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Appearing in "Lo, There Shall Come a Champion!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Amazing Spider-Man #274

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  • An armada of alien ships
  • Goblin Glider (Illusion or holographic simulation)

Synopsis for "Lo, There Shall Come a Champion!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Amazing Spider-Man #274

Following his failed attempt at eliminating the Beyonder[1], Thomas Fireheart returns to his tribe to advise his uncle of his failure. When his uncle tells him that he suspected that the Puma would fail, he hopes that if their agent of death could not stop the Beyonder then perhaps an agent of light could instead.

Many trillions of miles into space, the Beyonder floats in the void considering if he should destroy all existence or not. Considering how he had failed to find fulfillment his rage causes upheaval across the cosmos. When a legion of alien races attack the Beyonder, their most powerful weapon has no effect on him. In anger, the One From Beyond not only eradicates his attackers from existence -- he also destroys their home worlds and the worlds of every race that ever interacted with them. As a final touch to his punishment he erases all memory of these wiped out races from existence as well.

In his hellish netherworld, Mephisto watches over this and becomes angry that the Beyonder has snuffed out so many billions of lives and every soul is denied to him. With the Beyonder's consideration to destroy the universe approaching, Mephisto begins plotting to find a way to stop him as the destruction of all that is will end his existence as well. As he plots he is suddenly visited by the Beyonder himself who detected his thoughts and came to start his destruction by wiping out Mephisto's realm. Mephisto however begins discussing the Beyonder's origins and history, how he came to Earth[2] and the cosmic powers that be could not stop him[3] however Dr. Strange sent him on the path to enlightenment[4]. However after the Puma failed to destroy him[1] and the Molecules Man's betrayal[5] he has come to the conclusion that existence must be wiped out. However, Mephisto appeals to the Beyonder, telling him that there must be some who are worth living that he has met on his travels. When the Beyonder admits that he has met a few, Mephisto makes a wager with him: Pitting one of these beings against one of his own forces of evil to grant the multiverse a reprieve.

The Beyonder agrees to this wager, but on his own terms: He decides that if Mephisto's champion of good wins he will let everything continue to exist for another 24 hours. He then selects the Spider-Man as Mephisto's champion and selects the demon Zarathos as his, promising Zarathos if he succeeds he will be free from Mephisto's imprisonment until he destroys the universe. After the Beyonder dispatches Zarathos to Earth, the two begin monitoring the contest from a screen created by the Beyonder.

Peter Parker is at the hospital with Aunt May, Anna and Mary Jane Watson visiting Nathan Lubensky -- who is still recovering following his heart attack. After they depart, Peter is invited to go see the Christmas Show at Radio City with the others, but with a freelance assignment with the Bugle reaching its deadline, Peter declines and departs. As he changes into his Spider-Man costume and web-slings across the city, Peter's mind wanders to his worries about Nathan's hospital bills, his lack of money and the bind he is for buying Christmas gifts for Aunt May. He soon arrives at a warehouse where the Bugle was tipped off about a car ring that was about to be busted by the NYPD. As Spider-Man snaps photographs, he overhears the crooks plotting to assassinate the Kingpin that evening at 6:00 when he goes for his regular dinner at the Century Club. Before Spider-Man can learn any more about he attempt the police bust in and arrest the crooks.

As Spider-Man silently leaves the scene he thinks to himself how the assassination of the Kingpin would be for the better of the city, but his sense of responsibility cannot allow someone -- even someone as evil as the Kingpin -- to be murdered in cold blood. As the Wall-Crawler swings away he is suddenly confronted by the visage of Zarathos who envelops him in a cloud of brimstone causing him to drop down to the rooftops. As Spider-Man regains his bearings his Spider-Sense goes off and he is shocked to see that he is being attacked by his old foe the Green Goblin. Thinking it is an impostor, Spider-Man is even more shocked when he manages to unmask the Goblin and sees that it is Norman Osborn. Unable to believe that Osborn is still alive, Spidey struggles with his attacker until the Goblin crashes into the side of a building. Jumping to safety, Spider-Man is disorientated by the attack and wonders if what happened was real and decides to go home and rest before dropping his photos off at the Bugle and then investigating the potential assassination of the Kingpin. As Spider-Man heads for home, Mephisto becomes worried that Spider-Man is already beginning to doubt himself and begins marshaling his powers in order to cheat so that Spider-Man wins.

