Amazing Spider-Man #258
The Sinister Secret of Spider-Man's New Costume!
As our story begins, Mary Jane Watson confronts Peter shortly after his return home from battling the Puma. She reveals to him that she has known that he was Spider-Man for years - which comes as a complete shock to him.
Peter tries to convince Mary Jane to stay, but she fears that all he is going to do is lie to her again. She confides that while she cares for him, she just can't deal with the fact that he is a superhero, and that is the main reason why she left New York to begin with.
As Peter scrambles to try and get Mary Jane to stay, the Black Cat comes leaping into his apartment through the window. This blows away any chance Peter had of keeping his secret identity. Seeing the Black Cat in his apartment and realizing she knows his secret as well, Mary Jane leaves in tears. Peter calls after her to come back, but the Black Cat tells him not to worry about this other woman, as he doesn't need a "bimbo" like her.
Peter snaps at the Black Cat for entering his apartment in such a reckless fashion, jeopardizing his secret identity. The Black Cat isn't interested in dealing with her lover's emotional outburst and begins to leave. Peter doesn't want her to go and is surprised when his costume, currently in street-clothing form, shoots webbing at her.
While he tries to make sense of this, the Black Cat embraces him, realizing that he does care about her. As she hugs him, Peter is more concerned about his costume, and how little he knows about it.
Meanwhile in Heartsdale, New Mexico, Thomas Fireheart returns to his office at Fireheart Enterprises, where he asks his secretary, Jenna Taylor to assemble a dossier on Spider-Man, so that he can prepare for his final conflict with him.
Back in New York, Peter boards up the window that was broken previously during his battle with the Puma. He decides to try and call Mary Jane, but she doesn't answer. She is busy packing up her things, but when she comes across a photo of her sister and her kids. Mary Jane realizes that she is running from Peter, the same way she ran away from her sister. She wonders why she runs away from all the people she cares for.
Giving up on reaching Mary Jane, Peter wills the costume off his body and sits down. He thinks about everything that has been going on in his life and wonders how things began spiraling out of control. Peter relaxes in a chair, and no sooner is he asleep, than his costume crosses the room, bonds to him and takes the still unconscious wall-crawler out web-slinging.
As he, Peter has a nightmare where he is a teenaged version of himself being stalked by his black costume. In the dreamscape, he is rescued by his original red and blue costume. As the two costumes fight over each other, Peter tries to flee but the two garments go after him. As they fight over Peter, he wakes up screaming. Peter finds himself back in bed, unaware that his costume took him out while he was asleep. Disturbed by his dream, Peter decides to finally take his new costume to be examined by Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four.
Later that day, Spider-Man pays a visit to the Baxter Building where he is granted access by the security systems. There he finds the Human Torch and Mister Fantastic in the lab. He tells them that he has come to take Reed up to his offer to examine his new costume. Spider-Man then undergoes a battery of tests to determine how the costume can shoot webs, meld itself over his body, and camoflage itself as normal clothing.
While this is going on, the villainous Rose is entertaining the Hobgoblin at his penthouse. However, before he listens to the Hobgoblin's proposal, he is determined to prove if this is really the Hobgoblin, as he had heard that he had been killed. Guards, summoned by The Rose, attack the Hobgoblin, who takes them all down within a few seconds. Convinced that he is dealing with the genuine article, the Rose listens to the Hobgoblin's proposal, that they their pool their resources together to in order to rival the Kingpin. To start their campaign, they will destroy Spider-Man once and for all.
Back at the Baxter Building, Spider-Man and the Human Torch reminisce over their experiences on Battleworld, while they wait for Reed to finish his examination of the costume. Mister Fantastic soon enters and tells Spider-Man the shocking truth about his costume: It's a living symbiotic creature that is attempting to bond to him permenantly.
Panicked, Spider-man tries to remove the costume, but it fights back. Having determined that the costume is sensitive to loud noise, Mister Fantastic uses a sonic blaster to force the costume off Spider-Man. The Human Torch then contains the creature in a circle of flame to hold it in place, and Mister Fantastic traps it in a containment device.
With his costume removed, Peter covers his face, reminding the two members of the Fantastic Four that he has a secret identity to maintain. The Torch has a solution to the problem and gets Spider-Man one of his old Fantastic Four costumes and a paperbag to wear over his face as a crude mask. Despite being embarassed by this new ensemble, Spider-Man grudgingly accepts it for the time being, since he has to wear something.
Reed asks Spider-Man if he can keep the alien costume to examine it further. The wall-crawler tells Reed that he can keep it, as he never wants to see it again. After the Human Torch drops Spider-Man outside of the Baxter Building, the wall-crawler makes his trek back home. However, along the way, he happens upon a liquor store robbery that has been interrupted by the police. Spider-Man swings in and easily trounces the crooks. With the battle is over, Spider-Man is swarmed by reporters who want to know who he is. Embarassed and overwhealmed, the wall-crawler quickly escapes.
In the aftermath of this experience, Peter laments over how humbled he has been made recently and wonders what to do about Mary Jane and the Black Cat. Suddenly, it begins to snow, which is the final straw in what in what has turned out to be a horrible day for Spider-Man.
Once back home, Peter Parker watches the news coverage of his embarassing outing as the "Unknown Superhero". Trying to figure out what to do without his new costume, Peter pulls out his web-shooters out of storage and contemplates wearing his old red and blue costume again, when suddenly there is a knock at the door.
It's Mary Jane who has come to talk to Peter, having grown tired of running away from her problems. She has decided that since she knows Peter's biggest secret it is only fair to tell him her own. Meanwhile, back at the Baxter Building, Spider-Man's alien costume seething with hatred and a desire for revenge. Although it is being held in Reed's lab, it is trying to escape from the containment unit that it is being held.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Black Cat, Human Torch, Mister Fantastic, Hobgoblin, Rose, Puma, HUBERT, Mr. Varley, Mr. Johnston, Jenna Taylor
Continuity Notes
The narrative of this story recounts Spider-Man's recent battles with Silvermane and the Puma. These occurred in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #94-95 and Amazing Spider-Man #256-257 respectively.
Mary Jane revealed that she has known that Peter Parker was secretly Spider-Man for years at the climax of last issue. The details of this discovery are depicted in Marvel Graphic Novel #46 and Untold Tales of Spider-Man #16.
Peter recounts a few events of his time on Battleworld. Namely how he obtained his alien costume and how Galactus almost consumed the planet in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 and 9 respectively.
When Peter is lamenting over his recent problems he envisions a number of people involved in his life recently. Some facts:
His Aunt May is upset with him because he decided to quit grad school. He told her this in Amazing Spider-Man #253.
Joe Robertson has been giving Peter a hard time at work since taking over the editor-in-chief position at the Daily Bugle in Amazing Spider-Man #251, which is also when the Hobgoblin apparently died.
His problems with the Black Cat revolve around the fact that she has been keeping the fact that she recently got superpowers from the Kingpin in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #89.
He is worried about Jack O'Lantern, who he recently battled in Amazing Spider-Man #254.
Although the Hobgoblin "proves" he didn't die in Amazing Spider-Man #251, it is later revealed in Web of Spider-Man #30 and Spider-Man: Hobgoblin Lives #3, the Hobgoblin featured in this issue is Ned Leeds, brainwashed by Roderick Kingsley into believing he was the original Hobgoblin.
