BIOGRAPHY - Page 2
At DaVinci Airport in Rome, gunmen burst into the terminal and began spraying wildly. The 
terrorist attack seemed to be a cover for the assassination of financier John Greene by his rival and former partner, Giancarlo Gelberto. Solo teleported onto the scene and took out Gelberto’s men. He spotted Gelberto shoot a civilian named Ballard and took a shot at Gelberto himself before stopping his pursuit to get Ballard medical treatment. Gelberto survived, but was captured at the scene. However, months passed and the courts failed to gather enough evidence to convict him. Solo sought out Gelberto and found Ballard ready to kill the businessman for the death of his girlfriend, Heather, at the terminal. Solo talked Ballard out of killing Gelberto before murdering the criminal himself. He then revealed his background check showed Ballard and Greene had been working together to overthrow Gelberto, and even killed a man in order to frame Gelberto for it. Ballard was fast, but Solo was faster, and he killed his second target for the night. [Amazing Spider-Man Annual #26]
ULTIMATUM’s efforts in Symkaria had been on behalf of their patron, the Red Skull. Solo infiltrated the Smith Building that had served as the Skull’s headquarters, and later spotted Spider-Man doing the same. Both of them traced intelligence to an estate in upstate New York, but it was meant as a trap. The Skull’s operative, Taskmaster, deployed his new “evil Avenger” trainees against them: Death-Shield, the Jagged Bow and the Blood Spider. Solo opened fire, but Spider-Man forced him to use non-lethal measures for the rest of the fight. The thugs fell, but Taskmaster 
escaped. Solo and Spider-Man pooled resources and learned the Skull intended to disrupt the America Day celebration in New York. A Japanese official named Kuroto would be assassinated on American soil, disrupting trade negotiations. Solo and Spider-Man intercepted ULTIMATUM and the Red Skull’s other men, saving Kuroto’s life. Solo teleported away while Spider-Man was considering whether to bring in the armed vigilante as well. [Amazing Spider-Man (1st series) #366-367]
Naturally, Solo came up against the nihilistic terrorist Viper in his crusade. He uncovered her recovering Cold War era missiles outside of Moscow and engaged her men. However, Solo was only there as part of a deeper game. Hydra’s founder Baron Wolfgang von Strucker had been secretly resurrected and worked behind the scenes to consolidate power, using his son Werner as a puppet. Viper knew too much about Werner’s role, and so Strucker arranged for Solo to learn about her operation. In doing so, Solo got in the way of Nick Fury’s attempt to press Viper for intelligence, allowing the secret of Strucker’s return to remain a secret for a little while longer. Knowing none of this, Solo dismissed the old war horse Fury for getting in his way. [Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2nd series) #45]
Delvadian terrorists hijacked a plane and held its passengers in its private cabin hostage on the tarmac. Solo suspected his old foe Tarantula was involved and prepared an anti-serum to resist his drugged boot-tips. Solo was correct, and the entire operation was an effort by Tarantula to capture him for a show trial in Delvadia to convict him for his “crimes.” Solo’s serum gave him the advantage when Tarantula believed he was drugged, and Solo fought to reclaim control of the plane as it took off. He threw Tarantula out the cabin door to his death, but a remaining mercenary 
shot the pilot, sending the plane into a dive. Solo got the surviving hostages into the dead mercenaries’ parachutes while he stabilized their descent. The passengers survived, as did Solo when he teleported free at the moment of impact. Tarantula had a hidden parachute, and so he and Solo went their separate ways, each believing the other was dead. For the moment. [Marvel Comics Presents (1st series) #124]
Solo’s reconnaissance determined that “Romulus Exports” was actually a front for a new terrorist organization known as A.R.E.S. – Assassination, Revolution, Extortion and Sabotage. He prepared to infiltrate Romulus quietly but spotted the Black Cat and had to improvise her into his plans. Felicia Hardy was there to recover a stolen painting, part of the illegal art sales A.R.E.S. was using to fund their efforts. While Solo investigated A.R.E.S.’s computer files, the man named 
Deathstorm teleported in. Gabriel Gant had faked his death with Tessler and Rowena, and A.R.E.S. was the terrorist-for-hire group they had built together in the shadows. Solo defeated Deathstorm and wrecked his cybernetic arm, but Gant teleported away before Bourne could finish the job. With his past come back to haunt him, Solo turned his back on the Black Cat and prepared for what lay ahead. [Amazing Spider-Man Annual #27]
