwen had almost stopped patrolling as the spectacular Spider-Woman so she could look after her own needs and take care of herself.

"Not quite, but I'd like to think I'm halfway there," Gwen joked as she tapped away at her smartphone. "Public Enemy's coming to town in May, right?"

"Yeah they are," Randy said, a confused expression on his face. "I didn't think you'd like them."

"They're playing about five shows, right?" Gwen said. "From the 12th to the 17th?"

"Yeah, but I thought…" Randy said, before he trailed off.

Gwen just shrugged, and changed the subject.

Randy was about to answer, but then he remembered something.

He remembered that Gwen often had trouble making ends meet in the past. Now that her career was picking up, she had more money to spend.

Randy also remembered that his birthday was May 16th.

He was careful to hide his smile.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-WOMAN #97

MOB MENTALITY

Study Objective: Comparative analysis of different public reactions to several different scenarios.

Hypotheses: No hypotheses at present-primary considerations are controlling for overlap between scenarios and responses from the same subjects to multiple scenarios.

Logistics: A concern-formula ingredients have specific costs and purchase limits, determine how to contact Mysterio for image inducer & other equipment without trail leading back to me, appropriate subject selection and scenario planning, appropriate use of light projections. Cash in a hurry-bank robbery? Or more subtle crimes in the model of Will O' the Wisp?

Scenario Considerations:

Left wing backlash-Racial or sexual comments more likely to provoke? Mutant rights? Immigration? Known bigots or broken pedestals of admired figures? Mass events?

Right wing backlash-Reaction to left activism, or original created crisis?

Cyberbullying-non political actions likely to provoke greater action?

Pedophilia-provoke the quickest retaliation?

Ethical Considerations: Hahahahaha…dance puppets dance!

Three weeks later…

Lana Goodman wondered what things would be like now that she'd lost her virginity. She supposed that meant she and Kevin Glenn were officially going steady-at least, that's what he'd said when they'd done the deed last weekend. She knew she had to make sure that she acted normally in front of her parents, since her Dad would likely have a coronary if he found out.

Everything was normal for the first two days after the weekend, but she got the first text message just before 10:00.

I wanna cum on you, baby, it said.

Lana's eyes widened at the disgusting message. She didn't know who it was from, and she figured it was likely just some pervert who got the wrong number.

She blocked the number, and continued on her way.

By 10:45, Lana had gotten nearly two dozen more text messages.

Friendly bit of advice-wire hangers are cheap, slut.

You sure you didn't get a boob job?

I would destroy you with the fire of a thousand suns.

Lana had a free period at 11:00. As she emerged from Biology class, she was suddenly conscious of several other students staring at her. Some of them were scowling, others were leering at her.

The text messages were disturbing enough to Lana, but being called a cunt and a whore were even worse. She looked around desperately for some of her friends, and she was immensely relieved to see Caitlyn coming up towards her.

"Are you okay, Lana?" Caitlyn asked, hugging her friend.

"Do I look like I'm alright?" Lana said, the anxiety etched on her face. "What the hell is going on?"

"You don't know?" Caitlyn said, shock on her own face, before she typed on her smartphone.

Lana was staggered at the web video, apparently uploaded by Kevin Glenn, of them having sex in his bedroom. Text appeared below the video showing their addresses and telephone numbers.

Lana screamed in horror, staggering back until she slumped against the lockers. She slumped to the floor, sobbing in horror, as Caitlyn tried to comfort her.

Her phone continued to fill up with text messages.

Gwen climbed the front steps to Randy's townhouse with an extra bounce in her step. She'd had a long, hard day of studying for final exams and answering correspondence on her social media network, and she was eager for a break. She was going to dinner with Randy at Papa Cicero's, and she'd been looking forward to it all day.

Gwen's bright mood faded when the Robertsons' door opened in response to her knock. Randy's mother Louise Robertson answered Gwen's knock, and she didn't seem happy to see the younger woman. Gwen's heart sank as she saw Louise's expression, wondering if she'd done something to get on Louise's bad side again.

