Amazing Spider-Man #622
It is the Life
Spider-Man is in bed with the Black Cat when she tells him that she sold the vial of his blood that they stole from Mister Negative.[1] Since he has gotten so upset about it, the Cat tells him that she sold it to a group calling themselves the Dracs. They are a gang of wannabe vampires who buy and drink the blood of a-list celebrities.
With this information, Peter Parker goes to the Drac’s hangout, a goth club called Eternal to try and get it back. Trying to blend in, Peter dresses up in what he thinks a modern day goth wears and discovers that he sticks out like a sore thumb and realizes that the lifestyle has really changed since he was in high school. One woman notices Peter and, as though reading his mind, tells him that myths evolve and change over time. Peter doesn’t understand people glamorizing vampirism since it has always been presented as a curse. The mystery woman responds by saying that a curse to one might be attractive to others, particularly one that assures eternal love that will never fade. Unaware that this woman is putting him under a hypnotic spell, Peter agrees with everything she says and then before he can ask her about his vial of blood, she is able to read it from his mind. She tells him that she knows who has it, Michael Morbius, aka the Living Vampire.[2] She then hands Peter the address of where Morbius can be found. When he thanks her, she walks away telling him that he’s the one she’s been waiting for.
Despite his better judgement, Spider-Man goes to the address the following morning. Ripping open a roof vent to get access to the unit, Spider-Man is surprised it is lined with wafers with the Holy Cross on them. Once inside, Spider-Man accidentally trips an alarm, unaware that Morbius is hanging upside down sleeping in the gloom. Suddenly, he hears a telepathic voice in his head, the woman from the night before, asking him to invite her in. Back in the woman’s trance, Spider-Man invites her in. By this time Morbius has woken up and asks Spider-Man what he’s doing and who he is talking to. That’s when the door is knocked off its hinges and strikes Spider-Man. The woman then comes into the apartment and Morbius recognizes him as Martine Bancroft, his one time lover.
However, before she can full entrance Morbius, Spider-Man tries to yank her away with some webbing. She manages to grab the web-line and whips Spider-Man around the room. She explains who she is and that she became a creature of the night so she could be with her former lover. As she turns into a bat, Morbius tries to tells Martine that the void she feels is the lack of a soul caused by her vampireism and to leave him alone. Flying behind Spider-Man and returning to human form, she tells Morbius that he is the void in his soul and says they can be together forever once she turns him into a true vampire. When she threatens to bite Spider-Man, Morbius surrenders. She then throws the web-slinger across the room.
As Martine begins enthralling Morbius, Spider-Man gets up and grabs a wooden stake made from the shattered furniture and tries to work up the guts to ram it through Martine’s heart. He comes up behind Martine but realizes he can’t bring himself to do it. That’s when Morbius acts, shoving Martine backward onto the stake, which pierces through her heart, killing her. Spider-Man is furious and tries to attack Morbius, telling the Living Vampire that they could have contained her and found a way to cure her. However, Morbius resists Spider-Man’s blows and tells the web-slinger that the Martine he knew was dead a long time ago and he just hastened her eternal reward. He explains that Martine manipulated him by using some of Spider-Man’s blood, which he later bought from the Dracs. He explains how he has aquired the blood because he hopes to cure his friend Jack Russel, the Werewolf by Night, of an undead plague he has been infected with.[3]
Realizing he shouldn’t have taken the blood without permission from his owner, Morbius crushes the vial and figures that he’ll be cursed to watch all of his loved ones die one at a time. Spider-Man can relate to this and then rolls up his sleeve, offering his blood willingly for Morbius to conduct his experiments.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Morbius the Living Vampire, Black Cat, Martine Bancroft, Werewolf by Night (flashback)
Continuity Notes
Mister Negative took some of Spider-Man’s blood for making a version of his Dragon’s Breath poison that would affect the web-slinger in order to prevent him from interfering with his plans. That was in Amazing Spider-Man #547-548. Spider-Man and the Cat stole it back last issue.
Peter recounts how he had six arms the first time he met Morbius the Living Vampire. This happened in Amazing Spider-Man #100-102.
The Werewolf by Night was infected with a zombie virus in Marvel Zombies 4 #1-4. After this story, Morbius appears to have successfully cured Russell of this virus.
