Wolverine: Flies to a Spider #1

Issue Date: 
February 2009
Story Title: 
Swallowed the Spider
Staff: 

Gregg Hurwitz (writer), Jerome Opena (penciler), Jerome Opena and John Lucas (inkers), Michelle Madsen (colorist), VC’s Joe Caramagna (letterer), Sebastian Girner (assistant editor), Axel Alonso (editor), Joe Quesada (editor in chief), Dan Buckley (publisher) with special thanks to Enrica Jang

Brief Description: 

Logan reads a report on the death of young Ruthie Gordon, an innocent second grader, and decides to take revenge on those responsible. He heads to a biker bar in the middle of nowhere and causes chaos, killing several bikers in order to draw out the main culprit, a sleazy drugs boss. Logan speaks with a guy named Clancy who turns out to be Ruthie’s uncle. He explains that the whole town is dirty and the citizens are afraid of both the cops and the biker gang, the Road-Dawgs. After the drug boss, who doesn’t even remember Ruthie’s name, sends in his enforcer, who is dealt with swiftly by Logan, he pays the dirty local sheriff and his deputies to kill Logan for him. They fail also, and so the boss heads to the bar himself with a few heavies. Logan is waiting for them, and he kills everyone with a few well-placed explosions. The boss is hurled into the bar where Logan tells him that the girl’s name was Ruthie. The boss dies, and Logan leaves the town to get back on its feet.

Full Summary: 

(New Year's Eve, location, unknown)

Outside a busy biker bar named The Rat Trap, a guy with 'Fear' tattooed on his knuckles hands a razor blade to another guy. Inside, another biker asks a blond guy wearing shades to move off his seat. The guy replies that he's not even sitting there. He's playing pool. The biker chalks his cue and smiles. "You don't know what bar you're in, do you?" He points to a flag with the Road-Dawgs' symbol on it and the blond guy immediately realizes his mistake. He gets off the stool and apologizes, grabs his girl and heads for the door. The biker says it's okay. Everybody makes mistakes. Then, without warning, he smashes a bottle into the back of the guy's skull, and he has to be carried out by his girlfriend. "Assigned seating," says the biker as he watches the victim leave.

An older guy, Clancy, calls them a pack of jackals and asks how much blood is enough. He stands and tells them that he has a right to drink there too. The biker's friend pours some booze over Clancy's head and flips his lighter. The first biker asks them to cool it. It's New Year's Eve so they don't need to kick things off by lighting some drunk's head on fire. "Let's wait for midnight."

They speak with a third biker with crazy eyes. One of them congratulates him on getting the nod. He tells them that he's inked and primed and ready to be a true Road-Dawg. Blood in, blood out. The others ask if he had to off someone to join. You betcher ass, he replies, and there's no leaving the gang alive. He reckons the getting-in part was fun. He's getting ready to roll some more skulls. First, though, he's got to drain the Lil' Wayne. He heads to the restroom, leaving his friends to continue playing pool.

The biker who attacked the blond guy bends down to take his shot, but finds his cue prodding someone behind him. He warns them to move but, when they fail to do so, he turns and swings his cue at them. Logan catches the cue in his right hand, pulls it from the guy's grip and snaps it over his knee. The biker and a friend go mad and attack Logan, only to find themselves impaled by the throat with both halves of the cue. "W-who the @$#$ are you?" asks a stockier biker. People dash for the exit as they see a fight about to start. Logan places his jacket over the back of a chair and replies, "Santa." Two more bikers attack, but Logan snikts his claws and slashes them both across the stomach and chest. The stocky guy falls next, thanks to a punctured heart. Logan sits at the bar and Clancy asks if he wants a drink.

Inside the restroom, the blond biker calls his boss and informs him that there's been trouble, explaining that Logan is like something out of a comic book. His boss asks him to remain there. He can be his eyes inside. Meanwhile, he'll send the enforcer, and he'll have him bring the cavalry. The old timer tells Logan that no one gives a damn about their town. The sheriff is dirty, the deputies are on the take and the citizens are too scared to do anything. The bikers who aren't Road-Dawgs aspire to join 'em. But, that wasn't enough for the Dawgs, he adds. They wanted more.

(flashback)

Clancy explains that there was another gang in neighboring turf, Los Diablos. Sometimes they got a little too close for their own good. They nibbled at the edge of the Road-Dawg territory, so the Dawgs offered to buy them out. It was a set-up, of course. Clancy was driving with his young niece. He looked in his rear-view mirror, just a little too late. He doesn't know if Logan read it in the papers, but it was splashed over the headlines for a day or two. He always screwed up and led a drab, wasted life. The little girl was the one ray of light. The Road-Dawgs attacked Los Diablos with heavy arms and a bloodbath ensued. In the shootout, the Dawg's drug pouch was hit and it leaked product over the road. The Dawg's leader ordered his guys to turn Los Diablos into pink mist. Shots rang out all over the place, and Clancy's niece was killed in the crossfire.

(present)

Clancy adds that he even gave up the bottle for a time, trying to be a role model. Stupid, right? It's not like she was even his, but she made him want to clean up and be a part of the family. Now he can't face his brother no more, or his sister-in law. He can't even face himself. He places his head in his hands as he recalls that fateful day. He wishes there was something he could do; anything he could do to set it right. But, these guys have no regard. They're animals who will kill you as soon as sneeze. They can't be stopped.

As Clancy speaks, the enforcer and his gang arrive and enter the bar with the badly scarred enforcer carrying a shotgun. He sees Logan immediately and asks, in a lispy manner, what's wrong. Do his looks scare him? He informs Logan that he went over the high-side last year and rode another twenty yards on his face. He aims the shotgun at Logan. "Wanna be twins?" he smiles.

