Sensational Spider-Man (vol. 2) #39

The Last Temptation of Eddie Brock Part Two

Dying of cancer, Eddie Brock sits on the rooftop of the hospital wearing a nylon costume patterned after the symbiote he once wore.[1] The only thing keeping him company is the part of the Venom symbiote that still lives on in his mind. It reminds Eddie how he used to own the night and that they will own it again as soon as Brock kills Mary Jane Watson and Aunt May, who are both in the same hospital where Eddie has been left to die.[2] Reluctantly agreeing to this, Brock agrees to return to his room where the symbiote says they need a practice run first. Moments later, a nurse comes in to give Eddie Brock his medication. Thinking he’s asleep, the nurse pulls back the covers on his bed and is surprised to find it empty. That’s when Eddie, wearing the black-and-white Spider-Man costume, comes at her from the shadows armed with a scalpel. When the nurse tries to reason with him, Eddie refuses to answer to his own name and attacks her. Fortunately for him, the janitor is outside buffing the floor, drowning out the screams of his victim. One of the nurses thinks she hears someone screaming and asks the janitor to turn off the buffer, however when he complies the noise has stopped.

By the time he has finished killing the nurse, Eddie Brock is out of breath and has to take off his mask. The symbiote in his mind asks if he feels any guilt or remorse, and Eddie is surprised to find that he feels neither. The symbiote is impressed and encourages him to go after May Parker. Eddie is once again reluctant to murder an elderly woman on life support, the symbiote reminds him that May Parker raised Peter Parker, and is, therefore, is just as guilty as Spider-Man is for ruining his life.[3] It convinces Eddie that this is necessary and Brock agrees that May Parker must die, much to the symbiote’s delight. The symbiote then tells Brock to clean up this mess as they’re only going to get one chance at this.

Meanwhile, Peter Parker is visiting his Aunt May, and tells her that he doesn’t know what to do right now and feels like he has no other choice. With none of his old allies around to lend a hand, Peter is stuck holding the straw. While Peter knows that May would tell him that she’d wake up when she’s good and ready, the doctors don’t have much hope that May will ever wake-up again and he feels a seance is going to be the only way he can learn what she really wants him to do. Peter then goes down to the visitor’s lounge where the seance is going to take place. With Felicia Hardy keeping guard outside, Peter meets with Mary Jane, her Aunt Anna, and Madame Web. Once everyone is settled in, Madame Web asks everyone to join hands and imagine a current of electricity flowing between them all. They all focus on a personal memory of May.

Peter finds himself transported to his memory of the day Uncle Ben was murdered. He and May were hugging on the front lawn as police secured the area.[4] As he remarks on how young May looks, she appears before him and thanks him for the compliment.[5] May asks Peter if he has come to say goodbye. Peter tells her that he’s actually come to bring her back. Surprisingly, May tells Peter that she doesn’t want to come back, saying she’s tired and been down this road far too many times. Peter thinks she is giving up on coming back, but May points out that she was shot and no matter how much she might want to come back, she doesn’t think her body will allow her to do so. Peter tells her that the bullet was meant for him and won’t let her die because of it, he even offers to trade his own life in exchange for hers. May points out to Peter that even if she did come out of her coma, she doesn’t have many years left and how much good would be undone if Peter took the bullet instead of her. Peter refuses to accept this, but May says he’s going to have to accept it and make the rest of his life count.

As the seance continues, Eddie Brock enters Aunt May’s room and finds it deserted. The symbiote speaks up in his mind, telling him to kill her now while he has the chance. Standing over May’s bed, Eddie puts on his mask but still he hesitates.

Back at the seance, May is walking toward her old home in Queens, the front door is open revealing a bright light. May tells Peter to let her go, live a long life, and grow old with his life and to have many children and enjoy the love that they bring.[6] Peter, still unwilling to let Aunt May go, runs to her, telling her to come back. However, it is too late as May walks into the home the door slams shut. As Peter slams his fists on the door in a futile attempt to open the door, Madame Web announces that the energies have depleted and the seance is now over.

Back upstairs, Eddie Brock still hesitates to act, and the symbiote begins pointing out all the ways he could kill the old woman. Brock tells the symbiote to shut up because it is making it hard to think, but the symbiote tells him that the only thing he needs to listen to is it and it orders him to do as he is told. Not far away, Peter and the others are going back to May’s room. Along the way, Peter is telling Madame Web and the rest about how he contacted May and what she told him. Suddenly, his spider-sense goes off and Peter races to May’s room. There he finds Eddie Brock sitting on the ledge of the shattered window to her room. Eddie tells Peter that his aunt is safe and how the symbiote was trying to force him to hurt her. But he assures Parker that the danger is over and that he cut the symbiote out. To prove this, Eddie holds up his arms showing that he used the broken glass to slash his wrists. He then says goodbye and throws himself out the window. Unwilling to let Eddie Brock kill himself, Peter rushes to the window and fires some web-lines down at Brock’s falling form.

Eddie Brock suddenly wakes up and finds himself in his hospital room strapped to his bed. He’s surprised to discover that he is still alive. He’s also surprised to see that the symbiote is still in his mind. It tells him how Spider-Man saved his life and that it is not going anywhere. Brock is fine with this, telling the symbiote that at least now they both know who is in charge.

Recurring Characters

Eddie Brock, Spider-Man, Black Cat, Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May, Anna Watson, Madame Web

Continuity Notes

1.. Eddie Brock’s cancer diagnosis turns out to be a falsehood as we’ll learn in Venom (vol. 4) #11. In reality, the Venom symbiote altered Eddie’s body chemistry so it appeared as though he was dying of terminal cancer. This was all part of a scheme to make Brock more dependant upon the symbiote.

2. Peter Parker unmasked in Civil War #2, to show his support to the Super-Human Registration Act. He later renounced his support in issue #4 of that series making Peter and his family outlaws. This led to Aunt May getting shot by an assassin’s bullet in Amazing Spider-Man #538. She has been clinging to life support in the hospital ever since.

3. As explained in Amazing Spider-Man #300, Eddie Brock used to be a reporter for the Daily Globe. At the height of his career, he interviewed a man who claimed to be the spree-shooter known as the Sin-Eater. However, Spider-Man caught the real Sin-Eater (Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110) Eddie Brock was discredited and fired from his job. For years, he blamed Spider-Man for ruining his life.

4. Amazing Fantasy #15.

5. Per the Sliding Timescale (and Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #6) May is roughly 73 years old at the time of this story. That would make her about 61 on the day Ben Parker was murdered.

6. 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. In the new timeline, Peter and Mary Jane are only engaged. One could assume that in the new timeline, May would be telling Peter to get married and have kids with Mary Jane.