Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #39
Meanwhile…
Mary Jane wakes up in her Los Angeles apartment just before 5:30 in the morning and gets out of bed. Getting ready for a shower she turns on the news.[1] The feature story is about how Spider-Man saved a bunch of kids, armed terrorists. Seeing Peter in action causes her to pause and watch. When the news goes to a commercial break she then heads into the shower. She then goes about her schedule for the day. She does a modeling shoot, goes for coffee, and then goes to a movie premier for a comedy called “Raving Madmen”. While the rest of the audience laughs at the film, Mary Jane can’t find it very funny. When she returns home later that evening she puts in the news again. She rushes out of the bathroom again when they do another report on Spider-Man. When Mary Jane finally goes to bed she finds herself tossing and turning all night until it’s 5:30 again the next morning.
On the other side of the country, Aunt May has gone to the New York Public Library to access the internet on their public computers. She looks at various newspapers to see how they present their coverage of Spider-Man. After going through her checklist, she sends an e-mail to Daily Bugle and New York Herald to cancel her subscriptions in favor of reading the Brooklyn Banner. She then begins e-mailing numerous talk shows suggesting that they do episodes about Spider-Man and get their side of the story in the hopes they can inform their viewers that there are more to superheroes like Spider-Man so they can set the record straight and prove they are good people.[2] Checking her to-do list again May sees that she has two items left: buying antacids and work on forgiving Peter.[3] She notes that she needs to pick up a lot of antacids.
That evening, Spider-Man saves some people from an apartment fire. As he swings through Times Square, he stops when he sees footage of Mary Jane on one of the large television screens. Returning home, Peter has a shower then considers calling Mary Jane and then decides against it.[4] He then goes out for dinner with Aunt May. Later that evening, Aunt May is up late reading a book on the psychology of superheroes. Elsewhere Mary Jane and Peter Parker sleep on two different parts of the country. On his nightstand, Peter has left his Spider-Man mask resting on a magazine with Mary Jane on the cover.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May
Continuity Notes
Peter and Mary Jane decided to separate in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2001. This was so Mary Jane can process being held captive by a stalker from Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #13-29. The pair will get back together in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #51.
The people and television shows Aunt May e-mails are The Late Show with David Letterman (which she calls “The Letterman Show” here), the Tonight Show, Larry King, Dan Rather, and Oprah Winfrey. These should all be considered topical references for various reasons. Oprah Winfrey and David Letterman retired from their network television jobs in 2010 and 2014 respectively. Both Dan Rather and Larry King are (at the time of this writing) are in their late 80s, their time in television probably won’t last much longer. While the tonight show has been on the air consistently since 1954, it’s a real-world television show and could get canceled.
Aunt May needs to forgive Peter because she discovered that he has been hiding the fact that he’s been Spider-Man for roughly 11 years by this point. May made this shocking discovery in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #35.
Peter’s address book has the year 2002 printed on it. This date should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.
