Comic Book / Gang War (2023)

Warning: Gang War is a direct sequel to events in Devil's Reign, The Amazing Spider-Man (2022), Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2022), Daredevil (2023) and Fall of X, so Late Arrival Spoilers for those comics may be unmarked on this page.

Spider-Man: Gang War - First Strike #1 cover artwork by John Romita Jr.

Gang War is a comic book event from Marvel Comics, a 2023-2024 Bat Family Crossover centered on Spider-Man.

At the conclusion of Devil's Reign, the downfall of Mayor Wilson Fisk left the Kingpin of Crime mantle vacant. Naturally, all of New York's major crime lords were interested in claiming the crown and title for themselves, but the two strongest contenders to emerge were Fisk's resurrected son Richard AKA the Rose and Lonnie Lincoln AKA Tombstone.

Victory ultimately went to Tombstone, who deftly manipulated Spider-Man into helping him kneecap the Rose's operations. Forced to accept the new status quo, Peter at least was able to blackmail Tombstone and keep him off his back. Lonnie has kept the Kingship for over a year now, but tensions have remained simmering with his fellow crime lords.

These tensions have been further exacerbated by the unexpected return of Wilson Fisk to New York in the wake of the downfall of Krakoa (where he'd claimed marital citizenship to avoid international extradition). Having joined the Hellfire Club as its new White King (and with his focus on the Orchis crisis and locating his missing wife), Fisk has made no move against his former comrades in crime to recover his crown and territories — yet.

Regardless, these tensions finally came to head in Amazing Spider-Man #925. During the wedding of his daughter Janice to Randy Robertson, the villain Shotgun attempted to assassinate Tombstone. While he failed, Tombstone was still left seriously injured.

With the current Kingpin of Crime down for the count, the cold crime war's finally turned hot and now the Big Apple's about to become engulfed in its first massive gang war in a long, long time. It'll be up to Peter Parker and his allies to not only stop the conflagration before it burns NYC to ground, but to also solve the mystery of who hired Shotgun and orchestrated the conflict.

Much like Spider-Verse and Dark Web before it, Gang War primarily runs through Amazing Spider-Man. Tie-in mini-series will weave in and out of the core narrative, with Miles Morales: Spider-Man and Spider-Woman being the only other ongoing monthly titles directly tying into it.

Comics involved with Gang War:

• Preludes:
  • Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #37-38
  • Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2022) (Vol. 2) #12
• Main Event:
  • Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War - First Strike #1
  • Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 6) #39-44
  • Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2022) (Vol. 2) #13-17
  • Spider-Woman (2023) (Vol. 8) #1-4
  • Luke Cage: Gang War #1-4
  • Daredevil: Gang War #1-4
  • Deadly Hands of Kung Fu: Gang War #1-3
  • Spider-Man Unlimited (2023) #19-24
  • Jackpot: Gang War #1

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Gang War provides examples of:

