The Sensational Spider-Man (Marvel;Re)/Issue 4

The fourth issue of Marvel;Re's The Sensational Spider-Man and the first part of "The Devil At Work" arc.

Synopsis
When all of New York seems to go insane, Peter investigates what's happening and is eventually led down a rabbit hole that involves magic and sorcery.

Plot
A man in a black and red hood approaches a podium in the middle of what appears to be a church. He opens up a black book on the podium and begins reading from it. The hooded man takes his hood down, revealing himself to be a bald man with a large red ring around his neck. He smiles. We then cut to Tony Stark, who is leaning next to a girl and looking at her flirtatiously. Pepper Potts marches over to Tony. The two continue to yell at each other while the girl sneaks away. All over New York, people are shown arguing over nothing, admiring their own looks far too much, and one man is shown over-indulging on food in a restaurant. Meanwhile, the alarm on Peter's phone goes off and he turns it off. Peter gets up, yawning. Peter hears muffled yelling through the wall. Peter walks out and sits next to Mary Jane while watching Flash and Cindy, who are arguing with each other. Peter looks around the room, very confused. We then cut to him, swinging through the city in his suit. Peter hears a loud crash and swings down to the scene of a car crash. Both people have managed to survive but are literally fighting each other. Peter grabs both of them by the shoulders and pulls them apart. A cop suddenly runs up and fires his gun. Peter catches the bullet mid-air. The cop once again tries to shoot Peter but Peter grabs his gun and punches him in the head. The cop goes down and, moments later, every other cop in the area pulls guns on Peter. The cops all open fire on Peter and Peter swings off while still being fired at. He manages to escape the cops by swinging on top of a building and hiding from them. Peter pulls out his phone and starts looking through his contacts. Peter calls Captain America, who picks up. Outside of Avengers Tower stands Spider-Man and no one else. Cap looks around the area. Cap points at Doorman, 3-D Man, and Demolition Man. Doorman looks at the other two before lowering his head in shame. Peter approaches the heroes. Cap heads off with the heroes while Peter swings away. Later, Peter lands in front of the Sanctum Sanctorum. Peter walks through the Sanctum's doors. Wong suddenly leaps out of the shadows towards Peter, who flinches back. Luckily, he is saved by Doctor Strange, who teleports behind Peter and punches Wong in the face with a magical fist, instantly knocking him out. Strange just shrugs.
 * Hooded Man: "When sin floods the Earth. When there is no good remaining. When the forces of God fall from the sky. That is when I shall come. I will lead my army of sin to victory and I will reward the sinful for their actions. This I promise. I am the Prince of Darkness and the King of Tomorrow. I am The Devil. And I will do The Devil's work."
 * Tony: Well, if you haven't noticed, I am Tony Stark. The genius, playboy... oh, you know the rest. I'm just saying, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Just accompany me for a night and I'll make it worth your while. What do you say?
 * Girl: Um... well, I'm flattered, but aren't you married?
 * Tony: Yeah, I am. Wait... Yeah... I am...
 * Girl: So... why're you flirting with me?
 * Tony: I... What...?
 * ???: TONY!!
 * Pepper: What're you doing chatting up other women?!
 * Tony: Oh, so, it's illegal to just talk to women who aren't you, is it?!
 * Pepper: Is it cause she's young?! Huh!? Is that it, you piece of crap!?
 * Peter (thinking): Ah, Saturday. One of the two days of the week where I get the day off and don't need to worry about getting to work on time. That means I get to Spider-Man pretty early! Wait, is it okay to use Spider-Man as an adjective...? Eh, I'll do it anyway.
 * Peter: What the...?
 * Flash: You can't blame me! We don't have anywhere else for me to put it!
 * Cindy: I absolutely CAN blame you!!
 * Peter: Uh... Hey MJ? What're they arguing about?
 * Mary Jane: I don't remember. They've been arguing for two hours...
