Non-Stop Spider-Man has taken a turn from a villain who uses drugs to kill kids to a possible white supremacist organization with Baron Zemo arriving.
WARNING: Spoilers follow for Non-Stop Spider-Man #2 by Joe Kelly, Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Al Vey, Wayne Faucher, Marcio Menyz & VC’s Travis Lanham, on sale now.
In Non-Stop Spider-Man, the Wall-Crawler has been running around non-stop the entire series as he races against time to try to save Empire State University students from drug dealers who are leaving students dead.
Once Spidey hooked up with Threats & Menaces reporter Norah Winters, the two traded notes. Spider-Man learned she was on the case not for a scoop but because she had a friend who died from the drugs as well. Now, the two have discovered what the drugs are doing to these kids. This explanation explains why Baron Zemo suddenly made his way into Spider-Man comics.
After the Zapata Brothers showed up and attacked Spider-Man, they appeared smarter and deadlier than ever. This caused Spider-Man to realize something was wrong. He and Norah went into the underground tunnels below the city, and that is when Spider-Man had a chance to investigate the pills the kids were taking. Spider-Man realized what this drug really was. The pills are energy transmitters that steal brainpower from the people who take them. The villains are then able to put this brainpower into someone else’s body. Even worse, the targeted victims were genius people of color, with only three white victims.
This brings up a lot of problems considering who entered into the story in the first issue. After the main story ended, there was a flashback to two months before. The “new Hydra” had a meeting in Paris. However, Baron Zemo showed up and didn’t seem happy to see this group of men trying to become Hydra. Zemo killed everyone there except for three men. When he asked what Hydra stood for, they said “world domination,” “supremacy of the Aryan race,” and “the return of an inhuman banished by the Kree.” Baron Zemo said none of that was true, and the only purpose of Hydra was the “elimination of the weak.” He then gunned down these final three men.
Back to the world of Spider-Man, it seems the entire purpose of the new villains is to take the smartest minority kids at Empire State University and strip them of their brainpower, putting it into the body of those they deem more worthy. That makes little sense if they chose the Zapata Brothers, but then again, they might want smarter muscle to protect them and do their dirty work. It seems very similar to what is happening in Madripoor in The Marauders right now, with the wealthy and influential trying to wipe out an entire community of people to make themselves stronger. The powerful stepping on the weak.
This is exactly what Hydra, and by affiliation, Baron Zemo is all about. In this case, they are seeing intelligent people of color and targeting them, trying to fulfill the old goals of Hydra. However, the twist here is that Baron Zemo is not involved in creating and distributing the drug. In the first issue, he said he heard about the New York version of this Paris Hydra faction. Zemo was back in this second issue, if only for three panels, where he slaughtered the New York crew, outside of one who was weakened and tried to muster a “hail Hydra.” At that moment, Zemo asked to see their manager, and it seems that the original supremacist villain in Marvel Comics is ready to meet the villains in New York who are trying to replace him.
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