• Avengers Assemble:
  • To help contain the gang war, Peter assembles a "team" of himself, Miles Morales, Jessica Drew, Elektra-as-Daredevil and She-Hulk.
  • Luke Cage also recruits the help of Cloak and Dagger, Jessica Jones, and Danny Rand to take down Smythe.
  • While dealing with the violence in Brooklyn, Miles is joined by Misty Knight, Colleen Wing, Starling, Shift, Ms. Marvel, Prowler and the Cape Killers.
• Awesome, but Impractical: White Rabbit's high-tech Parasol of Pain "jams" while she is fighting Black Mariah. When asked why she did not just bring a gun, she replies that guns are for "peasants."
• Ballistic Discount: Lt. Scarfe tries this on Bellona in Daredevil: Gang War #2. She responds by cutting his arm off.
• Bat Family Crossover: Marvel's 2023-2024 Spider-Man event.
• Batman Gambit:
  • Realizing that the loss of the Ten Rings is pretty much an open invitation for the other gangs to invade Chinatown, Shang-Chi invites Mr. Negative, Lady Yulan and Diamondback to each send their best fighter against him, with the winner receiving Chinatown. The three accept the challenge but instead represent themselves and team up together to fight the Master of Kung Fu. Having anticipated this, Shang-Chi tricks them into attacking a magical illusion of himself, but having anticipated that themselves, the three detonate a hidden explosive to where the real Shang-Chi is hiding and injure him. However, Shang-Chi was pulling a Defensive Feint Trap and defeats the three pretty easily, only to find out that they had sent decoys in their places and instead chose to have their forces focus on each other. As it turned out, Shang-Chi had planned this whole scenario from the beginning to trick each of the Five Weapons Society's biggest enemies into taking each other first, knowing full well that they could never defeat Shang-Chi in open combat on his own terms, and doing so was keeping Chinatown safe from the violence without Shang-Chi needing to use the Ten Rings.
  • However knowing that the heroes would confront him for his actions and that the warring gangs will eventually tire of fighting each other and team up to fight him, Shang-Chi isolates himself from his warriors, and keeps the heroes stalled at the House of the Deadly Hand with several "Home Alone" Antics until members of the Inner Demons, Clan Yulan and Hydra invade his tower; Shang-Chi guilt trips the heroes into fighting the villains given that that he's too powerless to do so by himself without the Ten Rings. On top of that, Shang-Chi anticipates that Captain Feng would use the chaos to steal the Ten Rings again, which happens, and proceeds to pull another Defensive Feint Trap to trick Feng into releasing the Ten Rings back to him.
• Big Bad Wannabe: While Hammerhead, Count Nefaria, and Silvermane were the ones who orchestrated the gang war, they were immediately Out-Gambitted by the event's true villain, Madame Masque.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Gang War is over and Tombstone is the undisputed Kingpin of New York, who is vowing to now kill Spider-Man as "thanks" for getting him where he is now. Spider-Woman's son is in the hands of Hydra and she is vowing to make them pay. However, Spidey's actions in the war has lead to the repeal of the Anti-Vigilante Act, finally ending Fisk's legacy as mayor and Randy survives from his gunshot wounds.
• Book Ends: The first issue of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu: Gang War begins with Shang-Chi receiving a scathing lesson in strategy and deception from his father, Zheng Zu. Zu tells Shang-Chi that "All war lies in deception" and that Shang-Chi's honor and excessive concern for his men will ruin him as the heir of the Five Weapons Society. At the end of the book, Shang-Chi quotes his father's words while revealing his deception to expose Feng's treachery.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Shotgun was supposed to take Madame Masque out at the behest of the CIA, but she used her magic to bewitch his mind, something which she later also does to Count Nefaria and Silvermane.
• Brought Down to Badass: In Deadly Hands of Kung Fu: Gang War, Shang-Chi's treacherous underling Feng has his sorcerers seal the Ten Rings, leaving Shang-Chi with only his mastery of martial arts. Shang-Chi is unperturbed by this and tells the villains of Chinatown to Bring It, declaring that it'll simply be more fun to beat them with his hands.
• The Bus Came Back: Quite a few, actually:
  • Preview covers show the demon Rek-Rap (who's been MIA in the year since Dark Web wrapped) is finally returning to Peter's world (and at the most inopportune moment).
  • Alistaire Smythe, who was killed in Superior Spider-Man (2013) and resurrected in Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy makes his return.
