Identity Theft Part Two

After having his memory restored, Peter Parker takes the Thing to where his Spider-Man costume has been stashed over the past few days. Getting into costume, Peter thanks Ben for the clobbering that restored his memory but asks how he came to start looking for him. The Thing explains that he was volunteering his time at the FEAST Center Both Aunt May and Martin Li expressed their concern about a superhuman that is living among a group of homeless, but they don’t know much because it is only spoken about in whispers.[1] Ben decided to look into it for them, leading to his encounter with Peter when he was the “Captain” of a group of homeless people.

That’s when Ben asks how Peter lost his memory and started defending the homeless. Spider-Man says that he answered an ad for a psychology research program that was paying money as Peter is unemployed and needed the money.[2] Unfortunately, Peter still doesn’t remember what was done and the pair decide to go knock down the door and get some answers.

Meanwhile, the homeless people Peter had been defending over the past few days have all been rounded up by the authorities. One of them, a woman named Mary, wonders where their champion the “Captain” is. That’s when one of the officers tells her that he overheard the Thing say that their “Captain” was actually Spider-Man and wonders why he was hanging out with them, but assures them that the web-slinger was never one of them. This hits Mary hard, making her think that the Captain was right, they are nothing and thinks that Spider-Man has probably gone back to his home with a family and is laughing about them right now.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man and the Thing arrive outside of the office building owned by Generico. There, Spider-Man begins to feel his memories flooding back. After breaking in, he remembers something about Mary back at the homeless encampment and races off to confront her. The Thing wonders what’s going on, turning his back on a weapon that has come out of a panel in the ceiling. Moments later, Spider-Man confronts Mary, demanding to know what she was doing working for Generico. However, Mary doesn’t remember anything. When Spider-Man presses her to try, Mary says she won’t until he does something to not make her feel like dirt. When the web-slinger asks what that would be, Mary asks Spider-Man to take off his mask.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Thing, (flashback) Aunt May, Martin Li

Continuity Notes

1. Ben remarks that Martin Li seems a little too slick for his liking. Unknown to anyone at the time, Martin Li is also the mobster known as Mister Negative, as revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #546.

2. At the time of this story, Peter was just recently fired from his job as a photographer for mayor J. Jonah Jameson in Amazing Spider-Man #624.