Nick Peron

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Amazing Spider-Man #326

Nick Peron

Gravity Storm

Credits

Peter Parker and his wife Mary Jane have moved into their new apartment and are throwing a housewarming party. As Peter opens up the gifts, Flash tries to follow the lead of his new activist girlfriend, Sambouka. While Mary Jane dances with Peter's old university friend Philip Chang, a number of the female party guests fawn over Harry Osborn's son Normie. Suddenly, some delivery men arrive to deliver flowers, and a number of high priced food, and an swan ice sculpture. Thinking that this was a gift from a modeling agency, Mary Jane is horrified when she reads the card that came with the gift. She runs to the room she shares with Peter in a hurry and her husband follows after her. Peter learns that the present came from Jonathan Caeser, Mary Jane's obsessed stalker. Peter asks to handle Caeser, but Mary Jane wants to deal with him her own way and tells him to give her a moment to compose herself before returning to the party.

The party winds down for the evening and the guests begin leaving. Peter leaves so he can check for assignments at the Daily Bugle, check in with his Aunt May, and talk to Dr. Evan Swan about his assignments on Monday morning. As he heads out, Flash and his date ask to tag along. Peter agrees although he's not impressed with the woman that Flash brought with him. On the way, Peter admits that he can't believe that Flash is going to take a crack at boxing. Sambuka thinks that the sport is barbaric and wonders why he would engage in such a career. This strikes a raw nerve with Flash, who snaps at her, saying that he's tired of being a total loser and wants to make something of himself again. Peter is surprised to hear this, thinking that Thompson's self-image has taken a beating following his recent troubles. When Peter arrives at the Daily Bugle looking for assignments, he finds that the staff is still reeling from Thomas Fireheart's recent hostile take over of the Daily Bugle. Peter heads up to the roof to change into Spider-Man and head back to Queens. As he prepares to take off his civilian clothes in the stairwell, he notices some newly installed security cameras. He goes up to the roof to complete changing and web-slings his way to Aunt May's house.

Meanwhile, the villain known as Graviton arrives in New York City. He has been assigned the task of attacking Spider-Man. His approach is intercepted by a police helicopter, but it is easily crushed by Graviton's powers. Soon he arrives at in the city, where he turns his attention to the Daily Bugle building. At that moment, Peter Parker arrives at his Aunt May's house in Forest Hills just in time to bid farewell to one of her last tenants, Anton Chekov, who is moving into a resident hotel. Inside, he comforts his Aunt May who is shutting down her rooming home so that she and Nathan Lubensky can privately enjoy his final days. While back at Peter and Mary Jane's new loft, Mary Jane and Liz Osborn are finishing up the cleaning following the housewarming party. That's when Harry comes back upstairs with Normie to tell Mary Jane that he got a phone call for her, that wasn't Peter. Mary Jane is horrified as she believes the caller was Jonathan Caeser.

Back in Manhattan, Graviton enters the Daily Bugle building. Inside he is confronted by a security guard, but he easily incapacitates the guard with his powers. He then decides to lift the Daily Bugle building into the air in order to attract Spider-Man's attention. At that moment, Peter arrives at Empire State University to see what the itinerary is for the start of the school week. There, he walks in on an experiment that is being conducted by Dr. Max Lubisch. Dr. Evan Swan introduces Peter to Lubisch, explaining that Max has come to run experiments on a previously unknown form of energy and that Peter will be assisting him starting Monday. Peter is excited but has to abruptly leave when he looks out the window and sees the Daily Bugle floating in the air. Changing into Spider-Man, the wall-crawler swings up to the Daily Bugle, where he spies Graviton in the offices. As Nick Katzenberg snaps photos of the villain, Spider-Man comes crashing in through the window to stop the villain. At first, Spider-Man can't get near Graviton due to his powers, until the villain is temporarily blinded by the flash from Katzenberg's camera. However, before Spider-Man can knock out his foe, Joy Mercado stop him, pointing out that if he knocks Graviton out, it could cause the Daily Bugle to come crashing down.

Graviton recovers from Spider-Man's attacks and pulls together a ball of metal and uses it to knock the wall-crawler outside. Graviton then uses his powers to increase Nick Katzenberg's gravity, pinning him to the floor. Spider-Man comes back inside and pulls Katzenberg off the floor before he can be crushed by a number of desks pulled toward him. Spider-Man is caught in-between the desks. Confident that he has defeated his foe, Graviton brings the ceiling down on him, resets the Daily Bugle and leaves. However, Spider-Man survived and is pulled from the rubble from emergency workers who arrive on the scene. When Nick Katzenberg takes photos of Spider-Man's humiliating rescue, Joy Mercado rips the camera out of his hands, angry that the shady photographer would so callously attempt to humiliate the man who saved their lives. After fruitlessly searching for Graviton, Peter Parker returns to his new apartment in Soho. He thinks that he is a complete loser until he arrives and discovers that Mary Jane has prepared a romantic evening for them. Telling his wife that he loves her, Peter reconsiders his opinion, thinking that he's not a total loser after all.

Spider-Man's involvement in the Acts of Vengeance conspiracy continues in Spectacular Spider-Man #158...

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Flash Thompson, Graviton, J. Jonah Jameson, Glory Grant, Kate Cushing, Nick Katzenberg, Joy Mercado, Harry Osborn, Liz Osborn, Normie Osborn, Arthur Chekov, Dr. Max Lubisch, Dr. Evan Swann, Candi Muggins, Randi Cooper, Bambi Modica, Phillip Chang, Nathan Lubensky, Thomas Fireheart

Continuity Notes

  • Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife in this story. However, years later, their marriage was erased from history by the demon Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As such they should be considered a common-law couple as opposed to husband and wife.

  • Sambouka states that she is on a hunger strike to protest apartheid in South Africa. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616, particularly since apartheid was abolished in that region in 1994.

  • Jonathan Caeser kidnapped Mary Jane in Amazing Spider-Man #307-309. Even though he ended up in prison, he used his influence to get Peter and Mary Jane evicted from their condo at Bedford Towers and ruin MJ's modeling career, as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #314.

  • In recent history Flash has suffered a lot of setbacks. He started an affair with Betty Brant in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110. When his then-girlfriend Sha Shan learned this in Amazing Spider-Man #275, she let him. Flash was framed for the crimes committed by the Hobgoblin in the following issue. Spider-Man eventually cleared Flash's name in Amazing Spider-Man #289.

  • Owing a debt to Spider-Man, Thomas Fireheart -- aka the Puma -- used his vast wealth to buy the Daily Bugle so he could improve Spider-Man's reputation. This happened in the Spectacular Spider-Man #157.

  • Pitting Graviton against Spider-Man is the primary objective of the Acts of Vengeance conspiracy. As detailed in Avengers Spotlight #26 a group of super-villains has teamed up to destroy their foes by pitting them against unfamiliar foes.

  • Aunt May started renting out rooms in her home to elderly tenants in Marvel Team-Up #124. When it was announced that her fiancee Nathan Lubenski is dying of heart disease, she decided to close up her boarding house. These events were revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #321.

Acts of Vengeance Reading Order