"Hello, Mrs. Robertson," Gwen said, bowing slightly. "It's good to see you again. Is Randy-"

"Randy isn't coming, Gwen," Louise said, her expression stone cold.

"…What's wrong, Mrs. Robertson?" Gwen asked. "Is…" she trailed off.

Louise looked curiously at Gwen for a few seconds, before she realized what Gwen was thinking.

"No, it's not anything you did, child," Louise said, shaking her head. "Maybe you should come in and see Randy. He can tell you better than I could."

Gwen was truly worried as Louise led her into the Robertsons' townhouse and she went up to Randy's room. Randy flung open the door in answer to Gwen's knock, and she was dismayed to see the look of livid anger on his face.

"Randy?" Gwen asked in alarm. "What's wrong?"

Instead of answering, Randy just scowled, walking back into his room. Gwen followed Randy, joining him on the small sofa he kept in one corner of the room.

"I thought he was on our side, Gwen," Randy said. "He was supposed to be one of the good ones!"

"What are you talking about?" Gwen said, now very worried. She put an arm around him, trying to calm him down.

"Greg Walker," Randy said. "You know who we thought he was, right?"

Gwen knew Greg Walker, of course. Walker was a New York philanthropist known for his support of minorities like the black and mutant communities, whether with scholarships for study or financially supporting the communities' activism. Randy had told Gwen all about him, and referred to him as one of the 'good ones', one of the white power players in New York who actually gave two shits about minority issues.

"What do you mean, you thought he was?" Gwen said, blinking.

"I mean this," Randy said, unlocking his smartphone and handing it to Gwen.

Gwen's eyes widened in horror at the Twitter photo she saw of Greg Walker in a crowd of senior Watchdog leaders. The Watchdogs were a hate group like the Ku Klux Klan or the Friends of Humanity, except that they extended their hatred to blacks, mutants and indeed anyone who wasn't white. They were up front about their goals of social control, which encompassed everything from preventing the teaching of sexual education and evolution to ensuring black people 'knew their place'.

Gwen had seen the passion in Randy's eyes when he'd spoken about the Watchdogs, and how people like Greg Walker were valuable allies against them. Now, Gwen saw that same passion again, but this time it was tainted by rage.

"Look at this," Randy said as he scrolled through the Twitter account. "Copies of all of Walker's transactions to support those sons of bitches. Everything he said he did for us, Gwen-it was all a lie. A fucking lie!" he continued, his voice rising with anger.

Gwen wished she knew what to say to help Randy. She'd never experienced anything like this-if anything, her fair skin and blonde hair made her exactly the kind of person the Watchdogs would have wanted to represent them. The closest she'd come was at some of the social gatherings Randy invited her to, when she was one of the few, and sometimes only, white person there.

She'd felt distinctly out of place, on her guard, and thinking she needed to be very careful what she said or did.

All she could do was hug Randy tightly, offering him her support.

No rest for the weary, Marissa Wilson thought to herself as she clicked the SEND icon on her latest article. This piece should really rattle their cages, she finished with a smile.

Marissa enjoyed the dustups she got into on social media and in the comments section of the commentaries she published on sites like Jezebel and Bustle. Her criticisms of what she considered the misogyny of so much media, particularly the sexist conduct of everyone from politicians to movie producers, had gotten her a lot of heat. She was routinely called everything from a whore to a cunt, but she hardly cared about that. If the sexist bastards were focusing their barbs on her, they were taking them away from other women.

Marissa was working from home today, finishing up several articles she'd been working on for the last several days while she waited for her girlfriend to come home. Now that she was done, she walked downstairs and into the kitchen, eager for some lunch. She was just opening the cupboard when she heard the door knock.

Marissa's kitchen was at the back of her house, so it took her several seconds to answer the door. When she opened it, she couldn't see anyone there. Instead, there was simply a package with her name and address on it.

