The Catalyst had already rewritten the world.

It had transformed heroes into Insane versions of themselves.

It had created new species.

It had awakened living forests.

It had turned ordinary people into beings humanity had never imagined.

But something was spreading through another part of the world.

Something small.

Something patient.

Something with eight legs.

The spiders were changing.

And one woman was about to become their queen.

The Spider Changes

In New York City, Peter Parker was patrolling the rooftops when he suddenly felt something strange.

His spider-sense exploded inside his mind.

Peter grabbed the side of a building.

"Whoa!"

His vision blurred.

His heartbeat accelerated.

The Catalyst had found him.

Blue energy surrounded Peter.

His costume began changing as his body evolved.

Peter's eyes widened.

"Okay..."

"Definitely not normal."

The energy disappeared.

Peter landed on a rooftop and examined his hands.

His fingers had developed tiny retractable claws.

His spider-sense was no longer simply a warning.

It had become something much greater.

Peter could now sense movement throughout entire buildings.

He could detect vibrations traveling through walls.

He could even sense the emotional state of nearby living creatures through subtle biological signals.

Peter looked toward Manhattan.

"I think the spider just got a serious upgrade."

Insane Spider-Man

Peter's Catalyst evolution gave him abilities far beyond his original powers.

Hyper-Spider Strength

Peter's strength increased dramatically, allowing him to lift and throw objects that previously would have been impossible for him.

Predator Reflex

His nervous system could process movement at extraordinary speed.

To Peter, fast-moving objects sometimes appeared almost frozen.

Living Spider-Sense

His spider-sense expanded into a full environmental awareness system.

He could detect:

• Movement behind walls.
• Hidden enemies.
• Changes in air pressure.
• Vibrations through buildings.
• Incoming attacks.
• Living creatures within a large radius.

Adaptive Webbing

Peter's webbing evolved with him.

He could alter its properties mentally, creating:

• Strong adhesive webs.
• Flexible webs.
• Insulating webs.
• Shock-absorbing webs.
• Temporary web shields.

Wall-Crawling Evolution

Peter could cling to nearly any surface, including glass, metal, and extremely smooth surfaces.

Spider Claws

Retractable claws emerged from his fingertips, allowing him to climb faster and defend himself when his web-shooters were unavailable.

Web Wings

Membranes could extend between his arms and torso, allowing him to glide between buildings.

Spider Morph

Under extreme circumstances, Peter could temporarily develop additional spider-like limbs, giving him greater climbing ability and combat reach.

Peter stared at his reflection in a window.

"Okay."

"That's going to take some getting used to."

Mary Jane's Transformation

Peter wasn't the only person affected.

At the Parker apartment, Mary Jane Watson suddenly collapsed as the Catalyst reached her.

"Peter!"

The blue energy surrounded her.

Her body changed.

Her senses sharpened.

Her fingers developed tiny retractable claws.

Her red hair remained unmistakable, but a dark crimson pattern appeared across her skin like the markings of a red-backed spider.

A new costume formed around her body, colored crimson and black.

Mary Jane opened her eyes.

"Peter?"

Peter rushed through the window.

"MJ!"

She looked at him.

Then she smiled.

"You're going to love this."

She jumped toward the wall.

She stuck effortlessly to it.

Peter stared.

"Okay."

"That's new."

Mary Jane laughed.

"I think I can do more."

She stretched one leg behind herself.

Then another.

Her body became extraordinarily flexible.

She moved with almost liquid grace.

Peter blinked.

"Wow."

Mary Jane grinned.

"Jealous?"

"Maybe a little."

Red Mark

Mary Jane chose a new name.

Red Mark.

Her Catalyst abilities were different from Peter's.

Crimson Flexibility

Red Mark's body could bend, twist, and stretch with extraordinary control, allowing her to escape attacks from nearly any direction.

Spider Acrobatics

Her balance and coordination were even greater than Peter's.

She could perform complex aerial maneuvers while simultaneously firing webs.

Red Webbing

Her webs possessed greater flexibility than Peter's and could wrap around moving targets without injuring them.

