Amazing Spider-Man

A recap of Spider-Man’s origins. You’ve heard it a million times before.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Aunt May, Uncle Ben

Continuity Notes

1. READ. AMAZING. FANTASY. #15.

Point of Origin

Today is the day that where everything is going to change for Andy Maguire, although he wouldn’t know it. It’s a typical day of unattentive parents, low grades, and not being able to muster the guts to ask out his high school crush, Chrissy Chen. He envies Mark Hunsaker, who transferred to Midtown High two weeks earlier and is already dating Paula Lake, the head of the cheerleading squad while he remains anonymous among his peers. Returning home after school, Andy finds a note from his parents with money asking him to buy groceries and that nobody signed his permission slip for a school fieldtrip. With no other choice, Andy forges his father’s signature figuring nobody will notice.

The next day, Andy and his class go on their fieldtrip to Horizon Labs. When he is trying to muster up the guts to try and talk to Chrissy he is knocked to the ground by Mark. His peers ignore him but he is helped up by Peter Parker, one of the scientists who works at Horizon and is giving the demonstration for Andy’s school. Peter is looking forward to giving a demonstration of his demonstration of Parker Particles to students from his old school. He explains to the class that it Parker Particles are a type of hyper-kinetic energy that are tied into the forces of universal expansion and how it can be applied as a clean form of alternative energy. Watching from the sidelines are Max Modell and Tiberius Stone. Tiberius uses the opportunity to try convince Modell to let him into the think tank now that Michael Morbius is gone. Modell says this is a bad time and he might be considered next time. Angered by this, Stone decides to shut off the systems safety features out of spite.

This causes the Parker Particle generator to begin randomly discharging energy all over the room. With the children in harms way, Peter decides to ignore the risk of exposing his secret identity to get them to safety. Seeing Chrissy is in the path of one of the beams, Andy shoves her out of the way and gets struck by them instead. Miraculously, Andy survives and is now crackling with energies that are now inside his body. As Chrissy goes to check on him the ceiling begins to collapse and Andy, on instinct, fires a bolt of energy that vaporizes the falling debris. Realizing that he now has super powers, Andy decides that today is the best day ever.

Soon, Max Modell, his lawyer Hector Baez and Peter Parker are in a meeting with Andy’s parents and lawyer. Andy is still amazed at his sudden transformation, but his parents are threatening to sue because they don’t know the long term effects of what happened to their son. Peter Parker worries that the Maguire’s lawyer might be right. Max, trying to appease Andy’s parents, have called in some of the leading experts on superhumans to thoroughly examine Andy’s new powers. Soon, Peter Parker is joined by Giant-Man, Iron Man, and the Beast who examine the changes to Andy’s body. The final results the Parker Particles have permeated every cell in his body allowing him to channel the energy in various ways. They determine that Andy can project these energies or use them to boost his strength, speed, as well as generate a forcefield to protect himself as well as fly. The only discernable limitation that they can find is that Andy can only use one of these powers at a time.

Mister Fantastic pulls Peter aside to tell him his concerns. He explains that Andy’s powers are tied into the fabric of the universe and he will only grow stronger as he gets older. This could be a serious problem, pointing out that entities like the Hulk, the Sentry, and the Phoenix Force are all considered omega level threats, while Andy — on the other hand — would be the first potential alpha level threat. Reed also reveals that he discovered “Parker Particles” years earlier but kept his discovery a secret because he realized the potential danger. He then suggests that Peter take on the responsibility of training young Andy on how to use his powers responsible because his transformation into a superhuman is Peter’s mess to clean up.

After clearing with Max Modell, Hector Baez offers the Maguire family full medical coverage and access to super-human experts for his son, all paid for by Horizon Labs. They are also offering Andy a lucrative contract to act as Horizon Lab’s “spokes superhero” by turning him into Alpha, the company mascot. Baez tells the Maguire family that this will be worth more than anything they could get out of a lawsuit. Andy is excited over this opportunity and her parents relucantly accept the offer. Peter Parker is mortified that he is also assigned to oversee and design gear for Alpha.

