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

Chapter 420 The Ancient Pantheon

Good evening, Peter.

"Good evening, Captain." Looking at the Captain, who had changed into the stealth suit from Captain America 2, and Logan, who was wearing a gray-black X-Men uniform, Peter felt a real sense of Hydra approaching. "I heard you've already met with the Winter Soldier?"

"Yes, I'm certain that's Bucky..."

The captain's feelings were complicated. On one hand, it was truly a reunion with old friends; besides Logan and the modified Jim Hammond, Bucky was still alive. But on the other hand, as the Winter Soldier, Bucky had committed a great deal of killing over the years. Even if it wasn't Bucky's intention, this issue couldn't be avoided.

“I will make sure this ends in a fair way, son. If necessary, I will persuade him to go to court once he has regained his senses.” The captain said to Peter after a moment of silence, “I believe that if Bucky really does regain his senses, he will choose to take responsibility for these things, perhaps even more than what he should be responsible for.”

In fact, there exists a Winter Soldier in the Wasteland Universe, who has undergone a second transformation by Red Skull and is becoming one of the key forces in Red Skull's fight against the Wasteland's new Avengers. It was also from the Wasteland Universe that Captain America learned that the Winter Soldier might be his good brother Bucky.

That's all that's been confirmed so far.

"Let's put this topic aside for now, Captain. We have more important things to deal with."

Peter decided to skip the topic for now: "I've had the portal open for a while now, so the Pantheon underground probably doesn't have an oxygen shortage problem anymore. Let's go."

After Peter led the captain and Logan into the portal, Silver Sable, who was waiting behind, asked Black Cat, "Now? Do you have a way to get in?"

“No, now I’m even more certain of what they’re looking for. Some things don’t require you to see them for yourself; you just need to understand what they’re doing.” Felicia smiled and shrank back. “Alright, what do you want to know? Now I can tell you, so you know exactly what you’re going to face.”

Meanwhile, Peter led the captain and Logan into the Roman underground. Peter asked the captain a question: "Has the captain been to Rome before?"

"I came here once during the liberation of Rome, on June 4, 1944. I was fighting against Hydra's special forces in Rome and helping the Allies get in here."

The captain looked around with some emotion: "I had no idea there were places like this underground in Rome."

"This is the Pantheon of the ancient Romans, not the fake Pantheon above. This is the real Pantheon. Cindy and I came to take a look, and it is decorated with statues of almost every legendary god on Earth."

It wasn't just the Greek and Egyptian pantheons, and other smaller Mediterranean beliefs that Rome absorbed and assimilated; there were also more striking Sumerian and African mythologies from regions not yet under Roman rule. Peter and Cindy even saw statues of Thor, as well as statues of Eastern deities, Japanese Shinto gods, and statues of gods from Aztec and Inca mythologies from Central and South America.

It can be said that there is a genuine pantheon here.

The captain looked around. Cindy had laid out many light strips inside, so by the time they entered, there was ample lighting. At that moment, the captain pointed to the very center surrounded by the pantheon of gods: "And what about here? What was this place originally?" Undoubtedly, something else existed in the very center of the gods, but it had been taken away by Hydra.

"These are the ancient gods who existed before these gods. They should be Gaia, Oshutu, Xisorn, and Set. They are older than the gods on Earth, and some of the gods are even their offspring."

Peter began to describe the situation of the gods, and then said, "But the Hydra took their statues away, and it seems they took some other things with them as well."

Inside the spider temple dedicated to Ness and Anansi, Peter and Cindy had seen idols that could express meaning directly without regard to words, but there were none here. The connection was clearly not as strong as the spider sense they had experienced in Taranto. Peter was certain that Hydra had taken away the idols of the four primordial gods.

But why? What's the necessity? These questions remain unanswered.

The captain nodded; he wasn't surprised. Mustache himself was a believer in supernatural powers and superhuman abilities; otherwise, Hydra wouldn't have been able to establish itself so easily in the Third Reich. And Red Skull, Hydra's direct leader, was genuinely interested in exploring these powers. The Tesseract is related to Norse mythology, so it's not surprising that Hydra would explore other related entities.

“I suspect that the secret of Hydra is related to these idols. From Thor, we know that the gods on Earth are real. Among the four ancient gods, Oshutu is the representative of white magic, and Gaia is the mother goddess who protects the order of Earth. But the other two, Xithon is the god of black magic, and Set was the first being to kill and devour the other ancient gods. He fell and was called a demon because of this.”

If Hydra is indeed an agent of some evil ancient god, then the war against Hydra is not simply a matter of eliminating an extremist terrorist organization. It could potentially trigger a massive catastrophe.

What is Hydra's ultimate goal? To free its master?
“You seem to know a lot about these things, kid.” Logan looked at Peter with some curiosity. “Where do you know all this?”

“Part of it came from Strange, from whom I learned some magic. The other part came from one of my enemies.” Peter said, pointing to Anansi among the gods: “That’s Anansi, the god of stories and lies in West African mythology, the spider god. I met him when I was on a mission in the multiverse.”

The captain and Logan exchanged a glance, then seemed to realize something.

“Right now, all the intelligence points to Budapest. If we can find a similar temple in Budapest, then everything will be clear.” The captain nodded and said, “We’ll go to Budapest first. Spider-Man, you just continue with the plan. We’ll meet up in Budapest then.”

"Don't you need me to go over and help?"

"No need. Fury seems very confident that the Elementals will still cause you trouble."

　Fun fact: In Marvel comics, Bucky didn't receive the Super Soldier Serum. But he did in the MCU.

　　The Avengers in this book are heavily referenced from the MCU, so the Winter Soldier also appears in this book.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)