Peter Parker had been a nerdy and dorky loner growing up with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, at Midtown High school he was picked on mostly by the thuggish and arrogant school football player Eugene 'Flash' Thompson. One day he was attending a public demonstration at Empire State University which was showing off their research. Flash Thompson had turned up and had pushed Peter back in order to torment him but unknown to the both of them, a genetically altered spider had escaped and was heading to Peter's direction but now got on Flash's hand which bit him.
Flash already had security going after him after being spotted pushing Peter back but his yell caused him to be asked to leave if he kept like this. Flash actually muttered about not feeling good and left after that, Peter was grateful that he got to enjoy the rest of the demonstration without Flash but couldn't help but be weird out by how Flash had behaved just then.
He left without a fuss?
Peter was with his Uncle Ben watching live on TV the latest episode of New York's UCW (Ultra Class Wrestling) Spankdown and it was the part of the show where the big and strong Crusher Hogan took on rookies and volunteers from the crowd to try and last 3 minutes in a match in order to win 3 thousand dollars. Peter was wondering about what he would do with that kind of money but laughed it off in his head since not only was he too young but he didn't think he could even survive a minute against that guy.
After some failed challengers, the next one was announced as Flash Thompson causing them both to open their jaws especially when they sat Flash arrogantly go down to the ring in boxing trunks and a sweatshirt. They were bewildered wondering how Flash got this far as you needed to be 21 to sign up but Peter guessed that he must have gotten his hands on a fake ID.
Peter was actually looking forward to seeing Flash get beat up by a professional wrestler and Uncle Ben muttered about how Flash will be in so much trouble.
He had no idea how right he was.
To their surprise Flash was easily dodging Crusher's attacks with great agility and was pushing Crusher back with great strength. Peter groaned since at this rate Flash will be bragging more than usual with everyone talking about him the next day. Then Flash had Crusher into a headlock and the referee was telling him to let go. Then something happened as the referee checked Crusher and was shocked and began yelling to get more people out there to check.
Flash from what they were saying began to go in a panic and then jumped up the barricade and ran through the crowd as the officials began yelling for security to catch him and the feed was cut. The rest of the timeslot was filled by a rerun.
The next day's news revealed something shocking to them, that Flash had actually snapped Crusher's head with that lock! Flash was now on the run and wanted for questioning, especially since it got out how young he really was and had indeed used a fake ID. Aunt May and Uncle Ben began fretting over Peter when they realised their teenage nephew witnessed a death live.
However while making sure that Peter got any help he needed to cope and due to this incident, school was closed for a while with the police wanting to track down Flash... The Parkers never knew that more tragedy had been prevented as a low level robber had been caught backstage with a gun by all the security searching the premises of the arena.
Peter didn't know what to think to what happened and he couldn't bring himself to take any pleasure in his bully being a fugitive on the run.
Soon things went back to sort of normal, Peter got an internship at ESU under Doctor Otto Octavius who was a brilliant doctor and had ran a science camp that Peter had went to one summer. The man had shown Peter his technology on octopus like robotics limbs. Peter was shown the blueprints for the chip that would all his brain to be connected to the controls of the arms but Peter was able to spot some flaws in the system that Otto had overlooked. Otto was stunned at what escaped his vision and began showing Peter more of his plans to see what else he had overlooked while shelving his robotic limbs project for the time being.
However months later there was a masked vigilante in a black mask, goggles and a black and red spider shirt beating up criminals and muggers with great strength while crawling up walls. This new Superhero was calling himself Captain Spider.
Peter recognised the feats of strength and agility plus the voice and way of words from quick interviews he gave to any reporters before leaving. It had to be Flash Thompson and Peter thought that he must have gotten super powers from the spider he remembered biting Flash in the hand. He was laughed off by just about anyone who he told this too with the only ones who didn't being his aunt and uncle plus Otto.
Otto was intrigued when Peter mentioned where he believed Flash had gotten powers and knew that there was an escaped spider and had gotten the venom of the very type of genetically altered spider in order to run tests. Possibly to create a serum to get rid of the altered spider DNA or to replicate it.
Peter managed to corner the so called Captain Spider calling him by Flash but Flash snapped at him telling him to shut his mouth before running away with his wall crawling, Peter with a camera that he recently had gotten as a present managed to snag photos of Captain Spider and the battle. He had managed to sell them to the newspapers for money and had taken up part time photography (managing to get some pictures of Captain Spider who he knew for certain was Flash even before the confrontation) for some extra money with his aunt and uncle only accepting some of it to help with the bills.
