Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #19
Mirror Mirror
Peter Parker has a nightmare where his greatest foes have all appeared in his bedroom. He tries to convince himself it is all a dream. Suddenly, his foes all unmask and they all have his face. They all begin accusing him of being Spider-Man only for himself. As he shouts at them they suddenly disappear. That’s when Spider-Man appears suspended upsidedown over his bed. The wall-crawler tells Peter that they’re right saying that he is his own worst enemy and that without Spider-Man he is nothing. To punctuate this, Spider-Man pulls off his mask to reveal that there is nothing underneath. That’s when Peter wakes up with a scream.
As he leaves his bedroom, Peter’s new roommate Randy Robertson[1] asks him if he had a bad dream and Peter brushes it off by making jokes.[2] However, Peter’s cool demeanor quickly fades when he goes to the bathroom. Looking at himself in the mirror, Peter tells himself to get it together. He reminds himself he needs to find a job and worries about the return of Venom, the loss of his costume and web-shooters, and the apparent death of his wife Mary Jane.[3] Out on the streets, he wonders what happened to her because he thinks she is still alive regardless of that everyone else thinks she is dead. However, without his Spider-Man costume and web-shooters he can’t even begin searching for her. That’s when he remembers that he might have an old costume stashed away at Aunt May’s house and reminds himself to go and look.
Meanwhile, Eddie Brock is looking at himself in the mirror and thinks about how his life changed once he became Venom. Now he wants something else other than the constant fighting. Pulling out a picture of his ex-wife, Ann Weying and decides that he wants her back.[4] However, Ann Weying isn’t thinking about her ex-husband the same way. At her apartment, the woman is trying to force herself to go outside, but she is too afraid to open the door.
By this time, Peter Parker has arrived at his childhood home in Queens. Since it’s early he decides not to wake up Aunt May, but he soon discovers that Jill Stacy is sleeping on the couch. She explains she stayed the night after being out late to a party and since she lost her keys and Aunt May was still awake she was invited to spend the night. Their conversation wakes up Aunt May who offers to make him breakfast. When they are in the kitchen, Peter asks what’s wrong with Jill and Aunt May paints a very different story. She says Jill showed up in the middle of the night ringing the doorbell and crying for Mary Jane. May isn’t sure if Jill was drunk or on drugs but knows that she is a very hurt and confused young woman. When Peter suggests that everything will be fine once Mary Jane is back, Aunt May asks Peter not to get into that again. Dropping the subject, Peter says he came back to get something out of the attic and goes upstairs. After a few moments of rooting around the attic, the only costume that Peter can find is his old black-and-white costume, which he doesn’t like wearing because it reminds him of Venom, but he doesn’t have any other options.[5]
As Peter leaves his Aunt May’s house, Jill Stacy asks if she can walk with him. Although Peter secretly doesn’t want her coming with him he allows her to do so. On their walk, Jill Stacy talks about how Mary Jane is still influencing her life since MJ’s death made her realize life is too short and she decided to have more fun with the time she has left. When they arrive at the Stacy house, Jill suggests he come in and say hi to her father since he never comes by anymore, but Peter tells her that he’ll come by another time because he has things to do. She kisses him on the cheek and tells him she’ll see him later.[6]
Meanwhile, Ann Weying panics when she hears a knock at her door, looking through the peephole she is horrified to discover that it is her worst fear come true. Opening the door, Eddie Brock comes in wearing a suit and carrying a bouquet of flowers. Seeing how afraid she is he asks her what’s wrong and she says she can’t handle being with him and curls up into a ball on the floor repeating over and over how afraid she is of him. At that same moment, Spider-Man is swinging across the city trying to figure out how he’ll find his old costume, reminding himself he’s not a very good detective. He would normally turn to Arthur Stacy for help, but can’t bring himself to ask again after he refused to explain why he hates Stewart Ward so much.[7] At that moment, Eddie Brock is trying to convince Anne that all she needs is some fresh air. When he opens the blinds, she spots Spider-Man swinging by and his black-and-white costume reminds her of what she is really afraid of, the symbiote. When Eddie asks her what she is mumbling about she points to Spider-Man swinging by. Eddie thinks he understands and transforms into Venom making her realize that the symbiote is actually in the room with her. However, Venom is long gone and doesn’t hear her say she is afraid of the symbiote, especially after she was forced to be bonded to it for a short period of time and she can’t stand the idea of going through that again.[8]
Spider-Man is still thinking about what to do about Arthur Stacy when Venom attacks him for scaring his ex-wife. The blow causes Spider-Man to fall to the street below but he manages to save himself with a web-line. Venom is furious that the wall-crawler is delaying his plans to get back to normal life and intends on killing Spider-Man so he doesn’t have to deal with him again. Spider-Man decides to take a different approach and starts talking to Venom. He tells his foe that everyone deserves a chance at a normal life with a loved one, even Venom, explaining that he can sympathize with his situation. Spider-Man even offers to go and talk to Ann, just this once for Venom. That’s when they both hear Ann scream prompting Venom to rush to her side. Changing back to Eddie Brock, Venom bursts into Ann’s apartment and, to his horror, sees that she committed suicide by jumping out her apartment window. Oblivious to the fact that his ex-wife was frightened of him, Eddie blames Spider-Man and vows to get revenge.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Venom, Randy Robertson, Aunt May, Jill Stacy, Ann Weying
Continuity Notes
Peter Parker moved in with Randy Robertson in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #18.
Peter’s jokes about his nightmare being about Jennifer Lopez appearing on the Oprah Winfrey Show to profess her love with J. Jonah Jameson and saying he will stick to watching the Rosie O’Donnell Show. The talkshow references and mention of actress Jennifer Lopez should be considered topical references per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. Particularly since these shows ended their runs in 2011 and 2002 respectively.
There’s a lot of exposition here about Peter’s current woes, they are:
Peter Parker is looking for a new job after he was fired from TriCorp and the Daily Bugle stopped accepting photos of Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #16.
Venom resurfaced in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #9
Peter Parker’s Spider-Man costume and web-shooters were stolen last issue.
Mary Jane seemingly died in a plane crash in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #13. However, she survived and will reappear again in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #29. Peter refers to her as his wife. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. In this new timeline, Peter would refer to Mary Jane as his fiancee.
Venom’s origins were detailed in Amazing Spider-Man #300, while his failed marriage to Ann Weying was detailed in Amazing Spider-Man #375.
Obviously, this black costume isn’t the alien symbiote but it’s patterned after it. This costume was made for Peter by the Black Cat in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #99. He stopped wearing it on the regular after Amazing Spider-Man #300 at the behest of Mary Jane after she first encountered Venom.
Peter’s real reason for not wanting to see Arthur Stacy is because he has mixed feelings about Arthur after seeing him willing to kill Senator Stewart Ward in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #12.
The reason why Stacy wants to kill Stewart Ward is that he’s infected with a Z’nox pathogen as we’ll learn in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #23-24.
Ann Weying was first bonded to the Venom symbiote during the Venom: Sinner Tales All limited series and again in the Venom: Along Came a Spider limited series.
