Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With the Light

Chapter 5: Burning Man

Gwen lay on her bed that Sunday night, studying diligently for final exams as she considered the events of the last few days. Apparently her mutant powers were greater than she had initially suspected-the injuries she had suffered in her battles with Blizzard, the Brothers Grimm, and Will O' the Wisp had healed with astonishing speed. Then there was the way the sticky, adhesive dough that the Brothers Grimm had thrown at her proved unable to stick, as it harmlessly slid off her body.

As she stood up to stretch and take a break, Gwen decided to try another experiment. Applying first scotch tape, then glue, then duct tape, and finally even her own webbing to her skin, Gwen found that they all slid off and lost their adhesive properties as soon as she wished it. Nothing, it seemed, could stick to her skin unless she wanted it to. She raised a bemused eyebrow at this, before vaguely remembering her high school biology class, and how the teacher had mentioned that spiders managed to avoid getting stuck in their own webs by means of special secretions-apparently she released secretions of her own that repelled adhesives.

Unfortunately, that's all it can keep from sticking, Gwen thought ruefully. Too bad it doesn't work on whatever else you might be stuck with, and you can't get rid of...

SPIDER-WOMAN #5

"BURNING MAN"

The next morning, Gwen came into Drama class, taking off the thick coat she wore as she came to sit down at the desk.

"Hiya, Gwen!" Gwen heard a cheerful voice greeting her, as she turned around. She smiled as she saw Kitty Pryde, Journalism major and intern at the Daily Bugle, who came down to sit next to her. Kitty moved to hug Gwen, before she passed right through her and stumbled briefly, before righting herself. Kitty was a mutant, gifted with the ability to pass through solid objects, a talent she called "phasing". Despite the difficulty many mutants faced in society, Kitty's kind heart and exuberant nature had won her many friends at Empire State University.

"Hello, Kitty," Gwen greeted her with a half-smile. "You're in a good mood this morning."

"Come on, how could I not be?" she grinned. "There's just a week left before holidays! I'm going home to see Mom and Dad and-what's wrong?" she stopped as Gwen involuntarily winced.

"No, no, it's alright," Gwen shook her head. "I'm just stressed about finals, you know," she lied.

"Oh," Kitty nodded. "Too bad we missed you at the club on Saturday-Randy and Flash were both hoping you'd be there. You've been pretty busy lately?"

"Have I ever," Gwen sighed. "Have you figured out who you're doing to do for your monologue as part of Final exams?"

"That's easy," Kitty grinned. "I'm going to do Florinda, from Aphra Behn's The Rover," she chuckled. "How about you? You would have made a great. We should have done a duet..."

"Your masked sister?" Gwen raised an eyebrow. "Sure, it's tempting, but I've been practicing as Portia, from The Merchant of Venice, for a while now, so I'm going with that," she finished as their professor came into the room.

"Of course, this is the parallel between the theater and real life," Gwen listened to her professor lecture the class. "We all step into and out of certain roles as we must, we all put on masks and become new people-we change with the light, so to speak. That's your task for this assignment-to find a new mask, a new role to step into, that simultaneously reflects an aspect of who you are. Try to think about how the role you choose reflects an aspect of your personality that you might keep hidden, or is otherwise important to you."

Gwen sat impassively in her seat, looking around at her classmates, before finally staring intently at a mirror leaning on the far wall.

Even she was unsure of exactly what she felt at the moment.