One Small Break

Peter Parker is soaking in a bath after his battle with Fusion trying to make sense of the whole situation. This new villain who hates Spider-Man appears to have the ability to imitate the powers of every superhero and villain. Worse, after Spider-Man was defeated on television, the villain used a bomb to kill three hundred innocent people. He wonders why he puts himself through this sort of abuse when he has so little to show for it.

Getting out of the bath, Peter checks his voice mails and has a message from his neighbor Caryn Earle.[1] She is asking if Peter can look after her dog, Barker, while she is out of town. Seeing that Barker is giving him the stink eye from Caryn’s balcony, Peter decides against it because the dog weirds him out. While going over a Chinese take-out menu, Peter drops the can of soda he is drinking and bends down to pick it up, causing the towel he is wearing around himself to fall off. That’s when Caryn chooses to come knocking. Unable to hear Peter’s request not to come in, she walks in just as Peter covers himself. Although Peter is completely embarrassed, Earle isn’t bothered by nudity and asks him about Barker, saying that she needs to go to Las Vegas for a few days. Despite his better judgment, Peter reluctantly agrees, wondering to himself how he gets himself into these messes.

Meanwhile, Fusion has released a message to the people of New York to explain his bombing of the Edgar Tower the day before. He tells the viewing audience that Spider-Man is just as much to blame as he is.[2] Jumping on this angle, the news media interviews Doctor Andrew McCullough who offers his opinion on the matter who suggests that Spider-Man is to blame since if he had not existed this bombing would never have happened. Watching this at a diner is J. Joah Jameson and Joe Robertson who decide to bury this story on page 7 of the Daily Bugle since the story is already oversaturated. That’s when the news plays another part of Fusion’s message which is directed at Spider-Man directly. The villain issues a challenge to Spider-Man, saying that he has planted bombs elsewhere in the city and that he has left clues to their locations during their last encounter. Reminding him to meet him where angels fall.

Remembering how Fusion told him of his son, telling him that died imitating Spider-Man, Peter Parker goes to the New York Public Library to research old news stories to find something matching that description.[3] Peter is amazed by the sheer volume of articles that are written about Spider-Man, something he typically avoided because he didn’t want to find stories about the one he ends up finding. It’s about a young boy named Jeremy Markley who died trying to imitate Spider-Man. Reading this story upsets Peter so much he starts to cry. On his way out, Peter runs into Flash Thompson who tells Peter he’s sorry to hear about Mary Jane leaving him, but tells Peter he’ll pull through as he always does.[4] Peter is surprised when Flash compares him to Job from the Bible, and remarks how just when he’s written off Flash as totally shallow he says something impressive like this. As he walks away, he is unaware that Flash only knew about Job because he had just been reading a CliffNotes about the Bible and is satisfied that he managed to pull a fast one on Peter Parker.

Unaware that he was just played for a sucker, Spider-Man swings across the city with a renewed sense of purpose swings to the meat storage facility where Jeremy Markley died for his rendezvous with Fusion.[5] Finding Fusion waiting for him, Spider-Man tells the villain that he’s not playing around anymore. Fusion is unphased and continues his line about how nobody would have died the day before if Spider-Man never existed. He unleashes an onslaught of different powers on Spider-Man, taking on the forms of Iron Man, Sandman, the Vulture, Doctor Octopus, Venom, the Human Torch, and even Thor. Spider-Man holds his own and even manages to hit Fusion in the face, shattering half the villain’s mask. Spider-Man refuses to give up, getting up after every fall, trying to convince Fusion that if the villain couldn’t blame Spider-Man for his son’s death, he would have blamed it on something else. Ultimately, Fusion begins overpowering Spider-Man and after taking on the form of the Hulk snaps Spider-Man’s neck with a single blow. Completely paralyzed, Spider-Man discovers to his horror that he’s not going to be getting back up after this.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Fusion, Caryn Earle, Flash Thompson, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson, Andrew McCullough, Barker

Continuity Notes

1. Peter is depicted as having a telephone with a built-in answering machine that records messages on a cassette tape. This should be considered a topical reference as this technology is considered obsolete.

2. The original twin towers of the World Trade Center are depicted as part of the New York City skyline here. This should be considered a topical reference because you know 9/11 happened and there’s a new building standing there now.

3. Peter is depicted using a microfiche reader to scan old news stories. This should be considered topical as microfiche has become outdated particularly since it’s commonplace for major newspapers to have archives of their back issues online.

4. Flash comments on how Peter keeps on losing Mary Jane. This is a reference to two things that have happened in recent history. The first, Mary Jane seemingly died in a plane crash in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #13. In reality, she was the prisoner of an obsessed stalker until she was freed in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #29/Peter Parker: Spider-Man #29. Not long after this, in Amazing Spider-Man Annual 2001, Mary Jane decided that she needed time alone and left again.

5. On his way to battle Fusion, Spider-Man mentions Flash Thompson’s struggles with alcohol. Flash started falling into alcoholism in Spider-Man: Redemption #1. He finally decided to clean up his act after a drunk driving accident in Spectacular Spider-Man #249.