Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #22
Predator/Prey
Joe Robertson returns home from work and Martha is concerned to see that her husband is home early.[1] When she asks him what’s wrong he tells her that he has been fired as city editor for the Daily Bugle. After considering this for a moment, Martha bursts out laughing because she doesn’t consider this bad news at all. She tells her husband that J. Jonah Jameson has been a cancer to him for years and that him firing Joe is the best thing he could have done. However, Joe doesn’t feel that way. That’s when their son Randy comes home and he is also concerned to see his father home so early. He quickly deduces that his father was fired, likely for standing up for Spider-Man after the video of him started turning up online. Randy thinks it is unfair that his father was fired over that and blames Peter Parker for what happened, saying that if he never unmasked they wouldn’t be in this situation.[2]
Meanwhile, at a deconsecrated church, Spider-Man is at the mercy of Ero who is attempting to force-feed him her egg clutch, which is about to hatch. She tells him that this is the nature of things and that the spider’s time on the mortal coil is limited and this is why she is going to make her children feast upon him. Spider-Man struggles to get free, but his body has been paralyzed by one of Ero’s stingers. Flash, who is webbed up to a wall as an intended victim, tells Ero to spare Spider-Man and use him as a host instead. Unfortunately, Ero declines this offer as Flash’s opportunity has passed. Then, before she can cram the egg clutch down Peter Parker’s throat a bullet rips through it killing all of Ero’s unborn children. A second shot hits Ero through the chest, spraying the spiders that make up her body spraying all over the church. The shooter turns out to be Betty Brant, who came to the rescue despite Spider-Man telling her to remain at home. She relishes getting revenge against Ero after she tried to mess with her life. and blasts Ero into pieces[3] With all the spiders scattered, Peter tells Betty to run for cover but she refuses to leave her friends. When asked how she managed to hurt Ero, she reveals that she is using silver bullets, telling Peter that working at the Daily Bugle has made her see a lot of weird things and quips that a girl needs to be prepared. Ero then begins reforming her body and vows to get revenge against Betty Brant, warning her that one day she will wake up and try to scream but won’t because she will be vomiting up spiders. After making her threat, Ero then flees out a broken stain glass window.
By this time, Spider-Man has mostly shaken off the effects of Ero’s venom and decides to go after her and end things tonight. When Betty tries to give him her shotgun, he tells her to hold onto it in case Ero doubles back. After he leaves, Betty refuses to let him face Ero alone and rushes out of the church. Still webbed up to the wall, Flash calls for her to come back and get him down. Spider-Man catches up to Ero who has now become consumed with the desire for revenge now that her one chance at reproducing has been ruined[4] As she sails across the sky in a web parachute, Spider-Man tries to pull her down to the ground with a web-line, but she is so strong she is able to pull him off the rooftop he is clinging to. Ero tells Spider-Man to get away while he still can because when she is fully healed she will start going after his loved ones, starting with his poor frail Aunt May and is amused when this strikes a nerve.[5] That’s when Spider-Man leaps on her back and uses his stingers to cut her loose from her web-parachute. They fall through the glass ceiling of the Bronx Zoo'‘s aviary. As they recover from the fall, Peter explains that he intentionally made them crash here because all of her talk about predators and prey got him thinking of a suitable way to dispose of her. Suddenly, the exotic birds that live in the aviary begin swarming Ero to eat the spiders that make up her body. The bird soon consumes all of them except for one, which he later steps on before it can get away. Since she mocked Spider-Man’s terrible jokes he assures her that when the police come looking for Miss Arrow, he’ll tell them that she was met with some fowl play.
Later, back at Flash Thompson’s apartment, Peter tells Flash and Betty what happened. Betty has been busy on her phone checking her voice mail and is shocked to discover it’s full as everyone at the Daily Bugle has been trying to call her to tell her that J. Jonah Jameson fired Joe Robertson after they had an argument over Peter. Hearing this, Peter Parker decides that he and Jameson are overdue for a long talk…
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Ero, Flash Thompson, Betty Brant, Joe Robertson, Martha Robertson, Randy Robertson
Continuity Notes
Martha asks if Tombstone is threatening their family again. Tombstone has past history with Joe Robertson, the pair grew up together and later — when Tombstone became a criminal — Joe witnessed a murder that he would not testify about for over twenty-five years making him an accessory to murder, as seen in Spectacular Spider-Man #139. Lincoln ended up in New York City circa Web of Spider-Man #36 terrorizing the Robertson family and eventually, he was stopped by Spider-Man (Spectacular Spider-Man #138-142) He later testified about Robertson was an accessory to murder in Spectacular Spider-Man #149-150. This landed Joe in prison for a time, but he eventually found not guilty and released in Spectacular Spider-Man #161.
At the time of this story, Peter Parker had recently revealed his identity to the public in Civil War #2.
When Ero was attempting to use Flash as a host she started gaslighting Betty in an attempt to prevent her and Flash from dating again. This started in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #18.
Spider-Man quips about once being attracted to mentally unstable women, specifically naming Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat. The pair dated from Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #75 to 100.
Strike it nerve it does since at the time of this story Aunt May had recently been shot by a sniper hired to take out Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man #538. She has been on life support ever since.
Topical References
Peter quips that things have gone downhill ever since the Fox Network cancelled the TV show Drive. This should be considered a topical reference as the series was cancelled after four episodes during its initial run in 2007. Furthermore, after Disney bought the Fox Network in 2018 the station was rebranded as “New Fox” and will likely undergo another name change as Disney continues to rebrand its Fox acquisitions to further distance themselves from Fox News and Fox Sports, which are still owned by Newscorp.
