Spider-Man #94
Who Was Joey Z?
The Watcher ponders the question of how a single individual can shape the lives of countless others. Turning his attention to such a person, the hero known as Spider-Man. He is intrigued about how the hero will affect the life of Jill Stacy and their connection to the seemingly insignificant life of a criminal named Joey Z.[1] He has witnessed the possible outcomes of the coming events in different realities, one in which Spider-Man forms a romance with the Stacy woman, and another were they both die. Now he looks upon the prime universe and prepares to witness what will transpire there.
At that moment, Peter Parker awakens from a nightmare screaming, waking up his wife, Mary Jane in the process.[2] Peter has been haunted by nightmares about Joey Z. He tells Mary Jane that he has to find out what kind of person Joey was before Norman Osborn had him murdered. Changing into Spider-Man, Peter tells her that he is going to see Arthur Stacy to see if he can help. Mary Jane tells Peter that he should also spend time with Jill Stacy, even though she might ask him about her cousin, Gwen.[3] When Peter tries to explain how uncomfortable that makes him, Mary Jane tells him to deal with it and rolls over to go back to sleep.
Swinging over to the Stacy home, Peter begins to think that Mary Jane is right. When he arrives at the Stacy home, someone starts shooting at him from the shadows. Spider-Man quickly webs up the shooter and discovers that it is Arthur Stacy himself. Arthur tells Spider-Man that his children, Paul and Jill, are in trouble and he needs help. Spider-Man carries Arthur back inside the house where he tells Spider-Man that his time in government intelligence has earned him some powerful enemies and that they have been threatening him recently.[4] Although he doesn’t know who is responsible he intends to find out once he makes sure his children are safe. Spider-Man offers to go check on Jill while Arthur looks in on his son, Paul. Arthur tells Spider-Man that Jill had been looking into the Joey Z murder, thinking it could get her closer to learning more about the death of her cousin and sought out the help from someone at the Daily Bugle. Having contacts at the Bugle, the wall-crawler heads out to search there.
Elsewhere in the city, the hitman that was hired to run Arthur Stacy out of town reports to his boss, the Kingpin, who is not happy that he failed. Knowing that failure means death, the hitman tries to pull his gun, but that’s when the Ox kills him. The Kingpin thanks the Ox for dealing with this, however, there is much work to be done before Wilson Fisk can reclaim his criminal empire and Arthur Stacy may stand in his way.[5] Fisk is particularly disturbed that his daughter is asking around about Joey Z. The Ox, loyal to the Kingpin after he saved his life many months earlier, promises to handle the situation.[6]
While at the Daily Bugle, Peter Parker has Betty Brant help him dig up all the information that Jill had found on Joey Z. Both are very impressed over how deep Jill managed to dig and that Joey Z discovered that he wasn’t the low-level crook that they thought he was. On his way out, J. Jonah Jameson to get back into the darkroom to redevelop his photos of Plantman, which was overdeveloped.[7] After doing this task, Peter changes into Spider-Man and goes to investigate his leads, while elsewhere Jill conducts an investigation of her own. While Jill interviews the Thing about Joey Z’s early days in the Delancy Street Gang. While Spider-Man questions Silvermane. Although the crime boss is annoyed that the wall-crawler has broken into his home he tells Spider-Man what he told Jill Stacy earlier, that Joey Z was a floater that had his hands in everything but also had a connection to the Hellfire Club. As Spider-Man swings toward the Hellfire Club, he wonders what Joey Z would want with a group of wealthy mutants.[8]
Arriving at the Hellfire Club, Spider-Man decides that Sebastian Shaw is too dangerous to deal with overtly, he changes back into Peter Parker and tries to use his press credentials to get inside the Club. Unfortunately, he is turned away by the guards at the door. That’s when Jill arrives and asks Peter what he’s doing there. When he tells her they need to talk, Jill turns him down, saying that he turned her down when she came to him in the past. When Peter tries to explain that her father is worried about him, they are interrupted by Sebastian Shaw who asks Jill if Peter is bothering her. She says he is not and asks for Shaw’s assistance. However, when she asks him about Joey Z, Shaw tells her that their conversation is over and heads back into his club. Peter asks Shaw what he is hiding, but Sebastian explains that he has nothing to hide, but warns them to let sleeping dogs lay. Jill storms off, deciding to look up her next lead, someone named Mel Phisto. Peter stops her and asks her why she is looking into Joey Z. Jill explains that she wanted to learn more about Joey Z’s connection to Spider-Man in the hopes it will get her closer to explaining what Spider-Man’s connection was to the death of her cousin. She has become determined to follow through on this since Peter has avoided talking to her about it. Peter decides that it’s time to talk and the pair spend the next few hours talking about Gwen and forge a stronger connection between the two friends.
After, Jill thanks Peter for talking to him and as they plan on calling Mary Jane when they are suddenly a car pulls up next to them. Armed men grab Jill and force her into the car. When Peter tries to struggle to get free, the Ox comes out and strikes him. Before the armed thugs leave, the Ox tells Peter to pass along a message to Arthur Stacy that they have his daughter. Peter ducks into an alley where he changes into Spider-Man and follows after the limo. Spider-Man ties up the car and fights the armed thugs and the Ox. As they fight, Spider-Man learns that this is the original Ox, not his brother, who is still a member of his old team the Enforcers.[9] When one of the bystanders tells the combatants that he called the police, the Ox steals a car and escapes. With Jill out of danger, Spider-Man suggests that she drop her investigation into Joey Z as he sounds like a very dangerous guy. Jill says she can’t let it go until she gets to him. Later that evening, Jill is awoken by a knock on her window. It turns out to be Spider-Man who has come to talk to her about Gwen.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, Kingpin, Ox, Sebastian Shaw, Silvermane, Artur Stacy, Jill Stacy, J. Jonah Jameson, Betty Brant, Thing, Watcher
Continuity Notes
Joey Z was murdered by the Trapster in Spider-Man #88 in an attempt to frame Spider-Man for murder. Ultimately, Spider-MAn cleared his name in Spider-Man #92.
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.
Gwen Stacy was Peter Parker’s girlfriend until she was murdered by the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #121.
Arthur mentions how a hitman had shot his daughter Jill. This was in Spider-Man #87. Although Paul thinks this hit was called on by one of his enemies, this was actually a botched hit put out by Norman Osborn that was spoiled by Jimmy-6.
The Kingpin’s criminal empire was dismantled by Daredevil #297-300 and later fled the country. The Kingpin has been returning his attention to the New York following the events of X-Men (Vol. 2) #64.
The Ox was seemingly killed during the events of Daredevil #86.
Spider-Man had recently fought Plantman in Amazing Spider-Man #437.
Spider-Man mentions that the X-Men have had past dealings with the Hellfire Club’s inner circle. The X-Men first fought the Hellfire Club in X-Men #129.
When everyone thought that Raymond Bloch was dead, the Enforcers recruited his brother Roland in Spectacular Spider-Man #19. He was a member of the Enforcers until Dark Reign: The Hood #5.
