WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Savage Spider-Man #2, available now from Marvel.
As a fascistic secret society with ties to some of the most infamous totalitarian governments and institutions in human history, Hydra has recruited many of the most despicable supervillains in the Marvel Universe into its ranks over the years. No matter what form the organization is currently taking, Hydra's complicity in almost every form of illegal activity allows it to attract villains from various backgrounds. As a result, they always have some form of superhuman support backing its latest stab at world domination.
Not even heroes are safe from the seductive and subversive influence of Hydra, and many high-profile heroes have found themselves working for the organization. In some cases, Hydra tricked heroes were into unknowingly serving their criminal interests, and in others, coercive means like blackmail or mind-control forced them into servitude. After being reduced to a human/spider hybrid and discarded on a deserted island with one of the organization's deadliest leaders, Spider-Man has joined the growing list of heroes unwillingly conscripted into Hydra in Savage Spider-Man #2 (by Joe Kelly, Gerardo Sandoval, Victor Nava, Chris Sotomayor, and VC's Travis Lanham). Now Hydra has a deadly new weapon.
A relaunch of Kelly and Chris Bachalo's Non-Stop Spider-Man, Savage Spider-Man picks up immediately after the dramatic Non-Stop Spider-Man #5 (by Kelly, Bachalo, Sandoval, Tim Townsend, Wayne Faucher, Nava, Victor Olazava, Sandoval, Jim Charlalampidis, Sotomayor, and Lanham) cliffhanger. In it, a lethal dose of A-Plus, a drug that Baron Zemo planned on using to kill those he considered "genetically inferior," was injected into Spider-Man.
Due to his already mutated DNA, the A-Plus injection transformed Spider-Man into an even more monstrous variation of his iconic Man-Spider form, giving Zemo's traitorous second-in-command Wülf an opportunity to strand the Baron and Man-Spider on an inhospitable island inhabited by mutated humans. Although Main-Spider nearly killed Zemo, the Baron was saved by the arrival of a squad of Hydra soldiers, allowing Zemo to overpower Man-Spider and place a hypnotic collar around his neck, putting the mutated Wall-Crawler under the Hydra leader's control.
Spider-Man's mutated form has the potential to become one of Hydra's deadliest agents. As the Man-Spider, Peter Parker's already superhuman strength and speed significantly increase. He also gains several unique and deadly abilities, including poisonous fangs, razor-sharp legs, and organic webbing that's even stronger than the artificial webbing in his Web-Slingers. After being transformed into a similar form in Spider-Man: The Other (by Peter David, Reginald Hudlin, J. Michael Straczynski, Mike Wieringo, Pat Lee, and Mike Deodato Jr.) Spider-Man could effortlessly kill the energy-vampire Morlun, who repeatedly overpowered his humanoid form and single-handily battled the Avengers without breaking a sweat, proving just how powerful this bestial form can be.
To make matters worse for Zemo's many enemies, this variant of the Man-Spider appears to have an entirely new ability that makes him an even more valuable prize to Zemo. When the island's mutated inhabitants first attacked Man-Spider in Savage Spider-Man #1 (by Kelly, Sandoval, Nava, Sotomayor, and Lanham), the human/spider hybrid responded by blasting them with webbing. Unexpectedly the move formed a psychic connection with the mutants that allowed him to read their thoughts and influence their actions.
With this new ability, Man-Spider was able to organize the island's inhabitants into a make-shift pack that he used to hunt down Zemo, and the Hydra leader could easily use this ability to enslave innocent civilians his will. While the exact limits of Man-Spider's ability to control others are currently unknown, Zemo could use them to control Spider-Man's heroic allies, giving Hydra control over even more heroes.
With Zemo determined to get revenge against Wülf and the mysterious Immaculatum organization that he now works for, Man-Spider will likely find himself fighting for Hydra very soon. The former Spider-Man must break free from Zemo's hold and reclaim his humanity before the battle between Hydra and the Immaculatum is over. Failure to do so may lead to him being little more than a weapon against his closest friends and loved ones.