And here we are onto the beginning of Series three, the first arc of which I have dubbed: Tangled Web!
Do you know how hard it is to find Spider-Man comic book names that are appropriate for each arc!?
Very!
Series three begins with Spider-Man and All Might searching all across Japan for the Lizard, as this was where the mutated David was supposedly travelling to according to Selkie and their hero friends along the shore who had spotted him. However, after days, and even weeks of searching, they have come up with nothing, and are disheartened by it.
Soon enough, Peter's friends are able to convince him, and All Might by extension, to take a break from the search for some time and give themselves some rest. The two of them agree, albeit reluctantly, and they decide to try and relax with a trip to the mall.
But of course, Parker Luck strikes again as elsewhere, the forces of the League of Villains are rallying their forces to attack the upcoming summer training camp. Goblin has assembled his Sinister Six, but doesn't see the point in attacking the school, as it makes no pragmatic sense to him beyond killing Spider-Man, and even then there were many other chances for him to do so, which he had been restrained from doing once again. Shigaraki, however, would have All for One hold themselves off until the day of the summer training camp, since he wanted to kidnap Bakugo and recruit him into the League of Villains, which the Sinister Six would grate at but be forced to acquiesce to.
Even worse is the cadre of new villains that their local contact, Giran, had supplied them with. Barely anything, really, thanks to F.E.A.S.T. taking in all the villains and giving them homes and shelters. Even worse are their attitudes, as most of the Sinister Six cannot stand them, viewing them as unprincipled and inexperienced thugs. Moonfish is nothing more than a mindless cannibal, Spinner rants about how he wants to avenge Stain nonstop, Muscular is always ranting about wanting to fight and seems like a hair-trigger away from attacking everyone in the room, Mustard only cares about pursuing his resentment on heroes, Dabi is keeping his cards close to his chest and talks about wanting to avenge Stain (which Shigaraki hates and Goblin finds amusing), and Toga is the worst one of them all, fangirling about Spider-Man only to say that she desires to see him covered in blood and then drink of his blood to become him. This is only made worse by the costume that she made for herself that is a mimicry of Spider-Man's, and the alias that she has taken for herself, being that of Blood Spider. Suffice to say, the Sinister Six hate her.
Goblin would leave, needing to clear his head, and hidden underneath a cloak, he would find Peter wandering about in the mall on his own, and confront him. At first, Peter would feign ignorance at the Goblin, only for Osborn to reveal something that horrifies the fledgling superhero.
Norman Osborn reveals that he knows that Peter Parker is Spider-Man.
Peter is horrified by this, and Norman makes it clear that he has more than enough method and reason to find the people that Peter loves and crush them before his very eyes for preventing him from getting back that which he himself loved… but that can come later. Not yet, not now.
Norman leaves, and Peter is left shaken by the whole experience.
In the aftermath, Peter is comforted by his friends, and it is here where we learn more about the growing dynamics between them. In particular, the friendship between Peter, Ochako, and Izuku. Peter and Ochako would end up becoming good friends (not love interests, though. Izuocha is one of my favourite ships and I have no intent on breaking that up), even developing something close to a sibling-like relationship, and Ochako would remain as Izuku's best friend, but no matter how much the two of them tried, Izuku and Peter's relationship would remain frosty and distanced due to Izuku's growing feelings of inadequacy when compared to the latter. Peter would remain unaware of why Izuku is acting like this, as he would keep these thoughts to himself, but Izuku would seek to keep his distance.
These feelings of his are only made worse around Iida, who is still holding resentment for Peter stopping him from taking down Stain, as well as the voice in Izuku's head, something within One for All, showing more care for Peter than it does for Izuku, meaning that All Might's own quirk doesn't want him. Not only that, but many of Peter's classmates, and even Inko and Keemia in private, are beginning to compare the web-crawler to All Might himself, and All Might himself has taken a clear interest in Peter himself (but for reasons that Izuku doesn't know), worsening his feelings of inferiority.
I don't know why, but I was seriously overcome with the urge to give Peter and Ochako a sibling-like relationship. Do not question my ways.
Also, Himiko Toga is now this story's version of Blood Spider. You remember Blood Spider, right? The famous Marvel villain known as Blood Spider? C'mon, everyone remembers Blood Spider! The world famous villain known as Blood Spider!
Again, I really like playing around with the ideas of both Spider-Man and My Hero Academia! Crossovers are fun like that! You can mix and mash all these ideas together, but for some reason, I don't really ever see other authors do stuff like that! All it ever seems to be is just dumping one character from one franchise into another and just letting things play out with little change to the ideas of either!
…Well, I mean, I was planning on doing something like that originally, but like, c'mon. It's fun this way.
If there are any good Spider-Man and My Hero crossover fanfictions out there, let me know. I've already read Amazing Fantasy, Friendly Foreign Exchange Student Spider-Man!, and Spider-Man: Hero Academia, but if there're any other fics out there that do Spider-Man/MHA crossovers well, let me know!
Also, what did I say about keeping your eyes on Iida? He and this mindset of his are going to become very important in a future arc!