The Gauntlet and Grim Hunt

For the character, see Gauntlet (comics).

"The Gauntlet"
File:Spiderman Gauntlet.png Promotional image from Web of Spider-Man vol. 2 #1 (December, 2009) Art by Adi Granov
Publisher	Marvel Comics
Publication date	November 2009
Genre	Superhero
Title(s)	The Amazing Spider-Man #611-present Web of Spider-Man vol. 2 #2-present
Main character(s)	Spider-Man
Creative team
Writer(s)	Mark Waid Fred van Lente Joe Kelly Dan Slott Marc Guggenheim
Letterer(s)	VC's Joe Caramagna
Book 1	ISBN 0-7851-4264-9
Book 2	ISBN 0-7851-4265-7

"The Gauntlet" is a 2009 Marvel Comics storyline written by The Amazing Spider-Man architects (Mark Waid, Marc Guggenheim, Fred Van Lente and Joe Kelly) They are launching a general direction for the series that's being called "The Gauntlet". Though this is not a strict event or storyline, it is the branding that indicates the direction of Spider-Man's life, In effect it is an event similar to Dark Reign only focusing on Spider-Man and his circle.

Premise

According to Amazing Spider-Man editor Steve Wacker:

The Gauntlet is basically the over-arching theme of the Spidey stores starting in November. It's built of individual stories bring back Spidey's classic enemies. So it's not some 18-part story, where you're going to see "The Gauntlet Part 7" and "Part 8" and so on. What it is is sort of a branding for the level of conflict building in Spider-Man's life. The classic villains returning one after the other, but they're not necessarily working together. There's not some secret mastermind behind it all, bringing them all together. The fact that it's so relentless and that these battles and fights build throughout several months is going to have a cost for Peter Parker, and perhaps someone is going to take advantage of that.

The story will feature many old Spider-Man villains: Sandman, Electro, Chameleon, Mysterio, Hammerhead, Lizard, Morbius, the Living Vampire and Rhino Other villians such as Kraven the Hunter, Doctor Octopus and The Sinister Six may appear as well. Mister Negative and Black Cat will also have roles in the Gauntlet with recent images showing a three way fight between Spider-Man, Mysterio, and Mister Negative.

Plot

Prologue/Deadpool: This Man, This **EXPLETIVE DELETED** (ASM 611)

Deadpool is hired by Ana Tatiana Kravinoff to distract Spider-Man while she captures Mattie Franklin.

Power to the People (ASM 612-614)

In the first part, Spider-Man faces off against Electro. With his life ruined, Electro runs a public movement called "Power to the People" against Dexter Bennett and the New York Stock Exchange. Spider-Man gets caught in the middle of this as he tries to stop Electro, but he is criticized by the people for attacking their "hero". Electro makes deal with Dexter Bennett into paying him for an operation that can cure his powers if he accepts to call off the campaign. The Mad Thinker tries to cure him by increasing his electrical abilities, but Spider-Man interferes with the process, turning Electro into an artificial electrical thunderbolt. Electro double-crosses Bennett and tells New York to turn on all electric appliances (thus giving him more power) to permanently end The DB. Electro traps all DB employees including Bennett inside the DB with the entire NYPD and Mayor Jameson outside. With their help, including Jameson, Spider-Man manages to weaken Electro enough to beat him down and web him up. Sadly, Bennett is crushed by falling to debris and has permanent damage to the legs, and the DB is also permanently destroyed during the fight. In the epilogue Electro runs into Sasha Kravinoff and Chameleon in his new jail cell.

