From 2008, Spider-Man: Brand New Day--Extra #1, "The Spartacus Gambit" Written by Marc Guggenheim, art by Marcos Martin.
Set "Several weeks from now," the story opens in a courtroom, as Spider-Man, his arm in a sling, is charged with murder in the second and multiple counts of assault and obstruction! Since I think this was released before whatever Spidey allegedly did, I don't know what it is, but it's looking bad. Luckily, Spidey's got Matt Murdock on the case, but things are complicated further by a lawyer filing regarding a civil case against Spidey, a motion to have him unmasked!
The legal arguments sound reasonably close to realistic, or at least Law and Order; but the civil suit lawyer makes an analogy comparing a masked vigilante to a car: if you got hit by a car, you'd have the right to run the plates and see who owned it, so if you get hit by a vigilante...Surprisingly, Matt agrees, at least to the analogy, and requests a recess. The next day, Matt hands Spidey a law book, suggesting he may have to study up; but that he might be able to take care of the civil suit. Inside the courtroom, the judge is more than a little steamed at Matt's latest stunt: a courtroom full of Spider-Men, some swinging and climbing about!
The multiple Spideys let Matt argue, the burden of proof in the civil suit would be on the plaintiff, and they would have to show who was in the suit on the day of the incident. Unmasking the Spider-Man on trial here would prove nothing. The civil suit is dismissed, but without prejudice; the judge leaving it open if they could prove what Spidey did it. But she goes on to deny bail for the defendant here. Spidey isn't thrilled, but is grateful for what Matt has already done, as well as curious where the other Spider-Men came from. He's really, really hoping it wasn't clones; and hey, they weren't!
I see Ronin there, who I guess might've been Hawkeye then? Looks like he's wearing a Spidey-suit over his own stupid outfit. The Black Cat was another of the faux-Spideys, and had also broken into an evidence locker to get his web-shooters. Iron Fist had used one during the courtroom demonstration, while the other is inside the cut-out law book. It's not really clear who each Spidey was, but only Arana and Nightcrawler could actually crawl on walls. Actually, I'm assuming Arana could, and maybe the Cat? Which probably works, since they may be less convincing up close! Meanwhile, this story arc, "Character Assassination," would begin in Spider-Man #584: the next issue box says #582, but that was the conclusion of a Molten Man story; the next issue was the Obama cover. Just reading a recap of Character Assassination it sounds pretty complicated, though.
1 comment:
That was hilarious. I mean, damn Matt went deep for the help, to even get Nightcrawler to help out.
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