Together Again… For the First Time!

A Year Ago[1]

Having successfully traveled to the Macroverse, Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four pose for a photo to commemorate their success. Since they are no longer on Earth, Spider-Man takes this opportunity to take off his mask, as the Fantastic Four already know his secret identity.[2] After setting up camp, the group suddenly hears the sound of battle. They witness a warrior named Kort defending himself and a woman from an army of warriors called the Dreggs. Spider-Man is about to get involved when Mister Fantastic reins him in, telling the wall-crawler that their first rule of cosmic exploration is not to get involved in local affairs until they have a better understanding of the local customs. However, Spider-Man refuses to let people get harmed and swings down to help, with the Human Torch following behind. Resigning to the situation, the rest of the Fantastic Four join Spider-Man and the Torch. In the middle of the battle, the Torch asks Peter how he’ll manage to go back to his normal life after going on an adventure like this, but Parker assures Johnny that he’ll find a way to manage.

Now

Spider-Man is reveling the fact that he was easily able to capture the Looter, joking about how its so easy to beat him. That’s when the Looter suggests that he’ll be released when he tells the authorities that the wall-crawler framed him now that Norman Osborn is in charge of things.[3] Spider-Man considers this for a moment and puts a real fright into the Looter by suggesting that he should cross the line he vowed never to cross. Instead of killing the villain, Spider-Man gives him a wedgie and swings away.

As he leaves the scene, Spider-Man is approached by the Fantastic Four who ask him to accompany them back to the Macroverse, telling him that they received a distress call from that dimension asking for both the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man. Spider-Man is intrigued, ignoring the Human Torch’s questions about why they can’t remember Spider-Man’s cell phone number or his identity anymore.[4] Spider-Man is more interested in knowing how the people of the Macroverse were able to contact them across dimensions since the last time they were there they were still a primitive culture. Spider-Man wishes he could go, but points out that he has bills that need to get paid. To entice the wall-crawler, Reed writes Spider-Man a very generous cheque made out to cash so he doesn’t have to reveal their identity to him.

Returning to his apartment, Peter Parker calls his Aunt May and tells her that he’ll be out of town for a few days, and assures her that he’ll be able to pay his rent this month. After May finishes her call she is approached by a group of men in business suits that have entered the FEAST Center and asks what she can do for them. They turn out to be Blake Tower — acting mayor of New York — and the public advocacy that have been running the city since Bill Hollister was forced to step down as mayor. They have come looking for Martin Li and ask him to run for mayor in the follow-up election. Martin — particularly the side of him that is the mobster known as Mister Negative — is very interested in the proposal.[5] Meanwhile, Peter has changed into Spider-Man and leaves his apartment, figuring nobody will miss him over the next few days. Just as he leaves, Carlie Cooper begins trying to get ahold of him because she is concerned about Bill Hollister, who is taking his public disgrace terribly as well as Harry, who has fallen off the wagon after discovering his girlfriend was secretly the Menace.[6] Soon, Spider-Man meets up with the Fantastic Four at the Baxter Building. After the Invisible Woman is done leaving her and Reed’s children in the case of Alicia Masters and Arlo North, they begin the final preparations for their journey. This time, Reed has developed a new ship that uses Pym Particles to increase their size to the point where they cross the dimensional barrier between the Macroverse and their own dimension.

When they arrive in the Macroverse, they find themselves in the kingdom of Kort, which they visited last time they were there. They are impressed to see that the culture has advanced to a pre-industrial society. When they wonder how the people of Kort were able to communicate with them without the needed technology, Spider-Man makes an analogy of noisy upstairs neighbors in a bad New York City apartment, as the Macroverse is the dimension that exists above their own. Sue has a better analogy, saying that it seems like Valeria’s favorite book Horton Hears a Who. That’s when they come across a massive statue of the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man and they realize that they weren’t hearing a distress call, but prayers from people who worship them like gods. As Reed examines the age of the statues, they are suddenly greeted by the people of Kort who are glad to see their saviors have returned. That’s when Johnny notices that the statue of Spider-Man is unmasked. This doesn’t make sense to him because of his memories of their last trip to the Macroverse he remembers Spider-Man wearing his mask the whole time. This renews the Torch’s suspicions that he used to know who Spider-Man was and the two are about to get into an argument when Reed tells them they have more important concerns. That’s when Patronus the leader of the people of Kort tells people to get back undercover as they are leaving themselves open for attack by the Dreggs. When the other villagers tell him that the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man are back, he dismisses these legendary figures as nothing more than myths.

That’s when the Dreggs, armed with laser muskets begin attacking the city, sending the Korts fleeing to safety. Before the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man can fight off these invaders, Mister Fantastic tells Sue to put a force field over them. He tries to tell the others that his calculations on the passage of time between their dimension and the Macroverse were off. However, Reed’s explanations are interrupted as the Human Torch still wants to know why he can’t remember who Spider-Man is and the pair begin shoving each other. Getting fed up with the web-slinger’s stonewalling, the Torch lights the back of Spider-Man’s mask on fire forcing the web-head to pull his mask off. What the Human Torch sees under the mask comes as a complete shock.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Looter, Aunt May, Martin Li, Bill Hollister, Bill Hollister, Franklin Richards, Valeria Richards, Alicia Masters, Arlo North, Carlie Cooper, HERBIE

Continuity Notes

1. This story states that the flashback takes place a few years ago. That’s not accurate. According to the Marvel Chronology Project, Spider-Man appears here between his appearance in Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do #6 and Toxin #5 while the Fantastic Four appear here between Marvel Knights: Four #24 and 25. Per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616, roughly one year would have passed between the flashback and the present day in this story. One could assume that the measurement of time listed in the narrative here denotes the passage of time publication wise as the flashback took place during the 2006 year of publication and this issue was published in 2009.

2. Spider-Man revealed his identity to the Fantastic Four back in Spider-Man/Human Torch #5. This story takes place prior to Mephisto altering reality so nearly everyone who knew Spider-Man’s secret identity forgot this knowledge in Amazing Spider-Man #545.

3. Norman Osborn was put in charge of SHIELD (and renamed it HAMMER) after he killed Veranke the leader of a Skrull invasion of Earth in Secret Invasion #8.

4. So how does the mind wipe work? Well when Mephisto altered reality in Amazing Spider-Man #545, he made it so Spider-Man went to Doctor Strange to cast a spell to erase everyone’s memories of his secret identity. This was all explained in Amazing Spider-Man #641. This spell erased all reference to Spider-Man being Peter Parker, even before Peter publicly revealed his secret identity in Civil War #2. This also erased all existing proof, as we’ll learn later on in this issue. The spell also prevents people from making a connection between Peter and Spider-Man until Peter reveals his identity to them. Those who used to know Peter’s double identity would then remember everything that was erased as explained in Amazing Spider-Man #673.

5. There are two plot threads mentioned here. One is how Peter’s roommate, Vin Gonzales, is “off the radar” and the botched election for mayor of New York City. Gonzales is under protective custody after he agreed to rat out his fellow NYPD officers who were involved in the spider-tracer killer conspiracy that attempted to frame Spider-Man for various murders. At the same time, Bill Hollister was forced to resign as mayor of New York right after he was elected following the revelation that his daughter Lily was secretly the villain the Menace. This all happened during the course of Amazing Spider-Man #584-588.

6. This is all reference to Amazing Spider-Man #584-588 again. However, Harry is worse off since this revelation since in Amazing Spider-Man Extra #3, Harry also learned that Lilly has gone to his father, Norman Osborn.