Web of Tarantula Vol 1 1

Part of the Mythos arc

Art by: Unknown

* All
* 1
* 2
* 3

1 - "Fates" Variant2 - "Bedlam In Goliath" Variant3 - "I Have Awakened" Variant

Art by: Mike Mignola

Art by: Unknown

Art by: Alex Ross

Appearances · Synopsis

 I only **hope** I can be the man you thought I could be...
—Tarantula
## Appearing in "Mythos"

**Featured Characters:**

* ⏴ Tarantula (Shay Daniels) ⏵ (First appearance)

**Supporting Characters:**

* Voodoo (Ren Carter)
* Hulk (Bernard Smith)
* Alexis May (First appearance)
* Jane Harper (First appearance)
* Tyler Price (First appearance)
* Jordan Knight (First appearance)
* Patrick Knight (First appearance) (Death)
* Jennifer Daniels
* Monica Eden
* Jason Decker (First appearance)

**Antagonists:**

* Bank Robber (First appearance)
* The Radioactive Man (Chester Ballinger) (First appearance)

**Other Characters:**

* Connor Carter (Mentioned)
* Dr. Daniels (Mentioned)
* LVMPD (First appearance)

**Races and Species:**

* Zinchari Spiders
* Humans
* Human Mutates
* Mutants

**Locations:**

* Earth-30
	+ United States of America
		- Mojave Desert
		- Nevada
			* Las Vegas
				+ Spring Valley
					- Spring Valley High School
				+ Northern Las Vegas (First appearance)
					- The Block (First appearance)
						* The Daniels Residence (First appearance)
					- Two Cat Coffee (First appearance)
				+ Chinatown Vegas (Mentioned)
					- Game Nest Arcade (Mentioned)
				+ The Strip (First appearance)
					- The Rio (First appearance)
					- LVMPD Police Station (First appearance)
					- Dynamics Industries Vegas Site (First appearance)
					- Sugar Factory (First appearance)
				+ Paradise (First appearance)
					- Bali Hai Golf Course (First appearance)
					- Las Vegas Atomic Testing Museum (First appearance)
				+ Enterprise (First appearance)
					- Conway Graveyard (First appearance)
			* Primm (First appearance)
				+ Dynamics Industries Production Planet (First appearance)

**Items:**

* Tarantula Habit (First appearance)
* Web-Shooters (First appearance)

## Synopsis for "Mythos"

On April 12th, 2018, Shay Daniels woke up completely fine and ordinary. Unbeknownst to him, his mother - **Jennifer Daniels** - was fast at work, organizing his surprise birthday party with her stepson, **Jordan Knight**. Their original plan was to rent out an arcade for the night, but Jennifer gained an idea from their family friend, **Monica Eden**, to have a gathering in the desert. Jordan liked the idea and offered to do a bonfire, bring music and invite people out to it from their high school. Meanwhile, **Patrick Knight**, Jordan's father and Shay's stepfather, was investigating a crime scene at The Rio. Recently, a gang performed a string of casino robberies without any casualties or anyone seeing them enter and out of the casino. The Rio was the third one that month, but Patrick had a feeling that the score they were actually after was The MGM Grand during the Prize Fight in a week. Regardless, Patrick would return home to help with the festivities.

Elsewhere, Shay went to school as he usually would, but for some reason, the only people who would talk to him were **Jane**, **Bernard Smith**, **Alexis**, and **Tyler**. **Ren** and Jordan actively avoided him outside of telling him a happy birthday. He brushed it off as them having a bad day, but in actuality, it was Jordan hiding Ren away from him as Ren was **notoriously** horrible at keeping secrets, and since she was in on the plan, Jane figured that Ren should steer clear of Shay. However, Jane and Shay were more flirty than usual; again, Shay chopped it up to nothing as Jane was naturally flirty, but Jane had other motives. While Jane, Alexis, and Tyler kept Shay busy, Jordan and Ren were inviting their other friends to the party, with Jordan inviting Jason Decker, who was on the football team with him. Shay didn't know Jason, but Jason had just gotten broken up with by his girlfriend, so Jordan was trying to throw him a bone and show him a good time, which Jason accepted.

