Peter Parker: Spider-Man #10
Venom Triumphant!
At the Manhattan Correctional Facility, a number of armed guards go down to the sub-basement to stand guard out front of the cell of it’s most dangerous criminal, Cletus Kasady, aka Carnage. This is so that the facility janitor can mop the floor safely. However, this isn’t their usual janitor, it’s Eddie Brock in disguise. As soon as he gets close enough to Kasady’s cell he transforms into Venom. Venom says that he is not here to free Cletus but to strip him of his of his symbiote. After killing the guards he goes to work. Kasady, unable to transform into Carnage pleads with Venom to consider working together, but Venom has no interest in someone who kills merely for fun. Ripping away the Carnage symbiote, Venom welcomes it back home before eating it.[1]
Meanwhile, at his apartment, Peter Parker prepares a welcome home celebration for his wife Mary Jane with his Aunt May and Jill Stacy.[2] With everything nearly ready, Aunt May suggests that she and Jill head back to Queens so Peter and Mary Jane can have some time alone. Peter insists that this is a good idea because he wants to talk to his wife uninterrupted, as he is saying this he makes a point to unplug the phone.[3]
Elsewhere in the city, Venom pauses to check his to do list and is giddy with excitement for all of the tasks he has set for himself, the top of the list is — of course — killing Spider-Man. When considering what item to do next, he decides to go see how J. Jonah Jameson is doing these days and swings off into the night. Back at Peter’s apartment, Jill Stacy helps Peter with the last minute arrangements but has to leave because May is double parked outside. Before going she reminds Peter of the right things to say to get Mary Jane to forgive him for missing out on a trip together.[4] Left alone, Peter wonders if he should spend his time waiting alone in his apartment and how big he screwed things up for what was supposed to be a second honeymoon for them.[5] He also thinks about how — thanks to his own snooping around — Eddie Brock has become Venom again. He debates what he should do and begins literally crawling the walls. Walking around outside, Peter spots Venom swining by and his sense of responsibility to prevents him from just letting Brock get away.
At that same moment Mary Jane has just gotten out of JFK International Airport and gets into a cab. The cab driver instantly recognizes her instantly. After she gives the driver her address, the cab driver remarks that it’s a good idea she is taking a cab given how many crazies are out there. That’s when she notices his voice is husky and asks if he is okay. The driver says he’s just getting over a cold and tells Mary Jane not to worry, he’ll get her home in no time. While at the daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson is berating an intern as Eddie Brock arrives disguised as a man delivering a jug of water. When Brock asks Jonah where he can set the water down, Jameson barks at him that he doesn’t care. Eddie then transforms into Venom and splashes Jonah with the water. He then grabs the newspaper publisher and leaps out a nearby window. Venom wants to get revenge against Jameson who used his paper to smear his name after he lost his job at the Daily Globe and takes him to the church where he used to pray in those dark times.[6] He lets Jameson go, expecting him to fall to his death, but Spider-Man webs Jameson to the side of the church steeple. As Spider-Man battles Venom, the villain explains that why he wants revenge against Jameson.[7] Venom finds it appropriate that he and Spider-Man will fight to the death in this church since it is the same place where Venom was born. Realizing that Venom is more powerful than ever, Spider-Man fights his way free and remembers that the loud sounds are one of Venom’s weaknesses and rushes up to try and ring the church bells.
Unfortunately, Venom grabs Spider-Man in symbiotic tendrils and pulls him back down into the church before he gets a chance. Venom revels in the pleasure of killing Spider-Man, he won’t even bother unmasking the wall-crawler since he no longer cares who it is under the mask.[8] However, Venom pauses suddenly as the last remnants of the Carnage symbiote causes him some indigestion and leaves, promising to finish off the wall-crawler next time. By this time, J. Jonah Jameson has managed to edge his way into the church and sees Spider-Man laying on the ground unconscious. Realizing the opportunity that is in his grasp, Jonah reaches for Spider-Man’s mask.[9] Back at home, Mary Jane arrives home to find nobody there. That’s when the phone rings. When she answers it, the stalker welcomes her home and warns Mary Jane that he will be coming for her and her husband very soon.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Venom, Carnage, Aunt May, Jill Stacy, Mary Jane Watson, J. Jonah Jameson, Stalker
Continuity Notes
The Carnage symbiote is the offspring of Venom. It was birthed and bonded with Cletus Kasady (Eddie Brock’s former cellmate) in Amazing Spider-Man #345. Although this symbiote is now dead, Kasady obtains a new one in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #13-14.
Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife here. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As such they should be considered a common-law couple here.
There’s a lot going on here some details:
Peter mentions how Aunt May seems to be going back to her old house in Queens a lot. May has been living with Peter and Mary Jane since Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #1. This is because Anna Watson has been living in her old home since Web of Spider-Man #127 during a period when May was believed dead (long story, check out Amazing Spider-Man #400 and Spider-Man #96 for the deets on that) and Peter and Mary Jane were expecting a child (another long story, see Spectacular Spider-Man #221 and Amazing Spider-Man #418 for that miscarriage of storytelling)
The reason Peter unplugs the phone is because Mary Jane has been getting obscene phone calls from a stalker since Peter Parker: Spider-Man #5
Peter did miss a flight to gone on a trip with Mary Jane in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #7, but that’s not the only thing they need to talk about. First of all, Peter promised Mary Jane to retire as Spider-Man during the Final Chapter story arc. However, he has been wearing the webs again since Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #2 and has been keeping this the secret from her ever since. What Peter doesn’t know is that Mary Jane has figured this out on her own in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #10. There’s also the issue of the stlaker who keeps calling her that I mentioned above.
Again, a lot of shit to unpack here. The facts:
After Peter and Mary Jane got married in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21 they went on a honeymoon to france in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #7.
This is no longer the case after Mephisto erased their marriage from existence in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #639, Peter and Mary Jane remained engaged instead of getting married and their “honeymoon” then became a vacation to work on their troubled relationship instead.
Peter says that he and Mary Jane are too young to have gone one honeymoon let alone two. Per Civil War #2, Peter Parker was 15 years old when he became Spider-Man. Per the Sliding Timescale, Peter is roughly 25 years old at the time of this story, Mary Jane is roughly one year younger than Peter. In the new marriage-free timeline one could presume that Peter is thinking they are too young to be engaged (they’re sure dragging their feet at this point since they would have been engaged for roughly four years around the time of this story)
Eddie Brock was a reporter for the Daily Globe and did a series of interviews with a man he thought was the spree killer called Sin-Eater. Spider-Man later caught the real Sin-Eater in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #110. This led to Brock being discredited and fired. He used to pray at the same church that Peter went to try and destroy the alien symbiote in Web of Spider-Man #1. That’s where the symbiote found Brock and it is the birthplace of Venom. All of this was detailed in Amazing Spider-Man #300.
Venom metions how Sin-Eater killed Jean DeWolff. DeWolf was a police captain and ally of Spider-Man. She was murdered by Sin-Eater in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107.
The alien symbiote shared all of Spider-Man’s secrets with Eddie Brock when they first bonded. Brock states here that he used to know Peter Parker’s secret identity but no longer remembers. This is due to a blow to the head he suffered in Spider-Man: The Venom Agenda #1.
Did Jameson unmask Spider-Man at the end of this story? Sorry, no. They make you wait until Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #20 to find out he punked out.