Time went by and Flash as Captain Spider seemed to let the attention go to his head as he would start to show off for the cameras, give bragging interviews while fighting crime and villains and started to not really show that much concern for collateral damage. Uncle Ben had remarked to him that Flash didn't seem to want to use his powers responsibly and Peter agreed.
Peter liked Superheroes like Captain America and the Fantastic Four but if only New York's new street hero was someone other than Flash, it seemed the other Superheroes like the Four and Iron Man agreed as whenever he was seen having a teamup with them seemed to dislike him and his attitude.
Peter graduated High School years after that and got into ESU plus his internship with Otto continued, Peter shared some designs that he got inspired by Captain Spider. A web like fluid he had designed and could be fired by wrist devices, designs he would work on with Otto. Plus having set up a website for his freelance photography business.
Flash continued on being more violent and arrogant plus would rant about neighsayers when people brought up criticisms in his interviews. Did Flash really think this was being a Superhero?
A few months after graduating ESU and taken a full time job as Otto's lab assistant, he got a big gig with his photography business as a publication had their photographers cancel at the last minute and they needed a replacement stat.
Peter was stunned when he saw it was for a charity swimsuit photoshoot and that it was for the famous superheroine and lawyer Jennifer Walters the She-Hulk. The cousin of the Hulk who got powers from a blood transfusion and was able to walk around in her Hulk form all the time and acted as a Superheroine with a fun loving promiscuous party loving celebrity lifestyle but took her profession as an attorney seriously.
In the studio meeting the tall beautiful and gorgeous tall Amazon like form of Jennifer Walters was breathtaking and Jennifer chuckled at his spluttering while embarrassing himself. She gave Peter an autograph and told him not to be shy as they started the photoshoots.
Peter couldn't help but asking what she thought of Captain Spider and she surprised by talking about how reckless and fame wanting the guy seemed, while she loved the partying lifestyle and liked being a celebrity, she took her job as a lawyer and as a crimefighter wanting to save lives very seriously while Captain Spider only seemed to want the fame and to beat people up.
She was asking back questions about how life and how he wasn't good at making friends plus having a passion for science. He talked of liking the other Heroes and joked about his life which made Jennifer laugh though Peter knew his jokes weren't really good. Plus he told her how he was certain that his old bully is Captain Spider but hardly anyone believed him.
Peter was drooling over himself taking the photo of Jennifer posing in the swimsuits, and through their talks he was wondering if he was falling for Jennifer but she was too out of his league. He was lucky to even be doing this.
Jennifer caught on and began asking if he had a girlfriend or if he wanted a fling with her and he was embarrassed. During the last day of shoot Peter was still mesmerised in her dark red bikini like swimsuit with the top half of her swimsuit having a hole in it showing her cleavage.
"Seriously Peter, this doesn't have to be the end for us and it doesn't have to be that serious but I do think you're a great guy. How about a date together next week to start with and I give you my number if you want to try for a night together..." Jennifer offered with a smile and Peter surprised himself by giving himself a yes.
She smiled even further as she kissed him on the cheek and gave him his number and his cheque as payment, does he have a date with She-Hulk? How does he explain this to his Aunt & Uncle?
I'm a big fan of the What If concept especially when it involves Spidey my fave Superhero. Flash becoming bitten by the spider is pretty popular. First in the original series where in an issue they showed 3 different stories of what if different people were bitten (with Uatu the Watcher ending by saying how fortunate the Marvel Universe is that someone as heroic as Peter got bitten), in the second series Flash became a villain forcing Peter to be his sidekick and in the latest volume of the What If comics (basically a series of oneshots released) Flash was an arrogant Hero who ends up seeing the error of his ways in a reinvention of one of biggest Peter's triumphs from If This Be My Destiny. This is a mixture of all 3. Flash did start to become a Hero out of guilt for accidentally killing Crush due to not knowing his own strength but the fame and power goes to his head.
She-Hulk's swimsuit here is the one she wore in the Fashion Warriors episode of the Hulk cartoon, if you don't know or remember it's the episode where the latest plot of the Gamma irradiated villains was foiled partly thanks to a group of scantily clad models. I actually like the humour Shulkie brought to the show though I admit that it did clash with the earlier Season whose opening was perfect in setting the tone for the Hulk. Seriously the sequence in the opening where Bruce and Betty are embracing before they try running away but pulled apart a giant General Ross with his hands is one of the most striking and emotional moments in a cartoon opening I have ever seen. The only other moment or sequence in a children's cartoon to have permanently lodged itself into my memory is the ending of the Fantastic Four cartoon intro where they fly past Mount Rushmore and their heads replace the heads of the founding fathers of the US.
Flash's Captain Spider suit here is the suit of Spider Kid from the Spider-Geddon event only with a full face mask.