Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #3
Bowing to the Inevitable
This story continues from Amazing Spider-Man #526…
Morlun has beaten Spider-Man to a bloody pulp, now he lays broken and blood, missing an eye and ripe for consumption. However, before Morlun can feed on the wall-crawler the authorities arrive on the scene. There are too many of them and Morlun flees the scene, satisfied that he has finally defeated Spider-Man and plots to come back and feed on him later.
When paramedics arrive on the scene the remove Spider-Man’s mask fearing he might be suffocating and they are horrified when they see his face. It is so bruised and swollen they don’t think anybody will be able to identify who he really is. As he is being loaded into an ambulance something impossibly old watches and proclaims that the man is now gone and all that remains is the spider. The wall-crawler is rushed to the hospital where he is brought into surgery immediately. The doctors are unconcerned that next of kin need to be informed as the story is national news. Sure enough, Iron Man arrives with Captain America and Luke Cage. At the same time, Jessica Drew is driving Mary Jane to the hospital, while at Stark Tower Jarvis consoles Aunt May.[1] Unknown to everyone at this time, Morlun has arrived at the hospital as well.
While the New Avengers make a distraction at the front of the hospital, demanding Spider-Man’s body — something the hospital staff refuses to do — Jessica breaks in the back door so Mary Jane can get up and see Peter without being seen. The prognosis is not good, with one nurse telling Captain America that the damage to Spider-Man’s body was too extensive and he’s not expected to survive. At that moment, Morlun arrives in Spider-Man’s hospital room and is about to feed upon him when Mary Jane attacks him from behind and orders him to leave him alone. Morlun easily swats her aside and when she tries to come at him with a scalpel, he easily disarms her. As Mary Jane tries to fight, the ancient entity watching over the scene once again says that the man is dead and all that is left is the spider, and that when the spider is about to die it doesn’t go down without a fight. As Morlun breaks Mary Jane’s arm Peter suddenly wakes up with both eyes completely intact.
Hissing, Peter leaps out of his hospital bed and pushes Morlun off Mary Jane. Suddenly, bone stinger protrudes from his wrists and he uses them to pin Morlun’s arm’s to the floor. Mary Jane then watches as horror as Peter produces a mouth full of fangs and begins to feed on Morlun. Outside the room, the nurse’s station raises an alarm that Spider-Man is flatlining prompting Iron Man to fly himself, Cap, and Luke to the room. There, Spider-Man stands over Morlun as energy swirls all around them . Morlun cannot believe this is happening and he suddenly crumbles to dust.[2] With that, Peter screams in pain and collapses to the floor. Mary Jane rushes to his side and Peter, with his strength rapidly fading, tells her that he is about to die and for her to move on and live a happy life before he finally succumbs to his injuries. Mary Jane cries over Peter’s body until the others arrive to collect his body. However, when nurses cart the body out of the room, Iron Man blasts out a window and takes the body and flies it back to Stark Tower himself.
This story is continued in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #21…..
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Morlun, New Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Luke Cage, “Spider-Woman”), “Edwin Jarvis”, Anunt May
Continuity Notes
The individuals who appear to be Spider-Woman and Jarvis here are actually Skrull spies as revealed in Secret Invasion #1 and 3 respectively. The real Spider-Woman was replaced in Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1 while Jarvis was swapped out just prior to New Avengers #1.
This is not the last we’ll see of Morlun, as revealed in Scarlet Spiders #1-3, Morlun and his family have a body bank of clones. When one of them dies, their mind is transferred into a new clone body. Morlun will turn up alive again in Black Panther (vol. 5) #3, however in that instance he was resurrected by the Crocodile Cult to battle the Black Panther.
