Contest of Champions: Part 3

Today's forecast for Manhattan? A perfect storm of chaos and evil. The Grandmaster, freakishly powerful cosmic being, challenged his little brother the Collector, freakishly powerful cosmic being, to a game. And they're using my hometown as their game board! The Grandmaster assembled the world's baddies to take on the Collector's collection of heroes. If the villains win, they get to run the Earth without us hero types to stop them! But if the heroes win, eight million innocent new yorkers go free, including my Aunt May. Um, not to interrupt while you're being all broody, but aren't we winning this contest? True, for the first time in our incomprehensibly long lives, I'm finally beating my brother at something. But at what cost? I had to sacrifice some of the most valuable pieces from my collection. So why don't you just quit and end this game while you're ahead? My brother would never stop until the last card is played. I'm just another pawn in his game. I know the feeling, but you don't have to be a pawn. You can free the people of New York and call it day. I don't have them. The Grandmaster has all the captives on his ship. Then maybe it's time to change the rules of this game. Playing with your favorite toy again, brother? Aren't you afraid you'll damage him? Oh, wait. That's my job. Bold words, brother. It must be infuriating to be losing to me. I've played enough games to know that no hot streak is forever. When your luck runs out, I'll be here to break your heroes. One by one. Times like these that I'm glad I'm an only child. I choose Spider-Man! Iron Spider! And Venom! Do I detect a web theme, brother? My-my, you are a creature of habit. Then I need a team to squash them like the bugs they are. I choose Annihilus! Attuma! And Terrax! One more. I add Thor! Bringing in the big hammer, huh? I approve. They won't save you, Spider-Man. Game on! Well this is bad. Face your annihilation, Spider-Man! And from bad to worse Come on, fellas. We can't fight like this in here! It's dark! Whoa. Whoa, turn down the cosmic bug zapper! A that light's a little too strong! Insolent fool! The Earth will belong to Annihilus! Then Terrax will see to its destruction! Yikes! Double yikes! Not while Attuma rules this realm! Clearly you guys have some cooperation issues to work out among yourselves, so I'll just I was supposed to have a tough team with me here somewhere. This way, man of spiders! Now, that's what I'm talking about. Hey, Thor! Can you give me a lift? Woo-hoo! Yeah! Yo, Spidey! You look like you got hit by the E-train. More like two cosmic space goons and a Hulk-strong Atlantean. Sounds like trouble's on its way. Our foes attack! What's the matter, brother? Did your collection just get downgraded from mere mint to fair? There's hardly anything "fair" about this match-up. Then why don't you play a few more cards to even up the odds? Oh, that's right. You don't want to risk getting your toys all dirty. Attuma! Your sword is no match for the might of Mjolnir! Nice work, guys! Good thing those trains are empty! I have a plan, but I need you to cover me and buy me some time. - Now keep 'em busy! - You got it, Spidey! Gotta make this fast Before they notice their collection is shy one webslinger. Just what this game needs a few extra pawns. Ignore the humans! Concentrate your attacks on Thor! You do not command Terrax! My orders come only from Galactus! Attuma takes orders from Warrior Venom! Spider of iron! Let us unleash the fury! Curious. Your favorite pawn has been inactive for some time now, or haven't you noticed? Spider-Man? What? No. He couldn't have been removed from the board. Keep it up, guys! You were saying, brother? Thor! Can you kick up another distraction? Done, spider-friend! I usually only use this switcharoo to get out of gym class dodgeball. Let's hope this works. Your tricks are all sound and fury, no substance! The old fake-out play! Just hope Thor can hold out with those life model decoys. Good luck, man of spiders. Okay, you got us past the barrier. Now what? Now we change the rules of this game, by eliminating the stakes. You're gonna blow up the Earth? The other stakes! Oh. The entire population of New York is held prisoner on the Grandmaster's ship. We're gonna get 'em out. So it's a hail Mary pass from deep inside the opposing end zone. - Is everything football with you? - What's your point? Man the weapons. And Fire! Bingo! We just took out the Grandmaster's communications array. How can you possibly know that? I sorta helped blow up his brother's ship once. Oh yeah, his brother's ship had one of those, too. Heh. That's not good! I can't stabilize! I've got no control! whoa! We got this, Spidey! No good. Amadeus! Can you Jack into the piloting computer? Even better! I unplugged it! I can do the math faster than the computer. To calculate the roll, pitch, and yaw of our landing trajectory to within a micro-arcsecond. Do you see where I'm going? Yeah, I see it! Or to put it in jock-ese for you I just called an audible. Nice work, Iron Spider. Now let's focus on finding aunt er our family and friends. That'll be no problemo for Spider-Man and his ultimate friends. Uh, no. Temporary name. Until we come up with something better. I got a bad feeling about this. Relax. With the communications out, the Grandmaster won't even know we're here. Yeah? What about them? They're just probes. Like the ones on the Collector's ship. Taking them out should be no problem. Unless they've been upgraded. Look out! Whoa! These toasters have bite! New strategy, guys. You wanna take down these probes? We're gonna need strength and smarts! Hey, Venom! Over this way. And try to get the probes to follow you! All right! You blenders wanna a piece of Venom? Come and get me! - Haha! - Nice! Hot robots coming through! Web