Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #11
The Last Stand Part Three
After breaking the Green Goblin out of prison to save the life of his Aunt May, Spider-Man and the Black Cat find themselves surrounded by the Goblin’s newly formed team, the Sinister Twelve. A latecomer to the party is Mac Gargan, who everyone is just discovering has bonded to the Venom symbiote. This angers the Green Goblin since he wanted Gargan to wear the new Scorpion costume that he had designed for him. Venom doesn’t understand what the big deal is, but the Goblin decides that they can talk about it after he kills Spider-Man’s wife.[1] Meanwhile, down below, Spider-Man decides to take this momentary distraction to attack the members of the Sinister Twelve. Before the Black Cat can assist, Electro stuns her with an electrical blast. However, the Vulture tells him to leave the Cat to him he still owes her for clawing his face earlier.[2] That’s when the Shocker suggests the Vulture should focus on Spider-Man, reminding him how the wall-crawler cost him the money he was going to use for his grandson’s medical treatments.
However, Venom leaps in and grabs Spider-Man instead, insisting that his bonding to the symbiote has put him above all the other villains that the Goblin has gathered and thus has the right of ending Spider-Man’s life. When Venom tells him how the Green Goblin is going to kill Spider-Man’s wife, the web-slinger fights back. Although he faces impossible odds and figures he’s as good as dead, Spider-Man intends to take down as many of the Sinister Twelve before they kill him. However, as Spider-Man is swarmed by his foes, the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Daredevil arrive to lend a hand. As they are busy saving Spider-Man’s life, Peter wonders how they could have known about this situation.
At that very moment, Mary Jane has just got off the phone with SHIELD, deciding that she couldn’t leave Peter to do this, knowing that Osborn would find some way to double-cross hm. That’s when the Green Goblin sneaks up behind her and knocks her out.
Back at the scene of the battle, the arriving heroes have the Sinister Twelve on the ropes, prompting Spider-Man to tell Captain America that he needs to go and rescue his wife. Cap can understand and tells Spider-Man to stop talking and go. However, as Spider-Man swings toward his apartment, he is ambushed by Venom. As they fight over the city, Venom explains that he’s not supposed to kill Spider-Man, but keep him busy so the Green Goblin can finish murdering Mary Jane. In order to do so, Gargan has the symbiote rip down parts of buildings and sending the debris falling to the crowd below. Allowing himself to plunge, Spider-Man quickly fires a series of webbing to create a net to catch all the debris before it can fall on any of the innocent people below. When Venom lands on the ground, Spider-Man pummels his foe until they are standing in front of a condemned building. Then, taking a page from Venom’s playbook, Spider-Man uses his webbing to collapse the building on Venom. Making sure everyone is okay, Spider-Man swings off in the hopes he can save Mary Jane before it is too late.
Meanwhile, at Ryker’s Island, doctors are busy working on Doctor Octopus when they learn that someone broke Norman Osborn out of prison. When Octavius hears Norman’s name, he suddenly wakes up in a fit of rage Before they can sedate him, Otto mentally summons his mechanical arms which knock out the doctors, allowing him to escape.
By this point, Spider-Man has found his apartment building empty and goes to the one place that he thinks the Goblin would have taken Mary Jane, the place where he murdered Gwen Stacy — the George Washington Bridge.[3] Sure enough, when Spider-Man arrives at the bridge he finds the Goblin waiting for him with Mary Jane in his arms. Grinning manically, the Goblin asks Spider-Man if any of this looks familiar.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Sinister Twelve (Green Goblin, Venom, Sandman, Lizard, Hydro-Man, Shocker, Chameleon, Electro, Vulture, Hammerhead, Tombstone, Boomerang), Black Cat, Mary Jane Watson, Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Yellowjacket), Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, Thing), Daredevil, Doctor Octopus
Continuity Notes
Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife here. However, not long after this story, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As a result, the Goblin would refer to Mary Jane as Peter’s fiancee instead of his wife.
The Black Cat clawed the Vulture’s face in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #4.
The Goblin murdered Gwen Stacy in Amazing Spider-Man #121.
