Amazing Spider-Man #640
Something Borrowed
Now
Peter and Mary Jane are continuing their conversation about how their relationship ended. Peter had just finished recounting how he managed to save Aunt May’s life when doctors wrote her off as dead.[1]
Thinking about it now, Mary Jane still tears up but admits that the wine she’s been drinking might be going to her head. That’s when Peter tells her what the doctor told him afterwards…
Then
The doctor admitted to Peter that he doesn’t usually theorizes how someone comes back from the brink of death. However, seeing how May miraculously stabilized and is now getting strong could only be the product of love. The doctor tells Peter that he should be proud for saving his aunt’s life when the doctors were ready to write her off. He then suggests that Peter go home and get some rest and that they will call if May wakes up from her coma. Peter, however, refuses to leave her side. The doctor allows this, telling Peter that it’s his funeral. As he says this, a nurse in red hospital scrubs takes special interest in their conversation.
As Peter and Mary Jane sleep in May’s hospital room, the nurse calls the Kingpin to tell him that May Parker is expected to live.[2] Wilson Fisk is furious and tells the nurse to kill the Parker woman. The nurse objects to this, saying that she was paid to keep him up to date on May’s status, not to murder someone. She is upset and threatens to expose Fisk’s involvement. He decides to let this go, telling the nurse that she has repayed this debt as he has other means. As the nurse walks outside and hails a cab, she tells him that attacking May in the hospital is a bad idea since Peter and Mary Jane are staying in the ICU and the place is crawling with doctors and security. The Kingpin tells her not to worry about it, and to continue keeping an eye on the situation. Hanging up, the nurse has no intention of doing so and hops in a cab and leaves the hospital.
The Kingpin then calls another assassin who has just received a list of targets and then tells the assassin that there is a nurse he wants him to deal with after he’s done this job. With the call put out, the Kingpin hands his cellphone back to one of the prison guards and then asks for his dinner.
Later that evening, Mary Jane is woken up by a phone call from her Aunt Anna. Anna tells Mary Jane that she has been having trouble sleeping after everything that’s happened and then started hearing noises in her backyard. Mary Jane is in the middle of telling her aunt to keep calm when the battery on her phone dies. As Anna convinces herself to go to bed, she is unaware that a man in a luchador mask is lurking outside her home. Mary Jane meanwhile, decides to go and check on her Aunt. She goes to the front desk and tells the secretary that if Peter wakes up to tell him that she just went out for fresh air and not to worry. Less than a half-hour later Mary Jane arrives at her aunt’s house and sees that someone has broken in the front door. Running upstairs, she hears the masked man knock out Anna. Listening from the bedroom, she hears the assassin telling her unconscious aunt that it’s her niece’s fault because she is involved with Spider-Man. Mary Jane rushes in and smashes a vase over the assassin’s head prompting him to chase her outside.[3]
Running for her life, Mary Jane frantically tries to call Peter, but her phone is still dead. She leaps into a neighbor’s back yard but is attacked by their dog. The shooter catches up with her and kills the dog. However, before he can put a bullet in Mary Jane’s head, the neighbor’s other dog attacks him allowing MJ to escape. By this time, Peter gets a paniced phone call from Anna Watson who tells him about the attack on her home. They try to call Mary Jane but she’s not picking up her phone prompting Peter to get a burly nurse to watch over Aunt May while he rushes to Queens.
Back in Queens, Mary Jane trips on her feet and falls to the ground allowing the assassin to descend on her again. Remembering how she once asked Peter what a relationship with him would cost, she tells the assassin to kill her and leave her family alone. However, the assassin isn’t willing to stop with just her because of the Kingpin’s orders. However, as he pulls the trigger, Spider-Man swings in and throttles the shooter, making him miss. Spider-Man slaps him around to find out who hired him, but the shooter tells Spider-Man he knows. The web-slinger then unmasks the guy and discovers that it was the same man who made him miss his wedding day. That’s when they hear police sirens and Eddie Muerto mocks Spider-Man because they will arrest him for being a federally wanted fugitive.[4]
As Spider-Man swings away with Mary Jane he realizes that the public revelation of his secret identity was a mistake that he has to own and find some way to fix. He goes to Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum so the sorcerer can heal Mary Jane. Peter then takes the time to call Anna Watson and tells her that they are all right, much to her relief. Strange knows Peter has come for something else. Peter asks Stephen to help make people forget Peter Parker is Spider-Man. When Stephen tells Peter it’s not that simple, Peter begs with him to do something, pointing out that Stephen has done it before.[5] After Strange makes sure that this is what Peter wants to do, he insists after looking at Mary Jane one more time. Stephen tells Peter to wait there as he will return soon with his answer. With that, Stephen’s astral form goes out into the world.
Now
Peter pauses his story to joke about how he wanted to shave Doctor Strange’s eyebrows while his spirit was gone from his body. When Mary Jane asks Peter where Stephen went, Peter doesn’t know.
Then
In the astral plane, Doctor Strange meets with Tony Stark and Reed Richards, aka Iron Man and Mister Fantastic. He tells them Peter’s plight and tells the pair that they are responsible for his current predicament and asks for their assistance helping the world forget Spider-Man’s secret identity.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Kingpin, Eddie Muerte, Anna Watson, Doctor Strange, Mister Fantastic, Iron Man
Continuity Notes
May was shot by an assassin hired by the Kingpin in Amazing Spider-Man #538. May was on life support and was expected to die. How Peter saved his life was detailed last issue. Per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616, the flashback in this story happened about a year prior to the main story. Everyone knows Peter is Spider-Man at the time of this flashback because he had recently revealed his identity to the public in Civil War #2.
The Kingpin is depicted as being in jail here. This flashback takes place during the period when the Kingpin was incarcerated that lasted from Daredevil (vol. 2) #50-93.
The assassin remembers Mary Jane from her role on Secret Hospital. Mary Jane was part of the cast of this daytime soap opera from Amazing Spider-Man #324 until 368.
This story takes place shortly after Civil War #1-7, where Spider-Man’s renunciation of the Super-Human Registration Act made him a wanted fugitive.
Doctor Strange once used his magic to obscure his identity in Doctor Strange #183 changing it to Stephen Saunders. He abandoned this new identity in Marvel Feature #1.
Spidey Sunday Part Seven
Spider-Man is being pursued by two crooks named Brain and Bull, who want to steal the web-slinger’s latest invention, a functional time machine. Unfortunately, as they get close to the web-slinger, Spider-Man is attacked by Doctor Octopus who plans on killing the wall-crawler. Luckily, Spider-Man rips free of the mechanical arms of Otto Octavius. Unfortunately, he’s not out of trouble as Spider-Mna tries to retreat he swings right into the Hulk.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Bull, Brain, Doctor Octopus, the Hulk
Continuity Notes
Although unclear here, the universe that Bull and Brain travel to is not the Earth-616 universe which becomes clear when you see how fast and loose writer Stan Lee is with continuity, the silly plot, and not to mention how Spider-Man is self-aware of the fact that he is a comic book character. As I write this (September 2020) the reality Bull and Brain come from and the one they visit have yet to be designated a reality number.