Solo tracked the A.R.E.S. Guard to an electronics firm called Welles Technologies. A fierce firefight held off Solo until he pierced the inner office of Charles Welles, only to find Rowena (now codenamed Cygnus) waiting for him as part of A.R.E.S.. Stunned, he failed to stop her from teleporting out and nearly missed the bomb A.R.E.S. left behind. Solo regrouped at his sanctum and recognized that A.R.E.S. was what Tessler must have been working towards all along with Omega Strike. Welles helped develop their bio-chips, and A.R.E.S.’ attacks there and at the 
United Nations were designed to cover their tracks and eliminate any records of Omega Strike, their personnel, and their technology. A.R.E.S. next attacked a U.N. press conference intended to address the rise in terror. Solo and Spider-Man both arrived on the scene, but Deathstorm shot Spidey’s friend NYPD Detective Lou Snider, which fueled his disgust for anyone who would solve their problems with a gun. [Solo (1st series) #1]
Solo tried to pay his respects to Snider at the hospital, but only ended up provoking Spider-Man further. A.R.E.S. next turned up at the Delvadian embassy, hired by separatists to help weaken the current ruling regime. Spider-Man and Solo independently caught A.R.E.S. member Scorch setting explosives in the basement. Spider-Man knocked him out but then defended the terrorist 
before Solo could shoot their fallen foe. Upstairs, Cygnus did her best to keep Deathstorm on a leash, preventing him from torturing and murdering the Delvadian ambassador’s son, at least. Solo attacked Deathstorm and the A.R.E.S. Guard, but Gant knew he could use Rowena as a human shield, leading Bourne to back down rather than risk hurting her. Solo was ashamed for his weakness as A.R.E.S. teleported out, and even opened fire on Spider-Man out of sheer frustration before leaving as well. [Solo (1st series) #2]
Solo tracked down A.R.E.S.’ main base of operations, and Spider-Man ended up being teleported in as well when A.R.E.S. whisked Scorch from police custody. Tessler and Deathstorm had a falling out, and the operator abandoned Gant at the base. He fled with Cygnus and their Guard, disabling the “jump pulse” which operated Deathstorm’s teleportation frequency in the hopes that 
he would die along with Solo when the base self-destructed. The civil war for A.R.E.S. had begun, and Solo barely escaped the exploding base with Spider-Man. Tessler disabled Solo’s jump pulse as well, forcing him to deal with Spider-Man’s intent to capture him. Unwilling to use lethal force and unable to just quit, Bourne was beaten senseless by Spider-Man and turned over to the Guardsmen of the Vault for his multitude of crimes in the name of “justice.” [Solo (1st series) #3]
Once Spider-Man was away, Solo overpowered his Guardsmen escort and escaped his transport. He made his way back to his sanctum through covert maneuvers on foot. Using his knowledge of the bio-chip programming, he managed to direct a surgery robot to reactivate his jump pulse and scramble it so no one could affect it again. As the United Nations Security Council held Delvadian 
negotiations, the two arms of A.R.E.S. (led by Tessler & Cygnus and Deathstorm & Scorch) converged on the talks. Rowena had become increasingly vocal about her objections to Tessler’s motives, but she still stood between him and Solo when Bourne teleported in. Rowena finally explained the hold Tessler had over her when she confirmed for James that Emil Tessler was her father.
Tessler abandoned Rowena and the A.R.E.S. Guard thanks to his own bio-chip, and so Solo finally convinced Rowena to work with him against her father’s goals. They pursued him only to see Deathstorm kill Tessler in revenge and take over what remained of A.R.E.S. The battle aboard A.R.E.S.’ camouflaged helicarrier brought it down in the waters around Manhattan. Deathstorm struggled to the surface as Solo dragged a wounded Rowena to safety. They had a showdown on the waterfront, surrounded by civilians as the two soldiers shouted epithets at each other. Spider-Man arrived and yelled at Solo to let the law deal with Deathstorm, but Bourne opened fire when he saw Gant begin teleporting away. His opening salvo killed the terrorist, but also passed through him to strike a young mother in the chest, killing her too. A furious Spider-Man screamed at Solo for his bloodthirstiness and, this time, the stunned Bourne couldn’t bring himself to defend his crusade. Solo submitted meekly to the Guardsmen without incident, “his soul withering under the weight of his own personal torment.” [Solo (1st series) #4]
