Spectacular Spider-Man #256
Through the Looking Glass
From her secret headquarters, the White Rabbit interrupts a television broadcast to announce that she has captured the Grizzly and the Gibbon and demands a one billion dollar ransom for their safe release by midnight or she will kill them both. The Grizzly pleads to the audience not to give in to her demands but is quickly silenced. The White Rabbit then shows the listeners her “pit of doom” which is filled with genetically mutated killer rabbits. After her demands are done, White Rabbit cuts the feed and fishes for compliments from her assistants, the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse. Unfortunately, the threat is not taken seriously as when an aid goes to check on the mayor he discovers the mayor laughing his ass off at the idea of paying a ransom for the Grizzly and Gibbon.[1]
Meanwhile, Peter Parker and his wife Mary Jane are walking the are out on the town.[2] They are discussing Peter’s plans to develop new costumed identities while Spider-Man is an outlaw with a bounty on his head.[3] Peter tells Mary Jane that his meeting with Hobie Brown went well,[4] but also how lucky he was to find his new Dusk costume during a recent adventure into the Negative Zone.[5] Peter is happy that they are making good progress on the other designs that Mary Jane has come up with as Peter doesn’t want to have to go into action with a sweatshirt tied around his head again.[6] They are looking over and trying to come up with a name for Mary Jane’s newest design idea when they hear a crowd of people laughing and decide to check it out. They find the crowd gathered around a display television laughing at the White Rabbit’s broadcast. Although everyone thinks it’s funny, Peter has encountered the White Rabbit before and knows the Grizzly and Gibbon are in deadly danger. Even though they are idiots, Peter doesn’t think they deserve this and insists to Mary Jane that he has to rescue them. Unable to change into Spider-Man, and with no time to go back home to recover one of his new costumes, Peter has to think on his feet. As he runs past a grocery store, Peter suddenly gets some inspiration.
Meanwhile, at the Daily Bugle, Norman Osborn gloats over his recent plans to make the life of Spider-Man miserable when he is interrupted by J. Jonah Jameson, who wants to talk. Jameson is furious that Osborn wants to use the Bugle’s resources to ghostwrite his memoirs. Norman reminds Jonah that this is necessary to right the libelous “wrong” when Ben Urich wrote his book claiming that Norman Osborn was the Green Goblin.[7] Given the recent kidnapping of his son by the “real” Green Goblin, Norman doesn’t need to make the point that the contrary is true.[8] This does little to quell Jameson’s anger and he is about to threaten Norman when Osborn suddenly pulls out a book from his desk. It is a selection of poems from Percy Shelley and remarks on how it is the favorite author of Jonah’s wife Marla. Jameson sees the thinly veiled threat that Osborn is making and quickly shuts up.[9] On his way out of the office, Jonah warns Norman that if any harm comes to his wife he will live to regret it. That’s when Flash Thompson enters Norman’s office to give Osborn his daily itinerary. As they leave the office together, Flash once again thanks Norman for giving him a second chance and the support he needs to go through Alcoholics Anonymous.[10]
While back at the Rabbit Hole, the Grizzly and Gibbon try to break free from their bonds but are unable to do so. Gibbon thinks they should have stayed with the Spot and Kangaroo, but the Grizzly disagrees, still holding onto his fantasy that they will become huge superheroes and make a killing on merchandising.[11] That’s when the White Rabbit and her minions enter the room again. Deluded into thinking her ransom request was a success, the White Rabbit gloats over her brilliance and recounts how she went from the bubbleheaded 25-year-old bride of an 82-year-old millionaire and transformed herself into the “most feared” supervillain of all time after killing her husband and taking his fortune. The only thing that stood in her way was her defeats at the hands of Spider-Man.[12] That’s when one of her men comes to tell her that the mayor has responded to her ransom demand with a counteroffer. This counter is the insulting amount of $2.50 to get the Grizzly and Gibbon back. This infuriates the White Rabbit who decides to fire up her Flying Hare to show the mayor just how deadly she can be. Left to their own devices, the Grizzly and Gibbon begin trying to figure out a way to get free.
Meanwhile, back at the Parker home, Mary Jane is working on new costume designs and is shocked to discover that she is enjoying herself. The art of creating new costumes helps keep her mind off the dangers her husband faces whenever he goes out to fight crime. She then begins considering a career in designing costumes for superheroes and thinks about the money she could make if she could get the Avengers as clients. She quickly hides her work when her aunt Anna enters the room. Anna has come to apologize to Mary Jane for accusing Peter of cheating on Mary Jane and how it took Mary Jane telling her that Peter is secretly Spider-Man to make her realize how ridiculous her accusations were.[13] Anna then reveals to Mary Jane why she made such an accusation is because wen she was eighteen years old and chasing the dream of being an actress in California, she got married. She knew her husband, Robert, all of three days before they tied the knot and the marriage didn’t last very long and ended poorly. Mary Jane feels sorry for Anna but is shocked when Anna admits that it was she who cheated on her husband, not the other way around.
