Peter Parker: Spider-Man #13
Living in Oblivion
In front of a packed audience in Yankee Stadium, Carnage kills Spider-Man and Venom to the cheers of the crowd. After killing his two foes, Carnage revels in the cheers. However, this turns out to be nothing more than a twisted dream as soon Cletus Kasady is snapped back to reality by the guard standing outside of his cell. When Kasady doesn’t have any threats to make, the guard mocks him for being powerless since Venom broke into the prison and took back the alien symbiote that turned Cletus into Carnage.[1] However, Cletus believes that this is only a minor setback and his other will be back soon.
Meanwhile, at the home of Peter Parker and his wife Mary Jane, Aunt May answers the phone just as Arthur and Jill Stacy have arrived.[2] While on the phone, May is told by the authorities that Mary Jane had seemingly died in a plane crash.[3] At that same moment, Spider-Man is web-slinging across the city after a relatively quiet night of crime-fighting unaware of the personal tragedy that has just occurred. Since his marriage to Mary Jane has been strained lately, he vows to work on fixing it once he gets home.[4] That’s when Spider-Man spots an accident on the overpass below he begins saving the passengers. One of the vehicles is a Department of Corrections bus and as he helps the officers out of the vehicle, they tell Spider-Man that the prisoner they were transporting was trying to escape. When he learns that it was Cletus Kasady is on the bus, Spider-Man is so shocked he drops the bus while trying to pull it over the edge of the overpass.
Back at the Parker home, Aunt May and the Stacy’s have been joined by J. Jonah Jameson and Joe Robertson who have also come to give their condolences after hearing the news of Mary Jane’s plane crash and are all waiting for word of any survivors. That’s when Jonah asks where Peter is in all of this. May says that Peter is out, and hopes that he doesn’t find out about this tragic news on his own.
Back at the scene of the accident, Spider-Man digs through the flaming debris of the prison bus in the hopes of finding some trace of Cletus Kasady.[5] He thinks how Kasady was still a notorious serial killer even before he became Carnage and fears what the murderer may do on the loose. At that very moment, Cletus has murdered two guards in a hardware store and is now painting his body red with paint. He tells the dead bodies that he has received word from a higher calling but doesn’t know how to reach where he needs to go but believes he can accomplish this by painting the town red with blood.
At that same moment, Aunt May has fallen asleep on the couch and Jill decides to stay behind to be there when Peter comes home and hears the tragic news. After seeing her father out, Jill sits next to May, waking her up. Surprisingly, the old woman assures Jill that everything will be okay.
Elsewhere in the city, Cletus Kasady is causing havoc on the road by walking in the middle of the street. When one driver tries to get Cletus off the roof of his car, the deranged killer pulls a knife. The man — a mobster — begins reaching into his jacket for his gun when he notices the Kingpin watching from a building across the street. The Kingpin motions for him to stop, pointing out that Spider-Man has just arrived on the scene to handle things. As Spider-Man battles with Kasady, he wonders what he is doing with his life and decides to stop fighting in circles while his married life swirls down the drain. Quickly knocking out Kasady and webbing him up to a lamppost, Spider-Man leaves intending to return home and turning his life around. As he goes, Spider-Man is unaware that his departure is being observed by both the Kingpin and Venom.
Arriving on the roof of his apartment building, Peter changes back into his street clothes vowing to get his life back in order right away. However, he is in for the shock of his life when he enters the apartment and Aunt May tearfully tells him that Mary Jane was in a plane crash.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Cletus Kasady, Aunt May, Arthur Stacy, Jill Stacy, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson, Venom, Kingpin
Continuity Notes
Venom consumed the Carnage symbiote in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #10.
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.
Mary Jane’s alleged death happened in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #13. She is still alive and is being held prisoner by a stalker as we’ll learn in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #29.
Peter says here that he and Mary Jane got married young. The couple got married in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. Per Civil War #2, Peter was 15 when he first got his spider-powers. Based on this, and by the Sliding Timescale, Peter was roughly 22 years old when he got married, making him about 25 at the time of this story.
Spider-Man recounts how during his last encounter with Carnage the villain was encased on ethereal energy by the Silver Surfer. That happened in Amazing Spider-Man #431.