Soon, Andy has an Alpha costume designed for him and he becomes the face of Horizon Lab’s advertisement for their new product, the aPhone. While his parents bicker over who profits from their son’s new marketability, Alpha is celebrated by his classmates on his first day back to school. This finally gets him the attention he craved from Chrissy Chen, who is now Alpha’s number one fan. While signing autographs for his classmates, Alpha knocks over Mark Hunsaker, and callously says he didn’t see him. Spider-Man watches all of this from the roof of Midtown High and already doesn’t like what he sees.

Later, Peter is distracted by his worries while he has dinner with his Aunt May, her husband Jay Jameson, and Mary Jane Watson. He admits he wasn’t listening to May when she asks and glosses over the incident at Horizon Labs but insists that his job isn’t in jeopardy. He then changes the subject to get Mary Jane to talk about the new nightclub she just bought. After dinner, Jay pulls Peter aside to have a serious talk. He expresses his concern over Peter not keeping in touch since they moved to Boston, particularly when the world almost came to the end.[1] Peter admits that he has been pretty busy lately but promises to do better, promising to meet up with Aunt May tomorrow.[2] When May and Jay leave, they are left wondering if Peter and Mary Jane have gotten back together.[3] When they are alone, Peter confides in Mary Jane that he has a bad feeling about Alpha. Mary Jane instantly understands since Andy Maguire is doing all the things Peter always wanted to do back when he was in high school, but was unable to do.

At that same moment, Alpha is in his room making out with Chrissy Chen. She stops for a moment to show him the Alpha fan page she set up. However, Alpha is disappointed that all of the comments posted are negative. Upset by this, Andy decides to go out on patrol, intending to show everyone on the Internet that he is a true hero (yeah good luck with that…) He runs into Spider-Man, much to Andy’s delight and the hero pulls him aside to have a talk. Spider-Man talks about the “sidekick program” that he and the rest of the super-hero community want him to undergo. Spider-Man gives his usual speech about power and responsibility and then takes Alpha out on patrol. While on patrol, Spider-Man teaches Alpha to rescue people in danger first, to always hit normal crooks with normal punches, saving the super-powered punches for supervillains. Andy does very well, much to Spider-Man’s surprise and he praises Alpha for following these rules. Later, the web-slinger gets a call from the Fantastic Four to help. Spider-Man tells Alpha to sit this one out because it is way out of his league. However, as Spider-Man swings away the novice hero decides to get involved anyway, because of course he does because Alpha is literally the worst character ever.

Spider-Man catches up with the Fantastic Four on Yancy Street to help them contain Giganto, the giant creature that lives below the Earth. The creature is on the rampage because it is mating season and it has yet to find a mate. As the five heroes try to restrain the monster, Alpha arrives and knocks it out with a single blow. He then gives a press conference, telling the gathered people and media about his recently becoming Spider-Man’s sidekick. The Thing is furious, especially since Alpha used his trademark “it’s clobberin’ time.” Mister Fantastic scolds Spider-Man for being so candid with Andy about his powers, and Spider-Man admits that he’s created a monster.

Watching the news coverage from his hideout is the Jackal who, with his Spider Queen clones decides that he needs to get his hands on the Parker Particles that are the source of Alpha’s power.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Alpha, Chrissy Chen, Max Modell, Tiberius Stone, Hector Baez, Joan Conway, Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Giant-Man, Beast, Iron Man, Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May, Jay Jameson, Looter, Giganto, Jackal, Alice Maguire, Ray Maguire, Mark Hunsaker, Paula Lake,

Continuity Notes

1. May and Jay moved to Boston in Amazing Spider-Man #573 to get away from the craziness of New York City. The “end of the world” he is referring to is when Doctor Octopus threatened to wipe out all life on Earth in Amazing Spider-Man #682-687.

