Exit Interview

Laying on the floor paralyzed, Jackpot tries to scream at Spider-Man who is standing over her because this is not the way she wanted to go out. As she starts to die her life flashes before her eyes…..[1]

Alana Jobson remembers the moment when she wanted to become a super-hero. She was 12 and her father was being mugged at gunpoint. Alana watched in horror until Spider-Man arrived and saved her father’s life.[2] At the time, Spider-Man was just on the scene and was both exciting and kind of scary. But seeing him at that moment, she realized that the web-slinger could not have been much older than she was.

When Alana was in high school she used to pretend she had a crush on Spider-Man, which acted as a cover while she explored her sexual identity. She discovered that she was attracted to girls but found it hard to tell anyone and finding someone who had the same attractions was even more difficult. After college, Alana became a support worker where she helped people in need. She also saw people who were destroying their lives with drugs. She tried to help these addicts, but she discovered that it was a very difficult thing to do and the stress of the job caused her to develop an addiction of her own: alcoholism. She thought she was keeping it together, but her co-workers were starting to notice. The final straw was when she was pulled over for a DUI, which caused her to lose her license as well as her job and thus her identity.

It took all of her effort to function after that but that all changed the day she bumped into Sarah Ehret in the grocery store. The pair became fast friends but Alana was immediately attracted to her, but never told Sarah how she really felt. The two hung out all the time. Then one day she stumbled upon Alana’s secret on the day she observed Spider-Man and a new hero named Jackpot in action.[3] Recognizing Sarah despite the fact she was in costume, Alana approached Jackpot. Realizing her friend recognized who she really was, Sarah told her they would talk about it later before running off.

Later, Sarah met with Alana and told her how she got her powers and how she registered with the government when it became the law and how much she hated the lifestyle.[4] Since this was the life Alana always dreamed for herself, she lied to Sarah and told her that she had powers as well but was always afraid to register with the government. She eventually convinced Sarah to let her assume the Jackpot identity. In order to get the powers she needed, Alana bought Mutant Growth Hormone from the same drug dealers she used to try to stop as a social worker.[5] She later would start injecting herself with other drugs to enhance and maintain her abilities. She remembers how scared she was walking along a rooftop on her first day as Jackpot. She stumbled off the edge but was able to grab a flagpole and swing her way down to the ground. From there, she thinks about all the people she saved as Jackpot, how she even once held her own against a Super-Skrull.[6] That’s when the person who has been listening to her life story reminds her how she wasn’t able to save Lisa Parfrey.[7]

As it turns out, Alana is having this conversation in a bar called Phil’s place. The bartender apologizes for interrupting her story. However, Alana admits that it is a fair assessment and admits that she wasn’t going to bring it up because she is ashamed of it. That’s when the bartender points out that he knew all of this, something Alana figures was the case and asks why he wants to hear it all anyway. The bartender tells her to think of this as her “exit interview”, which makes her laugh. When she asks why this place looks like a bar, the barkeep tells her that it is a scientific fact that people like to talk to bartenders and that people will tell bartenders things they would never tell their loved ones, although he admits that this place looks different to everybody who passes through the afterlife. Now that she is finished her story, she wonders why she is sitting before him in her Jackpot costume instead of her civilian identity. The bartender doesn’t have a straight answer for her. When she asks him if it means that she will eventually come back from the dead like other superheroes. However, the bartender explains that coming back from the dead requires a great deal of need and on that note, the television hanging in the bar suddenly turns on and shows Alana images of Sarah Ehret holding up her Jackpot costume. He tells her that the world doesn’t need a Jackpot because they already have one.

With that in mind, Alana asks what she should do next, the bartender tells her that the next thing to do is to claim her just reward and she can do so by walking out the front door. He tells her to take her time and Alana discovers that she is hesitant because she doesn’t know what the afterlife has in store for her since she was responsible for the death of Lisa Palfrey. The bartender tells her that Palfrey’s death was a bad thing but everyone is entitled to a few bad moments, telling her that what matters is that she was mostly good. Thinking that she was, Jackpot pulls off her mask and wig and pronounces that her name is Alana Jobson before walking out of the bar and into the darkness.

Recurring Characters

Jackpot (Jobson)m Jackpot (Ehret), Spider-Man, Skrull, Lisa Palfrey

Continuity Notes

1. This story takes place during the events of Amazing Spider-Man Annual #35. In that story, the various drugs Alana Jobson took to give her superpowers had a lethal reaction to Blindside’s blinding toxins.

2. Per the Marvel Chronology Project, this story happens around Amazing Spider-Man #3, placing it as happening during “year one” of the modern age. More specifically, this story takes place between the 2nd story of Amazing Spider-Man #2 and Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 3) #1.4. Since Alan was 12 in this flashback, this would make her about 24 at the time of her death.

3. This would have been when the pair clashed with Overdrive in Free Comic Book Day: Amazing Spider-Man #1 (aka Spider-Man: Swingshift)

4. This law would be the Super-Human Registration Act which was put into force in Civil War #1. However, it will later be repealed in Siege #4.

