Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #2
Down Among the Dead Part Two
After Aunt May has been kidnapped, Peter Parker has hailed a cab and wants Mary Jane to leave the city. However, Mary Jane refuses to leave Peter at a time like this. Regardless of the fact that someone has figured out his double identity, Mary Jane doesn’t think she is in any danger as anyone who wanted to come after her would have done so already. When she sees how serious Peter is being, she decides to listen to him. As she gets into the cab she asks if things are as bad as they appear. Peter quips that he’s a superhero and that it’s never as bad as it looks. With Mary Jane taken care of, Peter then goes about taking time off work at Midtown High and then coming up with a convenient excuse to tell Aunt May’s friends to explain her absence.
Wondering who he can call for help, Peter calls the Black Cat who is in the middle of a case in Florida. Peter convinces her to come up and help as soon as she gets up. In the meantime, the Cat suggests that Peter go over all the people who know his secret identity. As she rhymes off the people she is aware of. Peter suddenly realizes that Norman Osborn is one of the people who knows his secret identity.[1] Spider-Man is soon out front of Norman Osborn’s maximum-security cell demanding to know what he did with his Aunt May. Osborn plays coy, saying Spider-Man that his Aunt dies her blood will be on his hands.[2] He then says he has no part in May’s kidnapping but suggests that perhaps he shared Peter’s true identity to one of his other foes.[3] He muses that he could have organized a plot to have his Aunt kidnapped if he were incarcerated, but then suggests that he could be making it all up just to mess with him. Realizing that he’s not getting anywhere, Spider-Man reins in his growing temper and leaves.
Trying to think of where to turn next, Spider-Man decides to see if the Avengers are willing to help. Arriving at Avengers Mansion, he tries to contact Captain America through the buzzer. However, the intercom is answered by Edwin Jarvis, the Avengers butler, who doesn’t believe that he’s actually talking to Spider-Man, but a university student pulling some kind of frat-house prank. Jarvis then calls security and a number of armed guards quickly surround the web-slinger.
Inside, Tony Stark is preparing for a photo shoot for a magazine when suddenly the mansion begins to rumble. He tells the photographer not to worry. That’s when SHIELD agents come in to escort Tony and the photographer to the mansion’s panic room since Tony is out of his Iron Man armor. Spider-Man meanwhile is working his way through the mansion, taking out guards and Avengers along the way. However, he is stopped when Quicksilver arrives — running all the way back from judging an art competition at the X-Mansion — and grabs Spider-Man. The mutant speedster demands to know why Spider-Man is attacking the mansion, and Spider-Man explains that it was security that attacked him first when he wanted to ask Captain America for help rescuing a family member. That’s when Captain America arrives with the rest of the Avengers. He tells everyone to stand down to hear what Spider-Man has to say. He asks for Captain America to help him get into contact with Nick Fury. Unfortunately, Fury is away on a mission and asks how the Avengers can help. Spider-Man doesn’t feel to comfortable getting into details since it could jeopardize his secret identity. When Iron Man and Captain America point out that their lives haven’t been negatively affected by making their identities public, Spider-Man points out that Stark can afford the security and Captain America’s family has been dead for years.[4] Realizing he’s getting nowhere, Spider-Man apologizes for barging in like this, saying he’s under a lot of stress and leaves.
Spider-Man then decides to try other avenues to learn where Aunt May is being held captive. He crashes in on the Owl and asks him to use his connections to see if he can dig up anything about May Parker. When the Owl asks why, Spider-Man says he’ll owe the Owl, which is quite the benefit for someone trying to get in on the Kingpin’s territory after his fall.[5] The Owl finds this a satisfactory offer and tells Spider-Man to wait while he makes a few calls. A few moments later, the Owl returns and tells Spider-Man that he’s looking for Electro and the Vulture, although he doesn’t know where they are held up. At that moment, Electro is taking the Vulture to an underground brothel to have some fun with the money they just earned. The Vulture thinks this is a bad idea since they should be laying low but tags along anyway. Electro tells the owner to set the Vulture up for a good time before going off with a prostitute named Yekaterina. The Vulture is surprised that Electro would go for a much older woman who is also overweight, but Electro explains that Yektaerina is a mutant shapeshifter and can become any type you desire. In one of the private rooms, Yekaterina asks Electro whom he wishes to romance, taking on the shape of various female superheroes.[6] Electro tells her he wants to try something different, but Spider-Man interrupts before he can tell her what he’s into.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Norman Osborn, Mary Jane Watson, Black Cat, Avengers (Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Giant-Man, Wasp, Scarlet Witch), Owl, Electro, Vulture, Edwin Jarvis, Yekaterina
Continuity Notes
Actually, at this point in time there are quite a few people who currently know Peter Parker’s secret identity:
The Black Cat learned Peter’s secret identity while they used to date. He revealed his identity to her in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #87.
