The Spectacular Spider-Men # 5

 By Mark Rodriguez

Peter and Miles decide to hang out once a week at the Coffee Bean. When they notice the regulars either acting weird or flat out missing, they follow them into the Arcadium. Arcade and Mentallo trapped the Spiders in idealized fantasies. Peter was married with Gwen and had kids, while Miles was dating Kamala Khan. Once the Spiders find out that they weren't living in reality, Arcade switches things up and pins them against each other, making them think the other is a robot. Meanwhile, the Arcadium's financial backer, Hammerhead, decides to swing by and check on his investment.

Arachnobatics Chapter 5- Contingencies opens with us seeing the fake Kamala Khan, as well as Gwen Stacy, the kids, Aunt May and George Stacy all slumped over like the lifeless robots they really were. Elsewhere, Peter and Miles square off against each other, each one thinking the other is a fake.

Peter takes a swing at Miles but misses. Miles blasts him with his Spider Bite. Peter gets up and remembers the 'robot' Miles will have the same 'lousy' extra powers the real one would have. Miles takes offense to that and hits him while turning invisible. Peter tries to focus with his Spider-Sense, but the invisible Miles is too fast for him.

Hammerhead arrives to watch the fight, but asks Arcade and Mentallo what happens after one of the Spider-Men wins. Arcade and Mentallo have no answer. Hammerhead says he has to protect his investment from the do-gooders and asks them to tee him in.

Elsewhere, Detective Debbens is talking to Doctor Frapps. Seymour apologizes for his outburst from earlier but he has had bad experiences with police. Debbens says she compared is DNA with that of his most recent arrest and it proves he's not a clone. Seymour is offended she thought he was a clone. Debbens said she had to consider it given his long friendship with Miles Warren. Seymour says he never met Miles. He got the job inventorying the lab because of his long friendship with Miles' older brother, Raymond.

Elsewhere, Raymond Warren and Sha Shan team up to find out what happened to Peter Parker since the authorities are taking too long. Sha Shan says they'll start their investigation with the want ads for beta testing the Arcadium.

Back to the fight, invisible Miles continues to attack Peter, being too quick for his Spider-Sense to respond. Peter decides to web up the area, exposing Mile's outline. Peter lands a punch on Miles.

Both Spider-Men end up smashing through a skyscraper window, where Turk, the criminal seen in earlier issues sees them. One of his men says he should run, but Turk feels confident that if he took down Daredevil, he can also take down the Spider-Men. Turk takes a swing at Peter with a steel pipe. Peter catches the pipe in his hand effortlessly and is confused that his Spider-Sense worked just fine for this one.

Peter webs up Turk, which confuses Miles. Turk is also confused since in his fantasy he's supposed to be the winner. Peter and Miles realize that they're both the real deal. Peter says his Spider-Sense didn't classify Miles as a threat until he was a split-second away from getting hit. Miles thought his Spider-Sense was acting up too. The Spider-Men are friends again and Hammerhead tells the villains that the jig is up.

Hammerhead says using the Arcadium to control and blackmail the elites will get him up to Tombstone's level. He won't let the Spider-Men shut it down. Hammerhead is tired of being a flunky, and tells Arcade and Mentallo that he's going in. 

The Spiders question Turk as to what's going on. Turk tells them not to pin anything on him since he's just getting paid to beta test. He explains that they're in the Arcadium, which somehow reads people's fantasies and brings them to life. He says it's a real rush and it bets that it can be addictive. Peter and Miles understand that all too well.

Here we see all the people we've been seeing in the previous issues. The actor winning Emmys, Cedric dating Shelly, Shelly being an archeologist, Kenny being a football player and the lesbian couple visiting France.

Elsewhere, Debbens tells Sha Shan that she thinks Raymond Warren is a clone. She's not positive and would like to talk to 'the bigger' Spider-Man, but he's recently out of contact. Sha Shan says Raymond told her that he had resources to find their missing friends, but now she's worried what he will do once he finds them. We see that Raymond is gathering the Vermin clones in the sewers.

Meanwhile, Peter deduces that the 'Arcadium' suggests that Arcade is behind this, and Miles says he must be working with someone that has psychic powers. Hammerhead says it's pretty intuitive guess work but it won't do them any good. Just then the area starts to rotate around the Spiders.

Hammerhead tells the Spiders that in this area there are no high buildings for them to swing from and no other heroes to come and save them. Hammerhead has several villains he used to work with or work for, including the Kingpin, Black Cat and Mister Negative, but now they are serving as his flunkies.

Raymond wanders through the Arcadium. The security system detects the new intruder and states the others are too busy dealing with other intruders. The security system says he is a threat to his existence and the safest procedure is to kill him. Raymond says killing him rarely slowed him down for long, so he offers to talk with the security system instead.

My opinions-

So it looks like Raymond was an evil clone all along. Not only that, but he has a completely different agenda that's not tied to the Arcadium plot. By the way he talks, it seems he's Miles Warren who has now stooped so low that he even sacrificed his own brother to further his plans. We can also see that Raymond continuing to act as if Seymour was acting out of character was a way to point the finger at him and get suspicion off himself.

The story progresses and the Spiders have a better idea of what's going on now. I like the idea of Hammerhead's fantasy being about him being the boss and his former employers being his flunkies. You know he loved hearing the Kingpin call him boss. 

I am curious about Cedric though, and why he was the only one so affected by the simulation that he thought Shelly loved him in real life too. From what we saw with Turk, he was fully aware he in a fantasy world tailored to his tastes.

I guess my only nitpick is I would have liked to have seen more fighting between the heroes. Plus, Peter only landed one hit while Miles was whupping his ass. Then I'm confused with the very next panel after Peter finally clocked Miles... suddenly Peter is seen flying through a window? Wouldn't that have been Miles?

Either way, things are heating up as more villains are starting to appear, both in and out of the Arcadium. Let's see where this goes.