Peter Parker was an above average science nerd at Midtown High, often known as a professional wallflower. He tried to fit in but he was a gangly awkward teenage boy. Teachers tolerated him, girls did not like him, and bullies loved to push him around.
“Someday I’ll show them!” Peter huffed as he entered the Science Exhibit after another round of humiliation from Flash Thompson. “Someday they’ll be sorry! Sorry that they laughed at me.”
Peter stood in the room to watch the demonstration on radioactive waves. It had lots of flashing lights and he chatted with the professors afterward at length about the applications of what the machine could possibly do. As he left the exhibition, his eye caught a flyer on a telegraph pole: Tired of bullies? Kung-Fu could help. Sensei Brown’s School of Kung Fu. Harlem.
I am…The Watcher. In most universes across the infinite multiverse, there is a Spider. Often a man, sometimes a woman, occasionally a boy or girl, but Spider-Man is often a constant. In this universe that isn’t the case. In this universe, the spider was burnt to a cinder by the radiation. No spider meant nothing to bite Peter and thus no Spider-Man. In this universe, Peter Parker is on a different path.
“Ten more!” Sensei Brown shouted at his students as he watched Peter struggle to get through his first three push ups. “Then squat kicks!”
“Yes sensei!”
Sensei Brown watched the weedy white boy keep trying and refusing to quit, it made him smile. “You can do it Parker!”
Peter Parker threw himself into studying martial arts. He showed up early, stayed late, used that big brain of his to study anatomy and biomechanics, and transformed himself. After learning as much karate as he could from Sensei Brown, he was directed to studying kung fu alongside Brown’s long-time friend Lin Sun under the watchful eye of Master Kee.
One night a gang of ninjas attacked the dojo. Peter was on his way to training and intervened but was unable to save Master Kee, who had been fatally stabbed. Kee explained as he died that there were forces in this world which would destroy and then pointed to a box on a shelf after which he died. Inside Peter found three amulets made of jade, a tiger's head and two claws. They glowed and hummed with power.
Peter put them on and soon found that his martial arts prowess was trebled. He vowed to find the ninjas that killed Kee but was worried about them finding his Aunt and Uncle.
So White Tiger was born!
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