  • HYDRA, who had been laid low thanks to the events of Secret Empire, are seeking to make their move here. They have also chosen to support Diamondback, one of Luke Cage's oldest enemies, to serve as their representative in the Gang War.
  • Wilson Fisk, who has been in exile in Krakoa with his wife Typhoid Mary up until the events of Fall of X, makes his return in ASM Issue #40 to make a power play against Tombstone alongside Mary and the Hellfire Club.
  • At the end of Miles Morales: Spider-Man #14, Starling recruits two surprising people as The Cavalry for Spider-Man: Miles' clone Shift, who had been incognito since the final issue of Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2018), and Ms. Marvel, who had been working with the X-Men since her resurrection in the third Hellfire Gala, reuniting her with her Champions teammate Miles, who had not seen her since attending her funeral in Fallen Friend The Death Of Ms Marvel.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Ringmaster and Crime Master are easily defeated and lose their territories within the first pages of the event by Spider-Man and his allies
  • Black Mariah is dealt with early on when she gets tossed into a harbor by the Syndicate.
  • The Trenchcoat Mafia fail to claim any territories during the Gang War and are easily defeated by Spider-Man (Peter), She-Hulk and Tombstone.
  • Big Ben Donovan loses his territories without even making a single appearance in the event.
• Canon Character All Along: Green Mamba is revealed to be Spider-Woman's missing son Gerry, who has been aged up and brainwashed by Hydra.
• Continuity Overlap: As the event runs parallel with the kickoff of Daredevil (2023), Elektra Natchios is still the Woman Without Fear rather than Matt Murdock.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Despite fighting Tombstone and Spider-Man briefly, Wilson Fisk makes it clear he’s not getting back his former role, quite happy with Typhoid Mary and his role as the White King of the Hellfire Club and only intervened in the Gang War to retrieve his son, the Rose. A frustrated Spidey yells out why he didn’t say this sooner.
• Defensive Feint Trap: In Deadly Hands of Kung Fu: Gang War, Shang-Chi fakes being too injured to move so that his treacherous underling Feng would reveal himself as The Starscream. Once Feng raises his sword to behead a "bedridden" Shang-Chi, the Master of Kung-Fu dodges and pummels Feng.
  • Shang-Chi pulls another one when Feng and his lackeys attempt another coup and pretends that Feng's sorcerers have weakened him, so that Feng could have them disable the spell trapping the Ten Rings.
• Driving Question: Who hired Shotgun to assassinate Tombstone during Janice and Randy's wedding? Was it Wilson Fisk? One of the attending crime lords like Hammerhead or Madame Masque? Or was it an unknown party? Its eventually revealed to have been Madame Masque who hired Shotgun and faked her death at the wedding to infiltrate the Maggia as Hammerhead's mistress.
• Downer Ending: Spider-Woman’s story ends with Gerry disappearing into the water, escaping from her and back to Hydra. Jessica vows to make them pay for what they did.
• Evil Parents Want Good Kids: During the final battle, Tombstone knocks out his daughter to stop her trying to establish her own authority over the gangs, observing that he never wanted her to follow his example like that.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Madame Masque expresses disgust over Hammerhead trying to force Beetle to kill her own fiancé, Randy Robertson.
  • A few of Bumbler's henchmen in Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2022) are shocked when they see a grenade they threw had enough power to level a city block when Miles manages to redirect it into the air. They may be goons, but they're not trying to nuke the whole block.
• Gang War: The central conflict (and one that's been brewing since the early days of the Zeb Wells era). The war kicks off when Madame Masque, who was thought dead, ends up incapacitating Hammerhead using an adamantium femur to penetrate his skull. With him out of the way, the other groups makes their move.
• Hero with Bad Publicity: Subverted with Shang-Chi. Believing it to be in Chinatown's best interests, Shang-Chi now has the Five Weapons Society "involved" in criminal activity, despite the promise he made to Spider-Man in Shang-Chi (2021) of reforming the organization. While Chinatown's citizens are gracious of Shang-Chi, Spider-Man is worried that Shang-Chi's actions will amplify the Gang War.
• Humongous Mecha:
  • Frost Pharaoh trots one of these out to fight Spider-Man (Miles Morales). It might have actually killed Miles had he not gotten help from the Daughters of the Dragon.
