Ultimate Spider-Woman: Change With the Light

Chapter 110: Tonight, Someone Dies!

Gwen Stacy, alias the spectacular Spider-Woman, hardly heard the crashing thunder all around her. She hardly saw the flashes of lightning above her. Her mind was focused on only one thing, to find her hated archenemy Jack O' Lantern and finally put an end to his insanity once and for all.

Out of all the supervillains Gwen fought as Spider-Woman, Jack O' Lantern frightened her more than any of them. He knew her secret identity and repeatedly exploited it by threatening her in her own home. He had a depraved obsession with making her the heir to his criminal legacy, nearly destroying her very sense of self. He was a sadistic psychopath who'd murdered as many innocent people as any of the villains Spider-Woman ever fought.

Jack O' Lantern picked up on all of that ever since he'd escaped from prison. He'd repeatedly written threatening messages on Gwen's bedroom wall while she slept, leaving her to be shocked when she woke up. He'd attacked some of her closest friends, slaughtering their parents and leaving them clinging to life. He'd even created his own superior version of her to be his new villainous heir by genetically combining his DNA with her own.

Most of Jack's actions left Gwen stressed, exhausted and on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The revelation of how he'd created her doppelganger upset her as much as everything else he did, but it also filled her with a primal rage, the kind of anger she hadn't felt since her earliest days as a superhero. She'd largely gotten over that anger as she came to terms with its source, the abuse she and her mother Helen Lieber-Stacy suffered at the hands of her father George Stacy, but learning the truth about her doppelganger brought it all back.

In creating Spider-Woman's doppelganger the way he did, Jack O' Lantern violated her in a way none of her other enemies ever had. Her fear at his threats, her despair at his attacks on her loved ones and her distress at his sick obsession with her were the powder that accumulated within her, and his violation was the spark that made it all explode.

Now, Spider-Woman's spider-senses were leading her to Jack O' Lantern's lair.

One way or another, it was all going to end here.

Tonight.

SPIDER-WOMAN #110

CLONE SAGA, PART FOUR

TONIGHT, SOMEONE DIES!

Spider-Woman wasn't surprised when her spider-senses led her to a high-class manor that was almost completely dark. There were no lights or security, and Spider-Woman would have thought the place abandoned except for the manor grounds being carefully trimmed and cared for. She wouldn't have been surprised if Jack O' Lantern had somehow brainwashed the manor's residents, making them act normally and providing cover for the chemicals and machinery he needed for his schemes to be delivered.

Everything was dead silent as Spider-Woman crossed the grounds. She seemed like she was alone, but she could feel Jack O' Lantern with her every step of the way. He knew exactly where she was, always watching, always by her side. He even found Spider-Woman in her nightmares, his maniacal laughter filling her with terror.

The front doors of the manor swung open by themselves as Spider-Woman reached them. An eerie light glowed from within, and Spider-Woman entered, expecting to see Jack O' Lantern and her doppelganger.

She found something else entirely. A man's severed head sat on a table in the middle of the entrance hall, his eyes and mouth glowing brightly from the candlelike electric light placed in his head. Repressing a horrified scream, Spider-Woman kept her composure and examined the man's head more closely. He seemed middle-aged and prosperous, and Spider-Woman realized that he was probably the manor's owner. Looking along the corridors leading off from the entrance hall, Spider-Woman saw long lines of more glowing lights. She realized that they were likely more severed heads filled with lights, probably belonging to the middle-aged man's family and employees.