Per Marvel Graphic Novel #46, Mary Jane has known Peter Parker was Spider-Man since the very beginning, although she didn’t tell him she knew until Amazing Spider-Man #257.
Aunt May only recently learned that her nephew is Spider-Man in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #35.
Felicia states that Eddie Brock knows that Peter is Spider-Man, that’s not entirely correct. As explained in Amazing Spider-Man #300, when Brock first merged with the Venom symbiote he learned all of Spider-Man’s secrets, including his true identity. However, a blow to the head in Spider-Man: The Venom Agenda #1 made Brock forget, although the symbiote still knows it’s not telling. Felicia is obviously mistaken at this point.
Norman Osborn has known Spider-Man’s double-identity since Amazing Spider-Man #39
Other people who know that know Spider-Man’s identity at the time of this story include Wolverine (Spider-Man Versus Wolverine #1), Daredevil (Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #110), Curt Connors (Spectacular Spider-Man (vol. 2) #11) , and lastly Nick Fury (at the time of this story it is believed that Fury learned Spider-Man’s identity during Secret War #1-5, but Original Sin #4-5 reveal that Fury has known Spider-Man’s secret identity from the beginning of his career.)
2. Osborn also mentions the death of Peter’s Uncle Ben who was killed by a burglar in Amazing Fantasy #15 and his old girlfriend Gwen Stacy, whom Norman murdered as the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #121.
3. Norman did tell the Scorpion Peter’s double identity and he kidnapped May as we’ll learn in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #9.
4. Some facts about Tony Stark and Steve Rogers at the time of this story:
Tony Stark publicly revealed that he was Iron Man in Iron Man (vol. 3) #55.
Captain America has revealed his identity publicly a few times but always managed to find a way to put the genie back in the bottle. However, at this time, Rogers publicly revealed his identity for the last time in Captain America (vol. 4) #1-2.
Spider-Man states that Steve Rogers was born in 1923. Actually, he’s off by a year. According to Avengers: Roll Call #1, Cap was born in 1922.
Steve Rogers's parents are indeed dead, his father and mother died in the 1920s as revealed in Captain America (vol. 6) #2 and 11 respectively.
5. At the time of this story, the Kingpin was incarcerated in Daredevil (vol. 2) #50. He will remain in prison until Daredevil (vol. 2) #93
6. Some details about the various women that Yekaterina turns into:
First, she turns into the Invisible Woman who she calls the “beautiful wife of Doctor Reed”. She is referring to Reed Richards — aka Mister Fantastic — the pair have been married since Fantastic Four Annual #3.
Next, she turns into the Scarlet Witch whom she calls the daughter of Magneto. At the time of this story, everyone thought the Scarlet Witch was the daughter of Magneto since Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4. This was actually a deception on the part of the High Evolutionary as revealed in Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4. It is later revealed that Wanda’s mother was Natalya Maximoff and an unidentified father in Scarlet Witch (vol. 2) #11-12.
Lastly, she changes into Marrina whom she calls the “former bride” of the Sub-Mariner. Marrina married the Sub-Mariner in Alpha Flight #40. Their marriage basically ended when she seemingly died in Avengers #293. She will ultimately be returned to the land of the living in Chaos War #5.
Topical References
The photographer is said to be from the New York Times and that she took photos of President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Chaney plotting out the Iraq War. I shouldn’t have to tell you why these almost-20-year-old political references are topical.