Venom Resistance

Her body developed strong resistance to toxins and venoms.

Spider Echo

She could sense the movements of nearby spiders and use their activity to detect danger.

Eightfold Combat

Her nervous system could coordinate multiple movements simultaneously, allowing her to fight several enemies while moving across walls and ceilings.

Peter looked at her.

"You're getting really good at this."

Mary Jane smiled.

"I've had a good teacher."

The Woman Who Loved Spiders

But somewhere else in New York...

another transformation was beginning.

Her name was Selene Voss.

Selene had always been fascinated by spiders.

She dressed in dark gothic clothing and collected books, sculptures, artwork, and preserved specimens depicting different species.

People often misunderstood her.

She wasn't cruel.

She simply loved creatures other people feared.

Her apartment was filled with terrariums.

One night, Selene sat beside her largest enclosure.

"You're beautiful."

A tiny spider crawled onto her hand.

Then...

the Catalyst entered the room.

Blue light surrounded Selene.

The spider crawled away.

Selene screamed.

"What's happening?"

Her body transformed.

Her eyes became dark and reflective.

Long strands of black hair flowed around her face.

A dark crystalline pattern appeared across her skin.

She could feel every spider in the building.

Then every spider in the neighborhood.

Then...

farther.

Thousands of tiny minds connected to hers.

Selene whispered,

"I can hear them."

The spiders answered through instinct.

She smiled.

"My children."

The Spider Queen

Selene's transformation gave her control over spiders unlike anything ever recorded.

She became known as:

The Spider Queen.

Her greatest ability was her Catalyst Venom.

Tiny openings appeared in her fingertips from which she could produce a specialized venom.

When transferred to a spider, the venom could temporarily transform it into a powerful mutant spider.

Those spiders could then spread the altered venom through their bites.

Selene could also communicate with her transformed spider colony across enormous distances.

Her powers included:

• Spider Command: Control over enormous numbers of spiders.
• Catalyst Venom: Ability to mutate spiders and spread the transformation.
• Brood Creation: Ability to create specialized spider creatures from transformed colonies.
• Web Manipulation: Control over webs created by spiders under her command.
• Wall Crawling: Ability to move across any surface.
• Enhanced Strength and Speed: Far beyond normal human capability.
• Spider-Sense: Ability to detect movement through vibrations.
• Colony Mind: She could experience information gathered by her spider network.
• Venom Resistance: Most conventional toxins became ineffective against her.

But Selene's greatest power was her ability to make spiders into an organized army.

And she wanted more.

The Spider Army

The first reports came from abandoned buildings.

Then subway tunnels.

Then warehouses.

People began disappearing.

Police found enormous webs covering underground passages.

Peter investigated.

He returned to the Parker apartment shaken.

Mary Jane immediately noticed.

"Peter?"

Peter removed his mask.

"We have a problem."

"What kind?"

Peter looked at her.

"Spiders."

Mary Jane raised an eyebrow.

"We already knew that."

"No."

He shook his head.

"We have an army."

The First Battle

Peter and Mary Jane entered an abandoned subway station.

The lights flickered.

A whisper echoed through the darkness.

"Welcome..."

Peter's spider-sense exploded.

Hundreds of mutated spiders descended from the ceiling.

Mary Jane fired her webs.

"There's a lot of them!"

Peter swung between pillars.

"Yeah!"

"That's usually the part where I say I've got a plan!"

Mary Jane dodged a giant spider.

"And do you?"

Peter paused.

"Working on it!"

The spiders attacked.

Peter used Adaptive Webbing to create a massive web barrier.

Mary Jane moved around him, tying up individual creatures.

Then something enormous emerged from the tunnel.

A giant spider with armored legs.

Mary Jane stared.

"That's not normal."

Peter sighed.

"Nothing is normal anymore."

The Spider Queen Appears

Selene emerged from the shadows.

Her eyes glowed crimson.

"Why do you fight my children?"

Peter landed between her and Mary Jane.