5. Alana states here that most MGH is synthetic following M-Day. While Mutant Growth Hormone got its name as it was originally distilled from mutant genetic material. However, when it became a street drug circa Daredevil (vol. 2) #41, MGH was not necessarily made from mutant genes but could be made out of the genetic material of any type of superhuman. That all said, mutant sourced MGH became scarce following House of M #1-8, the Scarlet Witch cast a spell that decimated the mutant gene from the planet Earth. This will remain the status quo until it was jumpstarted again in Avengers vs. X-Men #1-12.

6. This was during Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man #1-3.

7. Lisa Parfrey was a mayoral candidate that was targeted by the Menace. While Jackpot and Spider-Man were trying to stop Menace, Parfrey ended up getting impaled on the villain’s goblin glider. This happened in Amazing Spider-Man #551.

Topical References

• Outdated technology: Computers with CRT monitors.

Litter Bugged Out!

May Parker is enjoying a good book when she notices a young man tossing a soda can on the ground. She looks outside and sees a group of hoodlums who are discarding their empty soda cans on the ground, messing up the whole neighborhood. As she cleans up the cans outside her home, her nephew Peter Parker comes home and notices she’s flustered. When Peter offers to do something about it, May tells him not to worry as she’s going to report the littering and loitering to 311. However, the operator tells May that she’ll have to wait for the city to mail her complaint forms to fill out. Deciding to take action into her own hand, May makes a bunch of signs to post around the neighborhood and asks her neighbors to help putting them up. Unfortunately, nobody wants to get involved. This annoys May that she decides to do what she should have done a long time ago.

She then confronts the boys but they all get a good laugh and spray her with a shaken-up can of soda. Deciding that this means war, May returns to her home where she dresses up in Peter’s Spider-Man costume and goes out as Spider-Ma’am. Using her perfume bottle of web-fluid, Spider-Ma’am clumps together all of their trash into a huge ball of garbage. She then rolls it down the street causing it to slam into the youths and send them rolling down the street. When they finally stop, Spider-Ma’am leaves a note telling everyone that she just took out the trash. The next day, the boys come to apologize for the way they treated May the day before and when they ask how they can make it up to her, May hands them some trash bags and tells them they can clean up the neighborhood.

Meanwhile, upstairs, Peter puts on his Spider-Man costume and wonders why it smells like garbage.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Ma’am, Spider-Man

Continuity Notes

1. This story takes place in an alternate reality. The Unofficial Appendix identifies this as Reality-8121.

Between Flights

Catching an elevator to get to his next job interview,[1] Peter Parker ends up getting stuck in an elevator with two young boys named Jay Spencer and Danny Cooper. Not wanting to be late for his interview, Peter attempts to climb up onto the roof of the elevator so he can go around and free the boys. However, he decides against it when it turns out Jay is afraid to be left alone in the elevator. When the maintenance man calls in, the boys get excited when Peter gives his name because they know him for his Spider-Man photos in the Daily Bugle. The boys are also huge fans of Spider-Man and Jay likes to draw comics about Spider-Man teaming up with the Golden Knight, a character based on his father. When they ask Peter about how he got to the Savage Land to photograph Spider-Man there, Peter spins a crazy story about how the Green Goblin was trying to become the king of the pterodactyls and how Spider-Man saved the Crimson Princess.[2]

The boys then tell Peter about a story they made up about Spider-Man and the Golden Knight. In it, Spider-Man was on a date with the Scarlet Witch when the Lizard attack. The Golden Knight then sent the Lizard back in time to the age of dinosaurs. However, they met him shortly after as he had survived all those millions of years and evolved into a pretty nice guy. When Peter asks about Jay’s father in real life, he learns that his father was a soldier that was deployed overseas and has been suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder since he got back. This makes Jay sad, but he says his father is slowly getting better every day. Peter decides to change the subject by telling Jay another made-up story about Spider-Man and the Golden Knight. In this one, the pair teamed up to rescue the Time-Sorceress from Baron Mordo. He says that Baron Morodo tries to escape through a time portal and that the Golden Knight went in after him. Spider-Man waited knowing that sooner or later the Golden Knight will return and is still fighting armies of demons on the other side. This, of course, is a parable trying to explain to Jay about his father’s struggle in a way the boy can understand.

That’s when the elevator starts working again and when they get off on their floor, Jay is greeted by his mother. When Peter learns that Barbara Spencer is applying for the same photography job he is, he tells her that he’s actually here to meet a friend and heads down the hall.

Recurring Characters

Peter Parker

Continuity Notes

1. This story takes place after Peter quits his job at the DB! in Amazing Spider-Man #561.

2. All of these imaginary stories actually exist in the Marvel multiverse in an alternate reality. The Unofficial Handbook has indexed it as Reality-90764.

Topical References

• Jay’s father is said to have been sent on a tour of Afganistan. This should be considered a topical reference since American troops have been withdrawn from that region since 2016.