Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man #3
Brand New Secret Invasion Part Three
Recap
Spider-Man is in the middle of a battle between Earth’s heroes and the Skrulls that is taking place in Central Park.[1] He tells the audience that he’s a little busy saving the world but gets them up to speed on what was happening with his friends in New York. How Jackpot has been putting her life on the line to protect Joe Robertson, Dexter Bennett, Betty Brant, and Vin Gonzales from a Skrull that has the powers of six of his greatest foes. To make matters worse, Menace has arrived to give her a hard time….
Meanwhile, in New York…
Having ambushed Jackpot, Menace has flown her high above the city and intends to drop her to her death even though the hero was trying to save Joe, Dexter, Betty, and Vin from the Super-Skrull that has been chasing them since the start of the invasion. Jackpot decides that since Menace is fighting dirty, she should fight back. She attempts to pull off what she thinks is Menace’s mask but discovers it is firmly attached to her foe.[2] The struggle causes the pair to fly out of control and crash through a Bill Hollister political billboard.[3]
Back on the ground, the Super-Skrull has peeled back the roof of Joe Robertson’s car and since it can smell Spider-Man’s scent all over the car has deduced that one of them must be the wall-crawler. The Skrull orders them to reveal which one of them is really Spider-Man or he will kill them all. Betty looks around and figures it can’t be Joe because she has seen him with Spider-Man, and Dexter is too old. She concludes that Vin must be Spider-Man, but Gonzales says that he knows that Spider-Man goes around and plants false evidence to trick people into thinking someone else is the wall-crawler, for all he knows Spider-Man could be Betty.[4] Taking Vin at his word, the Super-Skrull grabs Betty and attempts to flee. Surprisingly, the one who steps up to save Betty is none other than Dexter Bennett who exits the car and begins berating the Skrull for being unprofessional, accusing the alien of being sloppy for wanting to kill Betty without any proof that she is actually Spider-Man. When the Super-Skrull tries to defend itself, Bennett tells the alien to go ahead and kill Betty then, saying that it’s the one who will have to face the music when it tells its superiors that Spider-Man is dead and it turns out to be wrong. This causes the Super-Skrull to doubt itself and it puts Betty back on the ground.
That’s when Jackpot and Menace come dive-bombing at the Super-Skrull on Menace’s Goblin Glider. The glider explodes on impact seemingly killing the Skrull in the process. Jackpot is thrown clear from the blast and after getting back on her feet checks on the others.[5] When they all ask about what happened to Menace, Jackpot figures there is no way her foe could have survived the explosion. However, in a nearby alley, Menace has survived and realizing they could have gotten themselves killed, leaves the scene. When Jackpot suggests getting in touch with SHIELD she notices the others are suddenly running for it and quickly deduced that the Super-Skrull is still alive and standing right behind her. She quickly joins the others as they seek cover in a fish packing warehouse. There, the Super-Skrull catches up and resumes its attack. JAckpot recalls how these businesses have massive deep freezers and since the Super-Skrull’s power set includes those of Hydro-Man, she lures the alien invader into the deep freeze and traps it inside.
A Few Days Later
Once the invasion had been repelled, Spider-Man meets up with Jackpot and she tells him all about how she single-handedly defeated the Skrull. Spider-Man is impressed especially since she not only got on the front page of the DB! but also because the paper published a retraction of previously besmirching her name. Jackpot hadn’t noticed, but Spider-Man shows her that they buried the apology in the daily crossword puzzle.[6] When he shows her the front page, it is a photo of Dexter Bennett standing in front of the frozen Skrull next to Walter Declun, who also happened to own the fish packing factory.
A Few Days Later
Lily Hollister, Vin Gonzales, and Carlie Cooper are spending their Saturday at the Coffee Bean where they wonder when life will get back to normal. Harry Osborn, the owner of the Bean, is particularly concerned since his coffee shop has never been this deserted. That’s when Peter Parker comes in, much to everyone’s relief as they were all worried about what happened to him during the invasion. Peter tells them that he was stranded in Queens when everything shut down. Peter then sits down so he can hear what happened to everyone while he was gone.
Elsewhere in New York City, Jackpot is at home trying to soak in the bath when her phone rings. It’s her friend Sara who wants to congratulate her for the Skrull thing she read about in the paper, saying that Alana is shaping up to be quite the superhero.
Jackpot’s story is continued in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #35….
Recurring Characters
Jackpot, Skrulls, Menace, Dexter Bennett, Betty Brant, Harry Osborn, Joe Robertson, Vin Gonzales, Spider-Man, Sara Ehret (voice only)
Continuity Notes
Spider-Man is not in this story until the very end because he is involved in the main conflict against the Skrulls as seen in Secret Invasion #1-8. He states that while his battle in Central Park happens in issue #6 and 7 of that series, he says the events of this series takes place during issue #3 of Secret Invasion.
The “mask” isn’t coming of because Menace is not wearing a mask. As explained in Amazing Spider-Man #586, Menace is actually Lily Hollister. After being exposed to the Goblin Formula, she gained the ability to change into her Menace form.
Bill Hollister is one of the candidates running for mayor of New York City. This election has been ongoing since Amazing Spider-Man #546, ultimately J. Jonah Jameson wins the election as seen in Amazing Spider-Man #592.
Vin was convinced into believing this after Vin was mistaken for Spider-Man by Ana Kravinoff, the daughter of Kraven the Hunter, in Amazing Spider-Man #565-567.
Vin remembers of Menace was responsible for the death of April Parfrey, another mayoral candidate, that happened in Amazing Spider-Man #551.
A number of the crossword puzzle questions are references to in-universe things
The DB! publishes their crossword under the Lil’ Franklin comic strip. This is likely a comic strip based on Franklin Richards, the son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four (born Fantastic Four Annual #6)
Three across is “Ex supermodel turned soap starlet” this is a reference to Mary Jane Watson who after getting blacklisted from modeling by Jonathan Caeser in Amazing Spider-Man #314 she later got a role on the soap opera Secret Hospital in Amazing Spider-Man #324 until #368.
Eight Across is Project: PEGASUS a government organization that was investigating alternate energy resources, first seen in Marvel Two-In-One #42.
Eleven Across is the color of the Thing’s “ever luvin’” blue eyes. They’re blue.
Fourteen across are the initials for the former publisher that almost ran the paper into the ground. This is a reference to J. Jonah Jameson former published of the Daily Bugle. After JJJ suffered a heart attack in Amazing Spider-Man #546, his wife Marla Madison sold the paper to Dexter Bennett who rechristened the paper the DB! circa Amazing Spider-Man #548.
One down is the first name of the author of the book Sidekick. That would be Rick Jones who wrote Sidekick a book as his experiences as a sidekick of the Hulk, Captain America, and Captain Marvel. He published this book circa Incredible Hulk #374-375.
Topical References
Mentions of comedian Stephen Colbert, NPR puzzle editor Will Shortz, and Bogart the “Bionic Camel” should be considered topical. However, references to Marvel staffers Tom Brennan and Dan Slott should be considered factual since Marvel creators exist in the Modern Age of the Marvel Universe in the relative prime of their lives.