Interlude

This story continues from Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #35…

Following his battle with Morlun, Peter Parker had stripped off his costume and collapsed in bed, forgetting that Aunt May was coming by in the morning to do his laundry.[1] Now, Aunt May has found his Spider-Man costume. Seeing his web-shooters and seeing Peter all bandaged up is enough irrefutable proof that her nephew is Spider-Man. May is shocked at first, then angry. Still, she picks up Peter’s costumes and leaves the apartment without waking her nephew.[2]

The next morning, Peter Parker reports for work at his new job teaching at Midtown High.[3] He gives his students a lecture on how the circadian rhythm regulates the human sleep cycle. As he tells his students about how some people are naturally either morning or night people. To punctuate this point, he wakes up one of his students, Jennifer Hardesty, who has fallen asleep in class. That’s when the bell rings he asks Jennifer to stay behind after class. He asks if there is anything wrong, and she tells him that she doesn’t want to talk about it. Having to accept this, Peter dismisses her but says if she changes her mind he’s always there to listen. This almost makes Jennifer talk about her problems, but she tells him to nevermind. Seeing this exchange is one of Peter’s fellow teachers. He tells him that Jennifer is a tragic case because of drugs. Not that she is doing drugs, but because of her brother Steve, who deals the same drugs he’s addicted to. Which is a shame, as Jennifer has a lot of potential and this other teacher thinks her brother will do nothing but drag her down.

Back in his classroom, Peter thinks about how its easier to deal with super-villains, but something like this is not that easy. Looking out the window he sees Jennifer with her older brother and wonders what he can do, but still intends to try. First, he tries to call Aunt May, but Anna Watson answers the phone instead. She tells Peter that May went out and that she seemed a little distracted today as though there was something on her mind. Peter tells Anna to send his love if he doesn’t hear from her first. At that moment, May is sitting on a park bench with Peter’s Spider-Man costume in her bag, wondering how to deal with this big revelation. After hanging up the phone, Peter finds Jennifer’s home address in her student file and decides to pay a visit to her parents.

When he arrives in Jennifer’s neighborhood he finds that it is pretty rough and tumble. When he arrives at the address on file, he discovers that the building has been condemned. Seeing a woman leaning out of her window, Peter asks her what happened to the Hardesty home. He eventually learns that both of the parents had run of before the building was condemned. When he asks where he can find the children, the gossipy woman points him to a stairwell that goes into the basement of one of the buildings. There, Peter is shocked to discover that there are a lot of kids squatting in the basement of the building. When he finds Jennifer, she takes him to the section of the basement that serves as her “room”. When Peter asks what happened Jennifer explains that she and her brother were kicked out of their own home. She lived with her aunt for a while but they couldn’t stay there either. Peter is able to relate to Jennifer, telling her how his parents died when he was still young and raised by his aunt and uncle.[4] Jennifer thinks he was lucky and explains that this was the only life that was left for her and her brother. However, regardless of the fact she is living on the street, she still intends to go to school and study. Hearing all of this is a shock to Peter, and he thinks about how many times he’s been through this neighborhood and never would have guessed something like this existed and wonders when he stopped seeing such tragedic circumstances. Jennifer then asks Peter not to tell anyone because they’ll split up Jennifer and her brother and he is a few months away from graduating and becoming legally able to live on his own, she is certain that they can get a fresh start if just have a little more time. Peter isn’t sure he can and needs to think about it. When he asks where Steve is, she tells him that her brother goes off to do his drugs somewhere and usually comes back by now and is worried about him.

At that same moment, Steve has just done a bunch of drugs and starts having an overdose. The other drug addicts in the alley decide to leave him to die. A few minutes later, Peter is leaving Jennifer’s home when she is told by one of other kids that there is something wrong with her brother. They are both led to the alley where Steve was doing drugs. There, Peter recognizes the signs of an overdose and sends Jennifer and her friend to flag down a car. When they are gone, he changes into Spider-Man and races Steve to a nearby hospital. Spider-Man is shocked to discover that Steve is not the only person who suffered an overdose this evening as the emergency room is filled with other drug addicts. With Steve dying in his arms, Spider-Man insists that a doctor see him right away and manages to intimidate the orderlies enough to act quickly. Returning home, Peter calls Jennifer to tell her that his brother is expected to recover. He then tells her that he’ll keep quiet about her living on the streets as long as she promises to call him if she gets into trouble. Jennifer promises and hangs up the payphone she is using and walks away in tears. Her departure is seen by two men who were there when Steve overdosed. They don’t like the idea of Spider-Man is poking around in their neighborhood and they decide to contact their boss, a man they call Shade.

That’s when Peter’s phone rings again and he rushes to answer it. It’s his Aunt May who tells him that she’s been thinking all day about something. She tells Peter that she needs to talk to him right away.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Aunt May, Joey Gastone, Jennifer Hardesty, Steve Hardesty, Anna Watson

Continuity Notes

1. Peter’s battle with Morlun in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #33-34.

2. Aunt May has been afraid of Spider-Man in part due to the negative editorials J. Jonah Jameson has written about the wall-crawler since Amazing Spider-Man #1. This, and May’s general frail health, have always been factors that have prevented Peter from revealing his secret identity to May.

3. Peter was hired as a science teacher at Midtown in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #31

4. Peter Parker’s parents, Richard and Mary, were government agents that were killed while on a mission as we saw in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5. Peter was raised by his Aunt May and Uncle Ben ever since.