I'm working on Marvel's Spider-Man in American comics.

Chapter 347 The New Year Has Arrived
December 31, 2012. Manhattan, New York, late at night.

"On the last day of the final year, J. Jonah Jameson and the Daily Horn still stand with you as we summarize what happened this year, starting first and foremost with the large number of supernatural crimes that began this year."

Even with only a few hours left until the New Year, the Daily Bugle on TV was still reporting on all sorts of superpowered crimes, trying to connect them to Spider-Man as much as possible. But it can't be said that there was absolutely no connection, since Spider-Man has fought the most supervillains and done the most things.

Arnold Donovan was an ordinary New York worker, so insignificant that he wasn't even on the Avengers' list. In another world, he had a name that was anything but famous.

Second-generation demon.

Of course, he shouldn't become a demon now.

When he got home, he saw a small sphere on the coffee table. Donovan was a little confused, since he didn't remember buying anything like it. He was a bachelor, and no one could have come into the room.

Who is the one.

Donovan curiously placed his hand on the sphere, and a man in purple armor appeared on it. The man looked at Donovan and then spoke.

"Arnold Donovan, your destiny has been rewritten. In the original timeline, you were supposed to become a demon, a supervillain with super strength and high-tech equipment, fighting against Spider-Man. But the Avengers stopped your destiny, and you have been doing nothing ever since."

"If you want to change your destiny, accept it, and it will give you back your original power."

Arnold Donovan looked at the ball, shrugged helplessly, then picked it up and dialed 911.
"Hello, 911? I've received some, uh, supernatural items. Could you please come and collect them? Yes, someone wants me to become some kind of supervillain or something. What? You're coming right away? Okay, then I'll just stay home."

As Donovan spoke, he sat on the sofa waiting for the NYPD to arrive. Regardless of whether what that purple-clad pervert said was true or not, he had no intention of touching that damn ball.

Why would someone want to become a supervillain and fight Spider-Man when their life is going well and nothing has changed? Are they out of their mind? They should just hand this thing over to the NYPD.

A dozen minutes later, Donovan, who was playing on his phone, heard a knock at the door. He got up, opened it, and said, "The thing is on my coffee table..."

"Thank you, Donovan, for refusing the fate you were supposed to bear."

Donovan looked at the man who appeared at his doorstep, but who was not a policeman at all. The man was wearing a hoodie, which covered most of his face, but could not hide his inhuman gray skin.

The other person grinned, revealing their sharp teeth.

"As a reward, I will make you, just as you were destined to be—a demon!"

About half an hour later, Inspector George Stacy arrived from his office at the 12th Precinct in Manhattan. His officers had cordoned off the scene, but they hesitated as they looked around.

"what happens?"

"As I mentioned to you on the phone before, a citizen named Arnold Donovan called and said that someone had given him a supernatural item that would turn him into a supervillain, and he wanted to hand it over. So we sent a few officers to check it out."

As Sheriff Stacy walked toward Donovan's house, she listened to the officers' report: "But the problem was, when we got there, we found the door locked and there was no response to our knocking. In desperation, one of the officers broke down the door—which, of course, was against procedure."

"Let's talk about the program later, first tell me what happened."

“You…you’ll see for yourself.” George Stacy arrived at Donovan’s apartment. The living room was completely dark. The explosion had engulfed the entire living room, leaving it unrecognizable. But strangely enough, there were no bodies or even a trace of blood.

"If that officer hadn't broken down the door, we might never have discovered this. And you know..."

"This is not the first case of its kind."

“It’s not certain yet, sir. We have received some similar messages during this period, but people quickly replied to the officers saying nothing happened, or perhaps the officers didn’t take such a risky action and no one dared to take responsibility. Sir, what if someone is involved?”

Conversely, what if no one is home? If the police simply accept that no one answers and forget about it, then from the authorities' perspective, it's nothing more than a fake police call. However, if we really investigate, those unanswered calls could be linked to dozens of missing persons cases.

Even more outrageous, if what those people said is true, and someone really did give them supernatural items, intending to turn them into supernatural villains, then dozens of cases mean dozens of devices that could turn someone into a superpowered criminal have been taken away. Could it be that someone is specifically collecting these devices?
……

If so, then there is only one way to obtain this information and find these people even faster than the police.

Someone is listening to the NYPD's communications channels.

Now that things have come to this, we have no choice but to ask Peter for help. Sheriff George rubbed his temples helplessly, then decided it was best not to alert the enemy: "First, pack all this up, make a record, and then file a case."

"Disappearance case?"

"For the bombing, find some explosives experts and veteran police officers. Since there's no body, the person must have been taken away. We need to find Donovan."

Almost simultaneously, Arnold Donovan awoke from his pain, remembering only one thing: the strange man had grabbed him by the neck.

When he woke up, he found himself strapped to the operating table with IV lines inserted into several veins.

"Originally, this thing was created after Norman Osborn was injected with something by a guy called Doctor Octopus. But unfortunately, Doctor Octopus died due to the timeline change, so people from the future gave it to us directly."

He saw a hunched-back, gray-skinned, pointed-eared human approach him and inject the serum that he had previously rejected.

"This thing has a downside: it can drive people crazy."

"But it doesn't matter, demons are mad anyway!"

At that moment, the bells rang outside, and the demon shrieked in the sound of the bells, watching Donovan, who was writhing in agony from the injection of the demon serum.

Happy New Year! Welcome to the Legion of Demons!

　Thank you to Seedless Lime for the donation.
　　Kang's actions are inspired by Tony Stark in Universe 6160, also known as the New Ultimate Universe. In that universe, Reed Richards (the one from Earth 1610) altered Marvel history from the birth of the Fantastic Four, preventing a large number of heroes from gaining powers. Tony's resistance group, the Ultimate Team, initially chose to break this deadlock by returning people's powers to them, allowing them to become heroes again.

　　And then almost all of them failed.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)