Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #40

Mar 25

Mar 25 Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #40

Sensitive Issues

After stopping an armored car robbery the night before, Peter Parker is inspired to teach his class about the Law of Inertia. As he fields questions, Peter’s Aunt May is riding up to the offices of the Daily Bugle. In the elevator with her and the other passengers is a man who is giving a loud rant about various conspiracies. Annoyed by this, May tells him that it's his floor and the man gets off. When she arrives at the offices of the Daily Bugle, she finds J. Jonah Jameson yelling at his staff. He stops ranting when he sees May and asks what he can do for her. She tells him that she has come to personally tell him that she is canceling her subscription to the Daily Bugle. When Jonah asks why she says that she doesn’t like the way the Bugle reports on Spider-Man. This floors Jonah who then asks May what she knows about Spider-Man that would change her mind about him. All May will say is that she knows volumes and volumes.[1] Jameson suddenly loses his temper and tells her that he doesn’t need her business. When Jonah gets on the elevator, he finds himself standing next to the raving lunatic that May encountered on the way up.

Later, after classes, Peter Parker is visited by Jennifer Hardesty who tells Peter that her brother Steve is getting out of the hospital later that day and the doctors are trying to get him in a rehabilitation program.[2] When she asks if he still would help if she was in trouble, Peter says he promised and agrees to meet with some of the other kids she lives with. As they leave school, they are unaware that they are being watched by Steve’s drug dealer.

While in Queens, Aunt May answers the phone and is delighted to hear that it’s Mary Jane calling. She has called to see how May and Peter have been doing and May says they are doing well. The call is cut short when Mary Jane is called on set. After she gets off the phone she noticed that May was acting weird and wonders if she knows that Peter is Spider-Man. May is wondering the same thing and wonders if she should tell Mary Jane what she knows.[3] Both women decide that the only person they should talk about this is Peter, but unfortunately, Peter and Mary Jane aren’t talking right now.[4]

By this time, Peter is meeting with one of the street kids that Jennifer knows. She tells Peter about how her friend started doing drugs for a while, but when he tried to get clean he just disappeared. When she tried to go to the police about it, they dismissed her concerns, saying homeless kids drift in and out of town all the time. They then go on to tell Peter that he’s not the only one and she’s worried about her brother when he gets out. Peter tells them he’s not sure what he can do but he’ll make some phone calls. In reality, Peter starts staking out the neighborhood as Spider-Man. Eventually, his spider-sense warns him of trouble going on in an alley. Spider-Man swings down and spies a transparent man swallowing up a young man into a vortex coming out of his right arm. When Spider-Man tries to stop this man he passes through him because the attacker is intangible. This man, who calls himself Shade, tells Spider-Man that nobody can touch him unless he wants to touch. To prove this point he becomes solid long enough to strike the wall-crawler. He explains that he sends away the street kids as part of some deal but won’t explain what. When he starts mocking the wall-crawler, Spider-Man tosses a garbage pale lid at Shade. Shade becomes intangible long enough to avoid getting hit, but Spider-Man has thrown it in such a way it ricochets off the walls of the alley and strikes Shade in the back of the head. Spider-Man then gets a few blows in before Shade becomes intangible again. Although Shade is impressed, he decides it’s time to go and after activating a mystical symbol on the side of his neck, Shade vanishes. Although his culprit has vanished he learned quite a deal about him.

However, he decides to suspend his investigation because he needs to get home to meet up with Aunt May. After changing out of costume, Peter begins applying make-up to cover up the bruises on his face. This makes him think about how Mary Jane taught him how to do this and thinking about her hurts. That’s when Aunt May arrives and she tells him that she got a call from Mary Jane. She tells her that Mary Jane is coming to town for a photoshoot and wants to see him. After thinking it over, Peter tells her that he’d like to see her also.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Shade, Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Jennifer Hardesty, Mary Jane Watson

Continuity Notes

May is canceling her subscription to the Daily Bugle after learning that Peter was Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #35. Jameson has had it out for Spider-Man since Amazing Spider-Man #1.
Steve Hardesty almost died after overdosing on meth in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #37.
As revealed in Marvel Graphic Novel #46, Mary Jane has known Peter was Spider-Man since the very beginning. However, she didn’t tell him that she knew his secret until Amazing Spider-Man #259.
Peter and Mary Jane decided to separate for a while in the Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2001. This is because MJ needed time to deal with being held prisoner by a stalker from Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #13-29.