File:Marvel Team-Up Vol 1 111 001.jpg

Description
One night Spider-Man surprises a pair of jewel thieves in the act of burglarizing a store. In seconds, he webs them up in an alley with a note for the police. Suddenly, he is stricken with a sharp pain in the abdomen, and his spider-sense starts to tingle. Then he finds himself in an alien landscape, immersed in a white mist, and as he tries to figure out what happened, an elderly man wearing a white robe taps him on the shoulder. Much to Spider-Man's amazement, the man resembles his late uncle Ben. Then other figures, also dressed in white, emerge from the mist. "Uncle Ben" tells him that he Just died of a burst blood vessel in the brain, and that they are all there to help him enter Paradise. Spider-Man disbelieves most of what is happening, because his spider-sense continues to tingle. Suddenly a spiral of orange cloth materializes before him, and as it unfolds, a blue-and-orange-garbed individual, brandishing a sword, appears within. He warns Spider-Man to move away from "that beast" and then plunges his weapon into the old man's chest. Alarmed by the attack against his uncle, Spider-Man grabs the swords-man. But instead of fighting back, the swordsman simply tells him to observe the old man's body on ground. Spider-Man is startled to see that "Uncle Ben" has changed into a hideous reptile. The swordsman declares that Spider-Man was duped, and as the mist parts, Spider-Man sees that they are still in the alley where he webbed up the burglars. Then the swordsman indicates the other "angels," who have pulled out knives and are advancing menacingly. Show them no mercy, he says as he and Spider-Man defend themselves. Seconds later, the white-robed figures flee from the alley, all but a woman that the swordsman stabbed. Spider-Man says that they cannot leave her to bleed to death, but the swords-man wraps his orange cape around himself and Spider-Man, and they teleport away before anything can be done. An instant later they appear in Peter Parker's apartment. The stranger explains that a mild telepathic probe disclosed Spider-Man's secret identity, enabling the Shadow-Cloak to transport them there. Then the man, who calls himself Devil-Slayer, asks Spider-Man to read aloud the words on a card: ka nama kaa lajerama. Spider-Man's spider-sense continues to tingle strangely, but he reads the phrase. When he finishes, Demon-Slayer appears to relax and explains that Serpent Men cannot utter those words. By doing so, he continues, he has proved himself to be the real Spider-Man and not a disguised evildoer. Spider-Man is completely confused, so Devil-Slayer recounts some of the world's antediluvian history. Once there was a time, he begins, when the Earth was ruled by races of demons, including Harpies, Spider-People, and Wolf-Men. Gods arose to battle these demons, and the last of the demon races to fall was the Serpent Men. Centuries later, during the reign of King Kull of Valusia, the Serpent Men arose again, but Kull drove them to ruin. Nevertheless, the cult persists to this very day, says Devil-Slayer, living disguised among humankind and every so often luring unwitting people into their ranks. Now they feel ready to conquer the world again, he continues, and they need Spider-Man in their scheme. Spider-Man can hardly believe his ears. He says that although his spider-sense is still warning him of danger, he believes Devil-Slayer has told him the truth. Devil-Slayer replies that Spider-Man senses the truth because humanity's war against the Serpent Men is ingrained in every person's soul, and he tells Spider-Man to open his mind and let the racial memories flow. Then Spider-Man realizes that the Serpent Men never truly died. Rather, their spirits were swept into a limbo dimension to await the "age foretold by the ancient seers," as Devil-Slayer puts it—an age of heroes when the doorway from the limbo realm to the Earth will open. Then the Serpent Men's spirits will emerge to claim living hosts. This age, says Devil-Slayer, is now. The seers predicted that seven warriors with the power to conquer the world would be the first to be possessed, says Devil-Slayer. Among them would be a "living spider," namely, Spider•Man himself. The other six are among those who have served as Defenders, he continues, and they have already fallen to the Serpent Men. The first to be overcome in surprise assaults were Dr. Strange and Clea, followed shortly by the Hulk, the Sub-Mariner, the Valkyrie, and the Gargoyle. Devil-Slayer tried to warn the latter two, but he was too late. Fortunately, he says, he found Spider-Man just in time. Then Devil-Slayer outlines his plan to Spider-Man. A short time later, Devil-Slayer teleports himself and Spider-Man via Shadow-Cloak to a mountainous region of Japan. They arrive near a temple, which Devil-Slayer says contains the bejeweled, snake-headed statue that is the one artifact on Earth with the power to destroy the serpent cult. Soon they meet an elderly man who, astonishingly enough, can speak English. Devil-Slayer asks him the way to the Temple of the Spider, but he is afraid to say. Then Devil-Slayer starts slapping him to force him to tell. Spider-Man angrily shoves his partner away with a warning to leave the man alone or else. Spider-Man's gentler questioning works much better, and in a few minutes the man tells them what they need to know. As Spider-Man follows Devil-Slayer up a mountain path, he reflects on how ruthless his partner is. No wonder his spider-sense has not stopped tingling, he thinks. Soon they find a cavern, and fifteen minutes later they enter a large gallery filled with ancient ruins and statues of six-armed people. Devil-Slayer remarks that on this very