Truth be Told (… or not)

Spider-Man as snared a pair of crooks and as he swings them through the city he asks them what he should do about his current predicament, namely lying to his wife all the time about being Spider-Man.[1] When Spider-Man finally drops the crooks off with the police they are more than happy to confess their crimes, anything to get away from Spider-Man and his questions about his personal life. As he swings away, Peter thinks about how he can’t keep lying to his wife about being Spider-Man again because the guilt is killing him.[2] As he arrives at the apartment building where he lives with Mary Jane, he thinks about how this all started with Mattie Franklin first posing as Spider-Man, then becoming the new Spider-Woman, and then how yet another Spider-Woman had appeared trying to kill all the past Spider-Women. He thinks if he hadn’t become Spider-Man again, he wouldn’t have been there to save Mattie from the other Spider-Woman and get her to a hospital.

Getting home late, Peter asks Aunt May how angry Mary Jane is. When Mary Jane enters the room she is stern with him but is quickly distracted by a phone call. Whoever is on the other end of the line causes her to hang up immediately much to the surprise of Peter and Aunt May. Mary Jane tells them that it was a wrong number and pulls Peter aside so they can talk in private before Jill arrives.[3] When they get to their bedroom, Peter asks MJ why she is acting so hyperactive, but she says she skipped on a photoshoot to spend more time with family. She then hugs Peter who yelps in pain. This makes Mary Jane suspicious and she asks him to open up his shirt. He does so, showing that he is not wearing his Spider-Man costume underneath, putting her mind at ease. When the phone rings again, Mary Jane becomes tense again. When Peter asks her if there is any reason why he shouldn’t answer the phone, she tells him, again, there is nothing wrong. It turns out to be Joe Robertson calling for Peter. When Mary Jane hands the phone over to Peter, she tells him that she and Jill are going to take Aunt May for a makeover and for Peter to meet up with them later. Joe tells Peter that the new villainous Spider-Woman is on the rampage again and J. Jonah Jameson wants him to take pictures of the scene for the Daily Bugle.

Elsewhere in the city, Spider-Woman demands to be left alone as a SWAT Team converges on her. However, she spots them and unleashes her various spider-powers to incapacitate them. After the battle, she makes shrieks that this is not what she wanted and that she hates spiders. That’s when Spider-Man arrives on the scene and tries to talk Spider-Woman down. It seems to work until she starts talking about how her master wants the wall-crawler dead. When Spider-Man asks who her master is, she tells him that all she knows is that he is some kind of doctor. This man experimented on her turning her into this new incarnation of Spider-Woman. After he sent her to steal the powers of her predecessor’s powers before using them to kill Spider-Man. She then bursts into tears, garnering the web-slinger’s pitty. Although Spider-Man wants to help, he can’t help but crack jokes angering her enough to attack.

Meanwhile, J. Jonah Jameson and his wife Marla have arrived at the hospital and convince the head nurse to let them see Mattie Franklin, whose father is a close personal friend. When they ask Mattie why she ran away from home and ended up in the hospital, all she says is that she was walking down the street when she got caught in the middle between Spider-Man and a villain and was injured. She insists that she is fine and will be released from the hospital in the morning. However, hearing Spider-Man’s name is enough to set off Jameson who storms out of the hospital room, with Marla not far behind trying to calm him down. That’s when a mysterious woman in a wheelchair enters the room to speak with Mattie. Mattie doesn’t recognize the woman, who admits that she was much older when they last met and after telling the Franklin girl she is needed the mystery woman introduces himself as Madam Web.[4]

Meanwhile, Spider-Man wakes up and finds himself a prisoner of Doctor Octopus, the man responsible for creating this new Spider-Woman. He explains that this Spider-Woman was a fashion designer of repute that had a secret life that he found out about. He then kidnapped her and e began the genetic tests that resulted in turning her into a Spider-Woman. He then starved and conditioned her to become a cannibal that would eat men. He then sent her after the Spider-Women to steal their powers and draw out. Convinced that Spider-Man’s powers have been drained, Doctor Octopus orders Spider-Woman to eat him. However, the wall-crawler still has his powers and is able to break free from the psi-webs he has been bound with. Doctor Octopus orders Spider-Woman to destroy him but in the ensuing battle she shatters a nearby window with one of her venom blasts causing the lab to quickly fill with water. In the deluge, both Doctor Octopus and Spider-Woman manage to escape. Swimming out of the underwater base, Spider-Man quickly rises to the surface and discovers that he is in the East River.

After getting to shore, Peter gets out of costume so he can meet up with Mary Jane, Jill, and Aunt May. Worrying what Aunt May’s makeover will look like, Peter at first mistakes another elderly woman in a wild outfit for Aunt May. When he finds the ladies he is relieved to see that Aunt May only got a more modern looking hair cut. As they head off to dinner, Jill tells Peter that she ran into Flash Thompson who was looking to talk to Peter about Spider-Man. Peter shrugs this off, saying that Spider-Man is all that Spider-Man wants to talk about and that it can wait. At that very moment, Flash Thompson is sitting at home watching a football game with bitter memories of his glory days. When he hears a loud thud outside his apartment he goes to see what it is and is shocked by what he sees on the other side of the door.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Marla Madison, Spider-Woman, Doctor Octopus, Joe Robertson, Mattie Franklin, Madam Web, Jill Stacy, Flash Thompson, Stalker (voice only)

Continuity Notes

1. 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 had promised Mary Jane he would retire from being Spider-Man following the Final Chapter arc. However, he began secretly going out in costume since Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #2.

2. Peter recounts his “final showdown” (HA!) with the Green Goblin (Spider-Man #98), Mattie Frankling being Spider-Man and Spider-Woman (Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 2 #1-2 and 5, as well as Peter Parker: Spider-Man #5), Senator Ward (Amazing Spider-Man Vol 2 #4), and Shadrac (Amazing Spider-Man Vol 2 #2-3, Peter Parker: Spider-Man #3)

3. This is not a “wrong number” but a phone call from a stalker as revealed in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #5. This stalker’s obsession over Mary Jane will escalate until Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #13.

4. Madame Web was an elderly woman when she participated in the Gathering of Five story arc, which de-aged her.