Logan flings his arm wide, positioning himself between the enforcer and Clancy. He takes the blast full on in the chest. Clancy points at Logan whilst looking at the enforcer. "His turn," he quips. Logan snikts his claws and attacks, slicing though the two guys flanking the enforcer in the blink of an eye. The enforcer is a much tougher proposition. He places his arm on Logan's shoulder and thrusts him hard through the wooden wall behind. Logan responds by placing his fists at either side of the enforcer's head and snikting his claws. Death is instantaneous.

The blond biker in the restroom gulps and calls his boss. He in turn calls another guy in a suit and tells him that they have a problem. He explains that he can't handle it. There's some psycho on the loose and he's holed up at the Rat Trap. He's taken out his entire crew. The suited guy explains that he financed his operation and was told that the Dawgs could move his product. He said it would be seamless. And yet, there he is dealing with the collateral damage from his last screw up.

The biker tells him that it wasn't their fault. Some little girl ran outta nowhere like an idiot. The suited guy shouts at the biker that he doesn't care about the little girl. He lost some of his product! He asks what this psycho wants. The blond biker has no idea. He hasn't asked for anything.

Soon, the suited guy goes to speak with the sheriff and his dirty deputies. The sheriff informs him that this will cost him more than last time. The little girl got killed. What was her name again? "Jane?" replies a deputy. "Karla?" The sheriff doesn't really care. The killing made the press and even made it to the city. 'Biker gang kills innocent second grader's blah blah blah. He explains that this isn't the usual look-the-other-way-and-whistle. They have more tracks to cover. The suited guy stands and tosses him a roll of cash. Fine, he says. Now he has some madman tearing apart a bar in his jurisdiction. The sheriff asks if he wants it taken care of. "What the hell else do I pay you for?" he replies.

Back at the Rat Trap, the blond biker cowers in the restroom, not wanting to die. He finally finds his kahunas and stands up, figuring he'll handle this like a man. He's gonna handle it like a Road-Dawg! He grabs a gun and wanders slowly back into the bar, creeping up behind Logan who is once again sat having a drink. He tells Logan that he's gonna pay, Road-Dawg style. Logan whips around and slices the gun into several pieces. The biker pretty much knows he's a dead man.

Clancy grabs a bottle from behind the bar and tells Logan that he should probably split, but he's got nowhere to go and nuthin' to lose. Outside, the sheriff's patrol car pulls up and he and his deputies approach the bar. They look inside and see the blond biker tied to a chair in the middle of the bar area. The sheriff decides to send in the welcome party and flush Logan into the open. One deputy goes around the side, but Logan grabs him and drags him inside. The other listens in through a vent, but three claws puncture the vent and go straight through his neck. Moments later, Logan tosses their badges at the sheriff's feet from afar. "You, you, you sumbitch," cries the sheriff. He heads to the bar and steps inside. The biker tries to warn him, but it's too late. Logan drops from the rafters and kills him, too.

The suited boss decides to take care of things himself. He tells his guys that this is a mess and they've had enough heat this week already because of that stupid girl. What was her name again? "Who cares," replies one of his men. The boss clasps his fingers together and tells them this is war. "Scorched earth, boys. Scorched earth." One asks what kind of ammo they should bring. He asks them to back up the truck.

Back at the Rat Trap, Clancy is getting merrily sozzled. He tells Logan that it's just a matter of time before the 'upstairs men' arrive to blow them to kingdom come. He guesses that they’re gonna get their New Year's fireworks display after all. His face drops and he tells Logan that he's glad he met him. He's showed him that there can still be honor in this life. "I wish... I wish I had a chance to... aw, never mind." He adds that if he's going to go down, he's happy going down with him.

They hear bikes and cars arriving outside. The boss and his men surround the place carrying heavy arms. The boss stands proud, confident. He thinks these 'little ants' have come to pick a fight? Don't they know whose shoulder they're tapping? That's the thing they never learn. "Might is right." He figures he'll cover this up by explaining it away as a water-heater explosion. It'll cost him some serious pay-off for the cover up, but it'll be worth every penny to detonate this little...

He notices one of the bikers looking downwards in a puzzled fashion. He asks the biker what he's looking at. He then notices what he was looking at himself. Several packages with flashing red diodes on the top lined up in front of them. "Oh, sh..." he utters before a massive series of explosions rip the whole area apart.

The boss is blown painfully through the bar window and ends up lying on the floor near Logan. He looks up and asks weakly, "W-Why?" Logan reaches into his back jeans pocket and pulls out a newspaper clipping of the little girl's death. "Her name was Ruthie Jordan," he scowls as the guy slowly dies. Logan puts on his jacket and looks at Clancy before kicking the door through. He walks past the burning cars and the dead bodies, climbs onto his hog and roars out of town, job done.

Characters Involved: 

Wolverine

Clancy

Road Dawgs biker gang

The enforcer and his cohorts

Drug dealer and his guys

Sheriff and his deputies

The Rat Trap customers

(in flashback)

Clancy

Ruthie Jordan

Road Dawgs biker gang

Los Diablos biker gang

Story Notes: 

The title is a play on the Mary Howitt poem, The Spider and the Fly. The first line reads, “Will you walk into my parlor?" said the Spider to the Fly.

Wolverine’s newspaper with the report of Ruthie’s death is dated December 23rd. The main story takes place on New Year’s Eve.

Issue Information: 
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