Keemia's Castle (ASM 615-616)

Spider-Man enters an investigation involving Carlie Cooper, three murders, and a missing girl named Keemia. Someone manages to steal three top secret files involving three murders and strangely enough there were grains of sand on them. Spider-Man, with the help of Betty Brant, traces the murderer to Governor's Island, where he believes the antagonist is hiding and keeping Keemia. Surely enough he runs into none other than the Sandman who has a new trick up his sleeve. Plus, it is revealed that Electro has escaped from his jail cell. Spider-Man webs Keemia to his back and is pursued by many Sandmen around Governor's Island until some of them confess that they had murdered Keemia's mother and two others. Flint Marko is shocked that his own dublicates were able to free themselves from his control and began battling himself. Spider-Man sneaks away and obliterates Sandman with a fan, and gets back to Manhattan via The Brooklyn/Battery Tunnel. Originally Spider-Man believed that Keemia would be handed to her grandmother, but instead she was sent to a foster home. Carlie gets exonerated and Sandman is out there somewhere.

Rage of The Rhino (ASM 617)

A mysterious Rhino-like being is told by Sasha Kravinoff that he can gain a lot of honor from killing Aleksei Sytsovich (the original Rhino). Aleksei however no longer has his "skin" and is living his life with his newly-wedded wife, Oksana. Meanwhile, Peter begins working full-time at the Front-Line. Norah, overhearing this, makes Peter her "photomonkey". On their first story they run into Aleksei and the new Rhino and Spider-Man gets his butt kicked. He later meets up with Aleksei who managed to get away and convinces him not to put his Rhino suit back on. Later, the new Rhino is told by Sasha Kravinoff that that was just a trial and that there will be more.

Mysterioso (ASM 618-620)

With Bruno Karnelli's horrible leadership, the loss of Silvermane and other important members, and the constant hammering from Mr. Negative, the Maggia is almost diminished. Fortunately, Spider-Man saves surviving members of the Maggia from Mr. Negative's inner demons during their latest attack. Hammerhead joins Mr. Negative and betrays the Maggia. During one of their meetings Aunt May finds Martin Li holding a blood splotched knife, a stabbed, but undead inner-demon lying on the ground, and Hammerhead. Martin Li immediately grabs Aunt May and does an unknown mind technique on her which forces her to call Peter a big disappointment later on. Meanwhile, Bruno Karnelli finds that none of the Maggia really died, but disappeared before their supposed deaths with the help of Mysterio. One of these is Silvermane who leads the Maggia into more successful raids. During, one of these Carlie Cooper hides out behind a door where she runs into her thought-to-be-dead father, Ray Cooper. Spider-Man swings by the gang battle where he runs into Captain Yuri Wantanabe. With an entire squadron of NYPD officers, they barge into the violence. Mysterio and Carmine were the masterminds behind everything and the controllers of the fake Silvermane android and several others. They command a Maggia to fake dying from a blow from Spider-Man. Besides, the supposedly obvious murder, Captain Yuri lets a grief-stricken Spider-Man go. Meanwhile, Carlie parts with her dad and meets up with the captain. Spider-Man then runs into a revived Big Man (who hasn't been in seen or mentioned in comics since the 1960's) and his posse. Spidey, however is unconvinced that Frederick Foswell is back after so many years, and webs a gangster who was about to open fire on him. The blinded gangster still pulled the trigger, killing everyone in the posse and leaving Spider-Man feeling more like a murderer. The Big Man, however survived and Spider-Man takes his mask off. Under the mask was Captain George Stacy. This final shock tells Spider-Man that Mysterio was behind it all, and tells Mysterio through Captain Stacy that this was now personal. Later, Carlie tells Spider-Man the truth of her father, and Mysterio turns on Carmine and has "Silvermane" kill him. Mysterio prepares his "grand finale", blowing up the Old Empyrean Opera House where all of the Maggia's cash is now stored. He tips off Negative that the Maggia are storing their cash there as an anonymous source. Carlie meets up with her dad and places a Spider Tracer on him. Hammerhead, on the other hand, had faced severe obedience protocols from Mr. Negative which fried his nervous system. He was under the care of Negatives paramedics. Ray Cooper, being at the opera house before Negative and Silvermane's men clashed, attracted Spider-Man via Tracer. Spidey knocks out several "fake death-suited" Maggia henchmen that released fake blood and guts when attacked. When Negative's men finally arrive, Mr. Negative releases the "Devil's Breath" poison with Spider-Man's DNA in it. Spider-Man manages to hold his breath for a good time to knock out as many men he could touch. Mysterio then self-destructs the Silvermane bot and the entire building explodes. Spider-Man swings out just in time. Everyone else dies expect for Negative and his men who are immortal. Quentin Beck tries to escape in a garbage barge, but Spider-Man manages to catch up to it. Beck's two right hand men fire a missle at the police to distract Spider-Man, but he webs it and turns it around. Spider-Man and Beck's men jump off the boat and Beck simply says "I hate you." It seemed like Beck had gone up in the explosion, but Spider-Man new that he was long gone. In the aftermath, Captain Wantanabe approaches Spider-Man and tells him that if he ever needs a source, he should come to her. Meanwhile, Beck is approached by the Chameleon dressed up as Jean DeWolff who says there are some friends that are "dying" to meet him.