Raising an eyebrow at the package, Marissa picked it up before shutting the door and returning to the kitchen. Sitting down, she opened up the package.

And screamed.

Packages of her changing at the gym, of her parents walking their dog, of her brother getting into his car, of the front door of her house, among more intimate and personal things, spilled out of the package. Along with them was a laser-printed note, which Marissa picked up with trembling hands.

She began to read, and quickly regretted doing so.

Surprised?

Don't be.

We're sick of your feminist bullshit. We're sick of your saying we should be ashamed to be men. We're sick of your saying we're bad people for enjoying the things we do.

So consider this your first, last and only warning.

Stop what you're doing, or you'll die like the craven little whore that you are. We will fuck you right in the pussy. We will write our warnings to other feminists in your spilled blood. We will destroy everyone you've ever cared about.

We know where to find you.

And we will do it.

Marissa sat silently in her seat, stunned by what she had just seen and read.

Her girlfriend found her in that same position nearly four hours later when she came home.

Progress Report:

Easy to acquire gold to pay Mysterio for image inducers and spy equipment, Fixer for use of Internet bots and assorted pharmacies for mind control formula ingredients-phased into armored car company trucks and hypnotized security guards into handing over gold. Hypnosis techniques learned from Will O' Wisp-he had base motivations & goals, but highly intelligent in execution.

Spy equipment gathered photographs, image inducer to move about in public freely without notice to slip mind control formula into food and beverages, spy equipment further allowed for commands to be subtly passed on to test subjects, bots and burner phones used to gather information for doxxing purposes and make untraceable social media accounts to post incriminating information.

Preliminary results already interesting-all of the components of the experiment so far have displayed similar results. Will the fourth component have a similar act-unexpected interventions, perhaps?

The sun and the wind felt great to Spider-Woman as she swung across New York. As Gwen, she had been working almost nonstop for the last few weeks and she was looking forward to a break. Everything was going well right now, as Spider-Woman knew she'd aced her final exams. She'd also made a tidy sum of money for her modeling work, which would help her family out. That said, Spider-Woman hadn't suited up in more than a month, and she missed the sensation of web-swinging. The late April weather was beautiful, and Spider-Woman wanted to enjoy it in a way only she could.

While Spider-Woman was enjoying herself, her thoughts kept going back to Randy and his anger at Greg Walker. Walker had strenuously denied that he'd appeared at the Watchdog rally, claiming that the pictures must have been photoshopped. Randy didn't believe him, and neither did most other people, many of whom viciously denounced him on social media. Spider-Woman wasn't sure what to think, but since Randy didn't believe Walker she wasn't inclined to believe him either.

Spider-Woman was jolted from her reverie by the sound of gunshots. Swinging towards to where she'd heard the shots, Spider-Woman landed gracefully in front of a townhouse with an open door. Screams and crying came from the townhouse, and Spider-Woman raced forward, determined to see what was wrong.

Three masked figures emerged from the townhouse before Spider-Woman could enter it. Despite the warm spring weather, the figures were all dressed in black clothes with matching balaclavas. They carried pistols, and as they saw Spider-Woman they quickly raised their weapons.

Spider-Woman was quicker, shooting the guns out of two of the figures' hands with her sting blasts. The third figure managed to shoot, but Spider-Woman quickly ducked under it and fired off a sting blast with one hand. The sting blast knocked the gun out of the third figure's hand, and Spider-Woman used her second hand to tangle the third figure with webbing. Spider-Woman quickly turned, pulling the webline so she flung the third figure into the first two. All three of the masked thugs collapsed, groaning, before Spider-Woman wrapped them all up with webbing.

A woman in bloodstained clothing came to the door of the townhouse while Spider-Woman was fighting the masked figures. Her face was streaked with tears, and her eyes were red from crying. She stared at the masked figures, and then at Spider-Woman, before staring at the figures again.

