#Like Miles coming up after the violent death of Peter Parker

[shokuto]

This moment between Kitty Pryde and Logan being the one bright spot in all of Ultimatum

[mo0nfairy]

ᥫ᭡ . # ۫ , ⸺ THIS IS A LIFE, PART ONE !

summary :: in every universe, spiderman will inevitably lose the one thing that matters most to him: y/n l/n. miguel o'hara, peter parker, and hobie brown have all suffered through this story. they soon discover another version of you is alive, bound to fall in love with miles morales and to die abruptly. with the prospect of a second chance and a newfound obsession, these four men will do anything to keep you at their side.

chapters :: the masterlist.

word count :: 7.5k

content warnings :: yandere!miguel, yandere!miles, yandere!noir, yandere!hobie, reader death, gore/violence, murder, electrocution, fire, guns, alcohol, cigarettes, suicidal tendencies, kidnapping, stalking, physical restraint, child abuse/neglect, allusions to a child's death, physically abusive ex-boyfriend, infidelity, & torture.

──── October 17th, 2099 — Miguel O'Hara remembers the day the same way he will never forget you. August 24th, 1934 — Peter Parker remembers the day the same way he will never forget you. July 3rd, 2020 — Hobie Brown remembers the day the same way he will never forget you.

Y/N L/N. Miguel O'Hara, Peter Parker, and Hobie Brown will never forget them the same way they will never forget how it felt to lose them.

The inevitable fate of your demise is a cannon event for all spider-people. To love this person with every shred of their being only to live the rest of their lives without them; to love this person with all the might their body can contain only to let go of their hand in the end. It crushes their soul. Countless people are forced to live with the consequences of being bitten by a spider, not one had suspected it would be so detrimental.

Not when it is your life that has been taken.

Written in the stars is this destiny. How they will never love another again, but vow to be a hero and refrain a similar fate from falling onto anyone else. Many have been able to crawl out of the bottomless pit that is grief, but others have succumbed to the unforgiving anguish and let their life escape them. Just the way yours had. After all, what is life if you are not present? What is the point of living if there is no one there to patch up their scars and praise them for their heroic acts? There is no point, which leaves these three particular spider-people here. Their body is stuck in the past, reliving each moment with you up until they lost you forever.

October 17th, 2099. It was all his fault. Maybe if he hadn't let his violent tendencies toward anyone who isn't you slip through the seams, maybe if he had been more persistent in his reminders of how loved you are. Maybe if he had tried harder, Miguel O'Hara would still have you here at his side.

Miguel's attempts to make this sudden transition in your life as easy as possible turned out to be disastrous. He is not stupid; he knows this upbringing into this new lifestyle you claim to be "kidnapping" was blunt. He knew this, yet still, his plans on easing you through this change had collapsed right before him. Time had passed, and he naively assumed your fear had depleted, far too caught up in the sheer delight that came from holding you in his arms. Days and nights spent trailing his fingers down the expanse of your skin and kissing away the bruises his fangs had left upon your lips. This is a dream, Miguel always catches himself thinking.

And his sweet daughter, Gabriella. How she adored you so much. Even more so than her own father, he often joked. Coming home to find you both brushing the hair of her numerous dolls, baking treats that were rich with far too much sugar, or fast asleep on the couch while some whiny kids show plays on the television. His heart hammers like a fluttering hummingbird at the sight of you so soft and calm with his daughter. However, your guard then builds itself back up, brick-by-brick, faster than a gust of wind when he makes his presence known. In a way, Miguel found himself... jealous of Gabriella. That gentle and loving nature of yours, why couldn't he have it for himself? Why couldn't you give him some of that attention, even just a blink? What could that crybaby brat possibly have done to deserve such an amazing thing!?

No matter what kind of thoughts suffocate his mind, Miguel always tried to keep himself composed in front of you. With his tall, muscular physique, it makes sense why you are so intimidated by his appearance. If he were to ever let this satiating envy bleed through the bandaids, however, you'd certainly never open your heart to him. The prospect alone makes his chest tighten with dread.

And he had been so negligent towards his daughter, it only makes sense why she would turn to you. With how breathtaking, elegant, brilliant, electrifying you are, Miguel can understand why she loves you so much. Still, this does not refrain him from tightening his jaw whenever his daughter does something as trivial as hug you. That should be me with Y/N. Let me hold them, let me hold them, let me hold them like that.

It's his fault he had so frivolously expressed his envy through sharp gazes, a towering frame, and muffled shouts through the thin walls. It's his fault he never assured you these ugly emotions were never your fault, since you could never do any wrong in his eyes, after all. It's his fault he didn't drown you in even more heaps of affection, to further remind you of just how much he needs you.

It is his fault you are dead.

Overcome with drowsiness, Miguel heedlessly packs his daughters lunch for school that day. Despite how you are usually the one who does this task, since you have always adored looking after the little one, you needed your rest. And he was insistent on treating you with even more intensive care, all to prove that he is the right one for you. No one else. Meanwhile, Gabriella sits at the kitchen table with her backpack on, swinging her short legs back and forth. She is bright with full energy that contradicts her father's state in a comical manner.

"Y/N/N always cuts my food into cool shapes! Yesterday, they made my sandwich star-shaped!" Gabriella exclaims to her father with admiration.

The mere mention of your name from someone else makes Miguel freeze. A sudden surge of anger wraps around his lungs like a sheen layer of morning dew resting on Spring grass. You treat her with such attentive care, why can't he get any of that? What is so special about her that he doesn't have? What does he need to change about himself in order to get you to love him the way you so fatuously love her? Miguel casts his gaze across the counter and finds several bottles of cleaning products you must have forgotten to put away. So endearing, so adorable. An idea then sparks. While Gabriella continues to babble about how cool and amazing you are, Miguel finds himself considering something he will never be able to take back.

Just a dash of some drain cleaner in her sandwich and this problem will fade away.

"Y/N/N!" The sound of your nickname shouts through the air upon your arrival. Gabriella is more than elated to greet you, but your eyes remain locked on Miguel. In other circumstances, he'd be thanking the heavens above for this bit of attention you have given him. At this moment, however, there is a disturbed gleam of horror in your expression that makes his stomach twist with apprehension.

The energy is not directed towards Gabriella, as you caress her cheek and gift her that smile of yours that rivals sunlight. Miguel inadvertently rolls his eyes at the sight, envious as ever. As she continues to ramble to you about her success at a recent soccer game, you retrieve all the cleaning products and return them to their respective place underneath the sink. Not without shooting a burning glare at Miguel, however. Had he made his intentions that obvious? You wave him aside from his stance at the pink, glittery lunchbox and he obeys. Pretending to finish up his original efforts, you examine every snack inside for anything this crazed man may have tampered with.

"Good morning, button..." The nervous tremble in Miguel's voice doesn't tarnish the sheer adoration that seeps from his tone.

Your short response of "'morning" could barely be heard over the thunderous sound of his heart shattering. Yet again, you have broken his heart. And still, he will crawl back to you every time, aching for any inkling of your regard. Soon, you're saying your goodbyes to Gabriella and wishing her a wonderful day at school. Planting a quick peck to her cheek, Miguel's talons grow and dig crevices into the steering wheel while he waits for his daughter to join him in the vehicle. Oh, if only you could give him the same act of affection, he would never ask the universe for anything ever again.

And if only he had known how the rest of the morning would play out, he never would have left the house.

When Miguel finally pulls out of the driveway, giving you a quick wave that is not reciprocated, you let your guard down. You almost watched this man murder his daughter. Tears begin to form in your eyes as the revelation simmers like boiling water. With more time here, who knows what lengths he'll travel to?

Fortunately for you, with how occupied he was with his daughter and his own inner turmoil, he had entirely forgotten to lock the door to his office. The one place neither you nor his daughter were allowed to venture into. You were unaware of what is within the room or how anything inside could aid you in your attempts to escape. What you were aware of, however, is how paranoid he was in his efforts to keep you out of there. Peeling back the curtain and taking a fearful glance out the window, just to ensure this psychopath who claimed to be your soulmate wasn't lurking, you embark on your journey into uncharted territory.

Miguel had mentioned several times in his late-night talks with you about his job at Alchemax. His boring explanations about the technology he was working on there did wonders in lulling you to sleep. Now, seeing the scatterings of machinery that littered the room made you gasp from their futuristic appearance. One contraption had caught your attention, however. It seemed to be a current project, evident in the numerous tools and papers inked with equations littered around. Upon stepping closer to the contraption, a holographic screen sputters to life. You find several distorted, glitching files that all attain to you in some shape or form. Y/N's wish list, Y/N's checking account, and Y/N's security camera footage. Curiosity does spark, but with how swiftly Miguel is able to drop his daughter off and speed home to return to you, the time you had was not versatile.

If I can piece together how this gadget works, I may be able to call for help and get Gabriella and I as far away from this man as possible, you think to yourself.

The machine continues to stammer pathetically as if it were desperately chasing its own life. Trying to peruse through the technology to find anything useful, its poor performance prevented you from any fruition. In a fit of frustration, you pull your hand back and deliver a harsh smack! to the side of the machine. With how little time you have, you can feel your opportunity for freedom begin to fade away with every glitch that erupts. With one final, violent slam to the machinery, the metal borders protecting the numerous open wires inside fall, and a sudden wave of electricity surges through you. Your entire body goes rigid before you splat harshly against the ground. You are now left entirely lifeless, except for the electric shocks that cause your stiff form to twitch in response.

With that, your life was over. October 17th, 2099 — the day Miguel O'Hara inevitably lost the only thing that ever mattered to him.

August 24th, 1934. It was all his fault. Maybe if he had stayed with you more and neglected the city, maybe if he hadn't been so careless with expressing his love for you. Maybe if he had tried harder, Peter Parker would still have you here at his side.

Peter, too, attempted vigorously to make your transition to this new life with him as smooth as possible. At the very beginning of this new adjustment, hope had still plagued your mind. As days turned into weeks, soon months, the forest fire that was your persistence had slowly been snuffed out like an old candle. Now, all you can do is sit at the window seat of his apartment and just pray that someone will recognize your face. From the numerous missing persons' posters that were now left behind in dumpsters and rain puddles, you could feel your luck grow thin. Everyday looked like this, all with this lovesick maniac at your beck-and-call, deluded enough to believe this fantasy of being your doting partner to be reality. The amount of egg-creams you've drank is bound to make you vomit at some point.

At the end of the day, you had gotten what you had wished for. You were once a journalist, putting all your time into unmasking the famous Spiderman. The truth of his identity was now in the palm of your hands. However, there were far more consequences to this wish than you had originally anticipated. And Peter is overcome with guilt when he thinks back to how disastrous his efforts to give you his heart turned out.

It's his fault he had so carelessly exposed his acts of heroism through the stench of gunpowder and chunks of blood beneath his fingernails. It's his fault he didn't spend more time showering you in the affection you truly deserved. It's his fault he never assured you the inevitable fate of the bastards that hurt you was never your fault, just so you can realize that everything he does, no matter how calamitous, was all for your benefit.

It is his fault you are dead.

Slow dancing with you in the gentle haze of the moonlight peaking through the window, swaying along to some romantic melody echoing from the saloon across the street, amorous words that you'd hear from the lips of a poet whispered into your ear — this is where heaven is. This is all that he has ever dreamed of; this is all he has ever wanted for the two of you. This is what makes him happy.

"My heart is bleeding in your hands, dollface. It's all yours, I'm all yours." Peter's breath tickles your neck, the infatuation-stained harangue finally coming to an end as he continues to sway you along to the harmonies outside.

You often joke to yourself that you could stab Peter in the heart, give him even just a sliver of the turmoil he has forced into your life, and he would still give you a smile with blood painting his teeth and that revolting gleam of pure, unadulterated devotion in his eyes. With this devotion, however, comes dark, dark side effects. This was not a surprise to you, considering how you've been locked up like a bad dog for these past several months. Still, when you inhale and the sharp odor of iron poorly masked with bleach overwhelms your senses, you find yourself taken aback.

The clamoring sound of the bolts to your prison cell your captor claims to be your love den being unlocked brings you out of your thoughts. When the door opens and Peter walks in, all you see is a euphoric, hopelessly-besotted partner. With the sudden stench that is still heavy in the air, however, you feel a new, sudden sense of dread with his presence. He is elated to see you, as he always is. An impassioned kiss to your lips and an ardent compliment are essential to your everyday encounter with the man you thought once to be a superhero. Sometimes, a gift of fresh, blood-red roses may accompany him in his attempts to woo you further, as well.

Through the whiff of cigarettes sitting on his trench coat when he envelops you in a much-needed embrace after his long day of work, you sense something else. The tang you had inhaled from outside the bedroom is now stuck to his form, nestled beneath the aroma of late-night brume and smoke. You force a gag down your throat and reciprocate the affection, trying to push your suspicions to the back burner in your mind. The rest of the evening is like any other: listening to some tunes from the radio as the two of you play a card game, all that Peter deems as a "romantic date". Your winning strike against him (he always lets you win, but he won't tell you this) falters when your brain can't help but wonder what he was so occupied with outside that door.

As devastating and exhausting as the truth is, coming to terms with reality is the only chance you have of returning to the life you once had. Hoping he'll wake from his delusions and let you off your leash is nothing more than a pipe dream, you realize. If you want freedom, you'll have to take it by the neck and claim it as yours. So, as the hours of the night fade into dawn, you conjure a plan in your head while the man beside you snores in a deep slumber (not without a few sleepy mumbles of flattery for you, though).

The scheme you had so flawlessly crafted was quick, simple, and easy. You would do something you have never done before: initiate affection with Peter.

This was your ploy: fulfill all the fantasies his lovesick brain was infested with and watch with a newfound sense of hope as he forgets to lock the door, too dazed from the pleasure your sweet attitude had brought him. And it worked marvelously. Not only did this man forget to lock the bedroom door, he had entirely forgotten to lock the front door of the apartment altogether. The prospect of this mistake being a test of your loyalty lingers, but when you watch through the window as he swings away from building to building, you let out a roar of laughter.

After your fit of hysterics, a smile sits on your face as you tread to the front door. Something stops you in your tracks when your hand hovers over the doorknob. When you leave, you will have nothing but months of memories to defend yourself with. Who are the authorities going to believe — you, a mischievous journalist, prone to bending the rules for a good headline, or Peter, the famous superhero, notorious for his restless efforts to save the city? Despite the freedom you have dreamed of being right in your palms, you step away from the door. Instead, you look around for any evidence deemed beneficial. Whatever can put him under the negative limelight is satisfactory to you.

No stone was left unturned in the apartment, all besides a single door at the end of a long corridor. The night before, Peter had been so frantic with his time inside (all in order to get back to you sooner) that he was sloppy with his efforts in cleaning his mess. The spilled bleach he had accidentally knocked over was still lying in a puddle; the nauseating scent of fresh blood still satiated through the air like a fragrance. And lastly, the latch on the door had been left unlocked.

Without so much as a second thought, you enter the room and let your curious eyes soak in the sheer horror that resides within.

A metal chair rests in the middle of the room, leather straps tightened around a body that sits motionless. Two tables are located on the sides of the room where all sorts of gut-wrenching tools reside. And there is blood everywhere. What was once a second bedroom for buyers of the apartment has now been morphed into a torture chamber of sorts.

The person restrained in the chair, you weren't sure if they were even alive. Everything is drowned in so much heaps of red, attempting to use your mere first-aid knowledge is impossible. What is most perceptible, however, is the way their eye had been forcefully torn from its socket. It resembles a runny egg how it causes bodily fluids to cascade down their face. The amount of flesh on their body that had been torn asunder, the gag in their mouth that was oozing with tears and saliva, the gushing blood that continues to hastily seep from infected wounds. Everything makes your eyes blur and your stomach churn with nauseau.

With the career you once had as a journalist, you've seen some disgusting sights. Sneaking onto crime scenes from a brawly saloon fight gone too far or snapping pictures of the result of Spiderman's "heroic" acts to save citizens, you've become desensitized to gory scenes. But, this. This wasn't like anything you have ever seen.

"Y/N?" You hadn't realized how deafening the silence was until the poor victim is able to speak out.

With one eye practically staring daggers into you, the revelation hits you like a train. That voice, that eye. This is no other than the man you had called your boyfriend before this mess had snuck into your life. Or, ex-boyfriend, as you'd prefer to refer to him as. The status of your relationship was left a mystery after the night he had come to your home drunk and reeking of someone's perfume. Your insistent demands for him to sober up and inform you of his recent whereabouts earned you a harsh slap across the face. With a loud shout of how much of a “shitty partner” and "piece of cityside trash" you are, the person you thought to be the love of your life storms out of your home. Never to be seen again.

Hastily, you unclasp the restraints that left his skin numb and bruised. With how malnourished he had become from his time spent here, it was fairly easy to support his weight. You swing his battered arm around your shoulder and help him stand on his emaciated legs. After only two steps, he pushes you off of him harshly with what little strength his body was able to garner. His attempts served well, as you feel your stomach hit a table adorned with blood-stained utensils that make you sick to imagine how they were used.

"You... How could you...?" As his weak voice fills the air, you feel your stomach fold into itself. Does he think you did this?

Opening your mouth to begin stammering your way through what you intended to be a thorough explanation, a loud bang! then pervades the air. Without a second to process his actions, the man grasped the pistol left on the table and pulled the trigger. A stream of smoke now stems from the barrel. The betrayal, the aversion, and the debility in his expression tell you everything you need to know. You were so close to the finish line that would grant you freedom, but when you shift your gaze down, you're devastated to find a bullet hole protruding through your chest. You then slump to the ground and your killer falls not long after you, the act of merely standing too much for his abused body.

With that, your life was over. August 24th, 1934 — the day Peter Parker inevitably lost the only thing that ever mattered to him.

July 3rd, 2020. It was all his fault. Maybe if he had been more attentive to your safety, maybe if he hadn't exposed how soul-crushing the love he has for you is. Maybe if he had tried harder, Hobie Brown would still have you here at his side.

As opposed to the others, Hobie did little to ease you into this new life with him. The transition was curt, violent. With you as a bartender, drunken customers are most certainly not a rare sight. However, when you rejected a man who had one too many drinks and he reacted with violence, it caught you off-guard. And Hobie, the lead singer of the band that consistently played at your bar, had become blind with rage. Through the mess of the blood on your head when the beer bottle shattered against you and the apple-red matter staining Hobie's guitar as he smashes it relentlessly into the man's skull, these events somehow landed you where you are now.

An abandoned building on the outskirts of town, that's where you had woken up. The debris around the room was masked with string lights and band posters adorning the walls, as well as a rickety bed frame scarcely supporting a lone mattress. With bleary vision and an even fuzzier head, you gain consciousness abruptly. You find yourself on the bed with thick, itchy blankets draped around you, clothes that certainly do not belong to you on your body, and spiky belts used to restrain your limbs. Barbed wires and decaying planks of wood board the windows; the lack of passing cars and loud pedestrians outside cause you to worry about how far you are from the lively city you called home.

A lanky figure makes their presence known, dressed in those all-too-familiar garbs. Spider-Punk, the man you'd always see performing at your penurious bar, despite how widespread their band was. Much to your shock, his large hand finds the trim of his mask before tearing the garment off. Beneath is a gorgeous face embellished with piercings and a wild head full of hair. Large, wet eyes overwhelm you. And there is only one discernible trait you could read clearly through his expression: desire.

The way your plump body pools from the hems of the small clothing he dressed you in from his closet, fuck. Hobie has thought of this moment plenty of times — finally being able to take you away, just the two of you. He swore up and down he'd keep his fervid cravings at bay. But, when you're truly here in front of him, looking like that. He has to dig his long nails into his palms to physically restrain himself from lunging for you like a feral animal in heat. God, you look too fucking good.