By this time, the White Rabbit and her minions are over the city in her Flying Hare, a hot-air balloon shaped like a rabbit. When the crowd below begins to mock them she has her minions pelt the ground below with explosives that are shaped like carrots. Outside of the mayor’s office, the White Rabbit makes a new demand for five million dollars in quarters. While the mayor tries to figure out what to do, Peter Parker leaps onto the Flying Hare wearing his improvised costume. When the villains return to their hideout, he confronts White Rabbit he introduces himself as the Bombastic Bag-Man due to the fact that he is wearing a paper bag over his head as a makeshift mask.[14] While making up a ridiculous made-up origin on the fly, the Bag-Man easily handles the White Rabbit’s minions. Getting fed up, the White Rabbit activates a giant mechanical rabbit and orders it to open fire on the masked hero with its built-in weapons. However, the advantage quickly turns when the Gibbon and Grizzly arrive. After explaining they escaped her deathtrap thanks to the Gibbon’s natural affinity to animals, the Grizzly knocks her out with a single blow. With the battle over, the Grizzly and Gibbon thank Bag-Man for his help. Thinking that this is a new hero, the Grizzly offers to give Bag-Man advice on heroics and the best way to market oneself. Surprisingly, the Grizzly and the Gibbon are hailed as heroes on the front page of the Daily Globe and actually manage to secure the action figure deal that the Grizzly was seeking. Later, back at home, Peter Parker relates the entire tale to Mary Jane who finds the whole thing ridiculous. When Peter asks where Anna is, Mary Jane says her aunt needed to be alone and will fill him in about it later. She then tells Peter that she has finished another new costume and after fussing with make-up and fitting, Peter is told this new identity is called the Prodigy. Peter likes it but quips about who gets to play Prodigy in the movie.[15]
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Grizzly, Gibbon, J. Jonah Jameson, Norman Osborn, Flash Thompson, Mary Jane Watson, Anna Watson, White Rabbit
Continuity Notes
The Mayor’s aid says the pirate feed interrupted the Jerry Springer Show. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616, particularly since the Jerry Springer Show ended in 2018.
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.
Spider-Man was framed for the murder of Joey-Z in Spider-Man #88. He will eventually clear his name in Spider-Man #92.
Peter met with Hobie Brown, aka the Prowler, to help create gear for his new identities in Sensational Spider-Man #26
Spider-Man recovered what he calls his Dusk costume from the Negative Zone in Spider-Man #90
Peter was forced to wrap a hoodie around his head to hide his identity during a battle with Mister Hyde in Amazing Spider-Man #433
Ben Urich wrote an expose on the Osborn family that revealed Norman Osborn was the original Green Goblin in Spider-Man: Legacy of Evil #1. At the time, everyone believed Osborn to have died years earlier in Amazing Spider-Man #122. Osborn survived and recently turned up again in Amazing Spider-Man #412. One of his first orders of business was to purchase the Daily Bugle in Spectacular Spider-Man #249-250 and use it to trick people into believing that he was incorrectly identified as the Goblin.
The other Goblin kidnapped Normie Osborn during the Spiderhunt story arc. The true identity of this Goblin is revealed in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #18.
Norman Osborn had employed the new Jack O’Lantern/Mad Jack to force J. Jonah Jameson to comply with Noman’s wises. Part of this was stealing the book of poems from Marla’s bedroom and giving it to Jonah to prove how easy it was for Jack to get close to his family. That happened in Spectacular Spider-Man #248-249.
Flash developed a drinking problem in Spectacular Spider-Man #244 which led to a drunk driving accident in issue #249. Norman used then offered Flash a job as his personal assistant in issue #250.
The Grizzly and Gibbon joined Kangaroo and the Spot as the Legion of Losers in Spectacular Spider-Man #246. After the Legion was defeated by Spider-Man the Gibbon and Grizzly have been trying to establish themselves as superheroes with very little success.
Prior to this story, the White Rabbit has been defeated by Spider-Man on three different occasions in Marvel Team-Up #131, and Spectacular Spider-Man #’s 185 and 253.
Anna Watson has been living with Peter and Mary Jane in Aunt May’s old house since Web of Spider-Man #127. Anna became suspicious that Peter was cheating on Mary Jane and confronted Mary Jane about it in Spectacular Spider-Man #253-254. Mary Jane got fed up and told her that Peter is secretly Spider-Man, however, Anna did not take this admission seriously.
Peter acts like this is the first time he’s worn a paper bag over his head as a makeshift mask. I guess he forgot the last time he did it in Amazing Spider-Man #258.
While joking about a Prodigy movie, Peter says that only Leonardo Di Caprio can play him and that James Cameron can direct. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616. It should also be noted that this is a bit of an in-joke in that the first Spider-Man was slated to be directed by James Cameron and to star Di Caprio playing Spider-Man. This plan fell through and ultimately Sam Raimi ended up making the first Spider-Man film with Tobey Maguire playing Spider-Man.