 * Peter: What? How does somebody stay angry for two hours? I should go--
 * Mary Jane: Don't talk to them, they'll drag you into it. That's way too much effort to get into an argument that I don't care about...
 * Peter: That's... not like you. In fact, it sounds a little lazy.
 * Mary Jane: Yeah, well, I... you know what? Nevermind. Arguing with you is too much effort too...
 * Peter (thinking): Flash and Cindy staying angry for two hours and now Mary Jane thinks it's "too much effort" to get them to stop? What is going on today...?
 * Peter: Hey, hey! Break it up, you two!
 * Ginger Man: Don't butt into this! This is none of your business, you stupid piece of--!
 * Peter: You're literally committing assault against someone. This is absolutely my business!
 * Peter: Holy crap, that was lucky... What was that all about? I thought cops were meant to use lethal force as a final resort. These guys don't deserve to get shot!
 * Cop: I'm not aiming at him, I'm aiming at you!
 * Peter: ...What...?
 * Cop: You're always running around taking all of the good jobs! It's our job to take care of the bad guys, not you!
 * Peter: Uh... I'm sorry that me saving lives hurts your ego, I guess...?
 * Cop: Hurt my...? You absolute...!!
 * Peter: What? What did I do? That was self-defense.
 * Peter (thinking): Okay, something weird is definitely going on here. Wonder if any other heroes are having a problem like this...
 * Peter: And it appears that I've been blocked by almost every single Avenger in my contacts... Oh, wait, Cap hasn't blocked me yet.
 * Captain America: Okay, what is it this time?
 * Peter: Um... what?
 * Captain America: You're not going to say anything weird?
 * Peter: What do you mean?
 * Captain America: Everybody else who's called me today has either chewed me out or talked about the... "fantasies" they've had about me.
 * Peter: Yeah, everybody's so weird today! I was just shot at for defending myself against a guy!
 * Captain America: It feels like somebody put drugs in the water again.
 * Peter: Again?
 * Captain America: You don't want to know.
 * Peter: I'll, uh... take your word for it... Oh, by the way, should we meet up and talk about this? You know, try to figure out what's going on?
 * Captain America: Absolutely. Meet me outside of Avengers Tower. I'll see if anybody else is unaffected by whatever is happening. You do the same.
 * Peter: Got it.
 * Captain America: Where's the back-up?
 * Peter: I am the back-up.
 * Captain America: You're kidding, right?
 * Peter: I've been blocked by every other hero in my contacts. Where's your back-up?
 * Peter: Oh my God...
 * Doorman: Hey, that's not very nice! We can help too!
 * Demolition Man: No we can't.
 * 3-D Man: Yeah, let's face it, there's a reason that we're usually only seen standing amongst other heroes or fighting D-lister villains.
 * Captain America: Look, I know they're not much but they're currently all we have.
 * Peter: Okay... well, uh...
 * Peter: Are all of you aware of what's going on?
 * Demolition Man: Cap caught us up, yeah.
 * Peter: So... any idea what's causing it?
 * Doorman: Uh... magic?
 * Demolition Man: That sounds about right. Magical brainwashing, all over the city. If it was something like a gas or a parasite then some scientists or S.H.I.E.L.D. agents would tell us about it, right?
 * 3-D Man: I'm also pretty sure that gas and parasites can't cause these weird symptoms.
 * Peter: That's... actually a pretty good point. So, more than likely it's magic. Now, what kind of magic is it...?
 * 3-D Man: Magical brainwashing all over the city... Stuff like that could permanently affect people's relationships and it's not even their fault. What a sin...
 * Peter: Sin... sin... sin! The seven deadly sins!
 * Demolition Man: Uh...?
 * Peter: I saw two guys beating each other up because they were wrathful, a cop tried to shoot me because I hurt his pride, a roommate of mine was too slothful to stop my other roommates from arguing--
 * Captain America: And people kept calling me about their lust for me... You might be on to something here...
 * Peter: So, if this magic is replicating the seven deadly sins...
