Frankly, you were kicking yourself for even thinking it; it was unfair and frankly just gloomy. Even after expenses you had a few hundred extra bucks in your pocket, even after expenses. You shouldn't be kicking yourself over the ol' Parker Luck. Most guys and gals in New York would consider that one hell of a payday for only a couple hours of work a night, and Stan the Booker had started paying up front since last month….
Gotham Pro Wrestling only ran shows every other week, between school and not having a car you couldn't exactly chase down the other small wrestling promotions. Even if you could, as popular as you were getting, there was no guarantee you'd actually get hired. Heck, they might even dig deeper into that fake ID and realize you were only 15! You might lose the sweet gig you had going right now! And this wasn't such a sweet gig, you know Stannie was ripping you off, paying you early and consistently be damned, even forgetting the dumb "75 to 25" merchandising deal you agreed to like a sucker, they were buying shirts and posters of the logo and art of you and that you designed, all he was doing was yelling your name in a bullhorn and printing them out. Nah, even on that bum deal, you were getting screwed and hard; for almost three months now half the malls and high school gyms were swamped with people wearing stuff with that Spider symbol on it.
Dollars to donuts you were only going to get an extra sixty or eighty bucks at the end of the month. You were a math whiz, but it didn't take one to realize you would be making triple that even with that dumb handshake agreement having you over the proverbial barrel. This stinks, total BS! Damn Parker Luck!
Kicking a beer can cleanly across the hallway and into a trashcan, you laugh. At least this American Legion Hall had a locker room for the waiting staff and at least it was spotless; they were usually pretty clean if worn down like a nub if they had them, but that was a rare get. And hey, it was decently sized too! You weren't accidentally elbowing someone or kicking one of those huge tanks on the toilet when changing out of or into your tights. Fans and faculty were also cordoned off to the dining and foyer section of the dining hall, meaning the only thing between you and the subway back home was this yellow dingy hallway filled free of the American flags, pictures of various wars, and glass containers containing medals or patches from local armed divisions, outside of your fellow wrestlers (who beat you out of there some time ago or were signing merchandise and talking to the crowd)...and those two guys in all black with Pantyhose over their head from the back office.
Hey!
Stan was waddling out after them, big belly jiggling and normally ghost white face, red and fiery. "Hey, stop those guys! They're running away with my money and the VA fundraising!"
Sure enough one of them was carrying a small safe and the other was carrying a small lock-box the size of a purse, but he was also carrying a handgun that looked like a miniature cannon in his other hand.
Stepping out of the way, you hold up your arms and shrug. "Sorry Stan, you don't pay me enough to get shot…or tackle them and accidentally break something."
The taller of the two, who was built like a bull and carrying the safe, laughs as they bolt out the cheap metal door, busting it hard enough that it has dented and refusing to close automatically . "Smart kid, latter!"
Stan comes to a stop, a little before he manages to even reach you, hands on his knees and wheezing for air. You sigh and head over, patting him on the back. "You okay, sir?"
"You…you…could have stopped them. You're stronger than Bonesaw! We…we don't fake…those strength stunts for you. Plus…you're fast…"
Shaking your head, you look out the door. "Sure, but what was it you were telling me? I ain't running a charity either, you know that. Besides from the looks of it, they just grabbed your ticket sales, not concession or the merch sales. Peanuts to you."
"But not the VA. There was a lot of money they were holding over from last night."
That…that gave you pause for a moment. Second thoughts. That maybe, just maybe, you could and should have done something. But only briefly, again one of them had a gun. You planned on becoming a chemist or an engineer in the future, not a cop. It wasn't your job to risk your life over a few bucks and frankly it shouldn't be theirs either. Not worth the risk to their and innocent lives
It isn't until you got home later that night you realized just how badly you messed up by not doing the right thing then and there. Something that will haunt you until the end of your days and maybe even longer….
Good Job Petie.
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Welcome to The Astonishing Spider-Man Quest. Inspired by the classic Marvel comic book created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and by various Superhero quests like Web of Spider-Man, I decided to go the well tred route of running a Spider-Man game. Why? Simply because there is a LOT of stories to tell with him and reading Ultimate Spider-Man got me inspired to do one where time flies and things are kept to a single POV 'on the ground' as it was. Time will fly in this quest; while it will start with Peter in High School, he will quickly end up in college (maybe) and then perhaps the wider world of adult hood. It is amazing how quickly time flew in the Early comics and that is something I want to simulate here.
Spider-Man is all about trauma, work-life-cape balance, dealing with a bunch of normal and crazy people, and of course Great Power coming with Great Responsibility after all!
What is the Superhero and Villain Community situation?
[] Spider-Centric: Rare and mostly going to pop up to fight, annoy or ruin Pete's life. There was a Captain America and Namor a long time ago during World War II; the Fantastic Four are off gallivanting into Space and God Knows Where while Dr Doom rules Latvia with an iron first, but superheroes and their counterparts are vanishingly rare. There isn't a wider super community Spidey has to deal with, he's a unicorn when it comes to crime fighting. Well outside of that crazed vigilante with the skull t-shirt, but no one thinks he's anything but a serial killer, or perhaps the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. Supervillains are going to crop up, but they'll mostly be revolving around Spider-Man, maybe even because of him
[] Little Fish, Big Pond: There are Mutants and they are trying to pass bills in Congress to "fix them" and "protect us" whatever that means, though they are protecting themselves because of it, though so far that means a lot of in-fighting for whatever reason. The Avengers are protecting the world from Alien and Magical threats that can easily destroy it. That means the Daredevil, Punisher, Cloak and Dagger, hell even Heroes for Hire are openly doing the whole caped crusader thing, but it's still pretty rare. Superheroes deal with Big Problems or are Having Epic Adventures for the most part. Supervillains on the other hand need to pay for their crazy projections or ambitions and selling drugs or knocking over banks has proven a very popular method of doing that or funding a fabulous lifestyle they want to enjoy. It's a bunch of worlds Peter has to juggle back and forth in between, though more on the 'gritter' side as a street hero.
