The Distinguished Gentleman From New York Part One

In Calvary Cemetery, Queens, Eddie Brock visits the grave of his ex-wife Ann Weying and mourns.[1] Blaming Spider-Man for her death, Brock vows to track down the wall-crawler and destroy him. That’s when Brock changes into Venom, but before he can leave the cemetery, someone calls out to him saying they are interested in Brock’s relationship with the alien symbiote. When Venom tries to attack this intruder, he is quickly overpowered.[2]

Meanwhile, Peter Parker and his roommate Randy Robertson count up their money and while they are able to pay their rent for the month they begin planning on how to survive with what’s left for the rest of the month. Watching this display of creative accounting are Glory Grant and Jill Stacy. Glory offers to buy them dinner and when she asks Jill to go get some groceries, she has to decline, telling them that she has to babysit the son of a co-worker. As the two women leave, Randy thanks them for their help, promising that he and Peter will find some way to pay them back for all their help. When they consider their job prospects, Randy suggests they make some extra money by selling some of Mary Jane’s things on-line. He figures since she was a celebrity, they could make a ton of money. This shocks Peter, and Randy admits that it was an insensitive idea that he wouldn’t go for and admits that there will be no easy way to get out of their financial problems.[3] That’s when Jill gets a text message from her father to come home right away. She tells the others that her father has been acting weird lately and that it has something to do with Senator Stewart Ward. When she asks Peter to come with her back to Queens, he can’t think of an excuse and agrees to come, but grabs his gym bag that contains his Spider-Man costume before they leave. After they’re gone, Glory scolds Randy for suggesting Peter sell some of Mary Jane’s things. Randy admits that he wasn’t thinking.

When Peter and Jill arrive at the Stacy Home, Arthur is upset it took his daughter so long to get home and is worried that his son, Paul hasn’t arrived yet either. He stresses that he needs to know where his children are at all times as this is a very dangerous time for them. That’s when Peter notices that Arthur has a gun under his coat and wonders what’s going on. He tells Jill and Peter that he’s going out and that if anyone comes to the door, contact him first before letting them in.[4] Peter thinks about how Arthur Stacy has been on edge recently, recalling how — as Spider-Man — he stopped Stacy from killing Stewart Ward, and still doesn’t know what the danger is.[5] When they ask Arthur to explain himself, he says he can’t sit by and wait until there are more people dead. That’s when Paul Stacy arrives and tells them that he only came by long enough to drop off the cell phone his father insists he carries and to tell his father that he’s not buying into his obsessions, saying this sort of conspiracy talk is what drove a wedge between Arthur and his brother.[6] With no patience for disobedience, Arthur grabs his son and tells him that for once in his life he’ll listen to his father and stay put. Seeing that things are getting out of control, Peter pulls Arthur off his son so he can secretly tag him with a spider-tracer. After Arthur leaves, Paul tells Parker to get out of their house. Peter obliges him and while picking up his gym bag also picks up a crumpled up piece of paper that Arthur dropped while struggling with Paul. Outside, Peter examines the paper and discovers that it is a letter from Senator Stewart Ward. It contains a cryptic message about how Arthur was right back in the old days and then asks how his children are doing.

In Washington, DC, Stewart Ward’s secretary gets a call from Susan Strong, the assistant to Senator Kelly. Susan tells the secretary that she needs to speak to him at once. After repeat explanations that it’s has nothing to do with Ward’s business with Senator Kelly the secretary still refuses to tell her where she can' reach him. After being hung up on, Susan looks at the blistered and oozing skin on her legs and knows that whatever is happening to her, it was done to her by Stewart Ward.[7]

Back in New York, Spider-Man’s pursuit of Arthur Stacy is delayed when he stumbles upon an attack on the city by the terrorist organization called World Peace Through Violence. As Spider-Man deals with these high tech mercenaries, he wonders where the Avengers or the Fantastic Four are, as he always seems to be dealing with sudden acts of violence like this[8] Spider-Man quickly lures the terrorists under a water tower which he causes crashing down on them, shorting out their equipment. With the WPTV under control, Spider-Man continues his search for Arthur Stacy. Not far away, Stacy meets with his old friend, Ranger.[9] They both compare notes confirming that the man the world knows as Stewart Ward is their old friend which explains why he has been keeping them busy by hiring supervillains to advance his schemes.[10] That’s when Ranger detects that Arthur is giving off a signal and finds the spider-tracer that Peter planted on him earlier. Arthur doesn’t know how it got there but they deactivate the device, as they intend on dealing with Stewart Ward himself.

