Amazing Spider-Man #510
Sins Past Part 2
After receiving a long lost letter from Gwen Stacy in the mail, Peter Parker was attacked by two mysterious superhumans when visiting her grave, adding to the mystery.[1] What was Gwen Stacy trying to tell him all those years ago?[2] Sitting in his old bedroom again, Peter tries once again to make sense of it. Mary Jane finds him and lets her take a look at the letter for herself.[3] That’s when Mary Jane discovers that there are impressions on the paper that appear to from the page that is missing from the letter. Mary Jane suggests they rub a pencil over it, but Peter says the letter is too old for that trick to work and worries that it might also eliminate whatever forensic evidence might be left on the letter. When they go downstairs for lunch with Aunt May, she has another package for Peter. When he opens it he’s shocked to see that they contain photos of a man helping Aunt May with her groceries and a woman asking Mary Jane for directions. In both photos, the stranger’s faces are blacked out. There is a note attached saying that they can kill Mary Jane and May whenever they want. Without raising any alarms, Peter asks them if they recall either incident, but neither can really remember what these strangers looked like.[4]
Spider-Man later pays a visit to Lieutenant William Lamont and takes a big risk asking him for help. After webbing the written side of the letter to a piece of steel, he asks Lamont if he can get his forensic lab to look at it and determine what was written over top of the page. However, he warns William against trying to read what’s on the other side. William agrees to help and see what he can do it. After Spider-Man leaves, Lamont goes down to forensics and the writing analyst says he should be able to find out what’s printed on it. Before leaving him to it, Lamont also asks him to pull some strands of Spider-Man’s webbing for analysis, deciding that it could be handy knowing what the stuff is made from.[5] After his visit with Lieutenant Lemont, Spider-Man then calls Mary Jane to make sure she’s still safe and tells her to call him once she gets back to her Aunt Anna’s house once her practice is done. He then calls Anna Watson to make sure she and Aunt May are safe as well. However, it is a man who answers the phone and tells Peter that they have his aunt prisoner and tell him to go to 1445 East Frampton in the next eleven minutes or they’ll kill her. Spider-Man races off to rescue May, unaware that she’s perfectly fine at Anna Watson’s home. When Peter arrives at the location, he finds what he thinks is Aunt May tired to a chair. But when he spins the body around he discovers that it is a mannequin with a bomb strapped to it. With the timer almost at zero, Spider-Man tries to escape and is caught in the blast.
Stunned by the explosion, Spider-Man is then ambushed by the masked man who attacked him the night before. He is eventually stopped by his female companion. During their conversation, Spider-Man learns that they are named Gabriel and Sarah. They vow to teach Spider-Man a lesson in abandonment by killing everyone he loves before destroying them. It’s only when the wall-crawler is ready to die will they reveal who they really are and why he deserves being killed. The web-slinger tries to get up but blacks out from his ordeal. His mind drifts back to the time when Harry Osborn had a relapse into drugs. Peter, Mary Jane, and Gwen Stacy went to visit and see how Harry is doing.[6] Peter recalls that when he suggested that he talk to Norman Osborn, Gwen tells Peter that it probably isn’t a good idea. As they head out, Mary Jane realizes she forgot her purse and goes back inside for it.[7] Outside, Gwen asks Peter if he’ll love her no matter what. Peter does, but before he can get her to tell him why she’d ask such a silly question, Mary Jane comes back, prompting Gwen to tell him that there is plenty of time to talk about it later. This memory then shifts to the moment when the Green Goblin knocked Gwen off the George Washington Bridge. Spider-Man tried to break her fall by firing a web-line onto her foot, but instead ended up snapping her neck. When Peter wakes up, the words of the Green Goblin calling him a romantic idiot ring in he head and he wonders what it was that he did wrong.
He then returns to the police station where William Lamont has the results of the examination for him. Reading the words that were uncovered, Spider-Man is shocked to discover that Gwen was trying to tell him that she was pregnant and gave birth a month early and that she had named them Gabriel and Sarah.[8]
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May, Gabriel Stacy, Sarah Stacy, Anna Watson, William Lamont (in flashback) Gwen Stacy, Norman Osborn
Continuity Notes
There is a lot of exposition going on here: The letter that Peter received last issue was mailed by Gwen around Amazing Spider-Man #119. It was telling Peter that she was pregnant as we’ll learn later this issue. We later find out in Amazing Spider-Man #512 that these children were the product of an affair with Norman Osborn which happened around Amazing Spider-Man #61.
Some of the photos of Peter’s bedroom wall are of various Marvel works that Mike Deodato, Jr. also drew for Marvel. They are the Jennifer Kale, Satana, and Topaz from the cover of Witches #1, an unpublished Nightcrawler pin-up. The third one of the woman wearing the army helmet, I don’t know. But if you do e-mail me and let me know.
Peter recounts the death of Gwen Stacy here. She was killed by the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #121.
Aunt May remarks that Peter is acting like the Amazing Karnak and that she misses Johnny Carson. Johnny Carson was the host of The Tonight Show from 1962 to 1992. One of his usual routines was not the “Amazing Karnak” but "Carnac the Great”, which Carson began doing in 1964. It involved him being able to “divine” answers to questions concealed in an envelope. May’s reminiscence should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.
Whatever is being set up here with Lamont getting a sample of Spider-Man’s webbing is never brought up again after this issue.
This flashback takes place between panels 3, 4, and 5 on page 4 of Amazing Spider-Man #121.
She’s not really going back for her purse as we’ll see in Amazing Spider-Man #512.
This raises some questions. If the Sarah and Gabriel who attacked Peter in the last two issues are adults how can they have been born around Amazing Spider-Man #120? Per the Sliding Timescale, the birth of Gwen’s children happened roughly 8 years prior to this story. The clue here is that Gwen stating they were born a month early. It’s later revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #514, which explains that Norman’s DNA was altered by the Goblin Formula and as a result, these two children ended up having rapid aging. Even though they are chronologically 8 years old their bodies have aged them so they are in their early 20s.