"What did these people do?" Spider-Woman asked the woman.

"They…they murdered my husband," the woman said.

"It's justice!" one of the figures shouted, her voice rising. "JUSTICE!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Spider-Woman asked, turning to face the masked figures.

"You've got some nerve calling yourself a hero," the masked figure said, her eyes narrowing behind her balaclava. "How can you defend someone like Nick Marsters?!"

"How many times do I have to tell you?" the woman in the bloodstained clothing said. "My husband's not named Nick! We're the Summers family! My husband's name is Ben!"

"Call the police," Spider-Woman said to Mrs. Summers. "I'll keep an eye on them."

Mrs. Summers nodded, tears rimming up in her eyes again, before she went back into the townhouse.

"It looks like you all got the wrong guy," Spider-Woman said to the masked figures, her eyes narrowing. "I take it you're happy?"

"What, we're supposed to be sad because one innocent person with privilege got caught up in it?" one of the masked figures said, sneering behind his balaclava. "We're supposed to feel bad when we're fighting for our kids' survival?"

Spider-Woman stared at the masked figures in disbelief, even as the cries of the Summers children from inside the townhouse filled her ears.

She was sorely tempted to knock some sense into the masked figures, but she couldn't bring herself to sink to their level.

Once the police came to the Summers home and took the masked vigilantes away, Spider-Woman swung home. She was confused as to who this 'Nick Marsters' person was, and why Ben Summers could have been mistaken for him. Logging into her computer, she began searching on social media for information about him.

Spider-Woman was sickened by what she found. Social media was full of information about his sexual assaults and his child pornography collection, along with identifying personal information. Spider-Woman literally felt ill as she understood just who Nick Marsters was. Judging by his personal appearance, Spider-Woman could see why people mistook Ben Summers for him.

Spider-Woman was about to log out of her computer when a stray thought crossed her mind. The social media description of Nick Marsters' crimes were quite similar to the description Randy had showed her of Greg Walker's. Spider-Woman realized it could be a coincidence, but she wasn't comfortable dismissing it as that. She spent another hour searching on social media, and she found the descriptions of Lana Goodman and Marissa Wilson.

Spider-Woman was surer than ever that this wasn't a coincidence, not if all these things were happening at once. She wondered for a while who could be doing this, when old memories came flooding back. Spider-Woman remembered the kidnappings and supervillain riots that had been organized as part of a twisted psychological experiment, and who was behind them.

Spider-Woman remembered who was behind them, and remembered that she could track that person with her spider-senses.

As if by instinct, her spider-senses flared to life.

Emerging from her Aunt Nancy's townhouse, Spider-Woman swung off, determined to make her old enemy pay.

Moonstone's lair was a building equipped with laboratory equipment that she could use to make her mind control formula and monitor her social media data. She had the place to herself, having hypnotized and drugged the owner of the building into letting her use it without interference. She was so busy working with her chemicals, preparing a new batch of her mind control formula, that she was caught off guard by her perimeter alarms blaring.

Hastily emerging from her chemical laboratory, looking around in alarm, Moonstone looked at the video monitor showing the outside of the building. To her dismay, Moonstone saw Spider-Woman landing in front of a side door, kicking it open before charging through it.

Moonstone cursed herself, realizing that she'd gotten too caught up in her experiment to anticipate Spider-Woman finding her so quickly. Moonstone had no idea how Spider-Woman managed to do it, but the interfering web-slinger managed to track her down three times in the past despite how well Moonstone thought she'd hidden herself. Spider-Woman had only won one of her three battles with Moonstone, and Moonstone didn't intend to let her win another.

Moonstone's eyes glowed as she made herself intangible, phasing through the walls of the building towards where Spider-Woman had entered. She caught Spider-Woman by surprise, blinding the younger woman with a burst of light and then striking her head-on with a double laser blast. Spider-Woman screamed and collapsed, but she quickly sprang back to her feet. Spider-Woman fired her sting blasts, forcing Moonstone to hastily raise an energy barrier to block them. Moonstone's barrier vanished as Spider-Woman's blasts struck them, and Spider-Woman quickly followed up by entangling Moonstone with webbing.

