All Fall Down

Spider-Man has successfully disarmed a Hydra missile that was going to contaminate the largest aquifer in America by making it explode in the ocean. Falling to the water below, the wall-crawler makes peace with his life but he is rescued at the last moment by Iron Man. As Peter passes out in his arms, Iron Man tells his onboard computers to prepare the isolab for full viral quarantine and then pours on the speed.

Peter wakes up two days later and is greeted by Tony Stark who says he has just been cleared of all biological contaminants that were contained on the Hydra warhead. Peter is just glad that he is alive, ignoring Tony’s concerns that there were some anomalous readings in his medical examinations. Peter emerges from the lab and is surprised to find that it is housed in the room where Tony Stark keeps all of his Iron Man armors. Seeing Tony’s first suit of armor, he remembers how young he was when he first saw it.[1] Tony tries once more to talk to Peter about the strange medical readings, saying that Peter’s biology has been acting strangely. Deflecting all of Peter’s attempts at levity, Tony gets him to focus and try to remember any strange incidents that happened prior to exposure to the Hydra toxins.[2] Tony asks about any sudden black-outs, extreme emotional stress, sudden dizziness or disorientation, clumsiness, or confusion.[3] Peter lies and says that he’s good.

When Peter asks what happened to the Hydra agents, Tony explains that the rest of the New Avengers had them on the ropes until they set their base to self destruct.[3] This allowed the Hydra operatives to escape while the heroes were busy saving the innocent people endangered on the surface above the secret Hydra base. After getting brought back up to speed, all Peter wants to do is see Mary Jane. Elsewhere in Stark Tower, Mary Jane is annoyed that she is been getting calls non-stop since a tabloid newspaper accused her of having an affair with Tony Stark.[5] That’s when Tony and Peter enter the room and Mary Jane is happy to see him. Tony assures Mary Jane that he’ll deal with the tabloids. That’s when Peter notices that Aunt May is holding hands with Jarvis, the Avengers butler.[6] Tony Stark later meets with tabloid photographer Vincent Chambliss to set the record straight about Mary Jane Watson.[7] Tony explains that Mary Jane was at Stark Tower the night before because Tony has hired her husband, Peter Parker, to photograph work done at the company. When Chambliss refuses to retract his statements, Tony shows that his own private investigators have caught Vincent cheating on his own wife. He then threatens to do everything in his power to utterly destroy Vincent’s career if he doesn’t retract his accusations and publish a full apology.

Back at Avengers Tower, Mary Jane and Peter are talking after a romantic moment alone and Mary Jane notices Peter wasn’t listening. Peter admits that he is trying to wrap his head around the idea of Aunt May and Jarvis having a relationship, but Mary Jane assures that it is very real and that they are getting quite intimate. Peter then goes to the bathroom to fill the bath he blacks out. He wakes up an hour later when Mary Jane calls out to him. Peter tells her he fell asleep in the bath and continues denying that there is anything wrong with him. He climbs into bed with Mary Jane for the night convincing himself that everything will be fine in the morning.

This story is continued in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1…

Recurring Characters

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

Continuity Notes

1. Peter’s joke here has multiple layers and some facts behind it. Tony’s original Iron Man was first seen in Tales of Suspense #39. Per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 Tony first wore this armor roughly 12 years prior to wearing this armor. Per Civil War #2, Peter would have been around 15 or 16 years old when Iron Man first appeared on the scene. This joke could also be seen as a nod to the fact that the Marvel Universe operates on a sliding timescale and that when Iron Man first debuted in 1963 it was not uncommon for people to be informed on world events by watching newsreels in the theater.

2. Peter jokes about a crazy story about having six arms he could tell Tony about. Years earlier, Peter attempted to remove his powers but this plan backfired causing him to grow four extra arms. This transformation lasted from Amazing Spider-Man #99-102.

3. Peter recalls each of these symptoms in a flashback, the blackouts happened in Amazing Spider-Man #514 and 518, his clumsiness was in Amazing Spider-Man #521, and his lost grip and confusion happened in Amazing Spider-Man #522. All of these symptoms are hints to the changes in Spider-Man’s physiology that will completely transform him during the Other: Evolve or Die event which happens in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1-4, Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #19-22 and Amazing Spider-Man #525-528.

4. The woman who appears to be Spider-Woman here is actually a Skrull spy as we’ll learn in Secret Invasion #3. She replaced Jessica Drew in Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1.

5. These false accusations were first made in Amazing Spider-Man #521.

6. This is not the real Edwin Jarvis, but a Skrull, as we’ll learn in Secret Invasion #1. The real Jarvis was swapped out around New Avengers #3 as we’ll learn in New Avengers #42. “Jarvis” started romancing May in Amazing Spider-Man #522.

7. Tony refers to Mary Jane as the wife of Peter Parker. Not long after this story, Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. In the new timeline, Peter and Mary Jane would be considered a common-law couple instead.

Continuity Errors

1. Mary Jane comments on how she passed out when she first discovered that Peter was Spider-Man. That’s not accurate at all. As seen in Marvel Graphic Novel #46, Mary Jane discovered that Peter was secretly Spider-Man on the night that his Uncle Ben was murdered (Amazing Fantasy #15), she didn’t pass out. She went out to party.