Spectacular Spider-Man #174
Dedication (Or, Jonah Goes to Pieces!)
Spider-Man is on the scene taking photos of the opening of the brand new Daily Bugle building.[1] Jameson is about to unveil a statue that is being placed out from of the building, but the big revealed has been delayed by one of Jameson's long-winded speeches. Among the crowd listening to the speech as members of the Daily Bugle's staff as well as his wife Mary Jane.[2] Suddenly, the wall-crawler's spider-sense goes off warning him about a passing van. The hero follows after it into a nearby alley. When he knocks on the roof of the vehicle the passengers begin shooting up through the roof. Suddenly, he hears someone inside scolding the gunman followed by screams. Ripping open the van doors, Spider-Man discovers that the gunman is dead from a broken neck. Whoever was responsible had enough strength to rip through the floor of the vehicle in order to access a manhole cover beneath it.
Spider-Man follows after the killer, he finds no trace of who was responsible. However, he recognizes the Daily Bugle's maintenance tunnel. With no trace of the killer, Spider-Man decides to put an anonymous call to the police and then get back to Jonah's speech. By the time Spider-Man has changed out of his costume to join his wife as Peter Parker. As expected, Jonah is still droning on, boring everyone gathered. Just before Peter arrives, Nick Katzenberg tries to make a pass at Mary Jane, but when her husband arrives, Katzenberg slips away and vows to get even with Parker, someday. Among the audience, the grimmest is Kate Cushing, who Katzenberg jokingly points out that she sided with Thomas Fireheart during his brief ownership of the Daily Bugle and is not surprised if she gets fired.[3] After telling Katzenberg to go away, Jameson has finally finished his speech and unveils the statue. It is a statue of J. Jonah Jameson himself. It stuns the audience into silence, but not for the reasons Jonah was hoping for.
Suddenly, Peter's spider-sense begins going off and the ground begins to shake. Peter tells everyone to get away from the statue and ushers Mary Jane to safety. The statue begins to crack and crumbles to the ground, much to the horror of Jonah. Peter uses this moment to slip away to change into Spider-Man and investigate the source of the earthquake. Going back into the Bugle's maintenance tunnel to look around. He spots the silhouette of Doctor Octopus moving in the darkness. When Otto tries to ambush his old foe, but Spider-Man's spider-sense saves him once again. However, the battle quickly turns when Octavius begins ripping the power cables and the wall-crawler is unable to dodge out of the way. He is jolted and decides to get out of these close quarters as they work against him. Unfortunately, as Spider-Man tries to make his retreat, the wall-crawler ends up getting buried under a pile of debris. Assuming his foe is dead. Doctor Octopus gets back to the task at hand, ripping open a door to the elevator access and climbing his way up into the Bugle building. Meanwhile, J. Jonah Jameson takes the gathered crowd inside the new Bugle building where a huge celebration banquet inside. As the others are celebrating, Mary Jane begins to worry about Peter and decides to go and see where he is.
On her way to the elevators, she runs into Doctor Octopus who grabs her by the throat. Octavius recognizes her as Peter Parker's wife and decides to take her to Jameson's office. While down below, Spider-Man wakes up to find himself buried under tons of rubble. As he struggles to get out of the ruins, but quickly finds himself pinned in place. Back upstairs, in Jameson's office, Jonah enjoys finally being back in charge of the Daily Bugle. However, his mood briefly sours when he sees one of the old pro-Spider-Man billboards that was put up during Thomas Fireheart's tenure as Bugle owner. That's when he is interrupted by Doctor Octopus, who threatens to destroy the Daily Bugle and kill everyone inside if Jameson doesn't agree to pay him a large ransom. As Spider-Man struggles to break free, J. Jonah Jameson doesn't think Octavius is being serious. However, to prove he is not joking, Doctor Octopus threatens to kill Mary Jane right before his eyes. Jameson gives in, but Doctor Octopus tells him he has a limited time as he has installed a vibrational device that will shake the building to the ground. In the maintenance tunnels, Spider-Man continues to struggle to get free. As he slowly pulls his way through the rubble, he sees the device Doctor Octopus has set up. With fifty-two seconds on left on the clock, the device begins to hum to life.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, J. Jonah Jameson, Doctor Octopus, Marla Madison, Joe Robertson, Kate Cushing, Joy Mercado, Ben Urich, Lance Bannon, Nick Katzenberg, Glory Grant
Continuity Notes
The original Daily Bugle building was left condemned and torn down after it was heavily damaged by Graviton in Web of Spider-Man #64-65.
Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife here. However, years later, their marriage was erased from existence by the demon Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As such they should be considered a common-law couple as opposed to husband and wife.
Thomas Fireheart bought the Daily Bugle during a hostile take over in The Spectacular Spider-Man #156 in order to repay a debt to Spider-Man by boosting his public image. He later sold it back to Jonah in The Spectacular Spider-Man #171.
