The Strange Case Of… Part One

It’s 3:00 am as a man tries to pick the lock on the rooftop access of an apartment building. That’s when he is attacked by someone who appears to be Spider-Man. As the wall-crawler tries to subdue the apparent thief, it turns out that this was a sting operation set up by the police. The man in the Spider-Man costume is quickly arrested, but he assures them that he’s not Peter Parker. Detective Jonas Fogg points out that Peter Parker is Spider-Man and that’s a known fact.[1] However, when he pulls off Spider-Man’s make he is surprised to see a different man under the costume. This stranger tells Detective Fogg that his name is Ethan Meyers. Upon his arrest, Ethan Meyer’s face is plastered on the front page of the Daily Bugle. When Meyers is interrogated by Detective Fogg, the veteran police officer finds Meyer’s story hard to believe. Ethan claims that he was approached by a man in a limo who offered to give him super-human powers. Getting into the limo, Meyers was gassed and when he woke up he found himself in a room having drugs pumped into him. The man who kidnapped him assured Ethan that he was undergoing an evolution. Sure enough, Ethan began developing spider powers similar to those of the real Spider-Man. After a few weeks of training, his mysterious benefactor gave him his own Spider-Man costume and sent Ethan back out into the world. When Fogg asks who this mysterious benefactor was, Ethan admits that he doesn’t know. What Ethan can say, however, is that he came to New York City to get away from a bad family situation and whoever the strange was actually treated him decently and made him stronger and better than before. Having heart enough, Fogg tells Ethan that he is being sent back to his cell and they’ll go over everything again in the morning.

That evening the real Spider-Man — now wearing his black-and-white costume[2] —is heading to the Tombs, New York City’s nastiest prison where Ethan Meyers is being held until he is transferred over to Ryker’s Island. When the web-slinger arrives outside Ethan’s cell he hears the boy moaning in pain. Breaking into the cell and pulling away the blankets, Spider-Man is horrified to see that Ethan is undergoing a transformation that’s turning him into some kind of spider-creature. Realizing that the boy needs immediate medical help, Spider-Man begins wrapping him back up in his blanket. When guards arrive at the cell, Spider-Man tells them that he is taking him to Metro-General Hospital and for them to call ahead and also get in touch with Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four.

Twenty-five minutes later, Detective Fogg and his men have the entire hospital surrounded and have Mister Fantastic waiting on standby. They are now waiting on Spider-Man to deliver Ethan Meyers, intending to arrest the web-slinger when he does. On the roof, Mister Fantastic meets with Christine Palmer, the Night Nurse, when they are joined by Spider-Man who was waiting for the right opportunity to turn over the boy. Looking at Ethan’s transformation Mister Fantastic is shocked and taking the boy off Spider-Man’s hands tells the wall-crawler that he’ll get back to him once he has a chance to examine Meyers. Still, Spider-Man wants a second opinion and takes the blanket that he carried Ethan in over to Curt Connors who agrees to examine it as he owes the wall-crawler for saving his son’s life.[3] With two of the best scientists looking into this, Spider-Man swings off hoping that Ethan Meyers is an isolated incident. At that same moment, yet another young person is swinging around the city by rope after having been given spider-powers by the same mysterious benefactor. However, as he attempts to swing between buildings this novice web-slinger misses by mere inches and falls to his death. When the authorities arrive on the scene they quickly ascertain that this is not the real Spider-Man as the victim is Chinese.

Meanwhile, on the Lower East Side, Jordan Peterson is walking home with his girlfriend Madeline Daniels when a limo pulls up beside them. The man sitting in the back knows Jordan by name and says he has something to offer the boy. Jordan tells the man that he is not interested in whatever he has to say. The man decides to cut to the chase and tells Jordan that he has already murdered the boy’s mother and threatens to kill his girlfriend if he doesn’t get in the car. Muttering to himself, Calvin Zabo says that it’s Mister Hyde who lies, not him and then tells the boy that he has five seconds to get into the car.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Mister Hyde, Jonas Fogg, Jordan Peterson, Madeline Daniels, Mister Fantastic, Curt Connors, Aunt May

Continuity Notes

1. Peter Parker publicly revealed his identity in Civil War #2.

2. After Aunt May was shot in Amazing Spider-Man #538, he started wearing his black-and-white costume again in the following issue. To be clear, this is not the Venom symbiote, but a cloth version of the costume that was first made by the Black Cat in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #99.

3. Curt Connors is referring to how Billy was transformed into a lizard creature and later shot. Spider-Man was responsible for getting Billy to the Fantastic Four to be healed. Check out Sensational Spider-Man (vol. 2) #23-27.