From here on out, the relationship you have with Hobie sprouted into something only you would call treacherous, something only he would call rapturous. Being trapped within the small expanse of this grimy room, your new life has shown how perceptibly different your reactions are from one another. You are entirely dumbfounded at these new circumstances you've been forcefully thrust into. Meanwhile, Hobie attempts to put space between you both to avoid giving into his irresistible hunger. Though, it doesn't take a genius to notice how his hands always find their way to your naked skin and how his eyes linger on the intimate parts of your body. And it most certainly doesn't take a genius to notice the sheer terror and confusion stuck to your expression.

The discomfort the residence brings does little to ease you, as well. How your body is restricted against the firm mattress has your limbs aching with cramps. Your neck throbs from no support, considering the lack of pillows. But, Hobie always remarked that his chest is more comfortable to lay on, anyway. His clothing reeks of alcohol from the numerous bars and parties he’s attended, but also from the expensive perfumes, lotions, as well as the skin and hair products he received from his time being a runway model. The scent now clinging to your skin fails to bring you any of the tranquility he wished you would feel. Meals shared between you two were often dowsed in grease and cheap in flavor. Your captor never put much effort into making your dinnertime together anything reminiscent of a romantic date in Italy or something along those themes. He would much rather eat something else for dinner, after all.

This is what life looked like for the next several months. Records spinning and filling the air with headache-inducing songs he says he had written about you; Polaroid pictures scattered around the room that display different variations of the same scene: you sitting pretty with Hobie's hands and lips all over you. Never, never, has this man ever felt so much bliss in his entire life. He has always preached about how the idea of "love" is nothing more than propaganda meant to earn greedy, capitalistic companies more money with their cheesy movies and Valentine's Day garbage. When you entered his life in all your glory, however, he was ashamed to put his pride aside and admit those irritating pop songs may have been correct.

"I don’t need nothin’ else. 'Long as I have you here, birdie." He fidgets with the necklace he had given you that was currently draped upon your neck. His lucky guitar chip is swung upon the chain, since it always belonged to you, anyway. You will always be his muse.

With how carelessly he let himself be swathed in the warm blankets of love, how carelessly Hobie had let you slip from his fingertips.

It's his fault he had so frivolously expressed his protective nature through blood-stained bar floors and constricting arms encompassing your body. It's his fault he never assured you these conflicts weren’t your fault, it was only the monsters outside who wished to separate true love. It's his fault he had disciplined himself so heavily for his big heart, fearful of losing self-control with the love of his life.

It is his fault you are dead.

You regret not tallying the days you've spent locked up in this birdcage. Carving lines into the deteriorating walls to represent the slashes this new life has left in your sanity. It feels as if lifetimes have tread by you, the same day repeating itself like your own personal nightmare. Mere months have gone by and unbeknownst to you, the sweet escape you so despairingly crave is sitting upon the horizon. The circumstances of your freedom were the absolute last thing you had wished for, however.

Hobie’s history of being a heartthrob and heartbreaker were no secret to you, but his newfound loyalty to the innocent person he had taken from their previous life was even more evident. All the possessive, delusional fans that were convinced they'd marry their favorite singer, it was just so easy for Hobie to indulge in some casual fun before leaving them behind in his dust. As the story of all Spider-People goes, however, Y/N L/N is the tool that throws this man into a whirlpool of enamoring disarray. Embracing this newfound happiness was exhilarating for him, but Hobie was so dazed from it, he never had thought that karma would slither itself between you two.

A certain groupie, wholly convinced she and Spider-Punk are soulmates, was devastated to see how carelessly the love of her life abandoned her. Her mind had sprinted to all sorts of gut-wrenching conclusions. Am I not enough? Is he moving on? Is there someone else? Her worst nightmare materializes into reality when she stalks behind his tall figure and follows him to a building one late night, an odd pep in his step as he enters. What she assumes is just another exclusive club location with more taboo forms of partying, she is left stunned when she catches sight of what sights lie within.

The man of her dreams is found in the depths of infidelity. Through the crack of a rickety door coated with locks, there he was. Chest pressed against the back of someone else, who was sound asleep beneath an array of blankets like a baby in a crib. With his arms locked around them like a lifeline, Spider-Punk presses long, intimate kisses to their face. The words she had begged to hear from him, he was so frivolously drowning this stranger in such, despite their unconscious state. Every syllable was dripping with lust and smitten-induced hysteria. Tears brim in her eyes from how desperately she covets to be you in this moment.

With a shattered heart and a festering rage, she comes to the conclusion of what she must do. She will take him back, no matter what it takes.

Rarely did Hobie ever leave the expanse of your room, he wanted to stay with you forever. When he did, however, it was for some quick cash at yet another gig he and his bandmates had landed. Singing his lungs out, knowing every lyric revolves around the one waiting for him back home — you have brought him ecstasy he still cannot fathom the sheer weight of. A Friday night like no other, Hobie would spend the evening beneath the blinding spotlights, drinking the hours away, before returning home and cuddling with the only reason he chooses to live.

Through the barricaded windows and doors, a sudden stench of what appears to be smoke invades your senses. A big city like this, something along these lines is nothing out of the ordinary. After all, you were so thrilled to finally be granted a night to yourself, anything that would jeopardize this gift from the universe is seen as insignificant. When the heavy smell becomes more perceptible and the unmistakable sound of fire cracking gets louder, you feel dread tickle down your spine. The fear settles into your bones before you can think of a logical way to escape. Hobie did everything to ensure you wouldn’t leave his side, after all.

Air soon becomes precious, your lungs begin to squeeze, your skin is burning with scorching pain. It brings you the hell you had carelessly thought you felt before. A final cry of help into the suffocating air and you feel your life begin to fade. Meanwhile, the lost groupie stands near the entrance, holding back a satisfied smile. An onslaught of concerned pedestrians and firefighters accompany her. And Hobie was still far away, alcohol heavy in his system and the joy of returning to you seeping through his body like a drug. So blissfully unaware of what awaits him when he comes back to the place he had called home only with you.

With that, your life was over. July 3rd, 2020 — the day Hobie Brown inevitably lost the only thing that ever mattered to him.

The effects your departure has left on these men are all nothing short of disastrous. No longer do they have the vibrant, loving souls they once held. Day by day, they are dragging the dead carcass that is their own body, suffering through every second and hoping it will be their last. The paths your death have led these three are unique from one another, but they all find themselves in one specific space. Spider-HQ, within Nueva York on Earth-928. The story the multiverse has written for them had so selfishly taken their happiness away from them. Taking the pen for themselves and creating the most beautiful fairytale where you are alive and back in their embrace is the only purpose they now have.

Now, Miguel O'Hara stands at the office he earned from becoming the leader of this society. Upon the various monitors displayed around him are scenes taken from numerous different universes. Lethargy sits like bags of bricks beneath his eyes, slowly blinking as he ensures no minor mistake is present. If the multiverse were to crumble, his sole objection to save the only important person in Spiderman's life will fall with it. When he verifies all is well on Earth-1610, something perceptible then catches his gaze and he does a double-take. Any sign of fatigue within him is snatched out of his body, leaving him more awake than ever before.

Within this universe, Miguel finds you.

Before, these universes have only displayed the effects your death has left on all the spider-people. Today, however, is the first time he has seen you alive since the day he lost you. Lyla snickers and accuses him of having a cute, teenage-like crush when she takes notice of the sheer captivation in his expression. Little does she know how much history lies in your mere face. It is heart-crushing, how much the simple sight of you enjoying a cup of coffee (with one too many sugars, as he knows you've always preferred) has such catastrophic effects on him.

Piles of schoolwork are scattered around your desk, covered in information adhering to your current college major. Even with your lack of sleep, school-induced annoyance, and general exhaustion over everything in your life, Miguel has never seen something quite as breathtaking as you in this moment. An epiphany sprouts in his brain as quickly as the sight of you caused his soul to blossom, just like it did all those years ago.

Maybe he can stop it. Maybe he can get you back.

Your death is inevitable, and even though Miguel was aware of this, dread still pervades his stomach at the prospect and churns with his breakfast. What really makes him shudder is when he reads through the cannon events assigned to you. A flare of jealousy ignites within him when he finds an unfamiliar name in the midst of your story.

Miles Morales, the Spiderman you are meant to fall in love with. What good is he? He's just some stupid kid, what more could he possibly do that Miguel can't? Why would you choose this loser when he can give you everything you have ever wanted!? In a sudden fit of rage, he grasps hold of whatever matter was closest to him and uses all the strength within his muscular arms to hurl it across the room. His chest heaves with infuriated huffs; his claws slice into the meat of his palms. He is enraged, yes, but he is mostly devastated that the beautiful face on his screen will soon meet their inescapable demise.

Not only will he do everything in his power to stop your death, but Miguel also vows to put his blood, sweat, and tears into ensuring you do not fall for this boy. Additionally, he will formulate a plan to bring you back into his arms without destroying the multiverse as a whole. With that being said, this does not change how reality on Earth-1610 continues to play out in front of him. It’s like a television show; a show he'd give a 1-star rating out of sheer pettiness.

In his last year of high school, Miles Morales' life was thrown into a tornado when his parents enrolled him in a new school to finish his last semester. And the 18-year-old boy absolutely dreaded this. New people, new location, new clothes that poke and jut at his skin uncomfortably. With the hefty responsibility of being Brooklyn's sole hero and hiding this truth from his loved ones, this sudden alteration in his environment does not relieve any stress. Swiftly, Miles conjures a plan to convince his parents to send him back to the way his life once was. Slack off, play dumb, and bring home report cards that are absolutely atrocious and his parents will have no choice but to give their son what he wants.

However, this is not what happened. Much to Miles' dismay, the grand idea his parents had was to not let him continue his education comfortably. Instead, they hired a tutor to aid him through his final months of high school.

Rio and Jeff had invited this tutor for dinner at their home, which Miles had flaked on entirely. Mostly due to his duty as Spiderman, but partially from how sour he was about the state of affairs. When he returned home, their anger was practically palpable. However, this disappointment soon shifted into a long, insufferable tangent about how marvelously smart, mannerly, and kind this tutor was and how embarrassed they were because of him. That Saturday, he was expected to join this tutor in the school's library or his parents may consider grounding him once again. Miles has to refrain from rolling his eyes at their never-ending lecture.

March 11th, 2023. It will be all his fault. This day is the day Miles Morales will inevitably meet the only thing that will ever matter to him.

To earn some extra support through your time in college, you had decided to take up tutoring in your free time. The myriad of students you had met all possessed the same attitude — the kind of attitude you'd expect from teenagers whose parents forced them to do schoolwork in their free time. Miles fit this category well, at first. And how your situation developed, it was oddly refreshing to finally meet someone who isn't repudiating every second with you.

15 minutes late, open backpack spilling with paper, tie loose around his neck, the student most certainly made his presence known when he stumbled into the silent library. Attempting to fix his untied shoelaces, you rush over to help him and save him from any further embarrassment he was already enduring. You are able to catch the folder that had tumbled out of his bag before it hit the ground, to where he mumbles a quick "thanks" in response. His gaze is still locked to the strings of his shoes he was attempting to tie together as swiftly as possible. Nearly tripping, Miles makes it to the table you had once organized thoroughly, but was now cluttered with everything this boy had thrown onto the surface.

Oblivious to you, the boy whose parents described as having a "heart of gold," was doing everything in his power to appear as rude and ill-mannered as possible. Deliberately arriving late, making a fool of the two of you, messing up the neat array of lesson plans and pencils you arranged. Anything to convince his parents to send him away from the nightmare that is this school. This plan of his was seized from his mind like a rug pulled out beneath his feet when he finally turns his shoulder and shifts his attention to you. What Miles expected would be the slowest, drawn-out hour he's ever experienced would actually be the most exciting, life-beaming 60 minutes he’s ever experienced.

Your voice sounds like honey as you introduce yourself to him. And that heart-stuttering smile of yours works wonders on him. Miles had already known your name, but hearing it from your mouth made him think he was listening to a symphony of angels. Since the last few stages of high school are stressful for everyone, you decided to cut him some slack and offer a kind hand for him to shake. All thoughts of his old school and the comfort it brought are all eradicated as he stares into your soul with those wide, bambi-brown eyes. After months in this new environment, you must be a gift the universe sent to compensate for all the misery he has endured. And fervently, Miles accepts you as the best gift he has ever received.

"I'm Spiderman." His mouth moves before his brain can compute. Your brows furrow in response, scrutinizing the confession for some sort of punchline.

“I mean- shit, uh… I mean, I’m Miles... You-You know, like- kilometers, yards, feet. Except, it's Miles this time... Y-... Y'know?"

His relentless stammering to try and prove himself worthy of your time while also acknowledging he accidentally told you his deepest secret earns him a quick giggle. And the sound bouncing from your lips is nothing short of paradisiacal, especially when he is the cause. A sudden wave of silence then rests between you both. You, laughing nervously to lighten the awkward tension. Miles, entirely flabbergasted at how he could have ever wanted to miss out on something as profoundly magnificent as this. His mind runs rampant while his wide eyes remain locked on your averting ones. Do it, do it, do it. Just do it already, Miles!

He pulls his hands up, your eyebrows furrowing once more trying to consider his intentions. He then lands his touch upon your shoulder.

"Hey..." Miles' voice drops several octaves, a fiddly excuse of a smirk forms on his lips, and he squints his twitching eyes that still hold the same crazed wonder they've had since they first landed on you.

"Hi...?" Your response expresses nothing but sheer confusion, not your face burning from the attention like Miles had initially strived for.

Wrapping your hand around his, your mere physical touch sends flares of electricity down his skin. Goosebumps bloom across his arms and his entire body halts in place, tense with shock and nerves. In an attempt to forcefully remove his hold on you, you're startled to find how he is now stuck to your hand. As if he had lathered his hand in heaps of glue before touching you, the efforts you took to get this boy off of you only resulted in your skin painfully stretching.

So enveloped in the way his heart lurches from holding your hand, a sudden, hushed whimper of "you're hurting me!" and Miles feels a gasp involuntarily escape his throat. Attempting to pull away from you, as much as he wishes not to, only intensifies your pain. What had Peter told him to do when this happened? Oh yeah, just relax! But, how on Earth can he possibly relax when your hand is in his!? 

People are staring, exclaiming in annoyed distress over their interrupted study time. You're trying to piece together how Miles had managed to cement his hand to yours and why he refuses to let go of you. Meanwhile, Miles is apologizing profusely for inadvertently harming you, while also soaking in how rhapsodic it is to have your hand in his. He knows he has fully fallen into oblivion when the prospect of letting go of you hurts him more than the relentless pull and twist of his flesh.

So much for first impressions, right?

⁺ 🎧 , 🪷 you are currently listening to . . . ⁺ 🪺 , 🎵 ꪆ

❝ MANY LIVES THAT COULD HAVE

BEEN ENTANGLED FOR ETERNITY . . . ❞

gif credits :: miguel, miles, peter, & hobie.

tag list :: @honey-beeuwu, @hex-touchstarved, @thel0v3hashira143, @cailey1011, @mickxxstxvxns-blog, @flaming-vulpix, @puthypirate42069, @dolliemoons, @mikalovesnoodles, @explosiongamora, @thegalacticnacho091, @brinleighsstuff, @shinsou-hoetoshi, @uselessbutinteresting, @amortentor, @fried-milkfish, @officiallypoopoo, @lu-lupe, @belladonnashifter, @forgottenbynature, @marooseshawnash, @gothika-spacech1k, @funtimefoxybae, @ethnicbratz, @painpainflyaway, @shadepelt4673, @vivacioussaint, @palepettycharmer, @rqdior, @clownwiki, @clever-username96, @bisoudoll, @darlingdontwe, @naiomiwinchester, @weskennedysgirl, @chubbuart, @simpfo, @neytirisarrow, @leilani04, @lizzymizzy-blogg, @sublimesoulmagazine, @minimari415, @hcmay, @jinuaei, @altusha, @daisygirlll, @boredwithlifeatthispoint, @islandgyal06, @the-hufflebird-girl, @laucoeurs, @nepherawinchester18307, @tiredao3reader, @decadentlawyerapricotcowboy, @kitisb0red, @gabiacee, @reneuv, @letmegetthestrap, @krentkova19, @ayupfrogg, @vita-nire, @emmbny, & @realifezompire

[floresdepunk]

ok i was gonna post the google slide i made for my spidersona LMAO but nahhh

(long story short tho, it’s literally just a desert wasteland due to global warming 💀)

BUT BASICALLY- some unnamed laboratory (alchemax maybe?) ran a prototype experiment that was supposed to draw more raw energy from the sun to increase the potential of solar powered electronics, and it failed obviously so the earth’s ozone layer ends up going to shit which causes the suns rays to increase, earth gets overrun by sand and basically becomes a massive desert, with violent sand storms and all that jazz.

((((also while coming up with this i discovered that netflix korean show called black knight, and the planet is basically how i imagined it LMAO.))))

it’s called the apocalypse earth (aka Earth 30-74), normally. many of the avengers are off world and peter parker is dead (idk how, but yeah he died). so my sona, Hahni just grows up in the desert city, no parents or anything. one random day she meets 8 year old miles morales who also has no parents and then they just hang. like older sister/younger brother dynamics- but uh ohhh she needs a canon event- so four years into their little found family, a group of bandits (who in this world are just poor people who steal attack and sometimes kill the poor- which is everybody there r no rich people) they kill miles in front of Hahni. miles’ death is basically her uncle ben death.

on her earth, she’s not really a hero bc there aren’t really people who need to be saved. she only becomes the hero “spider-dune” after the spider-band jump to her earth on accident, and bump into her. and they’re like “shit u got bit too? u wanna ditch this place” and she’s like “ion got nothing better to do so yeah 🤷‍♀️” and then boom, hahni joins the spider gang and ends up living in the spider-society, with miguel (she doesn’t *know* about his canon theory yet)

I CAN GO ON FOREVER ABOUT HER.

i’m gonna dump this information into a google doc now.

teehee thank you for reading 🙏

[traincat]

who are kaine and ben? i saw ben get referenced in a post about ripeter from spider verse and i know they're clones?? but idk anything about them.

Ben Reilly and Kaine Parker are both clones of Peter Parker. It’s a very long story, but to cut to the heart of it: when Peter and Gwen were in college, they had a professor named Miles Warren, also known as the Jackal. Warren became obsessed with Gwen, and after her death also discovered Spider-Man was Peter Parker. Using samples collected in their science class, he cloned multiple copies of both Gwen and Peter – two of those clones being Kaine and Ben. (Later it’s revealed Norman Osborn was directly involved in Warren’s cloning of Peter, but originally the story is presented as Warren cloning Peter as revenge for his part in Gwen’s death.) They’re the big two clones you need to know about when tackling Spider-Man comics: the perfect clone and the original clone.

(Web of Spider-Man #118)

Ben Reilly (who uses a combination of Uncle Ben’s first name and Aunt May’s maiden name) is a “perfect” copy of Peter Parker, possessing all of Peter’s powers and memories up until his cloning (the college years) both. Realizing he was the clone, Ben left New York and for five years lived a nomadic life. Spider-Man: The Lost Years is a miniseries that covers this and I highly recommend it.