With his traditional red and blue costume reeking of brimstone, Peter puts his black costume on under his civvies and goes to sleep. As he rests he has a dream that he is visited by his parents who express their disappointment that Peter has dropped out of college. When Peter tries to talk sense into his parents they turn into demonic figures and blast him with hellfire. Peter wakes up and goes to the bathroom. He feels ill and sees that he has strange boils growing on his face. Mephisto begins to feel angry that the Beyonder is gloating over the current state of the contest. As Mephisto continues to plot some cheat, one of his slaves notices what he is up to and decides to rally the others -- deciding that oblivion is better than being forever tormented by Mephisto.

As the Kingpin finishes his daily affairs, Peter is walking the streets trying to get to a doctor but his strength fails him and he almost collapses. A police officer helps Peter into the back of his squad car and goes to drive him to the hospital. Peter is shocked to see that the office is the late George Stacy, who berates Peter for allowing him to die. To Peter's horror, Stacy transforms into a demon and the squad car into a demonic chariot and flies off into the sky. Even though Peter is sick, he manages to break free, denying any fault for Stacy's death -- hanging onto the idea that there was nothing he could do to save his life. As he falls to the city below he happens to see his dead former love Gwen Stacy falling also. Coming to his wits, Peter manages to save her unlike on that fateful day when she was murdered by the Green Goblin. However, Gwen tells him that she is already dead and it's his fault for not being able to save her. She suddenly transforms into a bird creature and flies away, leaving Peter alone and begging her to come back.

Peter's grief is interrupted by Zarathos who confronts him and attacks him openly. Stripping off his civilian clothing and putting on his costume, Spider-Man is prepared to fight off his demonic attacker. As the fight rages, the Kingpin prepares to leave for his appointed rendezvous at the Century Club. Spider-Man gains the upper hand in battle and manages to unmask Zarathos, but is once more surprised when Zarathos' face resembles that of his late Uncle Ben. "Ben" blasts Peter with hellfire and begins demanding that he toss away his morality, his sense of responsibility, and start thinking only of himself.

Despite the pain and flooding him with images of all those who have suffered as a result of his career as Spider-Man, Peter does not relent and refuses to give in. Thinking Spider-Man is about to fail, Mephisto is about to use his powers to help him when he is attacked by his minions, forcing him to use his power to fight them off instead. The Beyonder remarks that he knew of Mephisto's plot all along and refused to act. Fighting off the hellfire, Spider-Man then attacks Zarathos, banishing him away with a single punch. As the 6 o'clock hour tolls near, Spider-Man gathers his strength and manages to prevent the Kingpin from being shot by a rooftop sniper. When the police arrive on the roof, Spider-Man escapes angry that the Kingpin will never know -- or care if he did -- that he had saved his life. As he heads to the Daily Bugle to drop off his pictures he wonders if maybe he should revisit his morals and values.

With the contest over, the Beyonder tells Mephisto that he has won a 24-hour reprieve for all existence. The Beyonder departs telling Mephisto that he will give the multiverse some consideration but warns the Lord of Lies to enjoy it while it lasts as he will likely destroy everything.

Appearing in "Ashes to Ashes!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #28

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Synopsis for "Ashes to Ashes!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #28

As Spider-Man tries to stop the Masked Marauder's Tri-Man robot, Daredevil faces off alone against the Marauder and his goons. Spider-Man manages to disarm the Tri-Man's self-destruct mechanism and deactivate it based on blind-luck alone (pardon the pun). Meanwhile, Daredevil has an edge over the Marauder who relies on his eye-damaging helmet ray having no effect on him to defeat the Marauder. After the battle is over, Daredevil finds Spider-Man and tells him the battle is won, at that time Spider-Man is happy to find his vision is slowly coming back.

Returning to his apartment, Spider-Man finds that the police and a number of his friends are at the scene. Changing back to Peter Parker in an alley, Peter checks out the scene and finds that his apartment has been trashed and vandalized. Peter, wonders if the vandal knows of Peter's secret identity. Hector Ayala offers Peter a place to stay while his place is examined by the police.

That night at ESU, Peter detects danger and finds Carrion who has just finished attacking Hector and leaving another one of his accusative messages for some wrong he blames Parker for. Peter tries to stop Carrion, but the creature overpowers him and takes advantage of Peter's presently light-sensitive eyes to get a hold of Peter's throat. Carrion is about to get revenge on Peter when Holly Gillis walks in on them and begs Carrion to stop.

