Amazing Spider-Man #293
Crawling
This story continues from Web of Spider-Man #31..
Karven the Hunter has succeeded in burying Spider-Man alive and stolen his identity. Standing before Spider-Man's grave, Kraven pulls off his mask and laughs maniacally in the pounding storm. Elsewhere, a woman tries to run for cover from the rain down an empty Manhattan street. She is frightened when a rat scurries past her causing her to slip and fall to the ground. As the woman tries to recover, a manhole cover opens up behind her and a hair covered hand reaches out from the sewers and pulls the woman in. Trapped in the sewers among the rats, the woman is approached by the rat-man known as Vermin, who intends to eat the woman. Meanwhile, Mary Jane Watson waits at the apartment she shares with her husband waiting for him to come home from his rounds as Spider-Man. Mary Jane can't help but worry that her husband might be dead when she spots a rat scurrying across the apartment. Revolted by the site of the vermin, Mary Jane beats it to death with a boot. Seeing the smashed corpse of the rodent disgusts Mary Jane who turns away from the grotesque site.
Meanwhile, Kraven the Hunter travels across the city in a Spider-Man costume back to his mansion. In the grips of madness, he intends to try and literally become his seemingly dead foe. Entering a room with a massive display of spiders, Kraven strips off the upper part of his costume and laps at a bowl of hallucinogens on the floor. Suddenly gripped with pain, Kraven angrily smashes the display glass, filling the room with spiders. Beginning to hallucinate, Kraven tries to keep his fear in check as the mass of spiders forms into a massive gestalt. While back in the sewers, Vermin and the sewer rats have finished devouring his victim. After his meal, the Vermin comes across a page from a newspaper. Seeing a photo of Spider-Man frightens Vermin, who recalls his last encounter with Spider-Man and Captain America. Vermin is conflicted between his fear of the masked hero and the idea that he isn't afraid of anyone. The Vermin tries to prove this by trying to go up to the surface. However, when a spider crawls past the manhole cover, the Vermin is frightened and returns to the safety of the sewers. Hearing footsteps above, the Vermin fears that it is Spider-Man coming after him and beats one of his own rats to death in order to keep quiet and avoid detection.
However, this is not Spider-Man, but his wife Mary Jane who is out walking in the rain trying to find some sign of her husband. Her search is interrupted by two men who catcall at her. When she tells them to get stuffed they become angry. At that moment, Kraven the Hunter tries to maintain his sense of identity as he fights the mass of spiders but he is soon swarmed by them all. Simultaneously, the Vermin senses some calling out to him and thinks it is Spider-Man and grows angry. While on the surface, Mary Jane tries to get away from the two men who were gawking at her. When they catch up to her, they are suddenly Spider-Man apparently appears. However, as Mary Jane watches as the costumed man brutally beats the two men without a single word, she realizes that this is not her husband. When she begs Kraven to stop, he does and then leaps away. Not far away, Vermin emerges from the sewers to hunt for Spider-Man, but he is not sure where to begin looking. His mind suddenly turns to food once he discovers that he is hungry once again, and begins searching for something -- or someone --to eat.
This story continues in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #131...
Recurring Characters
Kraven the Hunter, Mary Jane Watson, Vermin
Continuity Notes
Mary Jane refers to herself as a newlywed in this story. She and Peter Parker had just recently been married in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. However, years later in Amazing Spider-Man #545 the demon known as Mephisto erased all history of Peter and Mary Jane's marriage. As such reality had been altered so that they were no longer married, but a common-law couple that lives together.
Spider-Man and Captain America both battled Vermin together in Marvel Team-Up #128.