 * Doorman: Then it's probably demon magic!
 * Peter: Exactly! We have to go talk to Strange about this and see what he knows!
 * Captain America: You go to the Sanctum Sanctorum, the heroes and I will stay behind and stop any riots going on. I'm a lot more capable of handling situations like this and, quite frankly, I'm a much more experienced leader.
 * Peter: That's true but you still shouldn't say it.
 * Peter (thinking): Hopefully the doc's not affected. Pretty sure I wouldn't be able to take him in a fight...
 * Peter (thinking): You know, I never understood why you could just walk through the front door. I guess it makes sense, but it feels like the way of getting inside should be at least a bit more complex.
 * Doctor Strange: Sorry about that, Wong hasn't been himself today. Thank God you distracted him though. He was like a fly, every time I got close to putting him down he'd run away somewhere else in the building. Anyway, it's good to see you again, Spider-Man.
 * Peter: Same to you, doc. So, I'm gonna guess you know why I'm here?
 * Doctor Strange: Of course. And yes, I do, in fact, know a lot about the magical madness that New York is suffering from.
 * Peter: Great. So, uh... what the hell?
 * Doctor Strange: "Hell" is right. It appears that all of this magic is demonic in nature. And not just any demonic magic, demonic magic from the Devil's Tome.
 * Peter: Holy crap, this is magic from the freakin' Devil?!
 * Doctor Strange: Well, one of them. See, if you'll allow me to exposit for a bit, what a lot of people don't realize is that there's no THE Devil. There are Devils. Highly powerful demons that have founded their own Hell Realms. Mephisto, Lucifer, even my long-time foe Dormammu could be considered a Devil.
 * Peter: Then why's it called the Devil's Tome?
 * Doctor Strange: I was just about to explain that. See, the title of "The Devil" is usually used to refer to the most powerful of all the Devils. The one from the bible. The man who used to be an angel. The man who won the war to earn the title of Satan.
 * Peter: So, does he got a name or is it just a list of titles?
 * Doctor Strange: Marduk Kurios.
 * Peter: Never heard of 'im.
 * Doctor Strange: Consider yourself lucky. I've only ever seen one man hear his name and not tremble in fear and that was Dormammu...
 * Peter: So, this Marduk guy is the one who wrote the Devil's Tome?
 * Doctor Strange: Technically it was written by a series of mad monks and priests but he was the one who told them what to write in the book so more or less yes.
 * Peter: So... I'm fighting Satan.
 * Doctor Strange: No.
 * Peter: Huh?
 * Doctor Strange: Marduk very rarely does his work by hand. He usually has a follower who does it for him. So, you'll be fighting against Satan's magic but you won't be fighting Satan himself.
 * Peter: Aw man...
 * Doctor Strange: You really shouldn't be disappointed by that...
 * Peter: Oh, I've been meaning to ask, how come some people aren't affected by the magic?
 * Doctor Strange: Most mind-altering magic requires a weak will. I suppose you and whoever isn't affected just have stronger wills than most others.
 * Peter: So Doorman, 3-D Man, and Demolition Man have stronger wills than people like Tony Stark...?

Peter pauses for a second before gesturing towards Wong. Later on, Wong is placed on a table by Peter. Strange walks over to Wong and places a thumb on his forehead. Green magic begins erupting from Strange's thumb and eventually starts firing from his mouth and eyes. Green energy flies out of Wong's chest and forms a magic "window", displaying the bald man from the beginning of the story. The magic stops coming out of Strange's mouth and eyes and he looks at the window with Peter. Peter squints and takes a closer look at the man. Strange starts flashing red and drops to the ground. Flames surround Peter and he is suddenly teleported right outside of a run-down church. Peter walks into the church and starts looking around. Peter walks into the church hall which has a massive upside-down cross at the end of it. Peter slowly approaches the podium at the end of the hall. Unbeknownst to him, a shadowy creature slinks around the hall after him. When Peter is almost near the end, the creature jumps out, revealing itself to be a large purple winged demon. Peter screams and punches it in the head so hard that it explodes. Moments later, the demon turns to ash. Peter turns and sees the blad man with his hood up. He takes his hood down and four demons appear behind him. The four demons leap towards Peter, who quickly disposes of them. The man's hands glow bright red and he rushes towards Peter, attempting to grab him. Peter leaps out of the way and the man starts blasting beams towards him, though Peter still manages to dodge them. As he gives his speech, red smoke starts appearing around him and engulfing him. The smoke is cleared by the man dramatically tossing a cape, which dramatically billows in the wind. The man is also revealed to be wearing his supervillain costume. Peter stares in awe at Mysterio. Before laughing slightly.
