Moving Up

Following his battle with Charlie Weiderman, Peter Parker has rushed to Queens to discover that Charlie had destroyed his family home.[1] At the scene are Mary Jane and Aunt May, who are safe, but the house is a complete write-off. Peter can’t help but feel it is his fault as Aunt May has barely said a word and has been standing among the wreckage of her home. As Peter and Mary Jane try to figure out what to do next, a limo pulls up to the ruins of the house. It’s carrying Tony Stark who has heard about what happened and come to offer his aid, telling Peter that the Avengers look after their own.[2] Tony tells the Parkers that he has security guards coming to watch the site until they can recover whatever belongings survived the fire and tells Peter that he and his family are all invited to stay at Stark Tower, the headquarters for the New Avengers. That’s when they notice that Aunt May is nowhere in sight. Peter rushes up to the second floor and catches her trying to reach her bed in what’s left of her bedroom. When Peter gets there she insists that he lift the bed. There she recovers a family photo album and tells Peter that this is all she needs, nothing else matters.[3]

Soon the Parkers are whisked away to Manhattan where they are brought to Stark Towers. Tony then introduces Mary Jane and Aunt May to the rest of the New Avengers: Wolverine, Spider-Woman, Luke Cage, and Captain America.[4] Captain America is glad to meet Aunt May and tells her that she raised Peter to be a fine young man.[5] May is then introduced to Jarvis, the Avengers butler. Jarvis takes May on a tour of the facilities, and she is glad there is a normal person around that’s the same age as her, as she’ll have a difficult time getting used to living with the Avengers.[6] Meanwhile, Peter and Mary Jane are completely blown away by the room they have been given to stay in. Mary Jane is happy to finally be brought into the part of Peter’s life as Spider-Man and the pair decide to have a romantic moment alone.

Later, across the town, in an expensive hotel room, one of the mobsters who have taken over operations of Hydra brags about how they took over the terrorist organization and turned it into a simple mob that has divided up its interest across the United States. The woman says she has to go to the bathroom before they have sex but uses this opportunity to drop a drug into the man’s glass of champaign. In the bathroom, this woman — actually a SHIELD spy — radios into her superiors and confirms that this iteration of Hydra is nothing more than hoods and that the “bad old days” that Nick Fury always talks about are long gone.[7] However, costumed Hydra operatives ambush the SHIELD spy and kill her. The mobster is then taken prisoner and taken to a secret location with all of the other mob lieutenants and told that their operation of Hydra was just a means to funnel money into reviving the original organization. Now with the proper funding, the new Supreme Hydra has ordered their execution and has sent out the call Hydra’s various sleeper agents to come back to the fold as the Hydra of old is back. He then tells his loyal followers that he intends to correct the errors made in the past. First, Hydra will ally itself with enemies of the United States in order to further destabilize the country. The second is to create an equal response to the super-heroes that Hydra constantly faces. To that end, he has selected a handful of agents to undergo biological modifications to turn them into super-human operatives that are equal to their heroic counterparts. These operatives are Bowman, Hammer, Militant, and Tactical Force who have been based on Hawkeye, Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man of the Avengers.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May, New Avengers (Tony Stark, Captain America, Wolverine, “Spider-Woman”, Luke Cage) “Edwin Jarvis”, Hydra (Edgar Lascombe, Bowman, Hammer, Militant, Tactical Force)

Continuity Notes

1. Aunt May’s house was destroyed by Charlie Weiderman in Amazing Spider-Man #517, but the Parkers only discovered this last issue. Aunt May’s house is later restored by Harry Osborn as we’ll learn in Amazing Spider-Man #581-582 and Amazing Spider-Man Family #4.

2. Peter joined the New Avengers in New Avengers #1. Peter revealed his identity to his teammates in New Avengers #2.

3. Among the photos are a picture of Peter and Mary Jane on their wedding day. Peter and Mary Jane got married in Amazing Spider-MAn Annual #21. However, not long after this story, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. In the new timeline, Peter and Mary Jane are engaged as opposed to being married. As such, the wedding photo here would be replaced with a different, likely just as meaningful, photo of Peter and Mary Jane.

4. May states that her late husband, Ben Parker, once saw Captain America in action during the war. Unfortunately, this should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale. Since Ben Parker has a normal life span it has become impossible for Ben to have been alive and serve in World War II. As such, May would likely say that she knows an older family member who saw Captain America while serving in World War II, and not Ben Parker. Likewise, should their comments that May comes from the same generation as Steve Rogers should be considered topical.

5. The woman that is identified as Spider-Woman here is actually a Skrull spy named Veranke, as revealed in Secret Invasion #3. She took the real Spider-Woman’s place in Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1.

6. This man is not the real Edwin Jarvis, but a Skrull sky that took Jarvis’ place as we’ll learn in Secret Invasion #1. Jarvis was swapped out sometime prior to New Avengers #3 as is detailed in New Avengers #42.

7. Hydra, first depicted in Strange Tales #135, have consistently been depicted as a global terrorist organization. The organization that Nick Fury is used to was formed sometime in 1941 by Baron Strucker as seen in Wolverine: Origins #17. Hydra has had some branches in the United States that have been run by organized crime such as the Kingpin (Captain America #145-148), Silvermane (Daredevil #120-123), and Don Fortunado (Spider-Man #73-74/79-80)