Deadly is Delilah!

The assassin-for-hire known as Delilah poses as a singer, putting on a song for mobster Don Vito Torrancio for his birthday. Circling behind the mobster, she stabs him through the neck with her microphone, killing him instantly. When the other members of his mob try to put her down, Delilah easily slaughters them. She meets with her employer who is waiting for her in the back of a limo outside. He congratulates her for a job well done by handing her a rose and a picture of her next target, Garon Lewis.

Meanwhile, Ben Reilly is in the hospital visiting Peter Parker who is clinging to life. While outside, Mary Jane asks Doctor Curt Connors about her husband's chances. He tells her that she owes it to her unborn child to keep calm, but tells her that he has not found a means of slowing Peter's downward spiral. After Connors leaves, Ben asks Mary Jane if she thinks its a good idea to divulge the fact that Peter is actually a clone. She doesn't think this would be a good idea since nobody knows how to cure clone degeneration if that is what is affecting her husband. As Ben Reilly leaves, Joe Robertson arrives to ask if there has been any change in Peter's condition. He also mentions that J. Jonah Jameson was supposed to stop by earlier, only to learn that the Daily Bugle publisher has not been in to see Peter.

Upon the roof of the hospital, Ben changes into Spider-Man, thinking how J. Jonah Jameson is likely trying to find some way to go cheap on Peter's insurance benefits. His thoughts about Peter's plight is quickly interrupted when he notices police arriving on the scene of a robbery. Going in to investigate, he overhears the officers remarking that the robbery looks like the work of the Ringer. Spider-Man adds the Ringer to his mental list of foes that Peter Parker battled as Spider-Man while Ben was in exile that have resurfaced recently. When Ben arrives at the Daily Grind he tries to help Shirley with a spill but she snaps at him. This catches Reilly off guard, but Buzz tells him that Shirley has been under a lot of pressure since her ex-husband has been poking his nose into her life again. That's when Desiree Winthrop and her friends come in for some coffee. He then asks her if she has seen Jessica Carradine, as he has been trying to get ahold of her but she had recently had her phone disconnected. Unfortunately, Desiree doesn't know what happened to her, as she dropped out of her classes and disappeared. Ben is disappointed as this is yet another troubled person he failed to help. That's when Shirley apologizes to Ben, explaining that she is upset that her ex-husband is trying to play a more active role in the life of her son, Devon. This is something she doesn't want, as she is certain that Garon is involved in illegal activities. Offering to help, Ben asks Shirley where Garon is going to be meeting with Devon.

A few hours later, Spider-Man arrives in Central Park in order to observe Garon and find out what sort of shady dealings he's involved with. Shirley is not the only one suspicious of the sudden reappearance of Garon Lewis, as Devon confronts his father about his motivations. Despite Devon's assertions that his father has reappeared in their lives to upset his mother, he insists that he only came to see if she needs financial help after she has gone into debt rebuilding her coffee shop. Suddenly, a woman pushing a baby carriage shoves it toward Garon and Devon. His spider-sense buzzing, Spider-Man leaps down and intercepts the buggy. Seeing that there is a bomb hidden inside, the wall-crawler shoves the carriage aside. Although he saves the Lewis' from the blast, the web-spinner is stunned by the blast. While Spider-Man recovers from the blast, Garon chases his would-be assassin into the sewers. After Devon tells Spider-Man what happened, the web-head follows after them. Meanwhile, at the Daily Bugle, Joe Robertson finds J. Jonah Jameson's office locked. Getting no response to his calls, Joe kicks the door open and finds that someone turned the office upside down.

Down in the sewers, Garon Lewis looks for his attacker when he is joined by Spider-Man. He tells the wall-crawler to beat it when they are suddenly confronted by Delilah. She manages to ambush the pair, but Spider-Man manages to pull Garon to safety. However, Devon has come looking for his father and is taken hostage by Delilah. She uses the boy as a bargaining chip to secure her escape. Garon agrees but demands to know who ordered this hit on him, Delilah states that she was hired by Hammerhead. Delilah then tosses Devon aside, prompting Spider-Man to come to the boy's rescue. With Delilah making a clean getaway, the web-slinger furious that Garon allowed Delilah to escape and demands to know why Hammerhead is gunning for him. That's when Lewis reveals that he is not a criminal, but a detective in the NYPD's organized crime task force. After shaming the wall-crawler for thinking he was a criminal, Garon realizes that his life is too dangerous to allow him to reconnect with his son and tells his son he'll see him around.

