Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #49
Bad Connections
Following Spider-Man’s battle with Shanthra, Ezekiel Sims tells Spider-Man that he needs to listen to what he has to tell him, even though Peter doesn’t believe that his powers came from mystical sources.[1] He tells Parker that regardless of how he really got his spider-powers he’s tapped into something powerful and important. He stresses that it is important and could save his life as there are forces that have been hunting his spider-side.[2] He warns that Morlun and Shanthra were just the start and that bigger things are coming. However, anything more will have to wait until later as Peter is needed back in New York. Peter agrees because he has to go back and sort things out with Mary Jane.[3] After he sends Peter to the airport in a limo, Ezekiel returns to the spider-temple that his people recently unearthed. Meanwhile, Mary Jane is on a plane heading to New York City. When the passenger next to her starts suggesting they hook up after they land, Mary Jane dumps a bottle of water on him.[4]
Meanwhile, Peter arrives at the airport in Ghana and decides at the last minute to change his flight to New York City to one to Los Angeles. As Peter takes a cramped flight to Los Angeles, Mary Jane arrives at Peter’s apartment on the East Coast. When arriving at his apartment, she bumps into his neighbor Caryn Earle, who tells Mary Jane that Peter is out, and says he goes out a lot, suggesting that he has an interesting social life. Remembering how Peter once said that Mary Jane was always welcome to his place she uses a credit card to jimmy the lock and get inside.
Later, Peter arrives in Los Angeles and when he arrives at Mary Jane’s apartment, the clerk at the front desk doesn’t believe that he is her husband and tells him to beat it before he calls security. Outside, he tries calling her from a payphone but gets her voice mail. He’s shocked when her voice mail says that she’s going to be gone for an indefinite period of time so she can spend time with someone special. At first, Peter thinks it’s a smokescreen but then deduces that maybe Mary Jane went to see him. He picks up the phone and tries to call his number but is reminded that he forgot to pay his phone bill when the operator tells him that his number is no longer in service. After a terse conversation with the phone company, Peter can’t get them to reconnect his phone line and he hangs up.
As Mary Jane looks around Peter’s apartment, Peter decides to use his spider-powers to get into hers. Covering his face with his sweater, Peter then climbs up the side of the building to get onto Mary Jane’s balcony. As they look around their apartments, both Peter and Mary Jane come to the conclusion that the other has moved on with their lives and that it was a mistake to try and reconnect and get their marriage back on track. The two then head back to the mutual homes. However, fate has something else in store for Peter and Mary Jane. While Mary Jane’s flight back to Los Angeles has a stop-over in Denver, Peter’s plane is diverted to the same airport due to a lightning storm. Peter and Mary Jane are unaware that they are in the same airport until they are called to their respective flights.[5] Rushing to get to his gate, Peter suddenly spots a spider resting on one a chair and it catches his attention. He stops long enough to see that Mary Jane is standing in a line behind the row of chairs. Running to her instead the two lovers are shocked to see each other and decide that talking things out is more important than catching their respective flights.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Ezekiel Sims, Mary Jane Watson, Caryn Earle
Continuity Notes
For years Peter has thought that he got his spider-powers because the spider that bit him in Amazing Fantasy #15 was bombarded with radiation. However, since Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #30, Ezekiel has been trying to convince Peter that his powers come from mystical sources.
Two previous attempts have been made, by Morlun in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #30-35 and Shanthra in Amazing Spirder-Man (vol. 2) #46-48.
Peter and Mary Jane have been separated since Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2001 because Mary Jane wanted to figure out who she was. She was recently upset when Shanthra (in a human guise) went into the news and claimed to be Spider-Man’s lover in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #47.
Mary Jane states that she is going back home to see her husband here. However, not long after this, Peter and Mary Jane’s marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. In the new timeline, Mary Jane would actually say that she’s going home to see her fiancee.
Peter is annoyed by a couple of young people who are talking about how much they love shock-rocker Marilyn Manson. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.