Stages of Grief
Stage Five: Acceptance
Flash Thompson has entered a wheelchair race and wins first place. He is congratulated for the win by his friends Peter Parker and Betty Brant. Riding high, Flash tells his friends that, legs or no legs, Flash always wins first place.[1]
Stage Four: Depression
Four weeks later, Peter meets up with Betty at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center where Flash is learning how to walk on a pair of prosthetic legs. Just as Peter finishes telling Betty that Flash is his inspiration, they hear him yelling at his physiotherapist to get away from him, insisting that he can make his way across the parallel bars on his own. Peter and Betty walk in as Flash pumps himself up to walk across the path of the bars on his own. However, he ends up tripping over his new limbs he falls flat on his face. When Flash is about to give up, Peter reminds him that giving up is not part of Flash’s vocabulary. Thompson dismisses this and tells them to just help him back into his wheelchair.
When Betty asks the physiotherapist what happened, because Flash had been doing so well recently, he tells her that sometimes depression is part of the process. As he walks away he says there is one thing you can never do and that’s rush the process.
Stage Three: Barganinng
Flash has called Peter to his room at the hospital to ask for his help.[2] Flash has been researching cybernetics to replace his lost legs when he hit on another possibility, growing back his legs.[3] Since he knows Peter is friends with Spider-Man, he asks him to get the web-slinger to ask one of the many scientists he knows to help him out.
Peter decides to hear him out, but as he goes out as Spider-Man he calls Betty to find out what’s going on with Flash. She tells him how the doctors think that he is going through the five stages of grief, but in the reverse order.[4] Despite this news, Spider-Man pays a visit to his old friend Curt Connors to see if he can help re-grow Flash’s lost limbs. As much as Connors wants to help, he reminds Spider-Man what happened when he attempt to regrow his own lost arm.
Later, Peter meets up with Harry Osborn at a local laundromat with a wifi connection so they can look up people from Peter’s past. Harry is telling Peter how he’s now living with Mary Jane. Peter is cool with it, telling him that he and Mary Jane have moved on with their lives.[5] That’s when Mary Jane calls him back and he appreciates her coming up to bat to help Flash.[6]
Stage Two: Anger
A few weeks later, Spider-Man pays a visit to Flash Thompson to tell him that nobody is able to help him with his problem. Flash anger gets the better of him and he throws his laptop across the room.[7]
Stage One: Denial
A week later, Flash Thompson gets a response from Reabilify, a company that manufactures cybernetic limbs. They are very interested in fitting him with cybernetic legs since it would be a great PR move for the company. They are offering him the limbs at no cost, telling him that he can work off the cost by using his new legs in their service. However, before Flash can respond to the e-mail, Betty Brant arrives to take Flash to a surprise birthday party that his friends have put on in his honor.
Flash is delighted to see so many of his old friends, including his old high school pals Tiny McKeever and Jason Ionello.[8] Also joining the festivities are Mary Jane Watson, Liz Osborn, Randy Robertson, and Josh Kittling. Also present are the general that Flash served under and the soldier whose life he saved at the cost of his own legs. He and his wife are grateful for Flash’s sacrifice as she is expcted to give birth to their first child together.
Also present are his family, at first Flash is not happy to see his father, reminding him how he didn’t want to see his father until he is sober. That’s when Harrison Thompson shows his son that he earned his one year chip from Alcoholics Anonymous.[9] Flash is proud of his father and tells him that this is a start to reconciling their troubled relationship. Flash is surprised that Peter Parker was the one who organized this surprise party. They have one last surprise for Flash, they have managed to track down his ex-girlfriend, Sha Shan Nguyen. Although she is still bitter about Flash cheating on her, she has agreed to become Flash’s new physiotherapist.[10]
Stage Zero: Grace
After a few weeks of physiotherapty with Sha Shan, Flash has a new outlook on life. He looks over the e-mail from Reabilify and decides to delete it. This time, when Peter Parker and Betty Brant come to check on him they find him laughing after falling down on the parallel bars.
Recurring Characters
Flash Thompson, Spider-Man, Betty Brant, Curt Connors, Harry Osborn, Mary Jane Watson, Liz Osborn, Harrison Thompson, Rosie Thompson, Jesse Thompson, Sha Shan Nguyen, Tiny McKeever, Jason Ionello, Randy Robertson, Josh Kittling
Continuity Notes
Flash Thompson had recently lost his legs while serving in the military in Amazing Spider-Man #574.
