Contrast in Ethics
Spider-Man saw the first few wanted posters for Peter Parker around the local university, which he guessed the young man might have attended. How old is he, exactly? Would he be working on postgraduate material? He would not need more than a high school education for these web shooters. He had started calling them as such after realizing the fluid was supposed to be web, and there was a passing reference to them in a description of a fight in an older edition of The Daily Bugle.
Effectively, he could not perfectly replicate the fighting style exactly as it was described. Even though he was allowing his early warning system to inform him of attacks coming his way, he could not help but act on what he recognized as martial arts experience. The paper that he was reading as he waited for the three investors to show up to the meeting to which he had invited them reported that he defeated ‘the Green Goblin’ substantially more quickly and with a different approach than he had taken with villains on a similar tier. It was not expected for him to attack from above and put the enemy in a sleeper hold to knock him out.
What concerned him, however, was that there was no mention of the villain being taken to jail.
The editor, as expected, suspected that Spider-Man was colluding with the Goblin, and that was the entire reason he was taken down so easily. One played the good guy, the other played the bad guy to justify the presence of the good guy. Was he even the leader of the conspiracy, or was there someone else involved? The problem is that this makes perfect sense. Even if Jameson is only coming up with a narrative that supports his theory that I’m a menace, there are no holes in the narrative itself. Was Parker working with him solely because it was a convenient, obvious way of making money, or was he deliberately getting close to him?
“ We’re sorry to keep you waiting. There was an urgent call.”
“That happens,” he said. He was joined by two associates from different sectors of Fisk Enterprises as well as one from Trask, a weapons developer based in Manhattan. The Stark Tower had declined to respond to his call. “I have three different newspapers in front of me, gentlemen. Strangely, I don’t see any notice of the relationship between Oscorp and your respective interests.”
“We own those papers. Well, we own them or we got enough stock in them that we can make a few suggestions.”
“I see.” They’re not asking me how I know that it was reported. Hammerhead was sharp enough to suspect that I had reported it myself. “ Consider this. When unfavorable information comes out about various interests, even just among investors, the value of the stock falls, and the information itself becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. I trust you know as much. What happens, however, when good information comes out?”
“There’s only so much that does,” one of the Fisk representatives said. “We can hype up things like silver, low-cap securities, but if the hype is just hype, it’s unreliable. It falls off.”
“Do you know why Stark refused to send a representative here?”
“Of course,” the Trask man said, practically snorting. “They’re too clean.” He looked around, as if a federal financial regulator might be hiding somewhere. “There’s... a way that this kind of meeting looks like insider trading. You and I know that this is the future, this is the way things are going to be done going forward, but Stark Tower hands everything over to the feds, records of every meeting, every transaction; it’s infuriating. They don’t even build relationships with the agents; it’s a different guy every time, at least as far as I know.” He shook his head. “Fisk is lucky there are companies like ours.”
From what he could gather, the weapons developer was making everything from pistols to light machine guns for the gangs under the heading of Fisk Enterprises. Stark also developed weapons, but with substantially more accountability; the products went straight to the intended recipients without exception, and all the transactions were accessible to the public. Essentially, the two companies crowded out the supply market for weapons in the northeast, and both supported regulations on their production, one because it was easy enough to technically comply or get around them when necessary, and because it kept smaller producers from making any sales, and the other, most likely, out of some misguided sense of guilt.
“I invited Stark Industries to this meeting solely because I knew they would refuse to appear. Tell me, gentlemen, on the subject of good news and bad, if Stark were to appear at a meeting with the three of you, would it be good news for you, or bad news for them?”
If it sounded like he was proving a point, he was, but the question was not entirely rhetorical; he was gaining as much information as he was providing. While he had done a fair amount of research into the companies whenever possible, it was difficult to get more than what they put out for everyone else to read. The most difficult story to believe was that of Stark. Perhaps I was always a suspicious type.
“It would be bad news for them. Can’t make something clean without making something else dirty, that’s just the way it works. Even the real optimistic types know that’s how it works. People are bad.”
Malone made a face behind the hands that were folded in front of it, elbows on the table. While he had learned that the basic nature of humanity was bad, there was no competition; there was no choice for anyone but to work with other humans. Systems and laws were quite capable of improving people’s behavior, so simplifying things to the kernel of truth that was in the statement basically functioned as an excuse not to improve things as much as possible. The reason criminals believed and would say that all people were evil was entirely different from the reason that those who were trying to help would say the same thing.