[] Marvel Regular Universe: Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man himself, is part of a "large" superhero community; while the Fantastic Four are off exploring other dimensions, the X-Men are dealing with killer robots and time travelers. Most of the rest of of the Superhuman community is bound together in trauma or self righteousness/civic obligation; greed or need. Depending on the era, Doc Ock might be trying to control the heroin trade for it's own sake not just to fund his earthquake machine, or The Hood might be commanding the powers of the devil to not only fight The Avengers and Spider-Man, but to control organized crime throughout the globe. These worlds are one, and the world is both tremendously huge and insignificantly small. You're eventually bound to stumble onto some other hero's business and they're bound to stumble on yours, and it can end up a mess or partnership.
What time frame does this take place?
This will affect vibes and the type of subgenre, though I can't help myself a bit of historicity will crop up
[] 60/70s: "Baby Boomer Era"
America is it's peak of power in every category imaginable, as far as most Americans and the West are concerned World War II ended and an era of peace has begun. It's white painted fences, clean streets and prosperity. I mean there is a Cold War going on, but as of right now it's about deescalation, not escalation. Of course there is a lot of tension hidden under that, and a lot more lies swept under the rug. The Mafia and other organized crime groups are at the height of their power; bigotry is all stripes is rampant and dominant...and civil rights activists and feminists are about to challenge it big time head on. And the facade is going to be ripped clean off: war is going to come and hard, government revealing it's corruption and callousness, economic hard times...
In this period, supervillains are divided into two groups: 'Masterminds' and 'Soldiers'. Masterminds are egomaniacs who are more concerned with turning everyone into dinosaurs or harnessing the power of the sun into energy form, at the cost of a borough in New York and a million lives or so. They will stoop to organized crime or grand larceny, either to finance their projects or because they are 'visionaries' who are going to steal the gold from Fort Knox or control all criminal gangs in New York. Their are also colorful exceptions like the Kingpin, but again they prove the rule by trying to take over ALL crime and arming mooks with sci fi weaponry. Soldiers are in this for the money, they are glued into Masterminds or The USSR or the Mafia, but will happily take their money. Both will change with the times, forming their own gangs or joining them for 'stability'
70/80s: Dark Times
The start of the Bronze Age of Comics, but forget that terminology here and remember what's going on in America. We lost Nam and kinda realizing maybe we shouldn't have been there in the first place. America's economy is down the toilet, and people are quick to blame each other or certain groups for that. Crime is on the rise and the victories and defeats of the civil rights and feminist movements create an ever changing social reality and norms. The Cold War hasn't gone nuclear hot, but people are finally aware it isn't actually cold. Some people have become total cynics, others are longing for an idealized America of the Past that never existed....and all are sick of the muck they live in now.
Supervillains might still be lofty, but they are practical too. They operate right along traditional organized crime groups like the Mafia, Triads, Bratva, Cartels and other groups even if they are more concerned with their Earthquake machines. Why, they might have been CEOs of major corprations before, but now the major corprations themselves might be entities of evil! Also Drugs have always been big business, but now they are the cornerstones of most criminal operations and bring in obsence amounts of profit. Rather than consoldite anything though under big group, there is so much money to be made, it's opened up the field for smaller criminal groups to suddenly have the manpower and cashflow to fund attempts to 'take over' and this turned the streets into their battlefields.
If you want the Punisher and Captain America this is where they can first pop up and 'fit' (and Yes I know Captain America popped up in the 60s, but work with me here). They are the dual faces of cynicism and optimism in the face of the horrors of the 21st Century, two sides of the same coin
Late 90s/00s: The End of History
"...lately, I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over...". America has won the Cold War, American properity is back baby. Organized Crime is down (though not out like in our world, far from it, but it is reeling) and our social climate has 'stablized', whatever that merans. The good times are back USA USA USA!!!
So why does everyone feel like crap? Something is wrong and while people are mostly enjoying themselves, at least in America, but there is a nagging feeling among those paying attention that this can't and maybe shouoldn't last. 9/11 happens and the War on Terror begins, exposing horror, war and widespread misery. People are too cynical for the go around this time however and also quickly see not just the corruption in the government but also how it more than simply played a passive role. This gets heightened into conspriacy theories to simplify the situation into what they could understand and think they could change, or give up for. This is party because the computer age has arrived. You can do more than play chess online or store records online now, or hack the government with a whistle; you can communciate with others to debate Star Trek captains and then eventually just share everything with family abroad or coworkers, you can shop online, sometimes more easily than in person depending on what you're buying. You can even pirate music and comic books, and eventually movies!!!
Same as before, outside of them being Russian or Communist agents or groups, but now outside of being mad scientists, foreign despots, and super criminals...they can now be super terrorists, evil extreme ideologues or theocrats, or even....dare I say it...working for the United Stated Government?!?!? The later has always been the case, but Spider-Man is much more likely to find out he's not competing against a rogue S.H.I.E.L.D agent but the CIA or FBI themselves. This is also the real era of the information highway and computer obsession, so if you want to deal with women and men with computer powers, this is where it's at.