Jennifer, Patrick, and Monica would drive out to the desert in hopes of scoping out the place and seeing if they could legally have a bonfire. However, Monica brought up Jennifer's ex-husband, Dr. Daniels, and asked if his research ever took him out here. Of course, she knew the answer as Monica planned for a Zinchari Spider to be awoken and tested on by the company she worked for, Dynamics Industries. However, Jennifer revealed that she had no idea because Dr. Daniels never told her about his research out of fear that it would hurt her. After a brief scout, Patrick returned to the two and explained that it was legal and that they could play music as loud as they wanted out here as the Native American reservation was far enough away not to be distributed by it. With that, Jennifer went to Spring Valley High and pulled Jordan out of school to get him to help set up at the location.

Shay would return home from acing an English quiz a little while later. Here, Jane revealed that she made it to his house first. While she did have a gift, Alexis sabotaged it because of their ongoing feud, but she decided to make a move. Her job was to distract Shay while everyone else set up the party in the desert, and this was done by her putting on one of Shay's favorite movies, Jurassic Park. As the two rewatched the movie for the billionth time, Shay stated that this was the best birthday he could ask for, which made Jane smile. As she moved in on him, the two held each other as a couple would, and just as Ellie Sattler was about to be chased by the T-Rex, Jane and Shay leaned into each other for a kiss. Still, they were abruptly interrupted by Jordan barging into the house, which made Jane move faster than Shay had ever seen her do. After a brief moment of Jordan asking if he was interrupting, he brought them to his car and told Shay that he would take him to the arcade for his birthday.

As the trio drove down the highway, Shay commented on Jordan passing three different arcades and four off-ramps, but Jordan chuckled. As they kept moving, Shay joked about how if they were going to kill him, at least let him finish Jurassic Park which made everyone in the car laugh. By the time they reached the desert, Shay realized what was happening, and when they got to the spot, Shay laughed in surprise. Everybody they knew was there, and as the trio rejoined with the preliminary squad, Jennifer wished Shay a happy birthday and hugged him. Thus, the festivities began. However, the problem with so many people being there is that there were **so many people there**.

Jason began to drink after discovering that his ex-girlfriend was there with another man. When he asked what was going on, as they had only broken up a week prior, the new man explained that he didn't realize she had a boyfriend when they were together, thus leading him to drink heavily after learning that his girlfriend was cheating on him. What made it worse was that everywhere Jason looked, his ex-girlfriend was there with the guy, and so, incredibly drunk, Jason climbed into his truck and started to leave. Jordan caught wind of this and attempted to stop him, but Jason mistakenly took Jordan for the new guy and punched him. When Jordan reached his feet, he watched Jason drive aimlessly into the desert and sighed. Jason drove for miles, not having a sense of direction and driving wildly. However, what distracted him momentarily was his phone going off with a message from his ex-girlfriend, asking if they could talk and where he went. Frustrated, Jason threw the phone out of the window but didn't realize he was driving straight into a reinforced half-wall. He was sent flying out of his windshield and landed in a puddle of water, broken and beaten. As he lay in the reservoir, his eyes slowly looked up to see a radioactive drum tipped over, dripping into the puddle of water, and on the side of the barrel, it read Dynamics Industries. Jason had crashed into a Dynamics Industries production plant near Primm, Nevada, and it was because of this that Jason became sentient water. (*To find out what happens to Jason next, see I Talk to Wind.*)

Back at the party, Shay was enjoying himself and sitting beside the bonfire when Jane approached him. The two talked about what transpired at the house, which led to Jane stating that they had unfinished business. Just as the mood was right, the music was good, their friends were there, and Shay and Jane were leaning in to kiss; Jane suddenly shouted and shouted a cuss word. Shay joked about how that didn't inspire confidence, but that was when the ground shook violently, and Shay turned around as the earth cracked open beneath them. Shay grabbed Jane and backed up, but a giant spider burst from the ground. As everyone stood stunned, the spider roared, and everyone ran, scattering. Jordan ushered Jennifer and Monica into his car as Patrick ran to his car, getting as many people into it as possible. Alexis and Tyler booked it to Tyler's car with Ren and Jane, but Ren asked where Shay was before they left. Jennifer stopped Jordan and asked the same question, and Patrick drove over to Alexis, Tyler, and Ren and proposed the same question. That's when they all saw it; the spider's attention was on Shay as he ran away from the bonfire and towards them with the spider chasing him.