“Gentlemen, I think it’s easy enough to tell at this point that we can’t rope Stark into an association with any of the interests that we represent. If, however, we want to be associated with them, or them with us, then the simplest thing is to meet them where they are, as I have done with you. Trask supports weapon regulations. Fisk trades with Trask. There’s a mayoral election this week, and I fully expect the topic of regulations will come up among lobbyists.” He looked around. “If this is obvious enough to everyone here, let’s not waste any time planning. You’ll need the consent of your respective organizations.”
The three representatives did their best not to look like they were hurrying, but rose without another word, though the Trask man remembered himself and reached out to shake Malone’s hand with a recognition of the fact that it had been a pleasure doing business with him. He was already out of the room when Spider-Man set the promissory note he had been palmed onto the table. It’s a token of his appreciation, and a suggestion that I have other options than Fisk. Out of all the slick deals-
One of the Fisk representatives came back into the room the moment after the door closed.
“Yes?”
“How did you just do that?”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“You’re some nobody information dealer. Nothing I have on ‘Matches Malone’ goes back more than three days. You’re directing traffic in the highway and I don’t even know who you are.”
“There’s a fairy tale by a Dane, Hans Christian Anderson. It’s called The Emperor’s New Clothes. Have you heard of it?”
“No.”
“Well, I recommend it. In my line of work, there have been a fair few fairy tales that came up in one way or another. Then there were Alice in Wonderland, various stories from classical mythology, and American folklorists like Washington Irving. What’s your name?”
“I’m Yehuda Gold, but really, I’m just the manager of a shell company that Fisk Enterprises owns. I'm nothing. I worked for decades to make a name for myself, and I still can’t just get people moving at my beck and call.”
“Well, how would you like to do what I do?” he asked. “I’m a busy man. I need someone who can show more initiative than it takes for standard administrative tasks, and it sounds like you’re hungry for that kind of work. You know what work needs to be done and you’re going to take care of it.”
“Exactly. I’ve been... led on, and it’s always been one more promotion or one more thing to get done in the meantime; I never get anywhere. I even indemnified myself in case of a federal bust on Fisk and nothing ever happened. I wouldn’t pick up hardly any assets if the whole thing did come down.”
“ That’s precisely how the Kingpin planned it,” he said. “That’s what they call him, isn’t it? It’s because he’s always the main attraction in every boardroom. No one even looks at everyone else.”
“It’s been like that for ages.”
“It’s been like that since before he was born. If you want to get anywhere yourself, you have to address the central figure. Don’t be deferred to some secretary or middle manager. Fisk got what he wanted because everyone’s playing the game, and everyone knows they have to go through him. It’s like what I was saying earlier about stocks.”
“You reached out to middle men like me because you knew we’d come along, then. You knew we’d realize this was where the action was really happening, not some pointless budget meeting for the second quarter. You knew the others would come too, and you knew that we would know that. I never get exclusive invitations for anything-”
“What do you do for Fisk?”
“I manage Northeastern Financial.”
“I assume you could make it in the legitimate market?”
“Oh, I could make it, but I wouldn’t be making headlines. I just wanted a fraction of the influence that the major players have.”
“Well, that’s what you received for your efforts. Do you want me to guess what Fisk’s boardrooms look like?” Yehuda nodded. “Fisk wears a pearl-white suit with a purple shirt and tie, and he marches in with a diamond-headed cane on which he has never once leaned. Everyone around him wears some inoffensive color between blue and black, has a managed, reasonable hairstyle-”
“Dress for the job you want?”
“It’s just an illustration of how he runs his operation and how it’s always his operation, more so than anyone else’s. Louis XIV ran his court the same way; he had noblemen running around trying to curry his favor and he kept them busy with pointless, thankless task so they never had time to make plans of their own. They did not go in imagining that they would be emptying his chamber pot in exchange for some empty title, but they would be removed at the first hint of disobedience, or even lack of reverence to the king. In fairness, anyone who runs such an operation must be an impressive figure himself; if he insists on doing all the thinking, you would think his abilities would have to be spectacular for the organization to survive.”
“I see. If someone came in with a mohawk or a red suit, he’d be fired for drawing too much attention to himself. It’s more insidious than that, though. I copied everyone on the board to the letter. It didn’t even cross my mind to paint outside the lines.” He shook his head. “When I was young, maybe about your age, I was just thinking of doing what the board members had done to get a fraction of what they had, and before that I had to copy my own manager to get a fraction of what he had- you get the idea. It took decades to get where I am. I started to see how some people think you have to start at the top to ever be at the top.”