Ben returns to New York when May falls ill and apparently dies (it’s a long story but considering this was the 90s and May is currently alive in Spider-Man, you can guess that she did not in fact actually die). At first operating as the Scarlet Spider, Ben later took up the Spider-Man mantle when test results were faked so it appeared that he was, in fact, the original Peter Parker and Peter the clone. Peter and Mary Jane, who was at the time pregnant, moved to Portland and Ben bleached his hair blond and began working as a barista at a local coffee shop while operating as Spider-Man. 

Ben later died in front of Peter, murdered by Norman Osborn the same night Norman had Mary Jane poisoned to kill her unborn baby. Upon his death, it was revealed that Ben had been the clone all along. He later returned as the new Jackal during the recent Clone Conspiracy storyline, and had a recent comics run in Ben Reilly: Scarlet Spider. 

Personality-wise, before his return as the Jackal/his most recent run, Ben is a lot like Peter. Despite a rocky start, Peter and Ben got along really well and referred to each other as brothers. Before Ben’s death they were discussing the possibility of them both acting as Spider-Man in conjunction.

(Spectacular Spider-Man #240)

When it comes to Ben, there are two costumes you should know: the Scarlet Spider costume and Ben’s variation of the Spider-Man costume. The Scarlet Spider costume is a red bodysuit with a blue sleeveless hoodie featuring the spider symbol layered over it:

(ASM #400)

Ben’s Spider-Man costume is very similar to Peter’s, but the spider is larger, extending across his chest and over his shoulders, and his gloves and boots are a different design:

(Spectacular Spider-Man #234) Ben very notably wears his webshooters on the outside of his costume in both his Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man identities, which is an easy way to quickly identify whether you’re looking at Peter Parker or Ben Reilly if you’re unsure.

RIPeter’s blond hair in Into the Spider-Verse was most likely a reference to Ben Reilly – it’s a pretty funny meta joke to introduce a Spider-Man whose big line is “there’s only one Spider-Man” when he’s visually based on Peter’s clone.

(Spider-Man Redemption #4)

Kaine Parker – known at first simply as “Kaine” – is the first living clone of Peter Parker Miles Warren created. Seemingly a success at first, Kaine suffered from clone degeneration, a condition that scarred him physically and mentally. When Warren became aware of this, he attempted to kill Kaine, causing Kaine to flee and hide.

(Peter Parker #61)

Kaine became obsessed with Peter, thinking that he was the successful clone when in reality that was Ben Reilly. Attempting to protect the life Kaine felt Peter as the clone should have, he hounded Ben Reilly relentlessly, attempting to keep him from New York and away from Peter and trying to destroy Ben’s own happiness. It gets kind of homoerotic, I’m not gonna lie.

(Peter Parker #61)

(Spider-Man Redemption #1 – highly recommended Kaine reading.)

“Our minds and hearts couldn’t help but vibrate around each other: I’d breathe in, he’d exhale. I’d grow feverish… he’d burn.” This is a lot even before Ben’s love interest, Janine, uses the exact same phrasing to describe her own relationship with Ben. (Based on the heavy parallels between Janine, who killed her father after years of sexual abuse, and Kaine, as well as Kaine’s later focus on and empathy toward young victims of sex trafficking and the Jackal’s own treatment of Kaine, I think there’s a very strong implication in the text that the Jackal sexually abused at least Kaine, if not both Kaine and Ben, but that’s a different post.)

During Ben’s five year exile, Kaine killed a woman named Louise Kennedy, who had briefly been his lover, in a complicated series of events spiraling out from his finding out she was a corrupt cop. Because the clones have the same fingerprints as Peter and because Peter had previously been arrested and fingerprinted, Peter was later arrested for the murder, though he was later exonerated. Kaine also killed Doctor Octopus, although Otto, of course, got better. 

Fast forward to more modern comics. Kaine sacrificed himself in Peter’s stead during the Grim Hunt storyline, when Kraven the Hunter’s family attempted to use Spider-Man to resurrect Kraven. Kaine later emerged from the grave further mutated, sporting multiple eyes and more spider-like features. The Jackal abducted him and further mutated him into a giant monster called Tarantula. During the Spider-Island event, he was knocked into a vat of spider-cure created by Anti-Venom and reemerged cured of both Tarantula and the clone degeneration.

(ASM #671)

Headlining in his own solo title, Scarlet Spider v2, Kaine took off with Peter’s stealth suit and, while he planned to cross the border into Mexico, ended up waylaid in Houston when he discovered a mysterious young girl named Aracely who had been left to die. Recognizing himself in her, Kaine and Aracely ended up staying in Houston, where Kaine operated as the Scarlet Spider, focusing his efforts when left to his own devices largely on human trafficking.

(Scarlet Spider v2 #12)

Kaine and Aracely later appeared as members of the new New Warriors team, before he died during the Spider-Verse event. He also got better. 

Before being cured of the clone degeneration, Kaine sported very long curly hair and was marked by the scars of his clone degeneration. He’s also taller than either Peter or Ben, likely due to mistakes in the cloning process. He possesses a power called “the mark of Kaine” which leaves burning hand prints on his victims. Before he was cured, he suffered from precognition in the form of violent flashes of the future, but after being cured, unlike either Peter or Ben, Kaine lacks a spider-sense:

(Scarlet Spider v2 #1)

However, unlike either Peter or Ben, he can talk to and control spiders:

(New Warriors (2014) #3)

Kaine is short-tempered and foul-mouthed, but despite his every intention otherwise, like Peter, he is ultimately beholden to his responsibilities. Because of his past, he’s extremely self-loathing, and often measures himself up against both Peter and Ben in terms of what a hero is supposed to be like. However, he’s deeply loyal to his found family, particularly Aracely, who shares something of a psychic bond with him.

(Scarlet Spider v2 #21) Kaine is also possessed by an otherworldly spider entity known as the Other, which can manifest as a gigantic human spider. 

And that’s what you need to know about the two main 616 Peter Parker clones!

[parkerparts]

Nothing Scarier Than a Broken Heart

“You’re a gift to the world, Harley,” Peter sighed, burrowing closer to Harley. His cider mug, cupped in his hands, seared Harley’s skin, but he welcomed the warmth.

“I don’t really care about the world, I just care about you.”

“Bold words from a man who told me he wanted to fix the world. Seems like that man would care a lot about the world.”

“What if I told you that you are my world?”

Parkner Halloween Week 2019 Day Two: Spiders, Scary Stories, “I feel like I’m being watched.”

Read on AO3 here.

The click of a flashlight is accompanied by a bright, blinding light that causes Abbie to cringe and Morgan to shriek, half in discomfort, half in delight. Abbie grabs a corner of a blanket, folds it a couple of times, and places it over the bright light, effectively dimming it and giving it a scary, red glow from the color of the crimson blanket.

“There we go,” Abbie says, flashing a grin at the younger girl. It’s Abbie and Morgan’s fall break at school, and Pepper drove them all out to the lakeside cabin to spend the long weekend. Morgan and Abbie set up camp in Morgan’s tent in the backyard, the sound of the wind howling all around them. “Now, what were we going to do, Lady Morguna?”

“You were going to tell me a scary story,” the young girl replies, sitting cross-legged across from Abbie.

“That’s right.” Abbie places the flashlight on the ground face up, letting it cast its light and form long shadows against the walls of the tent. “Once upon a time there was a boy. He was a mechanic, which means he fixed things. He was really good at what he did, but he was very ambitious and never satisfied with just fixing things. He wanted to fix the world.”

Morgan props her chin up with her hand, staring at Abbie with dark, shining eyes. “What was his name?”

Abbie smiles sadly. “Harley. His name was Harley Keener.”

Of course, only the people who actually knew him called him Harley. Most people knew him as Junior. Once, that “Junior” stood for Harley Keener Junior, the son in the spitting image of a man who ran away from his family. Over time, it came to stand for The Mechanic Junior, the mentee of a legend who crash landed in Rose Hill on a snowy winter night.

Junior fixed things. He fixed cars, washing machines, lawn mowers, ovens, bicycles, tricycles, motorcycles, and once, even a unicycle that belonged to Dave Davis, who stubbornly refused to learn how to ride a bicycle or drive a car.

Every summer, a jet landed in a clearing in the woods behind the gas station. Little boys and girls like to run out and watch as Junior, sometimes accompanied by his sister, boarded the jet and took off.

The jet would eventually land in New York, on the grounds of a sprawling, high-tech compound that housed the world’s most famous, yet most controversial, heroes. Junior had never officially met any of them, save The Mechanic Senior. As soon as he arrived, Junior holed himself away in the expanse of laboratory space and got to work.

You see, Junior had a plan, a vision, a dream. He didn’t want to just fix things. He wanted to fix the world.

One summer, when Junior was seventeen and done with the formalities of high school, he locked himself in the labs and made a silent vow to himself to never leave. However, the universe had other plans for him, and these other plans came in the form of Peter Parker.

“I feel like I’m being watched,” Junior muttered aloud, fingertips buried deep in the recesses of metal and wire and electricity and something more like magic.

“You are.” Junior violently ripped his hands free at the unwarranted voice, eyes darting around. The sound of his pocketknife sliding out of its sheath and clicking open reverberated around the sterile room. “Don’t be scared. It’s just me.”

“Show yourself.” Junior swallowed a scream when a body dropped from the ceiling, landing gracefully at his feet in a catlike manner.

“You must be the other kid Mr. Stark talks about all the time. Junior, right? Or was it Tudor? Luther? I wasn’t really paying attention to him. I sort of had a stab wound in my stomach when I called him on the way here. But that was like four hours ago! I’m okay now. I’m Peter Parker, by the way. MJ says I talk a lot, so I’m sorry if I’m bothering you or something like that. I should really stop talking.”

Junior stared at the outstretched hand, let his eyes travel to the boy’s pale, glowing face as he talked a mile a minute, traced the swoosh of his freshly-washed hair, still damp. Before he even registered what he was doing, he placed his hand in the other boy’s. “It’s Harley, actually. Nice to meet you, Peter Parker.”

The gesture seemed to effectively shut the other boy up for more than just a breath. He stared at their joined hands, which should have been moving up and down but instead just held on tightly, but then his eyes wandered up to meet Harley’s gaze, and the world stopped moving for all of half a second. “Oh. Yeah, it’s nice to meet you, Harley.”

Morgan raises her hand like she’s in school. Abbie calls on her with the uptight air of an elementary school teacher. “Yes, Morgan?”

“That’s Harley and Petey, right? Mommy told me they were Daddy’s other kids, that they were my brothers, but I wouldn’t remember them.”

Abbie has to close her eyes and take a deep, shuddering breath before answering. “Yeah. That’s Harley and Peter, your brothers.”

Morgan’s dark eyes pierce through Abbie’s delicate demeanor, like she can see all of the pain buried underneath, and that’s why she just nods. “Tell me more.”

Abbie always finishes what she starts, so she hides her shaking hands beneath her legs and pushes on.

Peter Parker had a vision, and it looked a lot like Harley’s: Harley wanted to fix the world; Peter wanted to save it. They helped each other do just that.

Peter, with his signature sheer genius and emotional intelligence, helped Harley channel his energy into what matters. Within half a decade, they made remarkable progress, accomplishing what only the bright-eyed generation of young geniuses can accomplish. In return, Harley crafted an armor of iron and flies around New York, the country, the world with Peter, doing all they could to save make sure people lived.

In the process of fixing and saving the world, Peter Parker and Harley Keener fell in love.

It started with the little things, as the big things always do. Catching the other staring while working in the labs, not-so subtle touches while working together, saving each other day after day.

It was a cold day in October, back in New York for Peter’s last semester of high school. The door to the lab hissed open, and in slipped Peter with two cups of apple cider and a weary smile. “Rough day?”

Peter shrugged, but the way he collapsed into the nearest chair, said a lot. “You could say that. Could you take over patrol tonight? I know it’s my turn, but I have this huge essay for English due tomorrow, and I’ve barely started. And by barely started, I mean I made the document, but it’s blank and haunting me.”

Harley laughed as he stood and made his way to where Peter was curled up. He settled in the spaces Peter’s body didn’t and tried to get comfortable as he draped the blanket over them. “Of course I will. I’d do anything for you, you know that?”

“You’re a gift to the world, Harley,” Peter sighed, burrowing closer to Harley. His cider mug, cupped in his hands, seared Harley’s skin, but he welcomed the warmth.

“I don’t really care about the world, I just care about you.”

“Bold words from a man who told me he wanted to fix the world. Seems like that man would care a lot about the world.”

“What if I told you that you are my world?”

Peter burst out laughing, cider sloshing dangerously in the mug. “That’s awful, Harley. Truly awful.”

“You love me anyway.” Harley hid his smile in his own mug as Peter flushed.

“Yeah. I love you anyway.”

“This doesn’t sound like a scary story to me,” Morgan pointed out.

Abbie just ruffled her hair and pulled the girl closer. “The best scary stories don’t start out scary. They’re happy at first, and then they become horrible. That’s what makes them so terrifying.”

Morgan sighed, but she still had a light smile plastered on her face, so Abbie knew she wasn’t actually bored. “Can we just get to the scary part now?”

The scariest thing about love was that it never lasted.

When Peter didn’t show up in the labs one afternoon after school, Harley got worried and emerged from the labs for the first time in weeks for something other than patrol, but Peter was nowhere to be found. “FRIDAY, where’s Peter?”

“Mr. Parker is not on the premises. Would you like to call him?”

“Yes.” FRIDAY redirected the call to his phone, which he clutched tightly to his ear, ignoring the stuttering of his heart.

“Junior? This is May.”

May’s warm voice did nothing to calm him. “Hi, May. Where’s Peter?”

“He’s sleeping. He wasn’t feeling well today and stayed home from school.” Peter was Spider-Man. No simple illness was supposed to be able to bring him down, which meant whatever was afflicting him was serious business.

“Oh. Sorry to hear that. Will you tell him I called?”

“Of course. Take care, Junior.”

“You too, May.” Harley ended the call with trembling fingers and retreated back to his section of the labs with a sinking heart.

Hour later, or maybe days, FRIDAY says, “Mr. Parker has entered the labs and is heading your way.”

Harley pulled himself away from his task and stared at the door. After a few moments, it opened, revealing a tired-looking Peter in his favorite pajama pants and one of Harley’s shirts. “Harley?”

“Hey, sweetie. What are you doing here?”

Peter burst into tears. “I’m dying.”

“This isn’t scary. It’s sad.”

“Patience, oh tiny demon.” Morgan giggles. “The fright is yet to come.”

The story is so cliche. It’s the perfect tragedy of love and death and shattered hope, and it makes Abbie want to vomit as she tells it, but Morgan’s looking up at her, enthralled, so she pushes on.

Peter was dying of radiation poisoning. The spider bite left radiation in his DNA, in his blood. The symptoms of it had been subtle at first, barely noticeable, but it had been nearly three years since he was bitten, and the rate at which he was dying sped up enough to cause alarm. The diagnosis from Bruce -- who worked in the same labs that Harley did, so he had no idea how he missed that -- came in that morning.

“Four months?” Harley asked, holding a shaking, sobbing Peter in his own weakening arms. “That’s plenty of time to find a cure.”

Everyone knew those were empty words, but an empty promise was better than letting an empty heartbreak consume them both.

Harley did work on a cure, alongside Peter himself, Bruce, Tony, and any other doctor or scientist Tony brought in. It was the first collaborative project Harley had ever done, aside from whatever he did with Peter, whose soul was so intertwined with Harley’s that it had never really felt like a group project at all, but rather shared ideas and genius. The only difference between Harley and everyone else working on the cure was that he had hope.

“Harley?” He hardly looked up when Peter woke up from the couch he had collapsed on while waiting for Harley to finish his work. He had claimed it would only be ten minutes, but that was ten hours ago, and the early risers of the team were starting to trickle in.

“Yes, honey?” Harley felt Peter’s presence creep closer, felt the fatigue rolling off the other boy in waves. “You should go upstairs, get some sleep.”

Peter’s arms wrapped around his waist, his cold fingers nipping at Harley’s skin, even through his lab coat. “You should too. You look exhausted.”

Harley sighed, marking his place in his readthrough of the data from the latest tests, and whirled around to face Peter. “Have you seen yourself?”

“I look like I’m dying because I am. You look like you’re dying because you are. If you keep up like this, you are going to kill yourself.”

“Peter, I have to keep working.”

“Working on what? Harley, in nine weeks, give or take, I will be dead. I want to spend what time I have alive with my boyfriend, who insists on spending every hour of every day in these freaking labs. It used to be fun down here, when we would create and make to our heart’s content, but now it’s all tests and pitying looks and empty promises.”

“They’re not empty.”

Peter screams out of frustration then, startling Harley out of his sleep-deprived daze and drawing the glares of the few people in the room. “Nine weeks, maybe less, to find a cure for radiation poisoning? You’re mad.”

“Peter, I have to at least try. I couldn’t live with myself knowing that I didn’t do everything I could to fix this.”

“You haven’t left this lab in weeks. You haven’t eaten in days. You haven’t slept in days either. You haven’t patrolled once since I got the diagnosis. You haven’t done anything at all. Once upon a time, I met a boy who wanted to fix the world. What happened to him?”

“He fell in love.” Harley reached out to cup Peter’s face, shining with rage and disappointment and concern and heartbreak. “You are my world, Peter. I have to fix you.”

The fight left Peter in a single breath, and his shoulders fell. “Okay. Fine. Just promise me something.”

“What is it?”

“You’re my world too, Harley, and all I’ve ever wanted to do was save the world. Let me save you from yourself.”

“Okay.”

It wasn’t easy. They still got into fights about it, but Harley left the lab more, went on patrols with Peter, spent some time with his boyfriend, who grew weaker with every passing day. In return, Peter submitted to the tests and the spark of hope in Harley’s eyes that refused to die.

Then Peter died, and with him, all of Harley’s hope.

Harley Keener fixed things, but he wasn’t even able to fix the one thing that mattered most to him. How was he supposed to be able to fix the world?

That doesn’t mean he stopped trying. He tried his best to carry on with his dream, with Peter’s dream. He ran away from New York, and although he knew Peter cared a lot about New York, about his home, Harley was never able to step foot in the area again. He roamed the world, doing what he could, but he never felt like it was enough. Peter always made him feel like he was enough. God, he missed Peter so much that it hurt to breathe most days, but he carried on and tried his best to live.

They say he’s still out there, that sometimes, when you’re in need, you’ll find yourself visited by a knight in shining iron armor.

“The End,” Abbie sighs, switching off the flashlight. The harsh shadows and red glare in the tent disappear, leaving only the faint, warm glow of the single electric lantern in between their two sleeping bags.

“That’s so sad,” Morgan says, squeezing Abbie’s hand in both of her own. “So what’s what happened to Petey and Harley?”

“Yeah. Your mom or dad ever tell you anything about them?”

“Daddy doesn’t really like talking about them. I think it makes him sad. Mommy mentions them sometimes, but I never knew what happened to them.”

“Well, that’s their story.”

“It’s a sad story. It was a very nice story, but you said you would tell me a scary story.”

Abbie laughs gently, as she helps Morgan zip up her sleeping bag. “I’m sorry, baby. I forgot. Maybe next time?”

“It’s okay. I like it when you tell me stories, even if they’re not very scary but very very sad.”

Abbie smiles fondly. Morgan is still young, but one day, she’d understand. Abbie hopes that day was very far away because she doesn’t want to imagine her little sister’s heart broken, shattered. There’s nothing scarier than a broken heart, than the pain of loving someone. the scariest thing in the world is to watch the people you love get hurt or slip away or die, knowing you can do nothing about it. “Goodnight, Morgan.”

“Night, Abbie.”