Jennifer screamed as Patrick opened fire on the spider, and Tyler held Alexis back from running toward him. The spider swiped at Shay's leg, making him stumble and eventually fall. As he turned around to face the spider, it grabbed him, and just before eating him, Shay screamed unnaturally and then was **devoured** by the spider. Everyone watched as the spider retreated into the desert. Jennifer sobbed eerily as Jane and Alexis held her, and Tyler quietly cried, looking down.

When all hope was lost, one day later, Shay stumbled into the LVMPD police station, completely naked with a strange dried liquid covering his body. This event shocked everyone there because they had all known about what had occurred, and when asked if he was okay, Shay only told them that he would like some water. Having showered and been clothed, Patrick ran into the precinct and hugged Shay, happy to see him alive. To add to his official report of the incident, Patrick asked him what happened during the twenty-four hours he was gone. However, this prompted a flood of memories for Shay as he remembered being alive while being digested by the spider. Feeling like he should probably omit that, Shay told him that he didn't remember or know what happened to the spider. *To find out what happened to the spider, see Rei Ayanmi's page.*

Patrick took Shay home, where everyone was waiting for him. After a series of hugs, cries, and an overall joyous reunion, Shay went to sleep in his room after his mother forced him to, believing that he had been walking for the last 24 hours. While Shay slept, there was a man named **Chester Ballinger** who worked at the Dynamics Industries building in Vegas. He was a brilliant scientist but suffered from a debilitating rare blood disease that was slowly killing him. Chester worked under Monica, who offered him an idea: to experiment with gamma radiation to flush the illness out of his system. With no choice, Chester agreed and synthesized a serum based on the Super Soldier Serum but replaced the Vita-Rays with gamma radiation. However, Chester miscalculated and added too much gamma radiation to the serum, which resulted in a horrible result. His skin melted off and left only his bones, now glowing green from the radiation and a pang of hunger for gamma.

Three days later, Patrick decided to take the family out to dinner. He had hit a snag in his casino robbery case and wanted to clear his head, so the group went to the Sugar Factory on The Strip for dinner. The dinner went great, but Shay was hiding a secret from his parents. Whenever he woke up from his sleep the day he returned, Shay had superhuman abilities, and the only people he told were Tyler, Jordan, Alexis, Ren, and Jane, who all agreed that they shouldn't tell Jennifer or Patrick. Plus, Shay adamantly stated that he wanted not to be a superhero. This belief is what makes this next part of his origin sad. As the family was walking away from the Sugar Factory and about to cross the street, the cops caught the infamous casino robbers stealing from The MGM Grand and began a high-speed chase. Patrick and Jennifer were traveling first as Jordan showed Shay a funny video and didn't realize the light had changed. As the robber's car turned the corner, they were driving and shooting at the following police so they didn't see Patrick and Jennifer. Shay's new "Spider-Sense" went off as he saw the car speeding toward Jennifer and Patrick. He shouted for them, and that's when Patrick finally noticed. In an instant, Patrick pushed Jennifer out of the way, and Shay lunged for Patrick, using his superhuman abilities to try to get there faster, but it was too late. The car crashed into Patrick and killed him on impact.

By the time Shay got there, Jennifer was holding Patrick's dead body, and when Jordan got there, he saw that look in Shay's eyes. He tried to tell him to stop, but Shay was already gone, jumping onto rooftops to chase after the robber's car. Angry, Shay caught up with them at the Bali Hai Golf Course. He landed on the hood of their car and tore out the engine, forcing them to crash into the side of the golf course. Here, Shay picked them off individually but didn't kill them. Instead, he left them for the police. Later that night, after Shay returned home, Alexis intercepted Shay underneath a street light, where he broke down into tears.