  • Alistaire Smythe sics several of these on City Hall. Mayor Cage, with help from Danny Rand, retaliates with his own mecha, the "Cagebuster."
• Hypocrite: Feng is The Starscream to Shang-Chi in Deadly Hands of Kung Fu: Gang War and plots to retake the society from the "traitor". But Feng is aghast when Shang-Chi acts as deceptive as Zheng Zu in creating a Defensive Feint Trap to expose Feng's treachery, complaining that Shang-Chi gave his word that he would not lie even after Feng plotted behind Shang-Chi's back.
• I Am Not My Father: Invoked several times by Shang-Chi when both heroes and villains compare his actions to those of what Zheng Zu would have done or not done in the Gang War.
• I Gave My Word: Shang-Chi promises Spider-Man and his soldiers that he has no intention of becoming the Kingpin of New York. He goes on to say that his word is his bond and that he will never lie to his men. But while he means it to Spider-Man, he does not toward Feng, whom Shang-Chi knows is The Starscream even while giving Feng an opportunity to see that Good Feels Good. Shang-Chi then fakes being bedridden from a fight with Mr. Negative to get Feng to expose himself.
  Feng: Y-you— You were injured! Broken!
  Shang-Chi: Was I?
  Feng: You mean...
  Shang-Chi: I lied.
  Feng: But you... you swore... to me and all your soldiers...
  Shang-Chi: All war relies upon deception. Your move.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: During one confrontation, Typhoid Mary manages to stab She-Hulk with adamantium blades, but while the blades can penetrate She-Hulk they can't do permanent damage.
• Mundane Utility: After Masque took Silvermane's head, she basically uses him as a paperweight.
• No-Sell:
  • Ringmaster tries to use his powers on Elektra, but she observes that after her past experiences with mind control and possession, Ringmaster is basically a child with a megaphone, making far too much noise to properly influence her.
  • When Cloak uses his Supernatural Fear Inducer powers on Alistaire Smythe's minions, nothing happens, with Luke Cage revealing that this is because the henchmen are Ridiculously Human Robots.
• Not Me This Time: A major factor of the heroes' involvement in the war was Randy Robinson's near-assassination. Spidey believes Madame Masque did this to stop the Anti-Vigilante Act from being repealed, but when he accuses her of this, she sputters out in confusion that she has no idea what he's talking about.
• "Ray of Hope" Ending: Luke Cage’s story ends with the war still raging, but lawmakers are planning to go back and deal with the Anti-Vigilante Act.
• Retirony: Played with in the event's lead-up with Janice Lincoln. Despite pressure from her fiancée, Lady Beetle was conflicted about actually retiring and hadn't made up her mind by the day of the Wedding. As the cover artwork shows, the assassination of Tombstone has left her remaining in the costume for now.
• The Reveal: Baby Gerry was kidnapped during End of the Spider-Verse when Jessica was Ret Goned. Also, Hydra used a number of techniques to make everyone think Jessica was nuts on Viper’s orders, who was doing all this For the Evulz.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant: The event has a few unusual matchups, like Spider-Woman vs. Diamondback, Luke Cage vs. Alistaire Smythe, Daredevil (Elektra) vs. Bellona and Shang-Chi vs. Lady Yulan.
• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: As things escalate, various heroes declare that they aren't going to worry about the current anti-vigilante law in the name of protecting the innocent. By the end of Luke Cage's miniseries, the city council are described as working to get the law repealed as thanks for everything the heroes did to stop the villains during the gang war.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Beetle dons a new outfit that is significantly Darker and Edgier.
• Skewed Priorities:
  • When Mayor Cage shows up to help stop a violent bank robbery, the NYPD immediately turn their weapons on him and threaten to arrest him for violating the Anti-Registration Act.
  • Agent Gao, the Inspector Javert from Miles Morales: Spider-Man (2022), still has her Cape Busters out in force to round up as many superheroes as she can in the middle of a superpowered gang war that threatens to tear the city apart. She-Hulk calls her out over the ridiculousness of this, but Gao retorts that the law is the law. Indeed, when Miles and his team drives out Rabble and Hobgoblin's taken out, Gao decides to end their brief truce, only for the other heroes to stare her down while Miles races to Peter's side.
  • In the Spider-Man Unlimited webcomic, Spider-Boy paralyzes a member of the Inner Demons with his fangs, startling a nearby cop. The cop has a couple of Beat Panels where he ponders whether or not to fight Spider-Boy in the middle of a gang war.