Abbie reaches over and switches off the electric lamp. In the silence and the darkness, she takes a moment to collect herself, allows a few of the tears she had held in to escape. It’s been years since Peter died and Harley disappeared, but she feels their absence deeply every day.

“Abbie?” She sniffles quietly and wipes her face before replying.

“Yes, Morgan?”

“I feel like I’m being watched.” Abbie sits up and listened hard, to the world outside their little tent, their safe haven. There, amongst the chirping crickets and the rippling water, was a familiar sound.

“Don’t worry. It’s just the Iron Knight. Want to tell him goodnight?”

Morgan quietly giggles. “Goodnight, Harley.”

The pain in Abbie’s chest intensifies, and for a moment, she can’t breathe, blinded by the tears that threaten to fall whenever she misses Harley the most. “Goodnight, Harley,” she repeats.

Within moments, Morgan’s asleep again. Abbie too lies back down, but she keeps listening intently to the quiet whine of a repulsor hovering just outside the entrance to their tent. When she’s on the brink of sleep, she hears a quiet blast of acceleration and listens as the sound of the repulsor fades away.

[mischiefapprentice]

1: Don’t Mess With Life and Death (Mischief’s Bride)

August 2003

Loki

"Please! Someone help me!"

That is all I can hear as I stroll along Hyde Park. The cold breeze of winter calms me down as it hits my pale skin, and I am more than thankful that it does not conjure my Jotünn form, as it can destroy a place whenever my rage comes. Even though my time in the original timeline is over, my strengths and powers never left me. They will be always a part of me until my last breath.

It has been more than 900 years since I have been 'ressurected' from death. The thought of seeing my companions die pained me as centuries passed, and I am tired living for eternity. If it weren't for that force that pulled my soul back to my dead body, I am with my mother Frigga already. I am sure that she may be dead by now. How I missed her so much.

"Please, anyone help me!"

Her loud wails can be heard from half a mile away from the park. I cannot help but go to her and see what happened to her. Is she the bride I am looking for? I hope so. She must be the one.

When I arrived to where the woman was, I see crimson blood staining the pure whiteness of snow. Did a murder scene happen? I must be too late already. I decide to follow the bloodstream to locate her, and found a beautiful woman surrounded with blood. She was terribly injured. It's like someone hit her violently that she bleed lots of blood. Who on earth could do this to this mortal?

"P-please help me... I'm carrying an unborn baby with me, and I cannot bear the thought of losing her." The woman mutters.

I sigh. She's carrying a child, and someone had the guts to physically abuse her. I sense her time of death getting closer and closer. It crawls like how a robber walks towards the house it chose to plunder. One's death may not be predicted by man, but us goblins could sense it.

It's against nature to meddle with life and death of a mortal. It is a change of cycle that you cannot just alter, for it requires a great price to pay. You cannot change what may happen to you, for it can also affect others. One is a part of a butterfly change; action affects action; one slight change affects your whole life.

"S-sir, p-please help m-me... I'm dying." She tells me. I could feel her baby's heartbeat, as if it tells me that I must save them both. I also could feel that her baby is my bride to be. I should help them both after all, shouldn't I?

I'm in this dilemma of choosing whether to heal her or let death kill them both. I cannot mess up with life and death. However, rules are also meant to be broken, right? I can defy whatever rule it is, if it means for them to live. I will go against nature.

"Miss, I may not be the divinity you seek, but I offer you extended time to live and see your daughter grow." I weakly smile at the woman. Shimmers of blue and green light appear on my hand as I performed a spell that will elongate both of their lives. As it comes to an end, I could really sense that she bears my bride. I could tell that she is as beautiful, kind and wise as this woman. How I wish I can make time go fast that I can meet her already.

I see her smile weakly as I cast the spell on her. I could hear her ask how I knew it is a girl. I really could feel that it is a she, not a he. At a blink of an eye, I disappeared to another place.

I know she'll live a long life, and she'll bring joy to my bride's world. In her care, I am confident that she will grow into a fine-looking and well-mannered lady, just like how I wished women are. Someday, I'll find her again.

       Stephen

Christine Wayland Time of death: 20:34 Cause: Car Accident Abigail Wayland Time of Death: 20:34 Cause: Miscarriage

When I arrived, I cannot find the soul of this woman. All I see is blood from the scene, and her footsteps. Someone messed with life and death. No one can meddle with the life cycle. I sighed, noting that I have a missing soul to find. Who could have the courage to alter nature's way? The baby should also be dead by now. I don't ill-wish the mother, but it has to be that way.

I leave the area, fearing that someone might see me and accuse me of murder. Oh, I remember: I cannot be seen by men. I am just a mere spirit, fetching souls and leading them either to afterlife or to despair. This is the work of a grim reaper; it can be tiring, knowing that many souls are around. Some just wander off the streets of London and try to seek others' attention.

"So, did you get your last soul for tonight?" Ishmael asks me as we log out for tonight. He has reached over half of his quota. I have exceeded twice of his, though. He is new to this job.

"No, and the last one is quite strange. I have her name on my list buti didn't see her soul nor her body." I tell him. He scrunches his brows in confusion. I hear him think who could've done it. "Have you heard of the Goblin?" He asks me. "I think he is the one responsible for that."

I ponder on that speculation he gave me. He is one of the missing soul our boss wants us to take care of. The goblin has been missing for almost 900 years and no one has managed to capture him and bring him to the afterlife. His name sounds familiar to me, but I don't know where have I heard of it. Our superiors have told us about it and reminded us to keep watch and report to them regarding the said missing soul.

As I came home, I now prepared to move out of the house I am renting for five years. I found a better place to stay in. I have a few things to pack, since I ain't fond of having unnecessary things to have, so that it won't be difficult for me to move out. My colleagues would complain of how heavy their things are whenever they move out of their spaces .

When I peek out of my window, I recognized the man who they call the Goblin... But wait. Is that...

Loki?

Didn't he die from Thanos's hands? How come he is... Darn. This is another alternate reality, and he of course would be alive. And he turned into a goblin? What happened?

I was about to call him, but I see fear in his eyes when he saw me. He didn't manage to wave at me nor smile. I didn't mean harm to him. Wait. I am a grim reaper, and we are on the watch for him. He sensed me!

Sighing, I tried to reach out to Thor, but still failed. I cannot conjure a portal to where he is. How I wanted to tell him that his brother is alive on another timeline. How I really wish.

       Loki

I feel like I did a grave mistake with meddling with the life and death of that woman. She must be dead by now. I saved her, and my future bride. I don't want to wait for another 900 years to meet my bride.

Living eternally has its own ups and downs. Yes, you get to live for a very long time, but you have to suffer the pain of losing your loved ones. Seeing them pass on to the afterlife relieves me, but I wish that I am with them there, living peacefully and without suffering.

Seeing Stephen made me relieved and uneasy at the same time. He is known as Doctor Strange in the timeline I came from, but he is known as a grim reaper in this one. I wished to say hello to them, but I cannot. I know that they have heard of me as one of the missing souls and I am on their watch.

I now ask myself: what if I just remained on that timeline? Would all of this happen? Would I stumble on a curse that makes me suffer from emotional pain that I wished myself death? Would I watch every single person I love die and wither with time?

When I arrive home, my loyal friend Lord William Hathford and his grandson Arnie James welcome me into their home. Their home will be my home from now on, until I decide to move to some other place where I can meet my bride. "It's good to see you again, sir." Lord William greets me. "You too, Mister." I greet them. "Still fine-looking as of the old days, aren't we?" He chuckled. "Oh, here is my grandson, Arnie Jason."

I smile at the boy. He reminds me of Peter Parker. I haven't met him yet, but I know that he exists in the timeline I have been in. "Hi, Jason. Nice to meet you!"

The boy hides a little bit behind Lord William. His brown hair makes me want to ruffle and mess it.

"James, don't be shy. He will be with us from now on." The old man says.

"No, it's fine. Maybe another time will do." I weakly smile at them. I really can't get my mind off that woman I saved from her death. William notices my bereft. "Sir, I know when you are deep in thought. Did something happen on your way home?" I sigh. "There's this woman I healed on my way home. She's in the verge of dying, and she is pregnant with a daughter."

William seats beside me as I narrated the whole event. His brows furrowed as I told him that I felt that she bears my bride. He told me of a prophesy where it tells that a Goblin, which I am, will save a woman who is about to die. The woman bears the Goblin's bride, the girl who shall draw the sword out of him. "How sure are you that it's the bride's mother?" He asks me. I shrug my shoulders. "I don't base on whether she bears my bride or not. What matters most is that I saved her from sudden death. That man shall pay for his insolence towards her."

William smiles, knowing that I have indeed changed for the better. He was with me when I was so down and no one believes me. He also knew of my true identity as an Asgardian who just got in another timeline. He is my most loyal friend. How do I repay him for his loyalty and support?

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #4 Thoughts

 The very, very, very end of Spider-Geddon and...a surprisingly great issue!

Covering this comic is very strange for me because I’m coming at it from two places mentally speaking.

Firstly I’m jumping into the fourth and final tie in issue to an event comic having not read the prior three issues.

Secondly I’m jumping into Spider-Gwen, a series I abandoned long ago, back in volume 2 issue #10 to be precise, which was published over 2 years before this issue was. It also had an entirely different writer/artist team back then.

Frankly I picked this up purely because I knew Mayday and some RYV characters were going to be in it. In that regard the issue was rather pointless, they cameo and do little else.

However I’m actually glad I bothered with the comic all the same. I was expecting this to be fluff and filler at best. An insufferable worshipping of Gwen Stacy, as so many comics (including Spider-Gwen itself) was when Spider-Gwen got big back in 2014-2016.

To my delight that wasn’t the case.

I admit to being rather lost with some plot points such as Gwen having a symbiote (this was brought up in Spider-Geddon #2 but it was unexplained there too) and how exactly Gwen can transverse dimensions.

However the rest of the issue was mostly good. Now I read Secret Wars: Spider-Verse, Web Warriors and Spider-Geddon #0-5 but I didn’t read any other Spider-Gwen or Ghost Spider issues so to me Gwen’s sense of loss over Noir and Spidey-UK felt rather unearned and cheap. It wasn’t that I didn’t think she’s be upset over losing a comrade but the deep sense of loss and words towards little habits within their respective relationships didn’t ring true to me. However that may have come up in issues I didn’t read so I’m willing to be corrected on that.

But based upon my reading Gwen feeling as sad as she did was a bit of a stretch. I also felt the milking of Spidey-UK’s death from a reader point of view was questionable because...did anyone honestly love that character? Spider-Man Noir I can understand, he has a fanbase (and this issue hammered home how asinine a decision it was to kill him back at the start of this event) but Billy Braddock? Who cares really? He was used for some cheap pathos in Web Warriors and that was about it. Now that being said I did love the idea behind him being buried in Lady Spider’s dimension as she was English (although if memory serves that was never confirmed outright, she may have simply lived in 1800s New York). I did wonder where the Hell Lady Spider was throughout this event though.

The addressing of Noir’s death though was much more necessary and as stupid as it was to kill him I do give Marvel credit for having an issue which addresses that. His fans deserved at least that much, particularly I think the Noir/Felicia shippers who are undoubtedly out there. I also very much appreciated how May, MJ and Felicia had different reactions to his death respectively.

Another great thing was that the general addressing of grief, sadness and death in the issue felt respectful. It felt real even though as I said the specifics of Gwen’s relationship with Noir and Spidey-UK didn’t quite ring true. It’s like it would’ve been perfect dialogue and execution if used for another character’s death.  A small detail I especially  liked in this regard was Gwen’s drumming as a coping mechanism. One of my major complaints in Latour’s issues was how Gwen’s hobbies and passions were underused and underdeveloped. She was a drummer but that didn’t factor that much into the stories I read. So to see McGuire embrace that is as welcome as Miles’ artistic talents in ITSV.

Now I admit, those of you who recall my thoughts on Latour’s Spider-Gwen book might be calling me a hypocrite here. Because another of my frequent complaints was how doom and gloom and glum Gwen typically was in that series from the outset, yet here I’m praising that.

I think the distinction is this. Latour came out the gate defining Gwen as grieving and guilt ridden, reeling from a tragedy that happened an undisclosed amount of time ago (but still making with the yuks and gags). Not only was this tonal whiplash but it also was a shitty way to set up a new ongoing series. It began world building for Gwen in media-res of extenuating circumstances and circumstances which were incredibly derivative of Peter Parker.

Where McGuire succeeds in this issue is by having not only a distinctly different tragedy but also the benefit of this occurring both after Gwen’s world has been built up and in the aftermath of a huge event. It’s totally realistic and earned that there would be a mourning for fallen warriors after a war. It’d be disrespectful for that not to be the case; in fact it’s kind of disrespectful that that mourning happens in a tie-in issue not the main book!

By having this issue actually deal with the aftermath it re-contextualizes the prior issues of the event. Spider-Geddon as a whole was definitely a bloated poorly written inconsistent mess. But this issue as a coda treats it with the weight the main book never had. There is an emotional realism to the story even though we are dealing with something as wacky as inter-dimensional travel and totem vampires.

This emotional realism is pulled off so well you even feel a little something for Karn’s death, you even feel bad he died alone and so violently even though again, no one is a fan of that character. No one gives a shit about him.

Part of this realism comes from McGuire from this one issue apparently being an inherently better writer than Latour ever was, at least for Spider-Gwen. Latour in all this works I’ve read emphasises style, and wants you to ‘watch’ the story unfold rather than feel like you are right there with the characters. You can ‘see’ Spider-gwen is upset but McGuire takes you inside her head and writes her grief from the inside out. Latour might’ve used internal narration but he rarely pulled this off, probably because he was too busy making a clown show on the side with stupid ass Spider-Ham cameos, wacky humour about the Bodega Bandit or building up Evil Daredevil instead of you know, the ACTUAL main character.

His Spider-Gwen work felt a lot like watching things sort of just happened rather than experiencing things unfolding like in this issue.

What further enhances this story is the deliberate or accidental metatext behind the story. No I am not talking about how Stan Lee had recently died when the issue came out, though that did make me tear up thinking about it.

Gwen has been rebranded Ghost Spider (though her recap page doesn’t quite admit that weirdly) and this is an issue about Gwen dealing with ghosts, dealing with death, spreading the grim news as a reluctant messenger of death. That angle just works in this issue and if embraced would work brilliantly as a new element to the character to latch onto. In no small part because, as the issue itself acknowledges, Gwen Stacy’s legacy is inherently linked to death.

That might be admittedly a radical departure from the punk rock youth vibe the series began with, but not only was that rather squandered by Latour (with bullshit like Hipster Electro and Hipster Kraven the Hunter, go fuck yourself seriously!) but at the end of the day that vibe is perhaps rather...shallow...for an ongoing character...??????

Other elements of the issue I liked was the artwork. It’s not much like what Rodriguez was going, which was I admit very distinct and gave Spider-Gwen’s series a unique identity. But this art is still lovely and works very well for the subject matter. What is particularly nice was the different period outfits Gwen adopted as she made her travels through the multiverse. Also, though this isn’t strictly ‘art’ per se, the word balloons at Karn’s funeral have a cool moment where everyone speaks a salute to Karn and the combined word balloons look like a spider. That was just a cool touch.

My final note is that McGuire has one of the best Peter Parker moments I’ve seen in a long time, and considering the quality of Spencer’s run that is not damning with faint praise (as it would’ve been just over a year ago). In the scene Spider-Gwen and 616 Peter discuss Gwen needing some time off and Gwen asks if that is selfish. On the one hand this is a little bit derivative of Peter Parker, King of Guilt and Responsibility. On the other hand I guess most heroes would ask this of themselves. Peter Parker surprisingly gives a very mature answer.

Now this answer is very much in character and logical for Peter, but it’s also something too often writers neglect in favour of writing Peter in a repetitive manner that renders him a caricature. Peter acknowledges it is selfish but that that is not wrong, He says the world will always need saving but the heroes get to pick their battles and have to sometimes rest, that indeed they deserve it.

Though a mere moment in a story not about him McGuire writes a Peter Parker who truly feels like a mature adult, that feels like the Peter who is truly the sum of his experiences.

Were this teenage or college aged Peter he wouldn’t have been likely to say that. If it was friggin Slott’s Peter Parker definitely not (even though he’d have still gone to play with Miles in the park rather than do his actual job). But a Peter Parker who’s insanely experienced and knows his limits? Yes absolutely he’d know he’s entitled to down time and more importantly needs it. It’s demonstrative of how guilt is present in his character and yet is not the defining trait. Responsibility is, and there is a responsibility to himself. Spidey-UK even echoes such a sentiment earlier in the story.

So with all that said I must admit this issue was a tremendous triumph from where I’m standing, I’d recommend you read it and would go so far as to call it the best issue of Spider-Gwen I’ve ever read sans her debut.

Does it change my feelings for Spider-Geddon as a whole?

No, it still sucked and was still pointless beyond resurrecting MC2 Peter (which in my book makes it worth it, sorry Spidey Noir fans, I’m sure he’ll be back eventually) but this last issue took it out on an unquestionable high note.

[schrijverr]

Not the same everywhere

!Endgame spoilers!

After endgame, Peter gets brought into the spider-verse of Peter B. where he meets the other Spider-people. Their plan to get to know this new Spider-man get thrown out of the window when Peter realizes that one person isn’t dead here.

I wrote this to cope, don’t @ me.