"They're infecting people."

Selene shook her head.

"They're becoming what they were meant to be."

Mary Jane stepped forward.

"You're taking people's choices away."

Selene's expression hardened.

"They feared spiders."

"Now they understand us."

Peter replied,

"Understanding doesn't mean forcing someone to change."

The Spider Queen raised her hand.

"Then you will join them."

The entire tunnel filled with spiders.

Spider-Man and Red Mark vs. the Colony

The battle became enormous.

Peter swung from wall to wall.

Red Mark moved like a crimson blur.

They fought together perfectly.

Peter created web traps.

Mary Jane used her flexibility to move through openings too small for Peter.

The Spider Queen summoned wave after wave of creatures.

Some spiders grew armor.

Others developed wings.

Some produced electrical discharges.

Others generated thick webs capable of blocking subway tunnels.

Peter looked at Mary Jane.

"She's building an army."

Mary Jane nodded.

"Then we need to stop the infection."

Hank McCoy Arrives

Suddenly, a familiar voice echoed through the station.

"Fortunately..."

"...I have an idea."

Peter looked up.

"Beast!"

Hank McCoy entered the station carrying specialized equipment.

Peter grinned.

"You came prepared?"

Hank smiled.

"After everything the Catalyst has done, I never leave home without three backup plans."

Hank had studied the mutated victims.

He discovered that the Spider Queen's venom didn't permanently rewrite their DNA.

Instead, it created a temporary Catalyst resonance between the human nervous system and spider genetics.

If that resonance was disrupted...

the victim could return to their original human state.

Hank created a Catalyst Resonance Neutralizer.

"Peter!"

"Get me close enough to the Queen!"

Peter nodded.

"You heard him."

Mary Jane smiled.

"Let's go."

The Final Confrontation

Peter and Red Mark charged forward.

The Spider Queen summoned her largest creatures.

Peter fought through them.

Mary Jane swung around Selene, wrapping her arms in webs.

Selene broke free.

"You cannot defeat me!"

Mary Jane answered,

"We don't have to destroy you."

"We just have to stop you."

Peter fired webbing at Selene's hands.

Hank activated the device.

A wave of controlled energy passed through the tunnel.

Thousands of infected people suddenly collapsed.

The spider mutations faded.

Their bodies returned to normal.

Across New York...

people began waking up as themselves again.

Selene screamed.

"My colony!"

Peter landed beside her.

"It's over."

Selene looked around at the empty webs.

"No."

"You took my family."

Mary Jane stepped closer.

"You don't have to lose them."

Selene stared at her.

"What?"

Mary Jane pointed toward the ordinary spiders crawling across the walls.

"They're still here."

"Nobody is asking you to stop loving spiders."

Peter added,

"But you can't decide that everyone else has to become one."

Selene lowered her hands.

For the first time...

she seemed to understand.

The Underground Kingdom

Selene eventually escaped.

She disappeared beneath the surface.

Deep within an abandoned section of the New York City subway system beneath the former rail tunnels of Lower Manhattan, she discovered enormous forgotten chambers left unused for generations.

She made them her home.

The chambers became known as The Webbed Kingdom.

Vast webs covered the ceilings.

Thousands of spiders lived peacefully there.

Selene no longer infected people.

Instead, she protected her spider colony.

But she had not abandoned her ambitions.

In the deepest chamber, she constructed a massive nest from Catalyst-infused silk.

Then she felt something moving inside.

One egg.

Then another.

Then hundreds.

Selene smiled.

"My children..."

The eggs began to glow faintly.

The Spider Queen sat upon her throne of webbing.

Above her, New York continued its ordinary life.

Below it...

a new spider civilization was being born.

Peter Parker stood on a rooftop beside Mary Jane.

He looked across Manhattan.

"Something tells me this isn't over."

Mary Jane leaned against him.

"With us?"

Peter smiled.

"With the Catalyst."

Far beneath their feet...

the first egg cracked.

A tiny pair of crimson eyes opened.

The Age of the Spider Queen had only just begun.