Later as Devon returns home, he is met by Ben Reilly who offers to be a friend to the young boy. Meanwhile, Delilah meets with her employer to report the success of her mission. This employer turns out to be the Rose, who is happy to hear that she tricked both Detective Lewis and Spider-Man that she was employed by Hammerhead. The Rose gloats over this victory as it will complicate his rival's attempt to take over the criminal underworld paving the way for his own bid for leadership.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson, Shirley Washington, Devon Lewis, Garon Lewis, Delilah, The Rose, Curt Connors, Joe Robertson, Buzz, Desiree Winthrop

Continuity Notes

• The narrative here covers a lot of things that are going on these are:

  • The on going, and very complicated Clone Saga:

    • Originally, the Jackal created a clone of Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #149. That battle ended with Spider-Man seemingly killing his clone and he later disposed of the body in a smokestack in Amazing Spider-Man #151.

    • The supposed clone survived and left New York on a five-year self-imposed exile as seen during the Parker Legacy story arc.

  • The alleged clone returned in Web of Spider-Man #117, calling himself Ben Reilly. This turned Spider-Man's life upside down.

    • After running some tests, it was revealed that Ben Reilly was the real Spider-Man and that the man calling himself Peter Parker all these years was actually the clone. That happened in The Spectacular Spider-Man #226.

    • Things recently became even more confusing when a skeleton in a Spider-Man costume was recovered from the smokestack in Sensational Spider-Man #2.

  • The truth is far, far more complicated than all of this. As revealed in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1, the Jackal intended to swap Peter and Ben so that it was Peter who was disposed of in the smokestack. However, the Green Goblin got involved, tricking the Jackal into thinking he succeeded in this switch. In reality, the real clone was dumped into the smokestack. Later, when Ben Reilly revived and left his would-be tomb, the Jackal then dumped the body of a failed clone into the smokestack in order to further confuse his enemies.

  • The current situation with Peter Parker's life:

    • Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife here. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As such they should be considered a common-law couple here.

    • Peter and Mary Jane have been expecting a child since The Spectacular Spider-Man #220.

    • Peter recently lost his spider-powers in Spider-Man: The Final Adventure #4.

    • Peter has been hospitalized since having a seizure in Spider-Man #70. His condition will continue to deteriorate until The Spectacular Spider-Man #237.

• The Jackal revealed that his clones all suffer from eventual degeneration in Spider-Man #56. Since Peter is not really a clone, this is not the situation.

• One of the officers believes that the Ringer is dead. The general public believes the Ringer to have died during the Scourge's massacre at the Bar With No Name in Captain America #319-320. however, he survived and became the cyborg known as Strikeback as seen in The Lethal Foes of Spider-Man #3.

• Spider-Man recounts his recent battle with the Shocker, Wil O' the Wisp, and Dragon Man whom he fought in Spider-Man Unlimited #12, and The Spectacular Spider-Man #235-236 respectively. He also wonders when the Grizzly will turn up again. While Ben Reilly never fought the Grizzly in the past, he has all of Peter Parker's memories leading up to Amazing Spider-Man #149, he would have memories of Spider-Man's battle against the Grizzly in Amazing Spider-Man #139-140.

• Ben apologizes for ducking out on her the other day. That was in Sensational Spider-Man #6.

• Ben's relationship with Jessica Carradine is very complicated. In Sensational Spider-Man #3, Ben learned that Jessica is the daughter of the burglar who murdered his Uncle Ben years earlier in Amazing Fantasy #15. She also blamed Spider-Man for her father's death, the burglar actually died of a heart attack as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #200. To make matters even more complicated, she discovered that Ben was Spider-Man in Sensational Spider-Man #4. She hasn't been seen since Sensational Spider-Man #6, and is never seen again.

• The Daily Grind was torched during the Blood Brother story arc.It had just recently re-opened last issue.

• At the time of this story, Jonah was kidnapped by the Scorpion as revealed in Spider-Man Unlimited #13.

• This is a lie, but it reminds Spider-Man that Hammerhead has been trying to take over the criminal underworld in Spider-Man #70. He is trying to fill a void after the Kingpin had recently suffered a fall from grace in Daredevil #300.