A week later, a funeral for Patrick took place at Conway Cemetery. However, Shay and Alexis stayed when everyone else left. They talked for a moment then Alexis gave Shay Patrick's Dog Tags, which Jennifer told Alexis to do. As they stood silently over Patrick's grave, Chester attacked them, raving about how he needed more. Alexis would hit Chester in the head with a shovel, and Shay uppercut him miles away from the grave. When asked what that was, Alexis shrugged in confusion, and Shay just exhaled. When the two returned home, Jennifer was upstairs asleep, so The Hooligans talked about The Radioactive Man. Tyler and Alexis agreed that Shay needed to do something, but Jane stated that the police would stop him; Ren countered by asking what Shay was supposed to do against him. In the end, Sha said he wouldn't be a superhero and stormed out of the house. However, Alexis convinced everyone that Shay would come back and don the suit, leading to Alexis and Ren creating the suit while Tyler and Jordan figured out who The Radioactive Man was.

Shay went to a coffee truck called Two Cat Coffee, where he sat absent-mindedly and began writing an equation on a napkin. Here, Monica arrived after being contacted by Jennifer to check up on him. The two sat and talked with Shay, asking her if someone had the power to stop something should they. Monica reminded Shay of Patrick's adage, "Don't start nothing, won't be nothing." She told him to call her if he ever needed to talk and left as Shay started at the equation, which became his coveted "Web-Formula". Inspired by Patrick, Shay ran home with the equation and found that Ren and Alexis had created a suit of anti-radiation materials to protect Shay. While they put the finishing touches on the suit, Shay made his web-shooters to go with it. Tyler and Jordan discovered where Chester was and gave Shay the information, to which Shay donned the suit, tested out the web-shooters, and left to face him.

It was a brief battle as Shay used his mind to defeat him, overloading him with gamma radiation. However, when asked who he was by local police on the scene, Shay told them that he was Tarantula, confident in his name and optimistic in his willingness to be a superhero. When Shay returned home, everybody was gone, and Jennifer was still asleep. Jordan came into Shay's room and asked if he was sure he wanted to be a hero, and Shay told him that he wasn't, but it was what Patrick would've done. This response made Jordan smile and say Patrick would be proud then he left the room, leaving Shay alone.

The next day, April 26th, 2018, Shay Daniels woke up as **The Spectacular Tarantula**; the rest is history.

## Notes

* While this is the first time Shay's origin has been told for Donuts, it is technically the third overall. However, this is considered the "definitive" origin for Shay Daniels as it is the most cohesive and tells a story.The other two versions, while telling a story, could have been more cohesive. The first was **Shay Daniels of Earth-505**, whose origin bled into him getting into high school, and it was after he fought a villain for the first time that he rose to the occasion. The second was much further removed. **Shay Daniels of Earth-47** had gotten his powers, but a week later, he moved to Manhattan, where he became Tarantula.
* The idea to dub this storyline "Mythos" and subsequently create "The Mythos Series" came from Morpheus' favorite retelling of the native Marvel Universe: **Paul Jenkins and Paolo Rivera's 2006-2008 Marvel Mythos.**
* Web of Tarantula Vol 1 1, and by extension, Donuts exist outside of mainstream Marvel Universe continuity. Themselves, their stories, and other characters are unrelated and not connected to the Marvel Multiverse and exist within solely within The Donuts Multiverse.

## Trivia

* This storyline reveals that one of Shay's favorite movies is **Jurassic Park**.
* It is revealed that Shay was born on April 12, 2002. It's also revealed here that **Ren Carter** was born sometime in December of 2005.
* Shay reveals that he can play piano in this storyline.
* This storyline showcases the bubbling feelings Shay and Jane Harper have for each other. However, their relationship doesn't begin until **ItWasntEnough**; **six years later.**

## See Also

* 6 image(s) from Web of Tarantula Vol 1 1

## Links and References

### References

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