“I’m familiar.” Don’t ask me how.
“ I’ll take your offer, Malone. Anything I can do to get out from under the Kingpin’s thumb-”
“This is a partnership. I understand that because you knew to come here, you want to go independent. You want to make your own moves as the head of Northeastern Financial. That’s why I’m not promising you a larger share; just doing the same thing as you would have been doing for Fisk. You did your research on me. You must have done the same for him at some point; you knew he didn’t start at the top.”
“You’re the same, actually. I can’t find anything for him further back than maybe twenty years ago. Did you know he’s listed as a spice trader? Every damn legal document, spice trader, spice investor- there's no end to it. It’s like he can make himself a spice trader just by saying it often enough.”
“Has anyone taken him to court?”
“Yes, more than once- he sued the state for investigating him for fraud once and this Matt Murdock defended the state, and that was the only suit he ever lost. I was impressed; I didn’t think it could be done.”
“I’ll have to keep an eye on him.”
“Well, you won’t have to make sure it only goes one way. Do you have any idea why Fisk and Trask haven’t thought of going to a lobbyist meeting with anyone from Stark Industries?”
“It isn’t a terribly good move for them, but the heads would never bother mentioning that to their subordinates. I don’t think it has anything to do with how they might use the information if they knew, but they would have a more complete idea of the organization and its goals rather than being stuck with their own jobs.”
They both stood and shook hands, this time as equals, or something close to that. Malone was entirely without friends and allies, but that did not mean that he was without people he could trust; as long as he knew what Yehuda wanted and as long as he was remotely honest, his actions could be predicted. I doubt he ever personally harmed anyone. He mostly acts as a normal all-company manager; there’s nothing suspicious about the financial data that I have on him.
As he left to see about other matters, he decided it was likely that the Kingpin had use for a corrupt financial services company, but only in the sense that it would deal with criminals; it would have to pretend not to know where they got their money. The trades executed would be legitimate and the accounts managed would be properly reported.
Putting his suit in the backpack along with the sunglasses that further concealed his true face as soon as he was outside in the alley, he climbed to the top of the office building where he had left his glider, as it was called in the article. Come to think of it, Jameson even thought it was suspicious that I would confiscate this for personal use. He speculated that I was holding onto it for when the Goblin needed it again.
Spider-Man decided he needed a way of tapping into police radio while on the glider, because when he saw a pair of costumed figures fighting on the roof of Oscorp, he felt terribly out of the loop. It was not a good thing, to say the least, that he could not identify the good guy and the bad guy. People have a way that they expect me to respond. Do I help the man dressed as the devil, or the man in the green suit with the tail?
Dropping in as he left the glider hovering above him, he made a split-second decision that he would let them decide how to respond to his presence, and when the mechanical tail came in his direction, he knew. He felt strangely at home fighting alongside the man in the red suit, who looked like he had been losing up until reinforcements arrived. It was something of a challenge to respond to the tail except to stay out of its way; he knew he had no training with that exact kind of threat; none of his forms of martial arts were designed for that purpose. He let his sense inform him of the position of the tail and avoided it while keeping the enemy in place by hitting his feet with the web. It seems he knows better than to try to smack me down from above. Has Parker fought him before?
The fight ended when his ally managed to hit the enemy in the head with some sort of red nunchaku that retracted after he threw it. He closed the distance himself and broke the tail as soon as it stopped moving. Flipping the unconscious enemy over, he found that the tail led up to his spinal column, as expected.
“He can control it reflexively. It’s entirely subconscious. Where did he get this kind of tech?”
“Right below us,” the costumed ally said. “I came here looking to see how they’re arming criminals and getting away with it. How about you?”
“It’s pretty much the same.”
“I’ve heard people have been looking for you. Apparently, they think you’re overqualified for this sort of street-level job.” So, this is your thing, then? I’m not entirely sure you would have won. In theory, he should have a much easier time identifying me than I would have in identifying him. Is he trying to explain why he didn’t request help while I was approaching? Why?
“ I tend to function better in an urban setting,” he said. “There are various things that tie me to this city.” It was the kind of thing that Parker would say in substance, even if it was not how he generally spoke. He would probably not let on that he had a job and family in the general area.