 * Peter: Okay, well... who's the follower that I'm dealing with?
 * Doctor Strange: Now that I do not know. I'd need a person affected by the demonic magic to track him down.
 * Doctor Strange: Oh... huh... I guess I got so used to him running around that I just... forgot I already beat him...
 * Peter: Sweet, then let's get a move on!
 * Peter: Oh man, magic always creeps me out...
 * Doctor Strange: You know him?
 * Peter: Something familiar about him, yeah... Just... I don't think he was bald last time, so that's kinda throwing me off. Having trouble putting a name to him.
 * Doctor Strange: Hm... the general sense I'm getting from his magical energy is much weaker than mine, in spite of his ability to use demonic magic. He should be easy to defeat for the Sorceror Supreme--
 * Peter: Doc?
 * Doctor Strange: Damn... it appears that I was careless while tracking the demonic energy and accidentally exposed myself to it...!
 * Peter: Oh God! We gotta do this fast or we--
 * Doctor Strange: It's acting fast... I won't have time to find and defeat Marduk's underling! Spider-Man... it's up to you now.
 * Peter: Me?!
 * Doctor Strange: I'm going to open a portal to a plane of existence with beings powerful enough to contain me until you've managed to stop this magical manipulation. That way I won't cause any destruction. But before that, I'm going to track down Marduk's follower's location and send you there. You're strong, Spider-Man. I know that you can do it! Now go!
 * Peter: But doc, I--
 * Peter: A church? Weird hiding spot for Satanic weirdos...
 * Peter (thinking): Damn it, doc... Why'd you pick me to do this? Was it just cause I was the closest hero there? Seriously, I have fought exactly one demon in my entire life and I almost died. Only reason I didn't was cause I wasn't alone back then. Though, now that I think about it, I haven't seen any demons in here. Maybe this isn't the right place.
 * Peter: ...Well, that just seems like overkill.
 * Peter: Huh... Surprisingly weak demons.
 * ???: Yes, I'm very new to this...
 * Mysterious Man: I'm not used to magic just yet, so I'm not very good at making my monsters strong...
 * Mysterious Man: But I am very good at making them...
 * Mysterious Man: You're completely unaffected by my mind-altering magic. Interesting... Maybe you need direct contact with the spell for it to work?
 * Peter: Yo, Satanist guy?
 * Mysterious Man: I'm not a Satanist, I'm just demonic.
 * Peter: Whatever. Listen, I really feel like I know you from somewhere but I just can't put my finger on it. Can you, like... give the villain speech about who you are or something?
 * Mysterious Man: You don't remember me?
 * Peter: Should I?
 * Mysterious Man: You... you absolute...!! A shaved head and you suddenly completely forget who I am!? I am one of the first enemies you ever faced! I have been a constant terror on your life since you were young and you dare forget my name, you whelp!?
 * Peter: Wait, something's clicking in my brain. Keep the speech going!
 * Mysterious Man: I am the greatest of all of the world's criminals. I am Anti-Sorceror Supreme. I am the macabre menace and the king of catastrophe! And now I am even the world's greatest demonic sorcerer!!
 * Mysterio: I AM MYSTERIO! MASTER OF ILLUSION!!
 * Peter: I knew you weren't bald the last time!