Warriors! C'mon! This way! Even as you defy me, Thor, your cohorts grow weak! So silent, Spider-Man? No witty comebacks? No insulting remarks? Insignificant humans, crushed by the Power Cosmic! Iron-Spider and Venom have been removed from the game! Whatever you tech-heads are doing, you better do it fast! - We're running out of decoys. - Don't get your symbiote in a bunch. I found what I'm looking for. Eight million stasis pods, filled with eight million New Yorkers. Hang on. I need you to upload something from your suit's database. File name "Checkmate. " Why? What is it? A real game-changer Don't look now, brother, but I'm about to win more of your toys. I think this time I'll melt them all in the incinerator Slowly. Of course you could preserve the remainder of your collection by simply conceding victory to me. No! We play this round to the last card, winner take all! I raise you A-Bomb! Hawkeye! And She-Hulk! Wager accepted. Bad dude Bad dude Seriously bad dude Where're all the civilians? We might know where to look. Modok! The question is, how badly do you want to know? Leader! You know how you're the seventh smartest dude on the planet? Meet five and six. Whoa! What's with those heads? They're gi-normous! Spidey! The signal hacking your communicator is trying to hack my suit. These stasis pods may confine our bodies, but they cannot contain our superior minds! This is the last thing we need right now. Wait. Check that. This is exactly what we need. Leader! Modok! - I want to make a deal. - A deal? What kind of deal? I get you out of your tubes. You tell me where the captives are. Then we use the ship's teleport hub to send everybody home and end this stupid game once and for all! You're familiar with the Grandmaster's technology? I saw something like it on the Collector's ship. We put our minds together, we can get it up and running. We can't trust these guys. Tell me something I don't know. But unless they can breathe in space, we're their only ticket off this ship. Very well. We accept your deal. We will help you teleport the captives to safety. Just need to calibrate a pulse to match the pods' vibrational frequency. This one has actual intelligence. If Grandmaster's ship is anything like his brother's, the teleport hub should be Right there! We don't have a lot of time. We need to get everyone off this ship before Spider-Man. The only thing I despise more than a counterfeit game piece is the cheater who played it. We're finished playing your twisted little game. I'm officially declaring this game done. Only the Grandmaster decides when the game ends. And the only thing that ends now Is you. Boot up the teleporter. Then figure out how to get all of the Grandmaster's captives out of here. Iron Spider and Venom with me! We're gonna distract the Grandmaster. Go, Web Warriors! The pawns cannot attack the gamer! This is against the rules! Yeah? Well, now we're playing by New York City rules! Yeah! Who elected you ref? Fascinating. It appears to operate on a substring variation of quantum-mechanical algorithms. Rerouting the bio-molecular sequence should be simplicity itself, if Spider-Man can buy us the time. We didn't ask for this. We didn't want to be a part of your game. It doesn't matter what you want. I'm an elder of the universe. I'm exceptional. You're nothing but playthings and toys. And I'm going to take particular pleasure in breaking these toys. Commencing activation sequence. The teleportation matrix is now online. No! No! My captives! Aw, did somebody lose all his marbles? In more ways than one! Leader! Modok! A little help fending off the big guy with the explodey stick? They're bailing on us! - Probably should've seen that coming. - Already did. Activating the "Checkmate" program. - What have you done? - Me? Nothing. The self-destruct program we downloaded into your ship's mainframe did all the work. Oh no! There's still civilians left! Hold off the Grandmaster while I get them to the teleporter! You may be a big evil gamer, but I'm winning this one! Okay, fine. Best two out of three! - Everybody, into the teleporter! - Peter? Peter! Aunt May? You need to get out of here. I'm sure Peter is fine, ma'am. I'm not going anywhere without my nephew! I'm sure he's safe. Don't patronize me! I lost Ben! I won't lose you, too, Peter! You you knew? We're leaving. This is too dangerous. Someone else can risk their life for this. Not you. Not this time oh! No one else can do it! If you know who I am, then you know why I have to do it. I may be a little late for dinner tonight. Now, go! I'll wait up! Stay safe, Peter! She called you you're Peter Parker? Puny Parker? Wha yeah, but No. No, no, no, no. No, that's not true Th th that's wait no That's impossible! This wasn't the game changer I was expecting. Change the rules all you want. The Grandmaster never loses. First time for everything. Get away from my pal, you dweebus! Peter Parker is Spider-Man? I did not see that coming. The self destruct program's gone critical. Amadeus? Scanners are clear. Every living thing on this ship has beamed out. Then so are we! Fun playing with you, Grandmaster, but game over! This game is not over! We did it We saved everyone. Whoa! Collector? What's with the face? We won! - Didn't we? - I'm sorry. I could disqualify you for cheating, Spider-Man, but it doesn't matter. While you were running around on my ship, my brother and I finished the game. The last of the heroes has been defeated. I'd wager you regret that winner-take-all strategy now Except you have nothing left to wager. I won! I hold all the cards! I own all the pieces! And now I'm taking the board! New York is mine! You're just gonna let this happen? Can't you do something? There is nothing that can be done, Spider-Man. The game is lost. Your city belongs to the Grandmaster. No, this can't be how it ends!