Goin' Straight!

Spider-Man asks Jean DeWolff to give the Black Cat a chance to go straight. Black Cat wants to do one last job and decides to steal a golden and ruby statuette called the "Quest's End" so she can secure her and Spider-Man a nest egg but it is not to be. Spider-man and the Cat fight, and Spidey leaves.

Spider-man goes to the ESU and Peter Parker writes down a work on the DNA he should have finished days ago. Peter feels better than ever and capable of doing anything.

Later on, the Black Cat enters the mansion of Sam Galvagno and steals the "Quest's End" statuette. But Spidey is waiting for her on the balcony when she leaves the robbery scene. He forces her to give the statuette back but she lies to him and makes him push the alarms because the Black Cat wants him to be her companion in the robbery business.

The alarms make Sam Galvagno and his henchmen appear and the guns explode! Spidey succeeds in escaping with the Cat, but he is injured in a leg. The Cat escapes from him too and Spider-man pursuits her until the docks. There he tries to convince her to abandon her crime life and ask the district attorney for an amnesty but she does not believe that possible and keeps running. Then Spider-man covers her with his web and she decides to drown instead of going back to jail. Spidey dives after her but does not find the Cat or her body.

Later on, as the nurse cures his leg, Captain DeWolff arrives with the amnesty's papers. Too late, Spidey throws the papers to the water and mourns.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Jean DeWolff, Black Cat, Marcy Kane, Debra Whitman, Morris Sloan, Phillip Chang

Continuity Notes

• Spider-Man mulls over his past relationship woes: Particularly he references how he and Mary Jane recently broke up. She ended their relationship when Peter proposed to her in Amazing Spider-Man #183. He also mentions Gwen Stacy, who was killed during a battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #121.

• Peter writing a paper on a typewriter should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.