2. Peter and May do meet up the next day, as they see in Avenging Spider-Man #11.

3. They haven’t. Peter and Mary Jane dated on-and-off for years since Amazing Spider-Man #42. They called it quits for good circa Amazing Spider-Man #545 because Mary Jane couldn’t handle the danger Peter’s double life brings him. See Amazing Spider-Man #638-641 for the gory details.

Spider-Man For a Night

Peter Parker has decided that for his own sanity he has to stop being Spider-Man for his own sanity and dumps his costume in a garbage can.[1] Moments later an elderly bank robber runs into the alleyway to get away from the police after robbing a bank. Seeing the Spider-Man costume in the trash, the crook changes out of his clothes and puts it on. When the police arrive on the scene, the old man convinces them that he is the real Spider-Man and that he managed to get the stolen loot away from the thief before he escaped. The cops take the stolen loot, not trusting “Spider-Man” to give it back.

Although the crook managed to evade arrest, he refuses to go home until he has made a decent haul. Recovering his gun from the trash, he goes to a nearby pawnshop in the Spider-Man costume. However, the pawnshop owners wife ambushes him from behind with some golf clubs, allowing the owner to take the gun away. The old thief manages to get away because the gun was never loaded to begin with.

The old man returns home and trips over his one of his grand daughters Spider-Man figures. As it turns out, Olivia is a huge fan of Spider-Man. He enters her room where the girl has been confined because she is in ill health. He tries to cheer Olivia up by pretending to be Spider-Man, but she sees through the disguise. When he says that he wasn’t able to get the money for her life saving treatment, Olivia says that it’s okay because a hero can’t save everybody.

After Olivia goes to sleep her grandfather returns to the alley where he found the Spider-Man costume. Realizing it takes more to be a hero than wearing a costume, he puts the Spider-Man costume where he left it and walks away.

Recurring Characters

Peter Parker

Continuity Notes

1. This story takes place between Amazing Spider-Man #50 and 51.

Just Right

Peter Parker wakes up and realizes, to his horror, that he has slept in on the day he is supposed to give a guest lecture at Empire State University. Getting dressed, Peter rushes outside just in time to see the bus speed by. He tries to get a cab, but a woman beats him to it. He briefly considers taking a kid’s bike but the boy riding it knows what Peter is thinking and tells him to forget about it.

With no other choice, Peter changes into Spider-Man and begins web-slinging to Horizon Labs. Along the way he hears a struggle in a nearby alley and knocks out what he thinks is a purse snatcher. Not only was he wrong about this, it was actually an arguing couple and the person he thought was a damsel in distress was the man of the couple and the large person he knocked down was actually his wife. Spider-Man tries to explain himself but he insults both of them and gets a black eye for his trouble.

He tries to call the professor that he won’t make it after he spots an apartment building on fire. He rushes in, ignoring firefighters telling him to stop, and realizes far too late that the building was condemned and is being used for training. Spider-Man gets blasted with a hose on his way out and, because his costume is smoldering from the fire, is knocked down by a firefighter trying to smother the flames with a blanket. Adding to his problems, Spider-Man discovers his cell phone was broken.

Up on a rooftop, Spider-Man is wringing out his costume when a pigeon shits on his face. This humiliation is captured on film by the Thing who was happening by. Spider-Man doesn’t find any of this funny and smashes the Things camera before taking off. However, the Thing managed to transfer the photo onto his cell phone and sends it to everyone on his contact list after Spider-Man is gone.

Spider-Man continues on his way when he sees two teenagers bullying on a smaller kid for lying to them. Spider-Man breaks it up and takes the kid away to talk about what happend. The little boy explains that he told them that he was friends with Spider-Man and that his parents are the Hulk and She-Hulk and that he will get powers of his own when he comes of age. Spider-Man tells the kid that it’s not good to make up stories, especially something as improbably as the one he told the older kids.[1]

Since his day is completely shot, Spider-Man decides to take the kid out web-slinging so he has something exciting to tell all his friends at school.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Thing, Captain America, Iron Man, She-Hulk, Spider-Woman

Continuity Notes

1. The boy points out that once Spider-Man grew four extra arms. That happened in Amazing Spider-Man #100-102.