In Manhattan, New York City, the area between 34th and 57th Streets, stretching from Eighth Avenue to the Hudson River, seemed cursed. Violence, crime, smuggling, robbery, and other illicit dealings had cast a shadow over it for years.
The dark, damp alleys reeked of decay. Battered streetlights flickered as though they might go out at any moment, lending the neighborhood an even more sinister, eerie air.
Here, people lived in fear every evening. The whole place was like a real-life hell of sin, with one crime after another being "cooked up" in this "hellish cauldron." And so the people of New York had given it a vivid, fitting name-
-[Hell's Kitchen]
"Help!! Someone help me!!!"
A desperate cry pierced the night, filled with boundless fear and helplessness.
"Aah-!!!"
A piercing scream followed, echoing through the dark, narrow alley and making the neighborhood seem all the more terrifying.
Thick clouds obscured the moon in the dark night sky, plunging the already dim alley into deeper darkness.
The tall buildings on either side loomed like silent beasts, squeezing the alley between them and making it feel even more oppressive and confining.
The screaming woman struggled desperately in that sunless gloom. Her voice and figure seemed so insignificant in this corner of sin, forming a scene all too familiar in Hell's Kitchen.
Even that wandering, helpful, friendly neighborhood Spider-Man could not hear the cries of these vulnerable people sixteen kilometers away from Queens.
Besides, New York was especially different today.
Headlines such as "Shocking! Where have all the superheroes gone!?" and "Avengers and X-Men vanish en masse!!!!" had unsurprisingly taken over the front pages of New York's major news outlets.
The media, which normally loved scrutinizing superheroes' private lives, had been quick to pick up on the anomaly.
It was not just the