Ships: none

Warnings: canon-death mentions, sadness, angst

~~~~~~~~~

Peter was on patrol and it was a normal day, as normal as a day could be after Thanos, when he suddenly got sucked into some weird portal. He got spit out in a room with six people looking down on him, all in various spider themed outfits. He scrambled backwards and demanded: “Tell me your names.”

An older guy, who looked weirdly similar said: “Calm down, I’m Peter B. Parker or Spider-man, as are you I assume.”

“How, how do you know that?” Peter asked, very confused.

“You’re in an alternate dimension, we are all from different universes and there we are all the only Spider-person. Most have the same background stories, or similar ones. You must have gotten sucked into my universe when we traveled here.”

“Alternate universes, neat.” Peter said while taking this all in.

“You seem a bit too chill for all this.” a black boy said, he was around Peters age and he wore a jacket over a black Spider-costume.

Peter shrugged: “I’ve seen weirder. Alternate universes are easier to believe after time travel and coming back from the dead.”

He stood up and brushed himself off. Then a pig in a Spider-costume with a voice that sounded scarily like John Mulaney said: “You died!”

“Now, I have to admit that’s kind of weird.” Peter said.

A girl with a shaved side said: “You’ll get used to it. Are you going to take your mask off?”

He eyed them all a bit, but then decided it was safe, his Spider-senses told him that. He pulled of his mask and the girl gasped, as did the old man.

“Another Peter.” the other Peter said.

“Uhm, I guess so…” Peter replied.

“He needs a nickname!” an anime-like girl exclaimed.

“Why exactly?” Peter asked.

“We have two Peters here, it gets confusing. That’s Noir and we call him Peter B.” the boy said, “I’m Miles, by the way. That’s Peni and that’s Gwen.”

The anime girl did a peace sign by the name Peni and the shaved-side-girl saluted him by the name Gwen. Peter nodded and said: “Uhm, some call me,” tears appeared in his eyes and he chocked a bit before breathing deeply and continuing: “Someone called me Baby Stark.”

He thought back to his smiling mentors face when the older man realized that it fit and he could sing it on the tune of Baby Shark to annoy Peter. He was pulled out of his thoughts by Peter B. who asked: “Stark, as in Iron Man?”

Peter nodded, then a realization dawned on him. He quickly grabbed Peter B.s arm and shook him violently as he asked: “Is he still alive? Or has Thanos already happened, or doesn’t that happen in this universe? Did the Accords happen? Are the Avengers still together? Brief me, quick.”

It was quiet for a moment, all the spider people looked at Peter B. who was gathering his thoughts after the onslaught of questions. He rubbed his face and said: “Yes, he’s still alive, but who the fuck is Thanos? What are the Accords? And why would you think the Avengers would break up?”

Peters face lit up, it was somewhat magical for the others. He let Peter B. go and looked out the window, in the skyline stood the Avengers Tower, big and proud, Logo lighting up the sky. Peter breathed: “He’s still here.”

Then he flung himself out the window while putting on his mask. Behind him the Spider-people quickly pulled on masks and followed him, yelling to come back and slow down, but he didn’t care. Within seconds he was at the Tower, following a familiar route into the labs.

There he was, well, not he per se, but someone who was basically him. It was so familiar it hurt. The way ACDC basted through the room, how he bobbed along with the music, tinkering while scolding DUMM-E. Peter couldn’t help the tears that flowed down his face. He cried out: “Mr. Stark!” before shamelessly pulling his Mentor into a hug.

He sobbed into this Tonys chest while the other man awkwardly stood there. He patted his head and asked: “Uhm, Spider-man? Are you okay? You shrunk a little. JARVIS, scan him.”

“No problem, sir.” a British voice came from the ceiling.

There where some lights before JARVIS said: “He’s not the Spider-man I’ve scanned before, sir.”

The other Spider-people chose that moment to enter the lab. They halted when they saw the sobbing boy hugging Iron Man, who was looking very confused, but unable to push the kid off. He saw them and said: “What the fuck is going on?”

“Ah, yes, about that. Uhm, you see, alternate universes, I believe he knows his worlds Tony Stark/Iron Man.” Peter B. said.

Tonys eyebrows rose high on his forehead and he looked down to the other Spider-man again. “What’s his name?” he asked the others.

“Peter.” a boy in a black costume said.

Tony nodded, then he focused back on the kid. The sobs seemed to be dying down and he was now just holding on. Tony gently said: “Hey, Peter, that’s your name right? Peter?” he could feel the boy nod and he went on: “I’m let to believe that you know me in another universe, is that right.” the boy hiccuped wetly, but nodded into his chest again. “Okay, so, uhm, I don’t really know you, but, uhm, do you, do you want to tell me why you’re crying?”

The boy let go and pulled of his mask as he stared to the ground. He wiped his tears away quickly, then he apologized: “Sorry, that must have been really weird, I know you don’t really like hugs, they hurt your chest, Arc-Reactor and all that, at least where the Arc-Reactor used to be.”

Tony laughed: “He’s still there.”

“Not in my universe, you got it removed in a hospital right after the Mandarin attack, when Pepper got her mutation reversed.” Peter said.

Tonys eyes went wide as he processed the information. Peter apologized again: “Sorry, probably didn’t want me to dump all kinds of information on you about a person you aren’t, but are. It’s kind of strange.”

“No, no, it’s okay, I just never really, you know, thought about removing it and I guess here never was a Mandarin attack or a Pepper mutation. What could she do?” Tony reassured the teen and pushed him to keep talking.

He was curious what he in other universes was doing, God, this was weird. He didn’t even know this kid, but he did feel a pull of familiarity that he couldn’t place. Peter started talking again: “There wasn’t a lot of footage but the news said she could shoot fire and was heat resistant. It was pretty cool. I didn’t know you yet, I met you when the Accords happened, but they didn’t happen here, which is good, we need all the Avengers together to beat Thanos.” The boy gasped and exclaimed: “I can help you stop Thanos!”

“Thanos?” Tony asked.

“Yeah, he mentioned him before, I guess he’s a powerful villain.” Peter B. said.

“He’s inevitable in my universe, the greatest threat to the all the galaxies there are. He wiped out half of all living things with the snap of his fingers. You’re luck he hasn’t happened… yet.” Peter thought for a second while the rest just stood there is baffled silence. The he said: “Did Loki attack New York already? With the Chitauri, those weird aliens?”

“Aliens!” Miles and Gwen exclaimed at the same time.

“Yeah, they’re pretty strange, they came out of a portal in the sky and they had these big flying animal things and then Iron Man flew through the portal in the sky with a Nuke and killed them all.” Peter explained enthusiastically, “It was awesome, but I wasn’t Spider-man yet, I was a kid, but I watched from my window.”

Tony looked like he was seriously questioning his life choices, whether it was them in this universe or Peters they didn’t know. Tony was the one who answered: “No, that didn’t happen. Why is that important? Just explain everything clearly without cliff hangers and vagueness.”

“It’s a pretty long story, and not a happy one all the times, so we might be here a while and it might not even happen here. God, I hope it doesn’t happen here.” his eyes looked haunted for a second, but he shook it off.

“It might happen in one of our universes, it’s always handy to know who to look out for, just in case.” Gwen said, “We shared our villains and they are scarily similar.”

Miles nodded: “Yeah, we have time. Tell the story.”

“Okay, just prepare yourself.” Peter said, then he took a breath and started talking: “So, it started with the attack on New York, the Avengers were formed and it was the first time we interacted with an Infinity Stone, those become important later on. There are six and sort of what the universe relies on or is made or, I don’t know. I was dead when that was all discussed.”

Tony chocked a bit on is spit when Peter said that, but the boy ignored it and went on: “After that I was dandy with the Avengers until Ultron happened. A lot of people died and countries became wary of what could happen if the Avengers stayed unchecked, so 117 countries made the Accords in the UN. In those they would check enhanced individuals and they could stop the Avengers from interfering. Mr. Stark was willing to sign, Steve wasn’t, because they were planning to lock Bucky up for safety reasons and he’s Mister Righteous, so he doesn’t care for 117 countries, because he apparently knows better.”

Bitterness was apparent in Peters voice, which took them all by surprise. “That’s Captain America, you know that right?” Peter B. asked. “Yeah, in my universe he fucked up bad, but still people love and forgive him, cause he’s “Captain America” it sickening from time to time. Anyway, there is this fight and Steve and everyone who was on his side were declared war criminals and go into hiding, they banged you up pretty good, Mr. Stark. It isn’t pretty and there was an un-mendable rift now, which can never be fixed.” Peter tells them.

Tony doesn’t know what to do with that information. His teammates could never leave him, he knows them. That’s that universe, not his. He tries to shake it off, but it doesn’t stop him from looking into his teammates actions later.

Peter goes on: “Flash forward three, relatively peaceful years and it happens. A giant donut space ship appears in the sky to take Doctor Strange, who has the Time Stone. Mr. Stark and me sneak on to save him. We meet the Guardians of the Galaxy after we do and crash land on the home planet of Thanos. It is entirely ruined, but the Grape himself shows up.”

“Grape?”

“When you see him it makes sense. Anyway, we fight him and it does not go as planned. In the end Doctor Strange gives up the Time Stone in exchange for your life. Then Thanos portals himself away and it is quiet for a while. We’re gathering ourselves when it happens. First it’s the Guardians who turn into dust, then Doctor Strange and finally me. You get left behind in space with only Nebula, an alien and a broken space ship.”

The room is dead silent as they watch the boy blink away his trauma. Dying isn’t something you get over easily. He finally shakes it off and talks again, this time his voice a bit shakier: “I’m only told what happens next, but everything is in chaos for the next five years. Thanos gets killed early on, but he destroys the Infinity Stones, so they can’t turn it back. Then Scott Lang appears, Ant-man. He’s been in the quantum realm for five years, but it felt like five hours. You, Tony, invent time travel and you all go back to get the Infinity Stones from the past. Black Widow doesn’t make it back.”

A flash of grieve passes over Tonys face for a friend he hasn’t lost, but he could imagine the pain. He glosses over the fact that he invented time travel. The world needed it and he was there, it seemed like something he would be willing to try, if it worked great.

Peter is still talking: “After that you build you own gauntlet and the Bruce Banner brings everyone back, but Thanos arrived from the past with a big army. There’s a fight, a big one. And you are about to lose when all the dusted heroes return and join the fray. That isn’t enough. You take on Thanos alone and you steal the Stones back and use them to dust away Thanos’ armies, but it, it, it.”

The kid starts crying again and most can fill in the blank, Tony doesn’t make it and the kid probably watched him die. Through the tears Peter whispers: “You were like a dad to me. The third dad I lost. I was there, but, but I couldn’t, I couldn’t safe you.”

The broken look on the boys face broke them all. Tony pulled him into a hug. He didn’t care that he didn’t technically know the kid or that he didn’t like hugs all that much, something inside him screamed at him to protect this child.

“I’m sorry.” Peter whispered, “You deserved to grow old with Pepper and to watch Morgan grow up. She still loves you 300.”

Tony didn’t really know what that meant, but he squeezed Peter tighter. Right at that moment Peter glitched. “What happened?” Tony asked, he hadn’t noticed that the others glitched too.

Peni answered: “We’re glitching, because our atoms don’t like being in another universe for too long. It’s safe for a few days, but we shouldn’t stay too long.”

Peters eyes went wide and frantic, he grabbed Tony and said: “I don’t want to go, please. Mr. Stark don’t make me go.”

“Peter, it isn’t safe to stay, you need to go back.” Peter B. said.

Peter just shook his head, he had found a Tony and he wasn’t about to let go. Peni said: “I’ll give you a Goober, yeah. It can help you jump universes, so you can come back again.”

“Exactly,” the deep voice of Noir said, “You are one of us.”

The others nodded. Miles smirked: “We Spider-people got to stick together.”

That got some groans and eyeroll, but no one really hated it, especially after the giggle Peter let out.

Tony put his hand on Peter shoulder and said: “I hope you come. You can always swing by here.”

Tony smirked at his joke and Peter tried to smile back, but the lines blurred as he thought to his Mr. Stark, who had made the exact same joke, with the same look on his face. So he just nodded and with a broken voice he whispered: “I’d like that.”

They said there goodbyes and one by one different Spider-people jumped through the portals. Peni explained the Goober to Peter then left. Only Peter and Tony were left. Peter opened his portal and said: “Thank you, Tony. Please tell Thor to go for the head when he meets Thanos.”

Then he saluted and fell backwards through the portal. It wasn’t Mr. Stark, but damn if it was close.

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of August 28th, 2019

Best of this Week: Spider-Man Life Story #6: The ‘10s - Chip Zdarsky, Mark Bagley, Drew Hennessy, Frank D’Armata and Travis Lanham

All good things must come to an end. That’s the main theme of this final issue of Chip Zdarsky and Mark Bagley’s phenomenal Life Story miniseries as it recounts the last adventure that Spider-Man goes on as he leaves the world free and safe in the capable hands of the new generation of superheroes.

Comic books are cyclical. For some heroes, you get a short run, 6-12 issues and then they disappear for years until they’re needed again for some big event. For the bigger heroes, there are ongoing series that last years upon years with some BIG changes that inevitably get reversed for the sake of reestablishing the status quo. It’s understandable, recognizable names draw big money, but there’s only so many times you can see a hero fight a particular villain before it becomes trite and meaningless.

The same goes for their daily lives as well. Peter Parker has been stuck as a meandering young adult for the better part of a decade since the events of One More Day and he hasn’t been allowed to grow past his immaturity, save for the few times when the situations have become desperate and dire. Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows tried to posit a family man Peter Parker in an alternate universe, but for the most part he came off as just regular Peter with a kid to banter off of. Nick Spencer and Tom Taylor are doing their best in their respective Spider-Man series to get Spider-Man back to a position where things actively change for him, but Chip Zdarsky has gone the extra mile.

The Spider-Man Life Story miniseries goes through Peter’s life if he actually aged with the decades that all of his comics took place in. He goes through the struggles of being an American citizen straddling the fence during Vietnam, the aftermath boiling to a superhuman civil war, a better Clone Saga of the 90s, Aunt May’s death, the start of the information age and finally having children and watching them grow up. Peter Parker is allowed to grow old, change with the times. He sees old friends die, new heroes emerge, give his take on current events of the time and it’s all been amazing.

I know I mentioned that fighting the same villains over and over can seem trite and meaningless, but that’s only when they’re done for the sake of being done. In this fantastic take on the Superior Spider-Man story, Peter and Otto have their absolute final confrontation with one another over the body and soul of the young Miles Morales. Peter and Miles are shot into space to stop some sort of satellite created by Doctor Doom that allowed him to fill the power vacuum left by Captain America and Iron Man’s Civil War. As the two explore, Peter is attacked by Kraven wearing the Venom symbiote, but he dispatches the villain easily and it’s revealed that the suit was just piloting a are skeleton.

Miles questions how it was possible and Peter replies that all of his old enemies are dead and rightfully accuses Miles of being Otto Octavius, Doctor Octopus. Otto reveals his scheme, but instead of fighting Pete physically, he chooses instead to go into the mindscape and have a battle of the intellect as they were always destined to do. 

Bagey pulls out all of his stops as he draws Spider-Man costumes from the various decades as well as beautifully illustrates some of the best of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery as they battle for supremacy. Set against a white background, the characters shine with their vibrant colors, dynamic posing and Bagley’s ever amazing facial expressions. I have never seen Otto look so menacingly mad and subsequently, once Peter defeats him, absolutely crushed. 

Using the only person that Peter knew Otto cared about, Aunt May, she’s able to convince Otto to let go of his hatred and rage. She tells him to let Miles live his life, to move on. I really felt this and inside, it feels like Zdarsky is also telling us that sometimes we have to let the status quo go. Spider-Man has been around for longer than some of us have been alive and will be long after most of us are gone. Do we really want him to be the same mid-20s to early 30s hero that we knew, or do we want to spend our time with someone new? Miles Morales is a little more than ten years old, he’s fairly young as a character and I wholeheartedly believe that he can carry on the Spider-Man name on his own.

As the satellite starts to collapse and there’s only one escape pod left, Peter chooses to save Miles and sacrifice himself so that the future can flourish in peace due to his heroism. It’s a true heroes death and something that we almost never see (and likely never will), but if this were a true moment of closure, then I would be happy with it. Peter Parker is known for having more guilt than a Catholic who hasn’t been to Mass for a month (or Daredevil) and as he finally closes his eyes for the final time, he has a nice conversation with Mary Jane and recounts his recurring dream of the day he truly learned about power and responsibility. The last panel is his guilt finally being washed away.

If there is one series I would recommend anyone read, hands down, without a doubt it would be this one. Chip Zdarsky has a strange yet beautiful understanding of how to tell a story with characters that some of us know better than our own family members. Mark Bagley has the art skills to make us care about them immensely as well. Putting these two together as well as their amazing inker in Andrew Hennessy and colorist in Frank D’Armata, they sell you on each decade presented and how Peter changes throughout. 

Spider-Man isn’t the same plucky youth we met in the 1960s. By the end of his story, he’s led a full life full of adventure and his time has been well spent making sure that it was a future worth living in. Isn’t that something that we all can only dream of?

---------------------------------------------------

God is Here.

Runner Up: Absolute Carnage #2 - Donny Cates, Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer, Frank Martin and Clayton Cowles

After the events of the last issue there aren’t enough words to describe just how hopeless things are looking for anyone who has ever worn a symbiote.

Spider-Man and venom have been backed into a corner by Carnage and his horde of infected inmates at the Ravencroft Asylum. With no other options Eddie decides it best to break out and punches a hole through the wall for a tactical retreat. Eddie is typically known for his ability to brute force his way through any problem, but Carnage is a new monster altogether and as he sees Spider-Man running out of energy, he gives into the fear that they might die.

In the past, the combined might of Spider-Man and Venom has been more than enough to combat Cletus Kasady. Even when Cletus had help, he still couldn't hold a candle to the heroes, but now, they're almost low tier by comparison.

Spider-Man notes that he's almost out of web fluid, so there's no way that they're swinging out of there, so Eddie and the Symbiote utilize one of their badass upgrades, spreads his wings and flies out of Ravencroft with Peter screaming frantically "WHATISGOINGONRIGHTNOWIHATEALLOFIT!" They then land on a roof in the city, defeated and horrified that they may not be able to stop Carnage this time.

Spider-Man says that he'll try to get a hold of Wolverine and Captain America and Eddie says that he'll go find any of the lowlifes that have been Symbiotes and the two split to complete their missions. Carnage chooses not to follow after them, instead he waits and plots. This issue then turns into a bit of a catch up game for the other tie in issues while Carnage gloats to Norman that everything is running smoothly and that the world will be painted red soon enough.

Ryan Stegman absolutely smashes the art in this issue with absolutely killer detail, expressions of fear and disgusting visuals, especially in Carnage's underground lair - The sprawling mass of symbiotic flesh that covers New York's sewage system, packed full of infected humans is a dreadful sight. In the beginning of the issue, Stegman drew a splash page of Carnage with other panels overlaid, showing one of his eyes of madness and the decayed flesh that's absolutely under the symbiote. It's an absolutely terrifying sight that set the tone of this horror show.

Not only were these shots great, but Stegman kills one of the moments that happens in the Miles Morales tie-in where Miles and Scorpion (Mac Gargan) fight off the infected hordes trying to take Gargan's spine. In the tie-in, the art is more subdued and less violent, but here, Stegman turns it into something to get squeamish over. Gargan tries to abandon Miles to fight the infected alone, but is thrown back into the fight by Venom.

Unfortunately, Carnage is there waiting to pounce. He plunges a tendril into Mac's back and DIGS around to get that spine. There's no need to leave anything to the imagination as the blood spurts out, Gargan screams in agony and Kasady looks like he's having the goddamned time of his life. Mayer and Martin's colors and inks really sell just how violent all of this is. It's almost gross just how close they get the color right and how dark the scene is. Miles swoops in to save him, but… no good deed goes unpunished.