By this time, Peter Parker is exhausted and has given up his pursuit when the signal on his spider-tracer goes out and hopes that it doesn’t mean something happened to Arthur. As he drops off to sleep, Peter wonders if a more direct approach will work. Peter only sleeps for two hours when he wakes up from a nightmare about his Uncle Ben.[11] Unable to go back to sleep, Peter decides to go back out as Spider-Man and soon follows the sound of police sirens to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral where Eddie Brock is fighting with police. He wants to get into the church for guidance now that he has been separated from his other.[12] When Spider-Man confronts Brock, he finds out how Ann Weying committed suicide. While Spider-Man is very sorry to hear this, Eddie is still a danger to others and he knocks him out with a single punch. Suddenly, the wall-crawler’s spider-sense begins going off with an intensity that is painful. Following the signal, Spider-Man is lured back to the Stacy home in Queens where he finds that someone has boosted the signal on his spider-tracer. Arthur Stacy comes out to greet him and tells Spider-Man that his home was attacked by Stewart Ward but thankfully his children disobeyed his orders and left before the attack. He hopes that this will finally prove to Spider-Man that Stewart Ward is a real threat.

At that same moment, Senator Stewart Ward can’t believe that the symbiote’s separation from Eddie Brock can be so painful and tells the alien creature that by merging with him it will be with a host that has the influence of a US Senator at his disposal. Reaching out with red blistered skin, he admits that he is no stranger to sharing his body with an alien life form, however, the one in his body is more of a virus. He decides that it is now time for he and the symbiote to merge and as he grabs the alien creature it begins to scream.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Venom, Stewart Ward, Randy Robertson, Jill Stacy, Arthur Stacy, Paul Stacy, Glory Grant

Continuity Noes

1. Eddie Brock’s failed marriage to Ann Weying is explained in detail in Amazing Spider-Man #375. Ann committed suicide in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #19 because she could no longer handle Venom being in her life. Ann’s tombstone here states that she was born in 1965, the date in question should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. Modern readers should interpret this to mean that Ann was roughly 35 years old when she died.

2. This person is Stewart Ward as we’ll see at the end of this issue. He refers to Brock as a washed-up journalist here. As explained in Amazing Spider-Man #300, Eddie Brock was a reporter for the Daily Globe. During this time he interviewed a man who claimed to be the Sin-Eater, a spree shooter that was still at large. However, when Spider-Man caught the real Sin-Eater, Brock was disgraced and fired from his job. For more on the Sin-Eater saga check out Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110.

3. At the time of this story, everyone thinks Mary Jane died in a plane crash in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #13. She’s actually still alive as we’ll learn in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #29. Mary Jane is referred to as Peter’s wife here. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As such, in the new timeline, Mary Jane would be referred to here as Peter’s fiancee.

4. Arthur specifically asks Jill to page him. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding TImecale as pagers are an obsolete technology.

5. Arthur Stacy attempted to assassinate Stewart Ward in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #12/Peter Parker: Spider-Man #12.

6. Arthur’s brother was the late George Stacy. The wedge between the two of them was explored in some detail in Spider-Man #-1. At the time of this story, George Stacy has been dead for years. He was killed saving a child from falling debris during a battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus in Amazing Spider-Man #90.

7. Stewart Ward had expressed an interest in supporting Robert Kelly’s bid for presidency since Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #20. Last issue he attempted to romance Susan and infected her with a Z’Nox pathogen. The details behind Ward’s infection with this pathogen is detailed next issue.

8. At the time of this story, the Avengers were busy dealing with the return of Count Nefaria in Avengers (vol. 3) #31-34 and the Fantastic Four are busy investigating strange happenings in the town of Oblivion as seen in Fantastic Four (vol. 3) #33-34.

9. A footnote here reminds readers that Ranger was last seen in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #1.

10. They make mention of Stewart' Ward’s past employment of the Wizard, Trapster, Sandman, and Doctor Octopus. They are referring to the events of Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #4, Amazing Spider-Man Annual 1999, and Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #12/Peter Parker: Spider-Man #12.

11. You should remember that Uncle Ben found himself on the business end of a burglar’s gun in Amazing Fantasy #15. Great Power and responsibility all that jazz. This nightmare, as we’ll later learn in Spider-Man: Revenge of the Green Goblin #2, is caused by drugs put in Peter’s toothpaste

12. Saint Patrick’s Cathedral is where Peter Parker attempted to destroy the alien symbiote when it attempted to bond to him in Web of Spider-Man #1. It’s also where Eddie Brock found it, as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #300.