Out for Blood (ASM 621)

The Black Cat helps Spider-Man to steal the vial of Peter's blood that Mister Negative has and replaces it with a vial of pig blood so that Mister Negative is unaware of losing the ability to kill Spider-Man through his Dragon's Breath formula. Carlie Cooper arrests her dad, and Harry moves in with Mary Jane after Aunt May (still corrupted by Mister Negative's touch) no longer allows him to remain in her home.

It is the Life (ASM 622)

Spider-Man discovers that Black Cat sold the vial of his blood they stole last issue. He tracks it to Morbius with the help of a mysterious woman. When he gets to Morbius' lair, the mysterious woman arrives and telekinetically forces Spider-Man to let her in. She is revealed to be Martine, who Morbius shoves into a wooden stake Spider-Man was holding up. Spider-Man begins to beat Morbius for dragging him into a murder, but Morbius claims that she died a long time ago. He also apologizes for getting the vial of blood without Spider-Man's permission, but was merely using to it to find a cure to the immortal disease. Spider-Man volunteers to give him more. Plus a side-story "The Five Stages of Grief" written by The Spectacular Spider-Man T.V. series co-creater Greg Weisman.

Scavengers (ASM 623-624)

Electro breaks out the the new Vulture who flies away to find the man who turned him into a monster. His name is revealed to be Jimmy Natale, and is told by a mob boss that J. Jonah Jameson did this to him. The mob bosses gang starts pulling up fake claims that Jameson had created the New Vulture and the media gets a hold of it. Spider-Man finds out and arrives at City Hall just in time to save Jameson, but he is flung outside by Vulture. When he manages to find the Vulture he is sitting over Jameson with his body blocking the view of the mayor's head.

The Last Stand of the Rhino (ASM 625)

The New Rhino battles the Old Rhino.

Unknown Title (ASM 626)

Spider-Man battles the new Scorpion.

Something Can Stop the Juggernaut (ASM 627-629)

Spider-Man battles the Juggernaut.

Shed (ASM 630-633)

Spider-Man battles the Lizard.

Bibliography

• Amazing Spider-Man #611-ongoing
• Web of Spider-Man vol. 2 #2-ongoing

Collected editions

The story is being collected into individual volumes:

• Book 1 - Electro & Sandman (collects Amazing Spider-Man #612-616, Dark Reign: The List - Amazing Spider-Man, and Web of Spider-Man #2, 176 pages, hardcover, March 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4264-9)
• Book 2 - Rhino & Mysterio (collects Amazing Spider-Man #617-621 and Web of Spider-Man #3-4, 160 pages, hardcover, April 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4265-7)
• Book 3 - Vulture & Morbius (collects Amazing Spider-Man #622-625 and Web of Spider-Man #5-6, 128 pages, hardcover, May 2010, ISBN 978-0-7851-4611-7)

References

• Gauntlet at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)