Absolute Carnage absolutely does what it set out to do. I have never been more afraid for the Marvel Universe than I am right now. Of course, there have been universal threats, but with how close and personal this feels and the looming feeling of dread knowing that Knull is THIS close to returning is mortifying. Normally a villain will just kill a hero or destroy them and whatnot, but Carnage wants nothing but massacre. If there's not torture and blood then what is it all worth?

Everything that Cates and Stegman have been building to has lead us here. To say that it's beginning to lay off would be an understatement. The dividends of fear are fore more exponential than anyone could have anticipated and this will likely go down as one of the greatest Venom/Carnage stories ever written. Absolute High Recommend.

[unabashedly-here]

Summary: Y/N has been living on the streets for a few months now and finds a temporary home near a street market where pickpocketing is common practice. She might have contributed to the reputation as well, but she had to survive somehow. Peter Parker, once a nobody, is revealed as Spider-Man by Tony Stark and given a place on the Avengers. It was his dream come true, but being locked away in the Avengers Compound was not the fantasy he envisioned. After trying to sneak out, Peter finds himself angering a vendor in the street market where he catches the attention of Y/N.


Word Count: 2.1k


Warnings: swearing, threats.


masterlist // next chapter 


Like every morning, despite how the weather might have been, the streets became quieter as the people went inside. Well, quiet for a city. It is never truly quiet, after all. In the quieter parts of the city, the bustling streets changed into the quiet neighborhood it will most likely remain until the end of the day. Only a few people remained, like a woman walking her dog, cursing herself for going out without a proper jacket, a couple with a stroller, just glad that the baby has stopped crying, and the man fumbling with the papers in his briefcase before running down the street and hoping his boss will be in a good mood. Even then, they soon disappeared, leaving only you. You were dressed in a black coat that did not completely shield you from the cold, but you weren’t bothered.


You were far away from where you have been staying for the past few months. The night before, you started walking and didn’t look back once. It was quite cold, but you didn’t really care. Fumbling with the pack in your pocket, you managed to get the last cigarette out. Your lighter wasn’t as new as it once was, but the black lighter did its job. As well as providing a bit of warmth, the cigarette also managed to calm your shaking hands. Taking a few long drags, you smiled slightly and leaned back on the bench.


As you started the walk back to Greenwich, you realized just how quickly your last cigarette went. Looking at the butt in your hand, you remembered when your mother first found out that you smoked. It was after a party and you came home, not trying to hide the unmistakable scent at all. Her expression was unreadable, almost as if the smell transported her somewhere else. The disappointment in her voice wasn’t enough to get you to quit the habit, but it did make you perfect hiding that you smoked. Nothing made you quit, not even your mother’s death. 


Your hands started shaking slightly and you cursed yourself. The nicer neighborhood slowly shifted into the gritty neighborhood you knew and hated. Your cigarette butt was thrown on the ground, joining the many others littering the sidewalks. Maybe the taxes were supposed to keep the streets clean, but you didn’t pay taxes so why would you expect it? Shoving your hands in your pockets, you slouched your shoulders and kept your head down as you walked past the slightly more active part of the city. It was just not a nice activity, compared to where you found yourself this morning.


The street market seemed friendly enough if someone was a tourist, but the nice enough exterior hid what really went on. Stealing and pick pocketing were common occurrences in the market. A purse gone there or some food stolen there. Tourists who are not overly cautious normally leave the market with a few less things without ever knowing. You should know. You contributed to quite a few of these minor acts of thieving.


Most of the time, you stole food to live off of. Maybe you took some money when it was out in the open, but you rarely stole things like rings, watches, or phones from unsuspecting people. Stealing was your last resort to survive on your own, but you didn’t feel particularly hungry right then. The effects of smoking on an empty stomach might hit later and you couldn’t care less. Finally you stopped in front of an abandoned building. There used to be a For Sale sign, but it was long since kicked over. Anyone else might have been scared to entered the old factory with untold terrors and creaking floors. Checking to see that no one was noticing you, you ducked into the building through a hole that was covered on the inside by a piece of old cloth. 


You rarely spent the night inside unless it was too windy and you needed the walls to shield it. More likely, you were hanging out on the roof which gave you the perfect view of the shitty place you called home. Four months ago, your mother died in a car crash and, to escape being put into the foster system, you ran away. The two of you weren’t very well off financially and there wasn’t a lot of money to take before you left so you had to make do with what you had and learn to survive. Tears prickled in your eyes and you aggressively shoved them away. Living by yourself in an abandoned factory and stealing until you were eighteen and not legally considered a runaway. ‘Mom sure must be proud of me,’ you thought bitterly. 

A sound from the market place below interrupted your pity party. Curiously glancing over, you saw someone with their hood up getting pushed around. “Poor sucker,” you muttered to yourself, prepared to rest a bit after your night away. Whatever was happening down there was none of your business and the guy had to learn not to wander into bad areas if he couldn’t defend himself. The ruckus continued as you glanced one more time. Someone you vaguely knew had a grip on the guy and anyone from a mile away could see the threats coming from his mouth. There were oranges all over the floor and the guy had one in his hand. Debating with yourself, you shook your head and stated, “Fuck it.” 


While you found yourself in a nicer neighborhood early that morning, Peter Parker was planning his escape from the Avengers Compound. Ever since Tony Stark revealed to the world that he was Spider-Man, he had been trapped in the compound everyday with school work and training. Sure, it was cool, but Mr. Stark was very strict about letting Peter leave to visit his friends. He only really let him visit Aunt May and only when he was with him. Well, Ned managed to save up his money to get the Lego Millennium Falcon and wanted Peter to hang out for a bit. Mr. Stark said no, but Peter was determined. 


Karen helped him alter FRIDAY so that Mr. Stark would see him training for the next few hours. Not wanting to draw much attention, he packed his Spider-Man suit and went out in normal clothes. It took him a while to get into the city, but he managed after an hour. It had been a long time since Peter was in the city and, although he remembered most of the streets to go down, he thought he saw Happy further down the street. It must have been paranoia, yet he dared not to take any chances. 

He pulled his hood up and turned suddenly down a street. 
The street he went down was full of markets and he dared not look at the vendors in the eye. Peter was fully aware he was in a bad part of New York so he just had to get through quickly without drawing too much attention to himself. With his head down, he managed to get through most of the street. It wasn’t until a vendor noticed him and tried to stop him. Peter violently jerked in the other direction only to bump into another guy. The burly fellow merely shoved Peter away. His reflexes kicked in and he steadied himself. Peter caught his breath and took another step. 


A stand selling questionable looking fruit was in front of him, but Peter’s reflexes, which were still high wired from his little situation, saw that it was going to fall after a girl accidentally knocked into it. The oranges went everywhere, much to the vendor’s dismay. Peter managed to pick a few up quickly and walked closer to hand them over. The man looked at him with pure hatred and placed a meaty hand on Peter’s shoulders. “I wouldn’t run away, thief,” he threatened, “I’mma show you why people know not to steal from me.”


“No, sir,” Peter said meekly, trying to hand over the oranges, “I was just trying to help.” He would be able to easily get out of the man’s grip, yet the man would know something was up and Peter just wanted to get out with no issue. His nose crinkled at the man’s foul breath as he tried to smile, as if that would make the man trust him more.


“Oh, sure. People like you just want to “help”, do you?” His sarcasm was practically dripping from his voice. “Do you think I was born yesterday?”


Based on his nearly graying hair and the wrinkles around his eyes, Peter could have guessed. “Seriously, I don’t want trouble-”


The man scoffed, “Think I wanted this either?” His grip went down to Peter’s wrist and his beady eyes seemed focused. He wouldn’t try to break his arm, would he? He would heal, but then Mr. Stark would definitely know that Peter had snuck out. Before he could slip out of his grip, he heard someone very close. “Oh, there you are!”

 He turned to see a girl, seemingly his age. You were expertly dodging people as if you’ve had years of experience. You weren’t necessarily dirty, but Peter could only guess that your home, wherever it might be, wasn’t the best. Your clothes were worn down and smelled like smoke. 
However you might have looked, you seemed to be talking to Peter and you might just be his way out of this. “Uh, yeah!” he tried to say confidently, “Here I am!” 


Your eyes sparkled mischievously and you subtly winked at him before turning to the man, still gripping Peter’s wrist. “Axel, this is a complete misunderstanding!”


“Are you telling me that I’m stupid?” Axel growled, his hand tightening. “You better head out, Y/N. I have no problem with you, but, if you stay, I might.”


Peter worriedly looked at you. He didn’t want someone to get hurt for him. He had to use his powers even if that meant getting in trouble with Mr. Stark. Before he could do anything, he jumped when you grabbed his free hand. “I’m not saying you’re stupid,” you said calmly, “This is my cousin, Damon. He just doesn’t know how things are done here.” Looking around, your eyes met Axel’s in a knowing glance. “His father is a police officer. You don’t want the police here more often than they already are, do you?”


The fire in Axel’s eyes died quickly at the mention of police and he dropped Peter’s wrist as if it burned him. “Okay, just keep him out of here,” he tried to threaten the two of them. 


“Ah, don’t worry,” you reassured, “He won’t be around here much longer. Damon’s just here to pick something up.” With that, you led him away from Axel who began picking up the oranges and mumbling. Quickly, you dragged him to the edge of the street and took a side street to an abandoned factory. Turning back towards the boy you just helped, you noticed how, even though his fiddling hands and facial expressions suggested an awkward teenage boy, his body language was deliberate, as if he was aware of everything going around him. “That’s a main street,” you mentioned, gesturing to the street next to them, “You’ll be fine there. I wouldn’t come back.” Looking back into the vendors, you stated, “Axel holds grudges like no one you would believe.” 
The boy only nodded so you went towards your makeshift entrance. 

Checking to see if any police were passing by, you met the boy’s eyes. He seemed still surprised to be in this situation. The two of you stared at each other for a while until you realized just how tense he was. The boy was on edge and seemingly jumpy as hell. “Hey, it’s okay,” you tried to comfort him, “It’s over now.” With that, you went into the factory without looking back. You just wanted to plan for how you were going to eat later.


Peter looked back at the busy street and took a small step before looking back at where you just entered. Why were you hanging out in an abandoned factory? It seemed suspicious and Peter knew, that if he didn’t go inside to check out what was going on, it would be the only thing on his mind. He quickly sent a text to Ned, saying that he couldn’t make it, and moved the cloth out of his way. You were wrong, to say the least. It was far from over.

[elcorhamletlive]

This might be coming out of left field but I've been meaning to ask you just because I freaking LOVE the spiderverse movie and it looks like you do, too! I want to know who were your fave characters? And moments? Like, which made you cry and which made you laugh? Wow moments and unexpected moments?Also the soundtrack was bomb so any songs sticked to you after the movie? *phew* glad I got that off my chest the movie is just so beautiful asdfghjkl that animation is so top notch!!!

ANON!!!!!! I am SO SORRY for how long it took me to get to this, but Ithought it was such an amazing question and I wanted to take the time to sitdown and write it, and lately all my significant free time is spentwriting/rewatching the MCU. 

I was so glad to receive this though, because I fucking LOVESpiderverse. I think it was the best movie of 2018 - not just the best animatedmovie, the best superhero movie, but the best movie of the year, period. I’veseen it about three or four times, and each time it just continuosly amazes meall over again.

And there’s SO MUCH to praise this movie for. The art style, which isabsolutely fantastic - it’s such a GORGEOUS movie, the type of movie that’sworth going to the theaters to experience in the most complete way possible.It’s so colorful, the characters’ expressions are so good, and Miles’ New Yorkis just so full of LIFE, bursting at every single shot. It’s a movie thatembraces animation in its fullest, and embraces everything that an animatedmovie can be as opposed to the current trend of just trying to make the styleas realistic as possible.

I think this movie just has so many characters that are a delight towatch. Miles is a shining star, his personality shines through in his everymovement, his struggles are honest and relatable, and, despise this moviehaving so many different spidersonas, it never looses track of the fact thatit’s MILES’ movie and MILES’ story. He’s such a good. I also fell in love withGwen, her voice acting, her entire design and just overall vibe. Everythingabout her was so cool, and I loved the fighting style they gave her, how it wassomething unique to set her apart. And I also need to mention Spider-man Noir,because he was just responsible for the funniest moments of the movie, imo, andI need a cross-over fic with him and Steve fighting nazis together.

But if I were to pick just one character to single out, it would have tobe Peter B. Parker. I feel like they couldn’t have done something better withthe character. The whole sequence of his life, his divorce, his cynicalbehaviour… I loved it all. The end, where he’s so READY to lay his life forthe others, and Miles is the one who calls him out and tells him to go home.How actually scared of going home he is. Like many people, I just related tohim so hard, and it was wonderful to watch him.

There are SO MANY moments that are just fantastic, so many that made melaugh out loud, so many that gave me chills, it’s hard to pick a single one.Let me list a bunch.

 “play dumb”/”who’s morales?”/”not thatdumb”

Miles and Aaron graffiting the wall, and then Miles just casually batting away the radioactive spider.

The entire sequence of Peter Parker’s death and the town’s reaction, with Scared of the Dark playing in the background. Everything about this sequence is pure perfection. I cry every time when Stan Lee appears, and, yeah, part of it is the context of his death, but when he says “we were friends, you know” about Peter, and when Miles asks what if the costume doesn’t fit, and “it always fits… eventually”. Mary Jane’s speech and the people in the crowd wearing spider-man masks. Just typing it is giving me chills.

Miles climbing the stairs, looking down at the top of the building and the cut to a shot of him going down the stairs.

When the cop sees Miles swinging with Peter B. and says he’s going away with the body of a homeless guy.

Peter B. cutting Miles off when he starts the “with great power comes…” quote.

The scene with the Kingpin clicking the pen and the flashes of his backstory. How they’re drawn differently. I love it.

Peter B. yelling at Miles to stop listening to him.

Gwen’s arrival at the battle with Ock (and her haircut!!).

Noir’s arrival and Peter B. asking “where is this wind coming from? we’re on a basement”.

“Can you close off your feelings so you don’t get crippled by the moral ambiguity of your violent actions?”

Honestly, I could probably just quote every Noir line here. The peak of Nicolas Cage’s career.

Peter B. running into Mile’s universe’s Mary Jane. “For you they should fill this place with bread”. Cracks me up every time.

GOD, PETER B. CRYING IN THE SHOWER, I HAD FORGOTTEN THAT. “I handled it like a champ!”, and then him being in awe and kind of emotional talking about seahorses. God I love this movie.

Miles saying Peter B. has to go home, Peter B. beeing terrified of going home, and Miles giving him the push he needs.

The entire What’s Up Danger sequence. Best suit up moment of any superhero movie, ever.

The final “let’s start from the beggining” sequence. 

I could probably just keep going. There is so much wonderful stuff in this movie. It truly is a gift, the type of great that’s rare to find. Everything about it just brings me so much joy.

[sunsetpatterson]

Puppy Love

A/N: Here I am!! Back at it with the writing challenge fics. This one's for @whyistomholland, finally giving me a reason to write that Stark!Reader AU in my head!! That being said, this is a Holland!Peter fic.

Attempt number 2 at posting the whole fucking fic. Don't mess it up, Tumblr.

Summary: After asking permission, Peter makes a confession to the girl he loves.

Pairing: Peter Parker × Fem!Stark!Reader

"Peter, you're a good kid. I like you," Tony stood from his seat in his lab and stepped toward the younger boy, his eyes narrowed. He felt his protective-ness twitch in his chest. "But if you hurt my daughter, I will do something much worse than take your suit away. You got it?"

Peter gulped and nodded quickly. "Y-yes, sir. Of... of course, Mr. Stark." He wrung his hands together, nervous sweat making them slippery. "N-no hurting Y/N - not... not that I intend to, of course. I just-"

Tony huffed a sigh and flopped back into his spinny chair, flicking his hand toward the door. "Stop babbling. Tell her you love her."

"Yes, sir! Thank you!" The grin on his face was hard to miss as he spun on his heel and darted out of Tony's lab.

With the speed he was going at, let's just thank Valhalla he had shoes on - otherwise he would've smacked straight into the adjacent wall.

Peter skidded to a stop outside the elevator, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for the doors to open. "FRIDAY? Where's Y/N?"

"Miss. Stark is currently studying in her room, Mr. Parker. Might I suggest you do the same?" The Irish twinge of the AI answered almost instantaneously.

The seventeen year old boy rolled his eyes and groaned inwardly, leaning against the wall of the elevator after stepping inside. "Yeah, later. Can you take me to her, please?"

FRIDAY never responded, but he knew she had listened the moment the button for the number of Y/N's floor lit up with a yellow-ish glow.

Peter felt his heart threaten to beat out of his chest, thudding violently against his rib cage. His hands shook and his thoughts began to run fifty miles a minute.

What if she didn't love him back?

What if she didn't even think of him like that?

What if he told her and she hated him forever?

Oh God, what if he ruined their friendship forever?? He loved Ned, but he couldn't spend the rest of his days building and rebuilding the Lego Death Star.

"Mr. Parker, I am detecting a panic attack. Might I suggest going to see Doctor Cho?"

Peter's head snapped up to the ceiling as he took in a shaky breath - only just realising that, yes, he was in fact having a panic attack.

But, nevertheless, he shook his head and wiped his hands on his jeans. "What? N-no, FRIDAY, I'm good." He mumbled and spent the rest of the ride chewing his lip nervously.

The doors opened to reveal Y/N's floor. Peter looked up like a deer caught in headlights, blinking for a few seconds before taking a hesitant step out of the elevator. Before he could even think of backing out, the doors closed and the elevator took off.

"Okay, come on, Peter. You can do this." He mumbled to himself as he all but tip toed to her room door. "Worst case scenario, she hates you forever and you die a lonely old man."

Peter's eyebrows knitted together not seconds after, and he found himself wanting to laugh at how pathetic he sounded. "Pull yourself together, Parker."

The moment he raised his hand, the door swung open. Y/N sat on her bed, her hair unruly and clad in one of her father's old band shirts, surrounded by books.

Peter found himself wanting to curse FRIDAY for not giving him more time to gather his courage.

But all that flew out of the window when she looked up at him, dimples indenting her cheeks as the biggest grin grew on her lips. "Pete, hi! You gonna stand out there all day?"

"Uh, yeah. I was thinking about it." Peter wanted to slap himself.

Y/N laughed and shook her head affectionately, her eyes going back to her book. "Well until you come in, FRIDAY's keeping my door open." Her voice was soft and riddled with sleep, and it occurred to Peter that she hadn't been awake long.

Her dark hair was messy, her eyes tired and her face completely void of makeup - which he knew she didn't need.

But God, she never looked more beautiful in his eyes.

Peter wrung his hands together and quietly walked into her room. His feet padded along her carpeted floor before he sat on the end of her bed. "There's, uh... there's actually something I wanted to ask you."

Her eyes snapped up from her books and she found the pace of her heart slowly increasing in speed. "Ask away."

"I need some advice... girl advice. I-I mean, you're a girl so I though it'd be best to come to you instead of Ned." He laughed nervously.

Y/N felt her smile falter at his words and she swallowed thickly. "Right, yeah. I guess Ned probably doesn't know much about girls." She joked lightly, but her eyes didn't reflect the emotion she tried to fake for his sake.

"There's, um... there's this girl at school," Peter swallowed the lump in his throat. "I've known her for a really long time, a-and it's recently occurred to me that I may be in love with her."

Her eyes went wide, her mind immediately going to Liz Allan. It made sense, really. Liz was the prettiest and most popular girl in school.