Moonstone generated a flash of light before she phased free of the webbing, preventing Spider-Woman from blasting her. It was Moonstone's turn to follow up as she blasted Spider-Woman again, before charging in and grappling her. Moonstone rapidly spun for in place before she brutally threw Spider-Woman into the far wall. Spider-Woman cried out in pain as she crashed into the wall and collapsed, rolling desperately on the ground as she dodged Moonstone's next energy blasts. She fired a webline with one hand, tripping Moonstone and forcing her to let up before Spider-Woman hit her with a sting blast.

Moonstone tried to generate another light blast to blind Spider-Woman, but the arachnid heroine was ready for it and quickly closed her eyes. Spider-Woman leapt forward and caught Moonstone, laying into her with a vicious series of punches and kicks. Moonstone tried to break free, but Spider-Woman was as strong as she was and completely outclassed her in hand to hand combat. Moonstone managed to blast Spider-Woman in the abdomen, but Spider-Woman ignored the pain and hit right back, decking Moonstone with a punch that would have knocked her senseless without her helmet.

Moonstone reeled from Spider-Woman's blows, and it took her several seconds before she finally became intangible again. Moonstone turned to flee, intending to attack again once she'd had some time to regroup, but Spider-Woman caught her with a sting blast. Collapsing on the ground, Moonstone cried out in pain as Spider-Woman entangled her in webbing. It was now Spider-Woman's turn to spin in place and brutally fling Moonstone against the wall. Moonstone crashed heavily against the wall, slumping to the floor. She got to her hands and knees, but she couldn't crawl more than a foot before she collapsed again.

Marching over to Moonstone, Spider-Woman grabbed one of her fallen enemy's arms and dragged her away to find a phone. She knew that Moonstone could phase free of her webbing, but she knew that Moonstone wouldn't be able to escape a point-blank sting blast.

When the police answered Spider-Woman's call, they found a mountain of evidence waiting for them. Moonstone's research notes, her chemical equipment, meticulous records of how she had hypnotized, drugged or impersonated her various victims into doing what she wanted them to, and social media monitoring software that tracked how people reacted to Moonstone's manipulations were all there. It was an impressive scientific layout, but in the police's hands it ensured Moonstone would face justice for her crimes.

Unfortunately, that was too late for Marissa Wilson, who was kidnapped at gunpoint from her home and shot execution-style the same day that Spider-Woman defeated Moonstone.

Three days later…

"A lot of people still won't forgive Greg Walker," Randy said, shaking his head sadly.

"Even after the police revealed how Moonstone manipulated him?" Gwen said, an incredulous look on her face.

"They're saying Moonstone just revealed his true colors," Randy said, waving his hands up and down. "Apparently nothing he did before now counts for anything. I just don't know what to make of some people anymore, Gwen-I really don't," he finished, a dejected look crossing his face.

"People have been arguing in the comments sections of some of my YouTube videos how Marissa Wilson had it coming," Gwen said, shaking her head. "Apparently advocating for women's rights means you deserve to have your address given away to the public. Do you get the logic? I sure as hell don't."

"Neither do I," Randy said. "Apparently the ends justify the means nowadays."

"No matter how many innocent people get caught in it?" Gwen said.

Randy wished he could say Gwen was wrong, he really did.

Unfortunately, he couldn't.

(Next Issue: With the school semester coming to an end, Gwen and her friends prepare for Harry Osborn's upcoming wedding to Liz Allan. Gwen embraces her role as Liz's maid of honor, but she finds herself taking on duties she never imagined when an insanely jealous Firebrand crashes the festivities! All this and more in Spider-Woman #98: You May Now Kill The Bride!)