Spectacular Spider-Man #241
A New Day Dawning
Spider-Man is out on patrol, but his heart is still in mourning over his recent losses.[1] As he swings across the city he thinks about the recent losses, those of Ben Reilly -- his clone --, his unborn daughter May, and the death of his Aunt May.[2] Still, despite these losses, he feels as though he and his wife Mary Jane have been given a second chance and look forward to what the future will bring.[3]
Meanwhile, at the Ravencroft Institute, Doctor Ashley Kafka is working with the Chameleon, one of her patients. When the Chameleon takes on the form of Kraven the Hunter, she convinces him to return to his normal form, pointing out that he is retreating into other identities again.[4] Taking on the form of Doctor Kafka, and tries to deflect her questions. Unphased by this, Kafka continues to press the Chameleon for answers. He eventually breaks down and returns back to his natural form and cowers in the corner of his cell, and begs her to leave him alone. While, at that moment, Mary Jane is visited by her Aunt Anna. At the time, Mary Jane has just finished emptying the room that would have been the nursery for her baby. Anna is concerned with Mary Jane after the recent loss of her baby, but Mary Jane insists that she is fine. She admits that the death of her baby devastated her, but this evening she has learned to look past this loss. She feels as though the spirit of her daughter is with her, allowing to see past her sorrow. She still had the gift of carrying a life inside of her for nine months. This was still a beautiful thing and a gift to Mary Jane, even though that child died during birth. After one last look of the now empty room and closes the door behind her.
By this point, Spider-Man has arrived at the offices of the Daily Bugle. He looks in on J. Jonah Jameson who is hunched over his desk, completely engrossed in his work. As everyone has left hours ago, Spider-Man taps on the window, startling the publisher. The wall-crawler tells Jonah to go home to his family and that working this late all the time will bring him to an early grave. After Spider-Man swings off, Jonah is surprised that the web-slinger didn't do anything to humiliate or torment him. Looking at a photo of his wife, Marla, Jonah takes Spider-Man's words to heart and decides to leave the office. His quick departure is observed by Jack O'Lantern, who flies off as soon as Jameson is out of sight. Later, Peter Parker has returned home and spends a quiet moment standing on the porch with his wife. Mary Jane tells Peter that they need to put the past behind them, even move from Queens into the city. Peter agrees and tells his wife that they will do whatever she wants. At that moment, John Jameson gets an uncharacteristic phone call from his father, who called to tell John how proud he is of his son. Ashley Kafka finds this interesting, given Jonah's usual gruff exterior. However, before they can discuss it further, she notices that the Chameleon is no longer visible on their security monitors. John leads a security team down to the cellblocks where they discover that the Chameleon has somehow managed to vanish without a trace. Later that evening, Peter Parker can't bring himself to sleep and decides to go web-slinging as Spider-Man to clear his head. He wakes up Mary Jane who insists on coming along with him. The pair then swing on top of the World Trade Center so they can watch the sunrise over Manhattan.
While in a darkened room, the Chameleon cowers after being removed from his room. That's when the lights are turned on by the person who freed him: Doctor Ashley Kafka.
Notes
Continuity Notes
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 per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. The original towers were destroyed in a terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, and have since been replaced by the Freedom Tower.
Peter Parker has gone through a lot of losses around the time of this story, they are:
The alleged death of Aunt May, who everyone believes had died in Amazing Spider-Man #400. This woman was actually an impostor as revealed in Spider-Man #97.
Both Ben Reilly and Peter's unborn child, May, died during the Revelations event.
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.
The Chameleon has been incarcerated at Ravencroft since Spider-Man defeated him during the Pursuit event.