Appearing in "Dust to Dust!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #29

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Synopsis for "Dust to Dust!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #29

Carrion has Peter Parker at his mercy and intends to kill Parker for revenge over an unspecified murder when Holly Gillis walks in. When she realizes Hector has been knocked out by Carrion, Peter manages to talk her into escaping with him before Carrion can harm her. With her gone Peter tries to fight off Carrion, but only gets his red death dust in his face before the creature disappears vowing to fight Peter later. Peter just barely manages to prevent himself from injury when his last leap at Carrion sends him out of the window into the bushes below. Revived, Hector checks on the situation as White Tiger, before he and Holly take Peter to the hospital.

Ordered to rest on doctors orders, Peter leaves to return to class, where he, Flash, and Hector theorize about how Carrion may be. Peter bumps into Randy Vale who is looking forward to Peter being his teaching assistant in the next term. However, Randy is secretly an agent of Carrion.

As Peter attends his classes at ESU, Hector is watching over him as the White Tiger and is attacked by Vale -- who has been outfitted with a costume and weapons and calling himself Darter. With Parker's shadow gone, Peter is attacked once more by Carrion. During the fight, Peter is able to change into Spider-Man. When their fight is taken to ESU's gymnasium, their fight is briefly interrupted when White Tiger and Darter smash into the gym as well. Finally having Spider-Man where he wants him, Carrion tells him what he accuses Spider-Man of: The murder of Gwen Stacy and Miles Warren.

Appearing in "Carnage Rising!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Spider-Man Unlimited #1

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Synopsis for "Carnage Rising!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Spider-Man Unlimited #1

In the Ravencroft Asylum, a restrained Cletus Kasady is being brought in by Officer Resnick and four other security guards after a period incarcerated at the Vault.[Continuity 1] Kasady promises that when he escapes, he will kill Resnick quickly and with minimal agony. He's then handed over to Dr. Pournella and Dr. Landis so they could conduct some experiments on him. Dr. Landis believes that Kasady simply dressed up in some gaudy red costume while calling himself Carnage. Dr. Pournella reveals that they are conducting tests on Kasady because of an unexplained anomaly that keeps registering in his blood, and when she puts a needle in Kasady's arm, the Carnage symbiote reawakens and kills the guards and Dr. Landis. Carnage reveals that he lied to Resnick about the minimal agony. He then tells Dr. Pournella that he will celebrate his newfound freedom by slaying everyone in Ravencroft.

Meanwhile, Peter, Flash, Felicia, Mary Jane, JJ, Robbie, Aunt May, Peter's parents, Liz, Normie, and Mark are all attending the funeral of Harry Osborn. Felicia is wondering about the truth behind Harry's death.[Continuity 2] Liz tells Peter that Harry's happiest times were when the two were roommates back in college. Mary Jane mentions that Normie keeps glaring at them. Peter reflects on how Harry saved his life, and that his friends, foes, and family all manage to become jumbled together somehow. Back at Ravencroft, while Carnage is busy with his murdering, he hears someone cheering him on and frees the criminal known as Shriek in order to increase his ratio of kills per time. Back with Peter and Mary Jane, Peter is trying to get her to quit smoking so he won't have to attend her funeral as well and to make it equal, he promises her to stop being Spider-Man for a week or two.[Continuity 3] Across town somewhere, Carnage is telling Shriek how he shared a jell cell with Eddie Brock, and that when the Venom symbiote freed him, a part of it was left behind for Kasady to become Carnage.[Continuity 4] Spider-Man then used sonics on both symbiotes and Kasady arrived at Ravencroft. He then thinks he sees Spider-Man, but it turns out to be the Doppelganger who teamed up with Demogoblin.[Continuity 5] Shriek reveals her sonic power to protect the Doppelganger, so he can join their twisted family.

Peter hears that Kasady escaped Ravencroft and goes after him, thinking about all his old foes will never die off and keep coming back. Instead, he runs into Shriek and his Doppelganger. Mary Jane also hears on the television that Carnage escaped, and Shriek reveals both her powers and the fact that she and Carnage are an item to Spider-Man. Spider-Man quickly takes out Shriek, but the Doppelganger jams him in the ribs and off the building they were fighting on. The Doppelganger swings away with Shriek as Spider-Man collapses. Finally, at the Daily Bugle, Kate Cushing alerts Jonah that Carnage is loose. As he goes into his office to collect his passport and leave, he sees Kasady already in there and waiting for him to help him go on a hunt for Venom.

Maximum Carnage continues in Web of Spider-Man #101...

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