    Spider-Boy: [as the cop gets called by dispatch] Are you seriously considering staying here to fight a kid? Seriously?
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: When Luke Cage becomes Mayor, he's eager to overturn Wilson Fisk's legislation that outlawed street-level heroes. But it's not that simple - much like the Presidency, a newly elected Mayor cannot overturn decisions made by the previous administration, checks and balances will keep that legislation in place until the voters sour on it. Fortunately for Cage, that is slowly starting to happen, as demonstrators and grassroots movements have begun calling on the City of New York to "give us back our heroes".
• Then Let Me Be Evil: After learning that Shotgun was aiming to assassinate his daughter should she get out of control with power, Tombstone destroys her gear and knocks her out, deciding that he needs to be the one in charge.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Since New York is still bound by Wilson Fisk's "Anti-Vigilante Law", a lot of heroes are caught between staying out of the fight or protecting New York. Mayor Cage in particular is caught in this.
• Underestimating Badassery: Typhoid Mary does this when confronting She-Hulk, assuming that just having adamantium weapons will be enough to help her win, overlooking how She-Hulk's raw strength and healing ability will help her deal with those injuries.
• Ungrateful Townsfolk: Surprisingly Subverted for once in a Marvel comic. The People of New York City have become increasingly fed up of the Powers Act due to how that piece of legislation has led to law enforcement wasting or abusing their resources to persecute local superheroes who have done nothing but save lives. This has led to the creation of several organized protests against the Powers Act picking up steam until the Gang War throws the entire city into chaos.
• Villain Team-Up:
  • Diamondback is being backed by Hydra, which has refined his previously highly volatile designer drug, Diamond.
  • Crime-Master is being backed by A.I.M., which he has hired to help him maintain his control over the Upper East Side.
  • Madame Masque hired Bellona, one of Laura Kinney's clones from All-New Wolverine, to be her middleman when dealing with the Heat.
  • The Hobgoblin recruits the Prowler out of retirement and forms an alliance with the Enforcers, even enlisting several Z-List costumed supervillains into his plot to control Brooklyn. It's revealed that he's supplied by Rabble.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Janice's whereabouts are completely unknown after the end of the war. Peter doesn't know and when White Rabbit asks Tombstone, he asks her to drop it.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • In Gang War: First Strike, which serves as the official prologue for the event, Miles grills Peter over his behavior throughout most of The Amazing Spider-Man (2022). Specifically, Miles is pissed at Peter for being a Fair-Weather Mentor who ghosted him and the entire superhero community for six months straight, leaving Miles to fend for himself as the city's only active Spider-Man during several major crises. Miles also calls out Peter for not answering any of the calls from Mayor Cage and Randy Robertson when the two were assembling everyone to try and brainstorm a solution to overturn or work around the Powers Act so that heroes can continue to fight crime without the cops breathing down their collective necks. This all culminates in Miles seeing Peter as a Broken Pedestal for shirking his responsibility as one of New York's primary protectors and is notably cold towards him for most of the event.
  • Shang-Chi faces this from the other heroes and his girlfriend when his Batman Gambit to protect Chinatown from the other gangs could have risked the lives of the other New Yorkers outside of Chinatown.
• Zero-Approval Gambit:
  • In order to deter the Five Weapons Society's rivals from encroaching into Chinatown while his keeping battle-hungry soldiers satisfied, Shang-Chi involves the Five Weapons Society in the Gang War, causing the rival gangs, superheroes and even his girlfriend Delilah to think Shang-Chi has made a claim to be the Kingpin of New York. However, Shang-Chi promises Spider-Man to keep the Society's activities confined to Chinatown.
  • At the behest of his predecessor, Hobie Brown, Aaron Davis suits up as the Prowler again to uncover Hobgoblin's criminal plot in Brooklyn and forms an alliance with him and the Enforcers. Aaron continues the charade when he and the Enforcers encounter his nephew, Spider-Man, who thinks his uncle has resumed his life of crime until Aaron reveals the truth to him after the Enforcers are knocked out and Miles' backup arrive and outnumber him.

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