The Private Life of Peter Parker Part Eight

The Spider-Girls — teenagers who are volunteering their time after being inspired by Spider-Man— have just finished their press conference asking Teri Hillman, a reality TV star that co-opted their message for her own publicity, to donate all the money from her Spider-Girl merchandise to charity because its the right thing to do. This makes Hillman furious because she is being made to look bad and demands that her agent do something. Jimmy has been talking to Greg Lubeck, his man inside the mayor’s office, what they should do. After hearing Lubeck’s plan, he calls him a genius.

Meanwhile, J. Jonah Jameson is trying to do damage control of his own and has hired Peter Parker to photograph Jameson in action. Peter is only putting up with Jameson because he has bills to pay and agrees with everything Jameson says. They soon arrive at the NYPD’s Anti-Spider Squad’s command office so Jameson can get an update. His entry is noted and word soon gets back to Captain Gannon about the surprise visit. He tells his men to create a distracted so Jameson doesn’t learn that their Spider-Cams are down, as they would be out of a job. This distraction is to give Ganon time to plan an evacuation drill. When one of the Anti-Spider-Man Squad agents asks Jonah for his autograph, Peter recognizes him as one of the “photographers” who was at the Spider-Girl’s press conference. That’s when Greg Lubeck enters the room and tells Jonah that Teri Hillman is about to have her own press conference of her own and it’s going to be good. Jonah is less than enthusiastic but decides to watch it anyway.

At her press conference, Teri Hillman apologizes for stealing the limelight from the Spider-Girls and makes an announcement that she will be donating all the money received from her Spider-Girl merchandise to the United Children’s Charity. Watching this from their laptop at school, the Spider-Girls are impressed that they actually got through to the reality TV star. However, Teri tells everyone that she will only give the money if Spider-Man comes to personally pick up the cheque and have dinner with her. Seeing this, Peter thinks this is a very bad idea. Jonah, on the other hand, is furious at Lubeck for wasting his time. However, Greg explains that this could work out one of two ways: Either Spider-Man doesn’t show up, proving everything Jameson has always said about the web-slinger. The alternative is that Spider-Man does show up he can use his connections with Teri Hillman’s agent to make sure the Anti-Spider-Man Squad is there to arrest the wall-crawler when he arrives. Considering this for a moment, Jameson flashes a big smile and calls Greg a genius. Hearing all of this, Peter can’t do much other than show up since he can’t hold a press conference of his own as Spider-Man.

While at Kearny High School, the Spider-Girls are celebrated by their classmates for what they see as them owing Teri Hillman. However, the girls don’t feel very good about it at all because Hillman still used them to look good. Becky tries to point out that they forced Teri Hillman to do the right thing. However, Emma points out the real reason why they’re upset, that Teri managed to find a way to meet Spider-Man before they could. They decide to stop thinking about what Spider-Man would do and instead think what they should do in this situation. They soon call Norah Winters at the offices of the Front Line and she agrees to set up another press conference for the Spider-Girls as they have another statement they’d like to make. This time, the Spider-Girls point out that Teri Hillman is still using her offer of charity as a publicity stunt by only offering to give the money if Spider-Man goes to dinner with her. However, that’s not what the Spider-Girls stand for, and while they still encourage Hillman to do the right thing they know that Spider-Man won’t be showing up at her penthouse on Saturday morning because he’s a hero, not a tool. Photographing the press conference is Peter Parker who is pleased with how the girls responded to this recent development and tries to think of a way to have Spider-Man thank them. That’s when Peter realizes what the ASS is following the Spider-Girls, in the event Spider-Man does show up. Scanning the crowd, he doesn’t see the officer he saw the day before.

Meanwhile, Teri Hillman and Jimmy are furious over this latest development and start working on what to say for yet another press conference, Teri Hillman decides it’s time she give the Spider-Girls what they deserve. While J. Jonah Jameson is furious that their trap for Spider-Man has been foiled, something that Jameson thinks the web-slinger is behind. He angrily tells this to Captain Gannon reminding him that if he and the rest of his squad can’t capture Spider-Man they’re all fired at the end of the month. That’s when the new villain named Spectrum gets a phone call for a job and agrees to take it. While back at the Anti-Spider-Man Squad headquarters, Captain Gannon tells his men that they’re going to try and lure Spider-Man out with a hostage situation.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Spectrum, J. Jonah Jameson, Leila Goldberg, Becky, Emma Paley, Teri Hillman