"O-oh. You're- you're in love with her?" Peter only nodded in response. "And I'm guessing you want me to help you find a way to tell her." It wasn't a question, but Peter nodded anyway. "Just tell her."

Peter looked at Y/N, his eyes as wide as saucers as he registered her words. "I-I'm sorry? I thought you said just tell her."

Y/N rolled her eyes and gave him a soft, but sad, smile. "Pete, you're an amazing person. Don't laugh at me, it's true!" She scolded as he rolled his eyes with a scoff. "You're amazing, sweet, kind and the most selfless person I know. She'd be an idiot not to be in love with you. Why make a big deal out of it when you can just... tell her?"

As he sat there, he mulled over her words. Deep down, he knew she was right.

Making a big deal out of it wasn't important, but the message he was trying to convey was. Peter knew Y/N didn't really need a grand gesture when he could just tell her how he felt about her.

Tony would be disappointed, not being able to help. But if she was happy, who was he to argue?

Peter suddenly grinned, taking her by surprise as he wrapped his arms around her before standing up. "Thanks! You're the best, Y/N!" Without another word, he walked out of her room, leaving her alone.

Y/N sighed and bit her lip, tears pricking her eyes. At that moment, she swore she never disliked Liz more - but she couldn't protest if it meant Peter was happy. That's all that mattered to her.

The door closed after Peter left, and he stood in the same spot where he started. His heart pounded in his chest and he felt a little light headed as he tried to find the words to say.

It was approximately five minutes after he left, that he knocked on her door. He had only five seconds to calm his nerves before the door swung open, revealing Y/N's shocked face.

"P-peter? Did you, uh... did you leave something behind?" Her voice was quiet, but her he heard her perfectly.

Peter chewed on his lip, his dark eyes sweeping over her face as if he tried to commit every part of her to his memory. God, he loved everything about her. He'd be crazy if he didn't.

"Y-yeah, I did." He stepped closer to her, her wide eyes looking up at him before they dropped to his lips.

Y/N drew in a sharp breath, too afraid to let it go as her hand lingered on her door handle. "I-I could go get it for you..."

"Or you could stay and let me kiss you." Peter murmured, too in the moment to ask himself where in hell that sudden surge of confidence came from. "I really want to kiss you."

Peter lifted a hand, brushing his knuckles over the smooth skin of her cheek. He felt her skin heat up under his touch before he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

It was the most cliché move in the book, but he remembered she somehow loved all the cliché stuff.

Lost in the intensity of his eyes, Y/N had to force herself to remember how to breathe, otherwise she knew she'd faint from a lack of oxygen. "O-okay."

Peter didn't know he was leaning in until his nose brushed hers, and by then he knew it was too late to stop. "I love you, Y/N." He murmured and closed his eyes before kissing her.

The kiss wasn't short and sweet like he was aiming for. Hell, he wasn't even expecting to kiss her when he knocked on her door. The kiss was long, breathtaking, and full of emotion he now knew wasn't unrequited.

Y/N was putting just as much effort into the kiss, her sweaty hands gripping the front of his shirt as she pulled him closer to her. It was like all of a sudden she didn't need air to breathe, because she had him.

He didn't want Liz, he wanted her. Nothing but love blossomed in her chest at that moment. Y/N was in bliss, and she didn't want it to stop.

Unfortunately, they were human. To live, they required oxygen.

Their chests rose and fell in sync, eyes remaining shut as their foreheads pressed together. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the front of his shirt, and his hands rested on her hips.

"If it wasn't clear, I love you too." She breathed out.

Peter huffed a laugh, his eyes screwed shut as he snaked his arms around her waist, holding her tight as she laid her head on his chest. "You made it painfully obvious." He mumbled and pressed a kiss to the crown of her head.

For the next few minutes, they stayed like that - until their moment was interrupted by FRIDAY, at the command of none other than Anthony Edward Stark.

"Miss. Stark, your father has requested that I remind you that while he is happy for your recent change in relationship status, you still have to study for your chemistry exam."

Y/N groaned and buried her face in his chest, though she was unable to hide her smile when she felt his laughter.

"Mr. Parker, Mr. Stark says that he is happy for you to stay and study with Miss. Stark, and he is formally inviting you to dinner with the Avengers."

Peter tightened his grip on her, pulling her impossibly closer as they stood in her door way.

"That's my dad for you, always looking to ruin people's moment." Y/N teased, knowing fully well that Tony could hear her.

"Mr. Stark has more to say, but I refuse to play messenger."

Y/N giggled before peeling herself from Peter's chest. His arms slipped from her waist and his hand fell perfectly into one of hers, fingers intertwining as she led him back into her room.

"So, what do you say, Mr. Parker? You wanna study with me and eat dinner with the Avengers?" Peter grinned at the teasing glint in her eyes and kicked her bedroom door shut behind him.

"Might as well."

[mrsspidermanmaryjanewatsonparker]

Let’s debunk this shit.

First off...why should we, on the topic of Spider-Man, actually place stock by the guy who has in the past argued Sins Past is as, if not more, bad than One More Day when anyone with an ounce of knowledge of how writing craft works would realize this is abjectly false. As a story the flaws in Sins Past amount to it inserting something into the past that doesn’t fit at all. One More Day by contrast not only does this but needs to violently ignore 45 yrs of established characterization to even function and even then it fails since it needs to contradict its own narrative.

  Oh and you know MovieBob is the guy who said ‘That Spec cartoon wasn’t as good as people make it out to be. People like it more for what it could be than what it was.’...WTF was he even watching.

 But let’s dive into some more specifics of Bob’s argument.

 “OMD ‘needed’ to happen.”

 This is objectively untrue.

 Let’s give the benefit of the doubt and say what Bob meant wasn’t so much that Spider-Man needed to make a deal with the Devil but rather it was necessary to get rid of Spider-Man’s marriage.

 I can’t bring myself to do a 3000 word essay on why the latter alone is idiotic, sexist, myopic and utterly false but here is a cliffnotes version.

 There are 2 fundamental problems with Bob’s line of thinking.

 The 1st is that to end the marriage you needed to outright alter Spider-Man’s history via a soft DC style continuity reboot thus creating in a literal sense an alternate universe version of Spider-Man who’d just never been married in the first place.

 Put simply Spider-Man’s marital status could’ve been ended in universe through numerous methods that avoided that. He could’ve gotten divorced. The US government as some kind of petty revenge upon Spider-Man turning on the Registration Act could’ve legally annulled his marriage along with certain other legal aspects of his life. There could’ve been a reveal that due to a legal loophole nobody realized at the time technically speaking Peter and MJ had never been married in the first place despite believing they were.

 None of this would’ve fixed the most egregious contrivance of OMD and OMIT, that by simply never having been married magically this = Peter and MJ would break up. You still need to justify THAT separately which OMD didn’t even attempt to do. OMD in isolation erases their marriage but it doesn’t explain or justify why doing this would mean they are now no longer in a relationship. OMIT tried and miserably failed to do that because once again it required the abject ignoring of decades of established (and logical) characterization.

  But what should we expect from the guy who in another video once said Superman would be a jerk if he married Lois Lane because of the stress and dangers it’d expose her to, specifically comparing it to real life people who’s jobs offer comparable examples. ‘Superman would never put Lois Lane through that’ said Bob (though I am paraphrasing I admit.

  Why?

  If REAL people do that then why WOULDN’T Superman OR Spider-Man do so?

 It’s a line of thought which amounts to Bob saying those people shouldn’t have marital relationships. And that is gross.

 The 2nd problem with Bob’s ‘it needed to happen’ assertion is the notion that CREATIVELY it was necessary for the health of Spider-Man.

 Let’s ignore how creatively (and financially) Superman has been on the up and up since 2016 when he got his marriage BACK.

 Instead let’s consider for a moment...why?

 Why CREATIVLY does Spider-Man need to not be married to work? Why does he need to be single for his long term creative/financial health?

 There is no answer because the truth is he isn’t. Spider-Man’s love life is relevant only in so far as the series follows his life and not being asexual romance is a part of that. At which point if you are arguing for his long term creative health he needs to be able to swap out the women he’s going to be romantically/sexually involved with why then does that not also apply to literally every other character connected to every other part of his life?

 It doesn’t.

 It’s a bullshit argument born of an ignorant lack of questioning. It’s born of “Well it’s got to be this way because it’s always been this way and it’s worked that way.” Ignoring how it doesn’t and how you know...Marvel comics itself exists off the back of saying “Maybe it doesn’t have to just be this way. I don’t like that way in fact, I like the idea of trying it this other way.”

 Spider-Man being single keeps Spider-Man stunted and in a state of doomed to failure. It literally renders his love life redundant because every reader (and this applied before 1987 when he got married, but applies a thousand times more now) knows his romances will never amount to anything and that they are glorified Bond girls. And I’ll be honest the substance (such as there is) in the Bond movies NEVER lies with the Bond girls with the sole exceptions of those few movies where they tease you with the idea that he has deeper feelings for them.

 Then you have the fact that marriage as a part of most people’s lives and a responsibility is outright tailor made for the character who’s core concept is entwined around the interconnected idea of responsibility and being a (relatively) normal person. It’s not different to him graduating from High school or moving out of Aunt May’s house or getting a job.

 But let’s look at the franchise in the wake of OMD creatively and financially has it been doing better than before?

 LOL NOPE!

 In 2016 we had the Power Play arc. This arc was THE Spider-Man event of the year. It tied into the previous Spider event of 2015, Renew Your Vows by introducing the incredibly powerful villain Regent who’s powers were that he had the powers of EVERY other hero virtually and in RYV took over all of NYC following killing the X-Men and Avengers on his own. It guest starred fan favourite Miles Morales, the first substantial appearance of the character in Amazing Spider-Man since his migration into the 616 universe. It also guest starred lead character of the MCU and (then) Marvel comics poster boy Iron Man fresh from his hyped up run under Bendis, the biggest name in comics of the previous 20 years. It also teased the appearance of the newest team of Avengers, a brand that has been huge since 2012 for obvious reasons. Oh and it featured the return of another fan favourite Mary Jane who was once more being used to tease the possibility of her and Spider-Man’s romantic reunion which had been a surefire way of raising hype for a story since 2008 onwards. Oh and it was clearly a tie-in to the international blockbuster and critically acclaimed movie, Captain America: Civil War.

 And of course you had much promotion from the Marvel hype machine, Dan Slott interviews and the usual variant cover artificial sales inflation gimmick that had become common to Marvel.

 Safe to say that this story was a big, big deal and sure to sell well right?

 Well....it actually sold less than a barely promoted, run-of-the-mill ASM arc from 2005 by J. Michael Straczynski that featured in the first issue Tony Stark sitting on a chair sans armour and beyond that no guest stars....oh and there were no variant covers....and btw Spider-Man was married in it

  . ...Oh....

  But hey what about some OTHER Spider-Man stories since OMD. Haven’t THEY been creatively enriching?

 I mean we had classics like:

 The Lizard ruins the interesting humanizing aspects of his character when he becomes a cannibalistic monster who eats his own son and maybe rapes someone

 Black Cat’s characterization gets flushed down the toilet so she can be an indulgent juvenile sexual fantasy for Joe Kelly who believes Spider-Man is fundamentally a man child Black Cat’s characterization gets shot to shit again by her ripping off Catwoman by becoming a gangster, something she has never held aspiration for before and seems to want to get involved in now for no reason at all beyond being angry that Spider-Man imprisoned her and exposed her identity that wasn’t even secret in the first place

 Dan Slott who likes Doc Ock more than he likes Peter Parker decides to say screw it and make Doc Ock Spider-Man thus invalidating the entire reason he was hired, which is to write about Peter Parker. He proceeds to make Doc Ock a villain sue and cause readers to wonder if he’s this smart and this dangerous he lost so many times in the past at all? Also he tries to rape Mary Jane in issue 2 and then succeeds in maybe raping Spider-Man himself in the same issue and definitely succeeds in raping the only dwarf character in Spider-Man’s canon.

 Spider-Man becomes like Iron Man thus invalidating the entire point of his character and reasons people like to read about him.

 A mystery surrounding the Green Goblin’s identity that turns out to be the twist that he was Norman Osborn all along meaning this was a pointless mystery the whole time.

 Ben Reilly finally comes back after 20 years but doesn’t act even a little bit like the character people knew and loved causing people to wish he’d stayed dead

  Betty Brant is physically assaulted and Spider-Man tracks down the assailant but when he finds him lets him go (thus enabling him to assault other innocent women) because Aunt May guilt tripped him by saying he was a jerk at age 15 for allowing her, a 50+ year old adult and his parental guardian, to cope with Uncle Ben’s death alone on the night of his death.

  Fan favourite Mayday Parker has her character now defined by the death of her father invalidating the entire point of her character which was the ongoing relationship between herself and her Dad

  Every spider person ever fights a bunch of one note cosmic vampires across alternate niverses who are variant action figures of another one note cosmic vampire villain. The story is utterly reparative and makes Spider-Man play second fiddle to all the other characters cramming for panel time.

 I could go on but I won’t.

 To count the creative successful and enriching Slott and the post-OMD Spider-Man stories is a far easier task than to count the ones which are for the most part mediocre-God forsakenly terrible and miss the whole point of the various characters involved (most of all you know SPIDER-MAN himself!) because the latter is the norm post-OMD.

 Tellingly both volume 1 and volume 2 of Renew Your Vows a book BUILT around the concept of a married Spider-Man have (when judged appropriately given their out of continuity status) garnered perfectly respectable sales (especially in volume 1) prior to their recent time skip (an ill advised move regardless of what the series was about) and critical acclaim. And critical acclaim from people besides Marvel/Spider-Man sycophants like CBR who have vested financial interests in positively reviewing the stories.

 In fact there is a very strong argument in favour of Slott being the single most creatively damaging Spider-Man writer in history. The list of things that need to be FIXED because of his idiocy and incompetence is vast.

 Moving on to Bob’s other points:

 “Peter and MJ being together was a dumb stunt when the did it in the first place”

 If Bob had you know READ the stories leading into the wedding he’d know

 a) That relationship and marriage was being built up since 1984 albeit with the initial intention being Peter stranded at the altar.

 b) A stunt isn’t rendered invalid merely because it is a stunt. A Stunt can make sense and with the build up the wedding had this was one such example

 “The marriage generated very few decent stories that wouldn’t have worked just as well without it”

 Here is a list of a FEW decent or above stories which in some significant way make use of the Spider marriage between 1987-2007

 Kraven’s Last Hunt

 Venom

 ASM #400

 Revenge of the Green Goblin

 A Death in the Family

 ASM volume 2 #49-50

 ASM volume 2 #51-54

 Sensational Spider-Man volume 2 #32

 Sensational Spider-Man Annual 2007, the only Eisner nominated Spider-Man story ever

 Spider-Man unlimited volume 3 #2 Story 2: Making Contributions

 Eleven Angry Men and One angry Woman

 Parallel lives

 Spider-Man: the Final Adventure

 Web of Death

 Revelations the end of the Clone Saga

  Spectacular Spider-Man #241

  Spectacular Spider-Man #242-245

 ASM vol 2 #39

  Ultimate Spider-Man Anthology book: Five Minutes

  I Heart Marvel Web of Romance #1

  Spectacular Spider-Man #199-200

  Spectacular Spider-Man #250

  The Tombstone arc

  Peter Parker Spider-Man volume 2 #14

 Marvel Knights Spider-Man #1-12

  Hmmm...it’s almost like Bob sucks at mathematics and story evaluation or something. Then again he did say there was no problem with Luke Skywalker in Last Jedi so you know...I should know better.

  Oh and btw the whole ‘those would’ve worked JUST as well without the marriage’ argument is a double edged sword since there are literally less than 20 Spider-Man stories post-OMD that WOULDN’T have worked with a married Spider-Man and only one of them is good...and only if you also take entirely in isolation of Spider-Man’s wider history. Every other story with tweaks could work AS if not MORE effectively with a married Spider-Man.

  If the argument is there should be no elements in a story that do not actively contribute to it then shit....why should Spider-Man’s SINGLE status be in a book? Why should Aunt May, Jameson or shitton else be multiple stories across the decades of Spider-Man? Hell by this logic Aunt May or Betty Brant are superfluous to ASM annual #1 which inspired part of Spider-Man 2.

   “The Spider Marriage left the franchise spinning it’s wheel for a very long time.”

 This is another lie. After Peter and MJ got married there was precious little wheel spinning. Almost immediately we jumped into ongoing stories involving Betty Brant, Joe Robertson, Peter going to school again, MJ and Peter’s finances taking a hit when MJ lost her job, Jameson being impersonated by Chameleon, Black Cat dating Flash, Peter’s parents returning and THEN you got the Clone Saga FFS.

  Following that we got Norman Osborn running the Daily Bugle followed by the true wheel spinning garbage of the Mackie/Byrne run which was bad BECAUSE they axed the marriage. Following that when JMS took over his wheel spun for maybe 5 months tops? The rest of the time he reconstructed Peter and MJ and Aunt May’s characters, thrust forward with his Spider totem storyline and then began the slow build up to OMD starting with Peter becoming and Avenger.

  There were few months were NOTHING was really happening and the number of issues where that was the case owed much more to the fact that the writers needed to pad out FOUR monthly titles each month!

 “By contrast BND and Slott’s run has been good”

 By objective writing standards this is a fallacy and Bob is offering no proof to this. He just says ‘it’s been good’. Except Bob’s word isn’t proof unto itself despite how much he must like to think so.

 “Peter and MJ are more interesting now”

  This is the proof Bob is not a...I don’t want to say he isn’t true fan. I rarely use that term. It’s more that he...isn’t an informed fan.

 Anyone who knows any legit shit about Spider-Man could tell you Spider-Man is far from more interesting now than he was prior to BND.

  Pre-OMD Spider-Man was the sum of 45 years of experiences. A 30ish average guy who’d been through Hell and a lot of battles and survived them and coped with that pain. He was a competent hero and a flawed human being who was just trying to look out for the little guy and take care of his family.

  MJ meanwhile was a woman who’d also lived through Hell but demonstrated sheer steel by surviving it in spite of having no powers to fall back on. She’d gone from a carefree party animal who was seemingly selfish, to a hero in her own right who had an endless well of inner strength.

  In contrast post-OMD Peter Parker is a man-child fuck up who illegally invades foreign nations with his giant G.I. Joe action figures whilst often playing second fiddle in his own fucking book to whatever guest stars want to steal the limelight. And he’s not believable anymore. He isn’t a grounded guy who copes with the shit thrown at him. He’s the guy who just shrugs off being killed, having his body stolen and his life upended by his enemy and then losing a year of his life.

  That isn’t more interesting unless you are arguing being a Saturday morning cartoon character is inherently more interesting than being....welll actually inherently more interesting than being a certain character Stan Lee and Steve Ditko invented in 1962.

  Which Bob plainly isn’t arguing because he’s also listing MJ as ‘more interesting’....how?

  MJ isn’t even IN the book regularly any more so HOW could she be more interesting. Worse when she WAS in the book she had 2 roles. Ship tease the fans by being Peter’s friend and confidant (i.e. something she used to do BEFORE BND) or being a blind idiot in Superior which is NOT more interesting.

 So what the fuck is he talking about?

 I don’t know WHAT he’s talking about. But when you make a statement like: ‘on balance this story that eviscerated and betrayed everything about who Spider-Man is and invalidates his motivation from now on because he sold out in the biggest way possible, was on balance worth it because we got t see Doc Ock as Spider-Man try to rape people’ I certainly from WHERE he is talking from.

  And the sun don’t shine there son.

[imsobrooklyn-archived-sameurl]

TAGGED BY:  found & stolen. TAGGING: @saturnrang, @falsedking, @valinta + whoever come across this.

►   GENERAL.

