A Strange Turn of Events

Spider-Man has sought out Doctor Strange to as for his help in trying to capture a mystically powered criminal called Shade who has been kidnapping street children and imprisoning them in the astral plane. Spider-Man tries to wait patiently while Doctor Strange meditates on the situation, but tells the mystic that he needs to hurry.[1] Finally, Doctor Strange warns Spider-Man that one does not just enter the astral plane unprepared, as was the case with Shade. Such a disruption would require him to bring a person to the astral plane to balance out the time he spends traveling between the realms. Doctor Strange tells Spider-Man that he has to go alone, as he has an appointment with death.[2] Doctor Strange then uses the Hand of Agamotto to temporarily give Spider-Man the ability to travel to the Astral Plane so he can rescue Shade’s captivates. However, he warns the wall-crawler that no matter what he does he must always remain on the path. Before returning to another room of the mansion, he tells Spider-Man one last thing, to not open this door until he returns — if he ever does. Spider-Man then sits in one of Doctor Strange’s chair and tries to concentrate on traveling into the astral plane.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Hardesty, is returning to her home when she is confronted by members of Shade’s gang. They aren’t happy that she has been bringing Spider-Man onto their turf and hand her over to Shade. As Spider-Man’s astral form leaves his body when then starts flying across the city to look for Shade. He arrives just as Shade is sucking Jennifer into another dimension. Spider-Man races into the voice with her and finds himself in a strange alien dimension. He quickly spots Shade dragging Jennifer along a path to a mystical prison where all the other captured street children have been kept since their abductions. As Spider-Man attacks Shade, Jennifer rushes to the mystical barrier and rips it open freeing the other prisoners. Spider-Man quickly overpowers his enemy and sends him flying into the mystical barrier where he is seemingly destroyed in the mystical explosion. Then using his temporary mystical powers, Spider-Man opens a portal for all of Shade’s prisoners can return to Earth. Spider-Man then hears something familiar calling out to him and, ignoring Doctor Strange’s warnings, ventures off the path to see what it is.

He soon comes upon a massive spider-like creature called the Great Weaver. It tells him that he is should not be here as it is not time. When Spider-Man asks what it is and what it means, it says it is what he will become and knocks him back through the dimensional barriers to Earth. Still, in his astral form, Spider-Man looks at a newspaper box and sees that the Wednesday edition of the Daily Bugle has just been put out and realizes that time moved faster while he was on the other side and he missed his meeting with Mary Jane. He rushes in his astral form to JFK Airport. He arrives just as Mary Jane is preparing to board her plane back to California. She is talking to Aunt May, telling her to tell Peter she was by but she guesses it wasn’t meant to be. Peter tries to tell her how he feels and how much he has missed her since she has been gone, but she cannot see or hear him. He tries to tell her that he love her but no matter what he does she can’t hear him and seeing the disappointed look on her face hurts him deeply. He can do nothing as the plane takes off and heads west.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Shade, Doctor Strange, Jennifer Hardesty, Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May (voice only)

Continuity Notes

1. Spider-Man mentions he has a wife that he hasn’t seen in a while. Peter and Mary Jane are going through a separation that began in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2001. Peter calls him her wife, but years later their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As a result in this new timeline, Peter would refer to Mary Jane as his fiancee instead.

2. A footnote tells readers that Doctor Strange is referring to a yet to be written mini-series titled Doctor Strange: The Other Side of Darkness. This mini-series never ended up getting written. Instead, it’s revealed in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24, this is not the present-day Doctor Strange but his future self. He had gone back in time to while trying to stop Spider-Man from preventing his Aunt May from getting shot in Amazing Spider-Man #538. The death he is referring to is the future death of Aunt May.