An episode of Wolverine and the X-Men is playing on Flash’s television. Marvel movies and television shows exist in the Marvel Universe and are exempt from the rules of the Sliding Timescale with respect to Topical References. Per the Unofficial Appendix to the Marvel Universe the Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon exists as part of the Marvel Multiverse designated Reality-8096.
Flash has the pictures of various cyborgs and superhumans who have regrown lost limbs or gained additional ones these include:
There are schematics for Iron Man’s Extremis armor which Tony Stark wore from Iron Man (vol. 4) #4 to Invincible Iron Man (vol. 2) #25.
The Lizard, aka Curt Connors, who transformed himself into a monster while trying to develop a means of growing back his lost arm using Lizard DNA. This first happened back in Amazing Spider-Man #6. Connors lost his limb serving in the military as well.
The mutant inventor known as Forge, who built a cybernetic leg for himself. Forge, just like Flash, also lost a limb in the military as explained in Uncanny X-Men #227.
He has a picture of Spider-Man sporting six arms. As explained this was in Amazing Spider-Man #100-103. Peter found himself like this trying to cure himself of his spider-powers and it backfired spectacularly.
Winter Soldier who, as Captain America’s wartime sidekick Bucky, lost his arm while trying to stop one of Baron Zemo’s drones in Avengers #4. As explained in Captain America (vol. 5) #11, his body was recovered by the Russians and he was fitted with a cybernetic arm to replace the one he lost.
Doctor Octopus, who designed his cybernetic arms which defined his moniker in Amazing Spider-Man #3.
Also present is the mutant mercenary Cable. Initially, what was initially thought of as cybernetic limbs was actually the a technogranic virus that had taken over half of Cable’s body when he was a child in X-Factor #65-68.
Archangel who, after losing his natural wings in X-Factor #14 he was given cybernetic wings by Apocalypse in X-Factor #19.
He also has a photo of Brian Hibbs, the second Kangaroo, who first appeared in Cage #13. Hibbs used cybernetic equipment to imitate the abilities of a kangaroo.
Also included is Spiral, aka Rita Wayword, was transformed into her current form — which includes cybernetic limbs — by Arize, as explained in X-Factor Annual #7.
4. Peter reminds Betty that he knows all about the five stages of grief and thinks about all the people whose lives have been lost since he became Spider-Man. These people are….
Uncle Ben, because obviously. He was shot in Amazing Fantasy #15.
George Stacy who died when pushing a child out of the way of falling debris during a battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus in Amazing Spider-Man #90.
George’s daughter Gwen, Peter’s first true love, who was murdered by the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #121.
Lastly, he pictures Ned Leeds and Betty Brant. The couple were married in Amazing Spider-Man #156. Tragically, Ned was murdered by assassins in Spider-Man Versus Wolverine #1.
5. Peter and Mary Jane broke up during the events of Amazing Spider-Man #545. The details behind their break-up were detailed in Amazing Spider-Man #605. Harry moved in with Mary Jane after getting kicked out of Aunt May’s house last issue (long story)
6. Peter’s ring tone is “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” by Beyoncé. This is a nod to the fact that Peter and Mary Jane were once married before Mephisto erased their marriage from existence in Amazing Spider-Man #545.
7. There are more photos of various cyborgs in this scene. They include:
James Barnes (again) this time dressed in his Captain America costume. James took over the role of Captain America from Captain America (vol. 5) #34 until Fear Itself #3.
The Vision, an android that was armor worn by Iron Lad until it gains sentience in Young Avengers #5.
Another photo of Iron Man in his Extremis armor.
Not a cyborg, but there is a photo of Flash Thompson’s mother, Rosie Thompson. The photo of her is taken from her appearance in Spectacular Spider-Man #248.
8. Assuming Flash is around the same age as Peter Parker, per Civil War #2, this would make this Flash’s 28th birthday.
9. Harrison Thompson struggled for alcoholism his entire adult life. This was first explored in Spectacular Spider-Man #-1.
10. Flash and Sha Shan dated from Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #13 until she discovered he was cheating on her with Betty Brant and broke up with him in Amazing Spider-Man #275.
Topical References
References to Flash fighting in the Iraq war should be considered topical.