HEIGHT:  5′8  —  previously 5′6. After being bitten by the genetically-altered “42″ Spider, his stature is elongated by two inches. WEIGHT:  160 lbs — Miles is an ectomorph; it’s mostly maintained because of his obligatory participations in gym classes, playing basketball with the neighborhood every now and again after school, and the rare times he can sneak off for urban exploration or play around with his uncle’s punching bag. He doesn’t exactly have the greastest diet plan. ETHNICITY:  African-American && Afro-Puerto Rican. OCCUPATION:  Freelance photographer, explorer, artist, F.E.A.S.T. (Food, Emergency, Aid, Shelter, and Training) volunteer, Brooklyn Vision student, convenience store cashier, Dream Defender, and vigilante. GENDER:  Cis-male. He/him. ROMANTIC AND SEXUAL ORIENTATION:  Heterosexual & Demiromantic. MBTI:  ENFP- the champion. Miles know how to relax, and he is perfectly capable of switching from a passionate, driven idealist in the workplace to that imaginative and enthusiastic free spirit on the dance floor, often with a suddenness that can surprise even his closest friends. Being in the mix also gives him a chance to connect emotionally with others, giving him cherished insight into what motivates his friends and colleagues. He believe that everyone should take the time to recognize and express their feelings, and their empathy and sociability make that a natural conversation topic.

Few personality types are as creative and charismatic as ENFPs. Their enthusiasm and vivid imagination allow ENFPs to overcome many challenging obstacles, more often than not brightening the lives of those around them. ENFPs’ creativity is invaluable in many areas, including their own personal growth.

►   SPECIFICS.

FAVOURITE FOOD:  Pasteles, Empanada, Chicharon de pollo, Pop-Tarts, Platanos, Chopped Cheese, Nathan’s Famous’ hotdogs, Aunt Butchie’s Desserts (chocolate mousse preferably), Chinese food, and Ray’s Pizza. FAVOURITE DRINK:  He enjoys his uncle’s Whey protein drinks, but you’ll mostly see him drinking sodas, Gatorade, O.J., and water.  FAVOURITE HOBBY:  Vandal by nature, Miles loves snagging Priority Mail and Hello, My Name Is stickers to practice his art and toss his mark up wherever and whenever he can. Other than that, he plays mental gymnastics for fun when it comes to math problems. If he’s not doing that, then he’s fooling around with programs like Audacity, Sony Vegas, or FL Studio. 

But the activity he feels most at peace at is when he’s isolated in his room or hanging around a building as Spiderman, writing in his journal. FAVOURITE SCENT:  Vanilla, Sandalwood, Shea Moisture Manuka and Yogurt. FAVOURITE PERSON:  Ganke. Miles never had a brother (a reality he yearned his parents make happen), but Ganke gives him an idea as to how it would be if he did have a biological brother.

►   TEN FACTS.

Miles is an only child. “Born” on December 14th, 2003.

He’s Catholic.

Adaptability comes as second nature to Miles. In two days, he managed to survive his near-death experiences as he tangled with some of the best of the original Spiderman’s villains.

Miles use to cry Martin Luther King Day because the television and radio would play clips of his speeches, and he thought sounded like a ghost. 

Until he reached the age of ten, Miles had irritable bowel syndrome and would crap his pants every so often.

He owns an Atari, Sega, and Nintendo console passed down to him from his father.

One of his favorite shows is American Ninja Warrior.

Calculus is one of his favorite subjects. Numbers, symbols, and alphabets is a challenge that he can never tire from.

 There’s an unshakable habit he has and that’s speaking his thoughts out loud, much to his chagrin.

His facial features mostly resemble his father and his uncle, which is can be considered a blessing and a curse, depending on the environment he’s in. Because the Davis brothers dark past had them as hustlers, stick-up kids, and graffiti artists, and their lives would take a drastic turn in where one becomes a cop and the other went on to become a boxer, the name Davis is enough to put a sour taste on the tongues of certain circles. It’s a fleeting love-hate thing he has for it.

►   FIVE THINGS HE LIKES.

VIDEO GAMES  —  Jefferson was never comfortable with sharing his questionable deeds on the streets with his son, but he was more than excited to share his childhood glory with him. He couldn’t wait until Miles was old enough to have a controller in his hand. Miles is “heir” to a collection of dated collection. He likes modern consoles too, as he does own both a XBOX ONE and PLAYSTATION 4, but he prides in being a ‘young old soul’. GRAFFITI  —  It just kind of happened? He wasn’t messing with actual spraypaint because he’s too young to cop them from Home Depot, so he stuck to just stacking up on stickers and using that until he’s legally able to buy his own. HIP-HOP  —  That’s New York. Hip-Hop was born there. Miles passionately embraces the main four elements that represents its culture: Emceeing, DJING, Graffiti Art, Breakdancing and integrates the other five in how he moves. Street fashion, language, entrepanuership, knowldge, beatboxing, Hip-Hop is something he lives.  BOXING  — We can thank Aaron for his interest in that. Aside from the man’s criminal resume, Aaron graduated from neighborhood bruiser to professional boxer. His had a impeccable record before he hung up his gloves, but the passion he had for the sport stayed with him and any chance he got with his newphew, it would show when he would spit game on the greats like Mohammad Ali, Joe Fraizer, Dixie Kid, Jack Dempsey, Tyson, and others and teach him a few of his old moves.  CLEANING SNEAKERS —  It’s nothing deep. You watch Paid in Full a couple of times and add your love for that movie to your natural love of keeping your gear fresh and you get a sneakerhead that’s addicted to keeping his kicks mean and pristine.

►   FIVE THINGS HE DISLIKES.

PEER PRESSURE  —  His hood didn’t have too many stars. There were plenty of potential there, but due to unfortunate circumstances, they make it out, but Miles—everybody regards him as the gold representation. Because of his upbringings, Miles is sort of hood royalty in a positive sense. On one hand, he enjoys it appreciation, but on the other hand, he hates it because his father doesn’t make it easy on him at all. He doesn’t judge his father for doing what he had to do in the streets to survive, but he hates his father for shoving his demons down his throat. Becoming Spiderman was nothing to leap for him to leap excitedly over either. Being stressed with being the “good son”, the “golden boy” of his neighborhood, and acing studies was enough as is. Since Peter Parker and his uncle’s murder, he felt tremendous guilt over not being able to help, and with his abilities, he feels strong on his moral obligation to do what he can to be New York’s protector. It’s not the easiest weight for a teenager to carry. E X P E C T A T I O N S! eff dem! UNDERESTIMATED  — In school, he dealt with a teacher that regarded him and kids like him as trash that would never be able to amount to anything. The Spider-gang didn’t think he had what it takes, making him feel as if he was a burden and incapable of being strong enough to keep his promise to his universe’s Peter Parker. He doesn’t do well with people acting like he can’t do anything. TALES FROM THE HOOD  — Doesn’t particularly care to hear about criminal exploits, especially the ones his family participated in. Some kids would love to hear about how hard their peers went in the street—Miles isn’t one of them. If anything, he wishes he was oblivious to it and didn’t have to hear one related word to it. That’s one thing he’s thankful for when it comes to his dad and Aaron. They never bragged or felt inclined to share gorey details and for good reason. Miles know they and everyone else want better for him. LYING —  His mama raised him to be a honest boy. His pops raised him to be a man of principle. His uncle instilled street honor in him. Other than that? Miles naturally hates lying. It doesn’t make him feel good and can actually make him a serious nervous wreck if it gets to be too much for him.  FIGHTING  —  Even though he was taught self-defense and enjoyed his boxing lessons, Miles avoided conflict as much as he could. He preferred to just be that cool guy that can make friends with the whole world and keep it pushing. He accepts that it’s unavoidable as a superhero, but that doesn’t stop him from trying to come to a peaceful resolve before the situation gets nasty.

►   WORDS / PHRASES THAT ANNOY HIM.

CLASSISM —  I know it’s not a word/phrase, so I’ll just say toxic braggadocio statements. When it comes to skin color, religion, abilities (supernatural or mortal), lienage, whatever—Miles views them all as people that share the same oxygen and should treat each other like they’re aware of that. Being made to feel like a sub-human aggravates him more than he cares to admit (he once broke his classroom desk because of his teacher constant poking at the african diaspora).

►   PERSONALITY TYPES HE PREFERS.

FREE SPIRITS —  Chilled souls; people that are down to do whatever they please (in a healthy, non-violent way), and exudes positive energy. It’s nice to be around individuals that understands what it means to have fun without restrictions and not people that live by some book like his father. You can miss him with those that feels like they have to be tight asses all the time.

►   PERSONALITY TYPES HE AVOIDS.

GOD COMPLEX —  Kingpins/drug lords/gang leaders/criminal upstarts, just people that play God in the streets, dictating who lives and dies, just because they have a gun and have a little bit of power. There’s not a doubt in his mind that there will be elements in the underworld that’s going to try to seduce him to the life. It’s a mission of his to not fall into the same darkness that stained the Davis name. You will never see Miles becoming close friends with a thug or a wannabee. He’ll try to steer them clear of it and be a moral compass of course, but having that as a part of his inner circle is a big no.

[lackshumaniity-blog]

VERSES RUNDOWN

SOME CHESS PIECES ON A BOARD ARE TWO STEPS FORWARD AGAINST THE OPPOSITION |  616 PRE - RETCON v  

DEFAULT 616 VERSE.   this verse follows the canon storyline of the prime marvel universe prior to major retcons of character relationships and his character in general. (  mostly due to me not being a huge fan of the carnage mess that happened recently   )  

it pulls together the classic canon and current canon up to a point, playing all throughout the canon as it is. where he sits is   JUST BEFORE   he shows up for the final fight before the goblin formula is removed from him by peter in the last issue of the superior spider - man arc. liz removing him of the situation furthered his ability to rise again.

DESTRUCTIBLE AND VIOLENT  ;  RIPS APART FABRIC AND ‘ LOVED ONES ‘  ALIKE IN THE NAME OF PROGRESS | 616 POST  -  RETCON 

SECONDARY 616 VERSE.   basically going to be the exact   opposite   of the pre - retcon. it essentially is the opposite of where the timeline sits. he’s more dangerous simply for the fact that his mental state hasn’t been treated proper  --  he came out of the broken assumption that he was  cletus kasady  and recalled his memories. he knows who spider - man is yet the brain damage from classic canon and the mess that had been carnage, his state is far from stable. though earlier on in this verse he might be a   little   more aggressive. depends. 

I WAS ONCE THE COLDEST STORY EVER TOLD  ;  HEARTLESS AND    FROZEN BUT NOW IN THAW  |  EARTH 91101 VERSE

FOLLOWS DIVERGENT / ALTERED 616 CANON.   the alternate clone saga has norman’s death reversed in the form of being alive again as a clone. he’s better than the first, perfect and not ill like the first before him. he’s more calm, collected and doesn’t hold hatred toward any spider. pretty much  ??   he’s what norman could have been like without the influence of his father pushing him forth, the trauma that it brought, formula within him affecting his personality and mental state and finally  -- the subsequent brain damage from the explosion back in classic 616 canon. he simply wants the cycle of violence to cease.

A KING OF TWO CASTLES  ;  A KING WITH AN HEIR  ;  AFFLUENCE AND A GROWING EMPIRE ON THE RISE  |  MCU VERSE

ENTIRELY HC BASED UNTIL OTHERWISE.  has no canon and simply follows the guise of this tweet considering the implication the osborn’s exist within the mcu. either way,  he follows 616 comic classic canon from a man creating oscorp from the ground up,  building his company from nothing after graduating college and playing the board of its pieces.  betrayals are inevitable in business and oscorp stands to be growing bigger and larger as the years move on.

an obvious competitor to stark industries,  there’s more than a large rivalry between the two companies and in instances where norman   is   the green goblin,  its clear in its tone when attacks are put forth toward the company and oscorp competitors. yet at beginning there’s no full harm put forth until later when the aggression gets more so.

at current standing he’s bought out and renovating  (   or finished and sitting pretty in his office   )   the avengers tower and being a gremlin man as he always seems to be.

please note:  whether norman is green goblin or just   norman   is entirely up to the partner i write with.  i won’t force anythin’ on anyone  !!

MY TASK IS TO KILL PETER PARKER | USM VERSE  

follows canon of the  comic   ultimate spider-man run from 2000 -  2015 (  the universe is still rolling along i guess but norman kinda was in an out but besides the point   )   where he’s pretty crazy and wishing for peter parker and miles morales to join him. however, upon being denied, in true goblin fashion, tries to kill them both. 

at current he’s currently rebuilding his former residence from the ground up through contracts, favors, and money he’s got stored while also running amok and regularly fighting with spider-man.

GOD SPEED SPIDERMAN | EARTH 96283 / OG SM FILMS VERSE 

follows along events of sam raimi’s 2002 spider - man film, during and afterward. due to the serum  (   and, like, every canon  )  he revives and is healed from his injuries sustained from his glider. threads can be anywhere during first  -  third films. still having issues with the goblin’s influence and declining mental health its simply a struggle to present  (   if following SM3 canon, especially after the loss of his only heir.  )

THIS . .  IS OPPORTUNITY KNOCKING | INSOMNIAC V  

follows along the events of insomniac games’ ps4 spider - man game, during or afterward. everything that he’s done in this canon is included in his character, thus his slightly more personable demeanor is there yet still shadowed his his normal self. threads can sit prior to the game but will need to have proper plotting / development.

THE MORTAL ENEMY YOU BECAME ; KILLED ALL IN YOUR WAY | ALTER  -- SPIDER

SPIDER NORMAN.   this follows the events of   edge of spider - geddon #4  in how it establishes norman is the current  spider - man  of his universe as he tries to find a way to dimensional travel. he’s murdered peter parker and in a battle, his son, harry osborn. most of what comes after he’s pulled into another portal by spider - punk is in the air until after or during spider - geddon.

however most interactions will be him showing up or another muse showing up in his building.

SOME EARTHS KEEP THE STATUS QUO . . THIS ISN'T ONE OF THEM  |    EARTH 94 VERSE

closed verse with @brothergained​.  dances around in their canon and its just a whole plotted hullaballo where everyone’s happy for once

[thecomicsnexus]

The Amazing Spider-man #129-131. February-April, 1974. By Gerry Conway and Ross Andru.

A new costumed criminal known as the Jackal has appeared and has hired the Punisher -- a costumed vigilante that loves death -- to destroy Spider-Man. The wall-crawler, meanwhile, is web-slinging through the city; he stops to take some pictures of a robbery and busts it up as well. He takes the photos to the Bugle, where J. Jonah Jameson has a fit that Parker has not been able to get any photos of the Punisher, and that all the competition is snapping up photos of him in action.

Peter leaves and changes back to Spider-Man, and soon finds himself attacked by the Punisher, who thinks that Spider-Man is a common crook just like everyone else he kills. The vigilante doesn't have much of an upper hand against Spider-Man, and the Jackal (hiding near the battle) decides to strike out. When his claws rake the back of Spider-Man's head, the Punisher calls the Jackal on his "unjust" methods of killing Spider-Man. The wall-crawler manages to get away when he stumbles off the edge of the building they are fighting on, gain control, and swing away. When the Jackal and Punisher depart, Spider-Man returns to the scene and collects on the Punisher's weapon that was left behind and sees that it was made by Reiss Armories.

As Spider-Man returns to his apartment, as Peter Parker, he mends his costume, unaware that Harry Osborn is listening and suspecting that Peter may know that he's decided to become the Green Goblin. While at ESU, Miles Warren has sought out Mary Jane Watson to see if she can pass along an apology to Peter over their brief run-in while he was trying to get help for her when the Vulture had captured her. At the secret hideout of the Jackal, the Punisher lashes out at the Jackal over their methods of elimination. The Punisher leaves to go the Mechanic, his gun supplier, to resupply.

This brings him to Reiss Armories, where he finds Spider-Man, who just stumbled upon the Mechanic's dead body. Thinking that the wall-crawler had killed the Mechanic, the Punisher attacks him. During their fight, Spider-Man manages to get the upper hand and bind the Punisher. He then makes the vigilante see that the Jackal's trademark clawings were the cause of the Mechanic's death. Realizing that the Jackal had been manipulating him to do his dirty work and then intended to frame him for murder, the Punisher vows to get revenge against the Jackal and storms out. When Spider-Man hears police sirens he leaves as well. The Jackal, watching on, vows that he will eventually destroy Spider-Man.

While out on patrol, Spider-Man spies some crooks popping out of a manhole with the intent of robbing a sky scraper, Spider-Man stops them. When one of the captured crooks tries to tell Spider-Man that he's hired by Hammerhead, a device in his head kills him when he tries to utter his employer's name. Hammerhead meanwhile has just returned to New York after his sabbatical in Europe. While offloading on the pier, he is greeted by the Jackal, who goads Hammerhead into wanting to get revenge against Spider-Man and Dr. Octopus, hoping that the villain will play in his hands.

At the Baxter Building, Spider-Man pays a visit to the Human Torch, who unveils the completed Spider-Mobile. The two take it out on a test drive and test out all of the vehicles abilities (which mimic that of Spider-Man's own spider-powers including ties that allow it to scale walls, and web-shooters.) However, things go awry when the Torch soon learns that Spider-Man has no drivers license and up to this point has never driven a car before.

As this goes on, Dr. Octopus -- fresh out of prison -- watches the spectacle amusingly before traveling to the roof of the Pan-Am building to take a helicopter ride to Westchester. Spider-Man meanwhile has returned back to his apartment and changed back to Peter Parker where he gets a call from his Aunt May who is checking in. However, their conversation is cut short when Mary Jane arrives earlier than planned and he has to let her go.

A few days later, when Hammerhead's men attack another building with special jet packs, Spider-Man tries to stop them in his new Spider-Mobile. During the fight, Hammerhead enters the fray and knocks over Spider-Man's car. After giving the wall-crawler a solid head-butt, the crooks make their escape. When Spider-Man recovers his Spider-Mobile before the police can secure it, he finds a mysterious envelope planted by the Jackal.

Spider-Man doesn't get a chance to read the letter until after he shows up for Ned Leed's Christmas party. Peter departs after Mary Jane tries to get a kiss from him under the mistletoe, prompting Peter (who's not ready for romance so soon after Gwen's death) to leave. Reading the contents of the envelope, Peter realizes what Dr. Octopus has been so interested in Aunt May for. Changing to Spider-Man he rushes to Octopus' Westchester hideout and arrives just to see that there is a private marriage ceremony, and the bride and groom are Aunt May and Doc Ock!

Rushing to the estate of Dr. Octopus, Spider-Man arrives just in time to see that his arch-nemesis is about to get married to his Aunt May. Before Spider-Man can react, Hammerhead and his goons bust in on the marriage with guns blazing. Octopus fights off some of Hammerhead's men, and manages to make an escape with Aunt May through a secondary exit. Spider-Man intercepts them and tries to stop Octopus from getting away, but he's knocked out. Octopus then makes his escape with May in a helicopter. Witnessing this, Hammerhead and his men decide to follow after Octopus in the helicopter they arrived in themselves. Spider-Man, reviving from his blow from Dr. Octopus secretly hitches a ride aboard Hammerhead's copter.

Back at Ned Leed's Christmas party, Mary Jane realizes that Peter has ditched her, while Ned and Betty Brant point out that Peter seems to be adjusting to her attention pretty well in spite of the fact that Gwen recently died. Mary Jane feigns any desire to be in a relationship, leaves the couple, and Joe Robertson puts in his two cents to them about Peter being stable enough to make his own decisions.

While high in the air, Hammerhead's helicopter follows Doc Oct's into Canadian air space. There they are led to an island off the coast of Canada to a nuclear facility which has been inherited by Aunt May following the death of a relative (the reason why Octopus was interested in marrying her.) With both crafts landing down, another fight between Dr. Octopus and Hammerhead begins. With bullets flying, the shock is too much for Aunt May, who passes out. After a brief fight with Dr. Octopus, Spider-Man grabs his unconscious Aunt May and flies for New York City in an airplane from a nearby hanger.

Meanwhile, Dr. Octopus enters the building and is mortified when he learns the facility's primary function is a nuclear breeder. When Hammerhead bursts in, Octopus warns Hammerhead that the slightest vibration can cause a violent explosion. Hammerhead doesn't heed this warning and charges at Dr. Octopus. Octavius dodges the attack, causing Hammerhead to ram into the control panel of the breeder. This causes the very type of explosion that Dr. Octopus warned them of. Spider-Man manages to fly out of the explosions reach just in time. Aunt May soon revives, but before Spider-Man can explain anything to her, the fact that she's sharing an airplane with Spider-Man causes her to pass out again.

In New York, Mary Jane decides it's time to leave the part because she figures that Peter is not coming back. When Betty tries to get her to talk about how she feels about Peter, she says that she can't bring herself to love Peter, and that she cares about him too much to allow herself to do that. When Betty presses for more of an explanation, she tells her to leave it for another day and departs.

From Marvel Wikia

Villains have a habit of taking over abandoned warehouses, so imagine my surprise when I find out the whole reason for Doc Ock to marry Aunt May, was to be able to use her inherited nuclear facility. So yes, the main story makes no sense.

A couple of first appearances though, with The Punisher and the Jackal (as Jackal). Oh, and the Spider-mobile, a vehicle I usually forget exists.

I give the arc a score of 6.75