I'm working on Marvel's Spider-Man in American comics.

Chapter 100 Identity Crisis
McDonald Gagan's fingers gently traced the dense photographs and clues on the wall, his fingertips lingering on the images of Spider-Man and his webs, like an invisible knife slowly slicing across their throats.

Spider-Man, along with his female companion, is the culprit behind his paralysis from the waist down, which means he will never be able to live without that heavy tail.

With that thought in mind, Gagan put on his coat and hat and returned to his safe house. It was a basement in a Brooklyn neighborhood, where he reviewed the clues he had recently gathered. The clues he had found were quite clear: Spider-Man was most likely a high school student, and only seven high schools in all of New York City had schedules that perfectly matched his activity schedule.

However, once you get here, the clues become scarce, especially since Spider-Man's joining the Avengers further protects his identity. But there are still some ways to find out, such as investigating which families have recently experienced a sharp increase in income or unexpected expenses. He joined the Avengers; surely he wouldn't not try to get something out of Tony Stark for his family, would he?

Besides that, there's his female companion. In the last couple of days, the media finally learned the codename of this Spider-Woman who has only appeared once or twice: Spider-Silk.

Investigating her was much simpler than investigating Spider-Man. For some reason, this Spider-Woman didn't choose to cover her face completely. Although half of her face was covered, the remaining clues were enough to keep the investigation going.

Asian, short-haired, female, under 20 years old, should be a high school student like Spider-Man. Judging from the timing of their actions, the two are a good match. In other words, it is highly likely that they are students from the same school.

Four or five days have passed since Spider-Man returned. McDonald is hiding here, continuing to control his powers while relying solely on his own deductions and the information transmitted back by Otto Octavia's little robot.

He made a phone call to Kingpin using an old-fashioned satellite phone.

"Mr. Fisk, what do you think of my suggestions?"

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone. Jin didn't reply immediately, but waited a long time before turning around and asking, "I admit what you said makes a lot of sense, Mr. Gagan, but aren't you being a little too hasty?"

Gagen laughed.

"Aren't you the one who most wants to kill Spider-Man?"

Kingpin responded with a dull and helpless rebuttal from the other end of the phone: "It has nothing to do with what you're talking about now."

“I don’t care, Fisk. I have no family or friends, I just want money, and then my spine was broken. But you’re very kind of you. You’re still willing to give me money and let Octavia have the surgery, so I’m willing to repay you for this favor. Do as I say, so that you can continue to control your empire. Otherwise… I’m not threatening you.”

Smiling, Gagan said what Kingpin was most worried about: "Herman Schultz at least had a mother and a brother, but Quentin Baker is just like me, he has nothing."

“They only have testimonies, no actual evidence. Quentin Baker has never known or been in contact with many people.”

King wasn't making excuses. He was standing by the window of his desk, looking at the Manhattan skyline in broad daylight, with his trusted lieutenant and secretary, Wesley, behind him. This capable subordinate, who should have died in the TV series, was alive and well, standing behind Kingpin, occasionally answering questions on his behalf.

“In fact, Mr. Gagan, I did nothing but do what I was told to do. I did smuggle a batch of Chitauri parts in the course of the New York reconstruction project, but that’s all I know. I don’t deserve to die.”

Upon hearing the news, Gagan on the other end of the phone laughed; he understood. Kingpin, after all, was still the same Kingpin, not going to simply parry his moves.

“This isn’t a threat, Fisk. It’s a detective’s experiential reminder to his biggest client—you yourself said the old ways are over. It’s the age of drag queens now.” The call ended, Kingpin looked at Manhattan before him, lowered his head, then crushed the satellite phone in his hand and threw it to the ground.

"Burn it all, Wesley."

"I understand. What's the next step, boss?"

Wesley nodded. This kind of delicate work was definitely beyond the capabilities of the Wanderer. King glanced at him without much thought: "Tell Otto Octavia that he doesn't have much time left. Remember to make it clear that this is not a threat, but a reminder."

On the other side, Gagan pasted all the spider webs, Spider-Man, and photos of the seven schools on it, along with Kingpin's final gift: a list of students he had obtained from the city's Department of Education. Finding a fully covered Spider-Man might be troublesome, but finding a minority girl with a clearly defined height, weight, and hairstyle was not difficult at all.

He quickly found the file of the girl named Cindy Moon on the Vision School's student roster; Spider-Man was most likely a student there too. But it didn't matter; if he targeted one, the other would soon come knocking.

He made the last call he needed.

"Otto, I'm all ready here, how about you?"

“Kingpin has already come to ‘warn’ me.” Otto’s mechanical claws were making final adjustments to the massive mechanical armor in front of him, checking the details of the armor piece by piece, and also telling Gagan where his most desired item was: “The armor has been delivered from the sewers to near your safe house. With your strength, finding it shouldn’t be too difficult, right? You really don’t intend to tell me the true identity of Spider-Man that you found out? Either way is fine.”

"The person you're going to kill is Osborn, Otto. This has nothing to do with you."

After receiving the message, Gagan hung up the satellite phone and, like Kingpin, crushed it. Then he punched the basement wall so hard it collapsed. On the other side was the New York sewers, where a huge box sat, containing the suit of armor Otto had prepared for him to defeat Spider-Man and his webs.

Today is Monday, a good day for school. It's 3 PM now, a good time to get out of school.

This will also be Spider-Man's last time with his silk.

On the other side, Otto finished the adjustments and looked with satisfaction at how the metallic skin had been completely and successfully implanted into the body of the Russian strongman in front of him under the framework of his exoskeleton. Even Otto Octavia, who never focused on fighting Spider-Man, couldn't help but feel proud of his achievement.

“Perfect, absolutely… outstanding. Mr. Alex, you were born for this.”

The taciturn man stood up and asked only one question.

Has the money arrived in your account?

"All the money you need is clean; it won't be recovered or used for fines even if you get caught. Go, Rhino, buy some time for our Scorpion."

(End of this chapter)