“That explains why you’re using this thing rather than swinging around.” Of course I would, it’s much faster than- swinging around? Does Spider-Man always use the webbing as a basic method of travel rather than just when he needs to move to a specific point? His eyes narrowed. Is that why he needed an explanation?
“ You’re blind, aren’t you?” he asked. “In order for you to dodge that mechanical tail at the same level I was, without the benefit of an early warning system like I have, you have to have some advanced sense, and it isn’t sight. You didn’t recognize me when I was approaching because you heard the glider; the only way you could have known who I was- this colorful costume is how people recognize me.”
“You’ve cornered me, Spider-Man,” the red devil said after a moment. “I admit, until I heard your web-shooters, I had no idea. You don’t move the way you usually do. Even now, though, that I can hear your voice, I can barely tell identify you, and I have some of the sharpest ears around. You don’t talk the same way.”
“A lot can happen in a short amount of time,” he explained, if incompletely. “I don’t know when I’ll be back to my old self. Until then, though...” He trailed off as he stared over the edge of the building, watching the late afternoon sky, reminded of how he had never envied the blind, even though he valued his other senses as well.
“You always have responsibilities.” He turned back. “Forgive me if I speak out of turn, but you always went on about your seemingly self-imposed duties. I thought it was admirable, especially for your age, that you would see the whole city as yours to protect. Most days, I do my best with Hell’s Kitchen.”
“Because you’re the devil?” he asked. It must be some part of the city. Should I know where to find it?
“ That’s what I let people think. Spider-Man, we’ve worked together, but sometimes it seems we’ve never really talked, not about this.”
“Perhaps we simply don’t see eye to eye.” He was making a casual joke about the fact the man was blind, but he was really thinking about the other heroes and how disinclined they were to agree with each other. Did I ever have to work with people who saw things a different way?
“ Well, they say that it profiteth a man to cut his eye out rather than lose his soul.” He paused, perhaps wondering how much more to reveal. “I know how bad guilt can be, and I know that I’ve always seen it with you. I even wondered if you were Catholic, but sometimes you made the self-deprecating jokes that are more commonly associated with Jews, and that would explain the guilt as well.”
“I’m not sure what I am, to be honest, but I’m not Jewish,” he said, thinking of the name Parker.
“Are you circumcised?”
“Ask the secretary at the Daily Bugle,” he joked. “Consider that my petty revenge against Jameson.”
“Perhaps you should be the one wearing the horns, Spider-Man.” He shook his head. “Alas, I’m no better. I can blame the job for my inability to share a life with a woman about whom I care, but I haven’t always responded to my seemingly eternal singleness in the holiest of ways.”
“You’re telling me a lot,” he said.
“Well, if you know about my abilities, it’s really only a matter of time before you narrow down who I am, as long as that's what you want.”
“It’s not what you want, though, is it?”
“No, and I was leading up to that. Spider-Man, though I can’t really even say what your costume looks like, or what specific doctrine you believe, one thing I can clearly see is your character, now as clearly as ever. I would prefer that you did not knock at my door, at least not in costume, but I’m not otherwise worried about what you might do with the information.”
He thought about it for a moment and he could not help but be distracted by the unpleasant feeling of another man’s character being counted as his own. It had not been he who had built up the reputation that the red devil trusted so sincerely, it had been Parker. Now I really do feel the guilt.
Ever since he had come to the city, and ever since he had woken up in the strange body with its strange abilities, he knew he was horribly out of place, and it was not just because he was not used to the strength, or the city, or the enemies, but because he had this unshakeable impression that he had been a criminal, or a corrupt businessman, and even though fighting villains felt familiar, he wondered if that was just his new nature, or just something he was telling himself.
Peter Parker, wherever you are... I’m putting you through the harrowing.
No matter what he had to do going forward, no matter how hard he had to work for it, he would have to use everything at his disposal to improve things for the man he hoped would return to his own body. If he ever got back to his own, he would have to become the hero he was at the moment, no matter what kind of situation Parker left behind. That’s if we ever switch back, though. I still have no idea how we switched in the first place.
“ I’ll see you later, Spider-Man,” the other costumed figure said.
“Don’t be a stranger, Devil,” he said. The man smiled, a strange behavior for a blind man who had never seen one, but perhaps it was an instinct. There was evidence, after all, that such behaviors were innate rather than socially learned.
“Same to you, Spider.”