A Surfeit of Spiders

J. Jonah Jameson is interrupted from reading the morning paper when Mattie Franklin sees the front page and learns that a plane crash has apparently claimed the life of Mary Jane Watson, the wife of Peter Parker.[1] Mattie rushes out of the apartment, leaving Jameson and his wife Marla confused. Mattie quickly changes into her Spider-Woman costume and flies out into the city, hoping to find Peter and give him her condolences. She feels weird to be this concerned since she barely knows Peter and never met his wife. When she arrives at the apartment building where the Parker’s live, Spider-Woman sees a mob of reporters being blocked at the front door and decides to get in another way. Flying up to the penthouse, Mattie changes out of her costume on the balcony before entering the Parker’s apartment. She is caught by Aunt May who demands to know who this young woman is, but Peter tells her it’s all right, saying that Mattie is J. Jonah Jameson’s niece or something.[2] When May suggests Peter gets some more rest, he tells her that he can’t sleep and learns that there haven’t been any updates from the airline.

Meanwhile, outside, the evil Spider-Woman has been tracking someone and has detected the presence of her prey coming from the Parker’s apartment. Back inside, Peter gets another update but there is nothing new to report as the plane crashed in one of the deepest parts of the ocean. Suddenly, the evil Spider-Woman comes smashing through the window. When she grabs Peter, Mattie leaps to his defense, forgetting that she is not in her costume. This causes the evil Spider-Woman to drop Peter, who can’t have the two women fighting in his apartment with his Aunt May around. Quickly, Peter scoops up his Aunt May and gets her to cover in the study, jamming the door so she doesn’t get out. With the civilians out of the way, Mattie strips off her street clothes and attacks Witter, but is easily knocked aside.[3] That’s when the evil Spider-Woman reveals that she wasn’t coming after Mattie, but was after Peter Parker as she has learned his secret identity and wants to kill him. While Peter struggles with Spider-Woman, Mattie comes to terms with the revelation that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, but it all makes sense to her. With her costume fully on, Mattie ambushes her evil counterpart and strikes her so hard it sends the foe flying out of the apartment. As Mattie rushes after her, Peter begins changing into Spider-Man. Before leaving, he tells Aunt May that the door is jammed and he’s going to get a locksmith to help free her.

As Spider-Man swings toward the rooftop where the two Spider-Woman are fighting it out, he recounts how this situation came to be. He remembers how Mattie Franklin got involved in a mystical ceremony called the Gathering of Five. Each participant was given a specific gift from the ceremony: Mattie Franklin was given the gift of power in the form of her recently acquired spider-powers, Madam Web was given immortality, Maxwell Morris got the gift of power, the villain known as Override was given death and was transformed into the flaming skeleton named Shadrac, while all Norman Osborn got was insanity.[4] He then recounts how Doctor Octopus transformed Charlotte Witter into his own Spider-Woman and sent her to steal the powers from every woman who previously went by that name. However when she attempted to steal Mattie Franklin’s powers, their mystical nature reversed the process and since then Witter had been in the custody of her grandmother, Madame Web.[5]

The first thing Spider-Man does is pull Mattie away to get her to safety before going after Witter. However, Mattie takes this as an insult as she feels she has more than proven herself as Spider-Woman. She rejoins the battle and tells Spider-Man to not only stop treating her like a kid, but to also stop saying her real name out loud. Meanwhile, Madame Web and Jessica Drew are assessing the situation. They have located Charlotte and it appears she has regained some of her spider-powers, just as Jessica has regained hers recently as well.[6] They start hypothesizing as to why Charlotte is drawn to Spider-Man and wonders if it is an aspect of her natural mental powers or some other unknown ability. Back at the scene of the battle, Mattie realizes that Spider-Man is trying to fight the evil Spider-Woman without making eye contact. She leaps into the fight again, but Witter strikes her so hard she crashes into a wall causing bricks to collapse on her. Spider-Woman tells Spider-Man that he can either follow her or save the “impostor”. Spider-Man knows there is no choice in the matter and begins digging Mattie out of the rubble. Carrying her to safety, Spider-Man discovers that Mattie isn’t breaking and begins giving her CPR. When she wakes up, Mattie pulls off Peter’s mask and starts kissing him. In her dazed state she has come to think that their mutual powers and the death of Mary Jane are fate. As Peter pulls away from her, Mattie tells Peter that they were made for each other.

This story is continued in Spider-Woman (vol. 3) #9…

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Spider-Woman (Franklin), Spider-Woman (Witter), J. Jonah Jameson, Marla Madison, Aunt May, Madam Web, Jessica Drew

Continuity Notes

1. There is a lot to unpack here let’s break this down:

   • Mary Jane was seemingly killed last issue, however, this was all a cover for her stalker to abduct Mary Jane as we’ll see in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #29.

   • Mary Jane is referred to as Peter Parker’s wife here. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. In the new timeline, all mention to her name being Mary Jane Watson-Parker would be removed and everyone would be referring to her as Peter’s fiancee, as explained in Amazing Spider-Man #639, while Peter and Mary Jane never got married, they remained engaged.

   • Mattie Franklin has met Peter Parker many times as Spider-Man (starting in Amazing Spider-Man [vol.2] #2) but doesn’t know he’s really Spider-Man at this point, she has recently spend time with Peter in Spider-Woman (vol. 3) #4.

2. Mattie Franklin isn’t Jameson’s biological niece but sees her as one. She is the daughter of his friend Jerry Franklin. Maddie had convinced her father to live with the Jameson’s in Spider-Woman (vol. 3) #3. Ultimately, her father will die sometime between Spider-Woman (vol. 3) #18 and Alias #17, prompting the Jameson’s to adopt her.

3. Mattie mentions the last time she fought the evil Spider-Woman. That was in Spider-Woman (vol. 3) #1.

4. The Gathering of Five events took place in Sensational Spider-Man #32, Amazing Spider-Man #440, Spider-Man #96, Spectacular Spider-Man #262, and Sensational Spider-Man #33. The effects of the ceremony were not immediately apparent but were revealed later.

   • Norman Osborn’s insanity was evident during the Final Chapter story arc (Amazing Spider-Man #441, Spider-Man #97, Spectacular Spider-Man #263, Spider-Man #98)

   • Mattie was first seen using her powers in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #1

   • Morris Maxwell and Shadrac’s gifts were revealed in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #2

   • Madame Web was revealed to having received immortality in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #6. Everyone’s gifts appear to have been permanent except for in the case of Madame Web who lost her youth in Spider-Woman (vol. 3) #8 and she was later murdered in Amazing Spider-Man #637, that’s some shitty immortality.

5. The evil Spider-Woman’s origins and attacks on past Spider-Women were detailed in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #5-6 and Peter Parker: Spider-Man #5. Her defeat and incarceration were detailed in Spider-Woman (vol. 3) #1-3, Witter later escaped in Spider-Woman (vol. 3) #8.

6. As I said above, Jessica Drew lost her spider-powers when she was ambushed by the evil Spider-Woman in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #5. Her powers started returning in Spider-Woman (vol. 3) #4-5.