Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man, is dead, slain at the hands of the Green Goblin. Following the events of 'What If...? Dark: Spider-Gwen', a new hero must rise and assume the spider-mantle to protect New York from the forces of evil. That perso...
Several days had passed since the incident with the Wolf-Man, and Gwen was starting to properly get used to her new dual identity as Spider-Woman. The twenty year old girl was really getting into the thrill of being a superhero, and it gave her a good feeling too, being able to help people in need. But she was also learning just how much harder it made normal life too, as finding time to study for her ESU classes in-between heroics was tougher than she had expected. Quite how Peter had managed to cope with balancing this sort of thing about in life she had no idea.
Gwen was determined not to let her studies slip, so she did as much time at home as possible preparing for her classes, though this did have the knock-on effect of her having to cut-down on the time she spent socialising with her friends. Most people seemed okay with this, assuming that she was still grieving over Peter. But Gwen missed hanging out with those closest to her, and sometimes it tore her up the way she had to keep bailing on them whenever she needed to dash off as Spider-Woman. She wished she could have at least one person to confide in, to tell them her secret, so she would not feel so alone. But the one person she had confided in was Harry, and he ended up becoming a supervillain as an indirect consequence. So now Gwen was reluctant to tell anyone the secret of her new identity as a superhero, lest anyone else in her life get hurt because of her.
Gwen thought she would have to get used to feeling so isolated in life, but one evening, a chain of events began that at the end would change that. She had been sitting in a chair at her apartment, quietly reading some textbooks concerning bio-chemistry, when she got an urgent call from Mary Jane Watson.
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"Hey, MJ. What's up this time?" asked Gwen absent-mindedly.
"Gwen, something's happened outside my apartment," MJ said, her voice quivering. "A girl was murdered on the streets, and... and I saw who did it!"
Gwen bolted upright in her chair, taken aback by the terrified tone of Mary Jane's voice on the other end of the line.
"What? Are you okay? You're not in danger are you?"
"Not yet, but I'm frightened half out of my skull! Could you get over here please? I need a friend right now."
"Of course, MJ, I'll be there as quickly as I can," promised Gwen soothingly.
As Gwen hung up the phone, she quickly changed into her Spider-Woman suit, and within seconds, she was web-swinging her way to Mary Jane's apartment as fast as she could. As she made her way high up above the streets, Gwen's mind raced over the trouble that Mary Jane was in. The best thing that MJ should do would be to go to the police, but being the daughter of a Police Captain, Gwen had heard too many tales of witnesses too terrified to speak out, afraid that if they did, they would be the next victim. It was very likely that MJ was feeling the same way, and if that was the case, Gwen knew it would be up to her to persuade her friend otherwise.
As Spider-Woman rounded the block, she spotted Mary Jane's apartment just ahead. As the young web-swinger landed discreetly on top of the roof and glanced down at the street below, she quickly saw that Mary Jane was not exaggerating. A young girl with copper-coloured hair, apparently no older than Gwen was, laid lifeless on the pavement, her dead body being examined by a forensic scientist, while various police officers were busy trying to hold back the crowd of onlookers that had gathered. And from a glance, Spider-Woman could immediately tell that the drama must have all happened right in front of Mary Jane's window.
