Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With the Light

Chapter 16: Clown Without Pity

In the years since aliens, mutants, magic and superheroes had proven themselves all too real, the people of New York City had proven their resiliency time and again. Whether in dealing with the horrors of invading aliens, rampaging monsters, and the dozens of supervillains that had come to infest the city like a plague, New Yorkers had been beaten down many times before, but had always managed to rebuild.

So it had been in the two weeks since the murderous Psyko had led an army of mentally enslaved supervillains on a rampage through New York. A valiant effort by the city's superheroes and law enforcement officials had managed to defeat Psyko and put an end to the madness he had wrought, and since then New Yorkers had pulled together to rebuild their city. Philanthropists ranging from the likes of technology guru Tony Stark and computer software magnate Marc Spector, to celebrities such as mutant singer Allison Blaire and lawyer Matt Murdock, had all donated substantial sums of money to help the city rebuild.

Gwen Stacy couldn't help but feel a certain sense of pride as she walked down the street on her way home from work that evening. The rebuilding had been difficult-the Empire State Coffee Shop had taken a fair beating-but her city had once again proven its ability to recover from disaster. As the spectacular Spider-Woman, she had participated in the fight against the supervillains, helping to bring Blizzard back to his senses and capturing the villainous Pyro, to say nothing of the many innocent lives she and Blizzard had saved.

She couldn't help but feel a certain amount of sympathy for Blizzard, who had put his life on the line without hesitation to help her. Although he could have escaped capture like many of the other supervillains who had managed to regain their senses after Psyko's defeat, he had willingly stayed behind and let himself be returned to prison to serve out his sentence.

It was then that Gwen froze in amazement.

She was feeling sympathy for Blizzard?

Her first fight with Blizzard had been harsh and violent, and she hadn't felt any remorse in beating him senseless.

But now…

…Now, she simply wasn't sure what she felt.

SPIDER-WOMAN #16

"CLOWN WITHOUT PITY"

"Blast it all Percy, what's wrong now?" the man demanded in a confident voice, scowling in frustration. The man's expression suddenly shifted into a look of extreme worry, before he spoke again in a much more timid, childlike voice.

"The stripes…why'd you have to make so many stripes?" he asked plaintively.

It was a valid question, given that the walls of the warehouse basement the man claimed as his lair were painted in bizarre, unsettling patterns of purple and white stripes and spirals. Demented, unsettling furniture decorated the room, crafted to resemble monstrous clowns, demonic teddy bears, maimed toy soldiers, and wicked witches. Paintings depicting superheroes suffering from various gruesome fates hung on the wall, while pint-sized dolls, wolves, and trolls roamed everywhere. In the corner, a large group of tiny spinning wheels were manned by dozens of tiny Rumplestiltskin-like figures, who worked diligently at spinning their master's new costume.

"Please, Percy," the man sniffed disdainfully, again taking on that confident 'Barton' tone, "A good showman always displays a proper sense of aesthetics."

"But-" the man interrupted himself again, taking on that plaintive 'Percy' voice.

"No buts!" the man started once more in his 'Barton' voice. "Our old costume was far too generic, and hardly stood out against those of the dozens of other rogues in the city. If we hope to establish ourselves as performance artists, we must stand out from the crowd!"