spot, untold thousands of years ago, the Spider-People waged their war against the Serpent Men. Spider-Man muses that his spider-sense should have stopped tingling here, but it remains disturbingly active. Suddenly Spider-Man and Devil-Slayer are attacked by a group of sword-and-web-wielding six-armed creatures. These, says Devil-Slayer, are the descendants of the original Spider-People, but de-evolved into near-brainlessness. Then he withdraws an ax from his Shadow-Cloak. (The garment can access innumerable weapons on countless planes of reality, he says.) As he dives with berserker ferocity into the spider-creatures, Spider-Man web-swings up a stalactite, snags a large block of marble with his webbing, and swings it into the attackers. Then, as he leaps back down, one of the creatures tries to entangle him in a web-net. This, however, is a familiar tactic to him, and he extricates himself easily. Seeing their attack blunted, the spider-creatures flee—except those that Devil-Slayer killed. Devil-Slayer's insane relentlessness in destroying the Spider-People aggravates Spider-Man, and he reminds Devil-Slayer that they must save the Defenders. Devil-Slayer indicates a nearby crevice, and they climb down on web-lines into an enormous cave, at the bottom of which is the serpent-headed statue they are looking for. But the statue is itself held by another image—that of Omm, the Spider God, as Devil-Slayer explains. Both statues are situated across a very deep ravine. Devil-Slayer says that he cannot jump over the precipice, but Spider-Man, with his agility, should find it little trouble. Spider-Man concentrates and then springs across, landing just in front of the statues. Following Devil-Slayer's instructions, Spider-Man moves slowly, to avoid being impaled by the Spider God statue's razor-sharp claws, which move toward him when he approaches. He removes the serpent statue and then leaps back across the ravine, where Devil-Slayer envelops him in the Shadow-Cloak. Then they teleport into the sewers of New York. Devil-Slayer explains that his telepathic probings have revealed that the serpent cult has imprisoned the Defenders nearby. Spider-Man starts to ask Devil-Slayer how he knew about the Spider God statue, but he is interrupted by his spider-sense, signaling the approach of a group of Serpent Men. Spider-Man and Devil-Slayer hide in the shadows until the group passes by, and then they attack. However, the group turns out to be not Serpent Men but the six Defenders they are there to rescue. Dr. Strange thanks them for their efforts and explains that he and the other Defenders took care of the Serpent Men themselves. Then he tells Spider-Man to give him the serpent statue to study. Just as Spider-Man is about to hand it over, his spider-sense again tingles sharply. Suspecting deception, he stands back and asks the Defenders and Devil-Slayer to repeat the phrase ka nama kaa lajerama. Unable to withstand the spell, the "Defenders"—all seven, including Devil-Slayer—change back to their true forms as Serpent Men. All they wanted, hisses the Serpent Man who impersonated Devil-Slayer, was the sacred statue that the Spider-People stole from them ages ago. Spider-Man's death would have been quick and painless once they obtained it, he assures. Then the chamber fills with Serpent Men and their human disciples, and Spider-Man, hampered by the serpent statue, web-swings toward the ceiling out of reach. Overhead, held motionless within a force field emitted by a "floating gem," are the seven real Defenders. Spider-Man realizes that his spider-sense never stopped tingling because his partner was not the real Devil-Slayer. As he dodges Serpent Men armed with swords, he concludes that Devil-Slayer himself is the seventh hero foretold in the Serpent Men's prophecies. He deduces that the Serpent Men need the statue to complete Kull is their transference ritual. They needed him because the Omm idol guarding the serpent statue would sense him as a Spider-Person and would not prevent him from removing the artifact. Then Spider-Man shatters the serpent statue against the floor, where it drenches some of his opponents in a caustic liquid. They scream in anger that he has doomed their hopes of retaking the world and has trapped their brethren forever in limbo. Then they overwhelm him, raking him with claws and biting him with fangs. He tries to stick them to the floor with web fluid but fails. Then, as a last resort, he hurls a web-ball at the gem floating above. Most fortunately, this shatters it and frees the Defenders. Confronted with Devil-Slayer's weapons, Dr. Strange and Clea's spells, the Hulk and the Sub-Mariner's strength, and the Valkyrie and the Gargoyle's fighting skill, the Serpent Men are easily defeated. A simple spell by Dr. Strange sends them all to join their brothers in limbo. Spider-Man stops a human cultist—the Serpent Men's human acolytes were not transported to limbo—from stabbing Dr. Strange in the back, and then the battle is over. Strange frees the human cultists after making them forget what they had done. As the Defenders congratulate Spider-Man and thank him for saving the world, he suddenly collapses. Three hours later, he awakens, feeling better, in Dr. Strange's Greenwich Village mansion. His arm is in a sling with a sprained wrist, his shoulder is cut, and he has a headache, but otherwise he is all right, he says. But, as Wong serves him a cup of tea, Dr. Strange explains that he is not all right at all. He examined him with the Eye of Agamotto while he was unconscious, and he discovered that the serpent bites he received in the battle have done grave mystic damage. Unless they act quickly, he continues, Spider-Man will die before the day is over.