Power to the People Part Three

With his powers boosted by the Mad Thinker, Electro has used his status as a folk hero to convince the people of New York to help him wipe the DB! off the face of the Earth by turning on all of their appliances and lights to boost his powers even more. He continues rallying for support by interrupting a local news broadcast by travelling through the electrical current to appear in the news room and tell the people of New York to continue pouring on the power.

Meanwhile, fire crews have arrived at the scene of the Mad Thinker’s abandoned hideout and rescue Spider-Man from the blaze. When he overhears the firemen talking about how Electro is planning on destroying the DB! Building, Spider-Man races back into the burning building to try and find something, anything, that can help him stop Electro. At that same moment, Dexter Bennett is ordering everyone to evacuate the building. However, when people try to exit out the revolving door in the lobby they are jolted back by electricity and realize that Electro rigged the place so they can’t escape.

Outside, the police have cordoned off the entire building and will not allow anybody inside. Mayor J. Jonah Jameson has also arrived and tries to take charge of the scene, but doesn’t have a plan. That’s when Spider-Man arrives and tells Jameson that the only way to stop Electro is to relinquish control of his Anti-Spider-Man Squad to him.

By this time, Electro has appeared in the DB!’s bullpen by leaping out of a computer monitor. Ordering Dexter to come out from wherever he is hiding, Max begins drawing electricity into his body through every outlet and piece of electrical equipment in the newsroom. The feedback from this sudden surge of power causes appliances all over the city to burn out. Full charged, Electro finds Dexter cowering in his office. Before he can kill the newspaper publisher, Spider-Man comes swinging in through the window, kicking Electro in the face. The web-slinger then orders Dexter to make a run for it while he deals with his foe. At that same moment, underground, the Anti-Spider-Man Squad — in their Mandroid armor — locates the main electrical box that powers the DB! Building and destroy it, cutting Electro off from the rest of the power grid.

Upstairs, Spider-Man leaps around the office, evading Electro’s electrical bursts. Seeing the damage to the building from outside upsets J. Jonah Jameson who still sees the building as his.[1] Thinking that Spider-Man is doing this on purpose, Jonah grabs a flashlight from one of the nearby police officers and rushes into the building to try and stop Spider-Man and Electro from destroying it. When Spider-Man tells Electro he’s trapped, the villain tries to show the contrary by turning into electricity and travelling across the rooom through the electrical sockets. He finally tags Spider-Man with one of his electrical blasts but by this point he discovers he’s running out of power and goes back to looking for Dexter Bennett so he can finish him off. Spider-Man then shrugs off the blast, wraps his hand win webbing and attacks Electro head on.

Meanwhile, Jameson runs into Dexter Bennett and demands to know what’s going on upstairs. At that same moment, Spider-Man sends Electro smashing through a load bearing column and then webs him up. He tells Electro that he has treated his webbing with the genetic goop that was in the firehose he tried to spray him with earlier, noting that Dillon flinched when he tried earlier. He then cocoons Max in the webbing. Furious, Max insists that this time he was the hero and unleashes a full power blast, burning away the webbing and punching a hole through a few floors of the building, which he and Spider-Man fall into.

Downstairs, Dexter Bennett tricks Jonah into thinking he saw the errors of his way, but this is only to trick Jonah into rushing upstairs by telling him Electro already fled and that Spider-Man is at Jonah’s mercy. True to form, Jonah rushes up to try to unmask Spider-Man, pleasing Dexter who looks forward seeing Jameson go down with the rest of the building. That’s when the ceiling above him collapses, pinning Dexter under debris. Spider-Man breaks away from his fight with Electro when he hears Dexter calling for help. Hearing the crash, Jameson sees what happened and becomes concerned for Dexter’s well being. With the building about to collapse, Spider-Man says there is no time for paramedics and carries Dexter out, telling Jonah to get out as well. They manage to get out of the building just moments before it collapses to the ground.

The following day, the collapse of the old Daily Bugle building makes the front page of rival newspaper, the Front Line. Peter meets with Betty Brant at the rubble of the building. She tells him how J. Jonah Jameson is speechless, and Dexter Bennett’s media empire is destroyed. Worse, Dexter’s injuries ensure that he’ll never walk again and there is no money to rebuild. Betty can hardly believe it’s all over, telling Peter that she has worked there for her entire adult life. Peter remembers because that’s where they first met.[2] The two of them admit that the Bugle was such a large part of their lives they can’t think of a world without it. As Betty leaves, Peter realizes that this moment divides everything that happened in his life before and what will happen in the future and is surprised that a c-list villain like Electro could make such a huge impact on the personal life of Peter Parker. Peter now realizes that his that even his weakest villains can get an upgrade and wonders what would happen if his other foes started “leveling up.”

Meanwhile, Electro is in police custody, his powers shut off by power dampening shackles. He is brought into an interrogation room by what appears to be a police officer. Inside Electro finds a woman waiting for him. The officer turns out to be the Chameleon and as he removed his disguise he introduces Electro to Sasha Kravinoff, whom he calls an old friend of the family.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Electro, Dexter Bennett, J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, Chameleon, Sasha Kravinoff

Continuity Notes

1. J. Jonah Jameson used to own the Daily Bugle until he suffered a heart attack in Amazing Spider-Man #546 forcing his wife to sell it to Dexter Bennett two issues later.

2. Betty Brant worked at the Daily Bugle for years. She worked on-and-off as secretary for J. Jonah Jameson starting in Amazing Spider-Man #4. She later became a reporter for the newspaper in Web of Spider-Man #91.

Continuity Errors

• Peter says that Betty was working at the Bugle on the day that he first sold a photo to the Daily Bugle. That was in Amazing Spider-Man #2. I’m surprised Betty didn’t smack Peter for mistaking her for her mother, Elanore Brant who worked as a Jonah’s secretary until Betty took over in issue #4. As explained in Untold Tales of Spider-Man #12, 15, and 23, Betty’s mother suffered a brain injury, forcing Betty to drop out of school and take her mother’s job to pay the medical bills. Obviously, Peter is mistaken, but hey — according to the Sliding Timescale — he met Betty 13 years prior to this story, I think we can cut him some slack for getting his facts wrong, I can’t remember shit I did that long ago either.

Topical References

• The Front Line also has a front page about the Republican controlled House of Representatives, which was the case when this comic was published in 2010.