Spider-Man: Blue #2
Let’s Fall in Love
Peter Parker continues his audio recording about his romance with Gwen Stacy as a means of keeping her memory alive because he doesn’t want to forget…[1]
He continues his recollection to the time just after he had learned the secret identity of the Green Goblin. Defeated, Norman Osborn is recovering in the hospital with no memory of his alter-ego, and Spider-Man considered the Green Goblin as dead.[2] Seeing the front-page story about the Goblin’s demise on the Daily Bugle, Spider-Man is hassled by the newspaper vendor to buy a copy. Spider-Man pays for the paper and leaves. Shortly thereafter a much more aggressive man grabs the paper and is upset to learn that the Goblin is dead as this is bad for him, but it is also worse for Spider-Man.[3] Recollecting this period of time, Peter recalls how he made a number of unexpected visits to Norman Osborn in the hospital to make sure has still didn’t remember anything. This also got Peter closer to Gwen Stacy.
One day, in chemistry class, Gwen suggested that she and Peter study together. This planning as interrupted by Flash Thompson who decided to give Peter a hard time. After the pair exchanged insults with one another, they are told to get back to work by their teacher, Professor Warren. Gwen wasn’t impressed that Flash interrupted them. Reflecting back on this, Peter wondered if he was foolish for thinking they could fall in love, or the idea that Gwen was interested in. This period of time was shortly after Spider-Man’s first battle with the Rhino.[4] As Peter was trying to make sense of his feelings toward Gwen, the Rhino was being contained in a gas chamber. However, the guards were knocked out by a mysterious individual who then turns off the gas keeping the Rhino asleep.
Later that day, Peter Parker went to the Daily Bugle to get payment for the photos he ran in the paper since his Aunt May’s bills are coming up due. J. Jonah Jameson is unsympathetic and slams his office door in Parker’s face when he asks for an advance. Feeling sorry for Peter, Joe Robertson tells him about reports that the Rhino is on a rampage in the city. Needing the money so he can take Gwen out on a date, Peter goes after the Rhino as Spider-Man in order to get photos to sell back to the Bugle. As the two fought, Peter was unaware that the man who was responsible for feeing the Rhino is observing the battle from the rooftops above. Ultimately, Spider-Man defeats the Rhino by tricking the villain into charging into a building, burying his foe under tons of debris. In the aftermath of the battle, Spider-Man found a chunk of the Rhino’s armor that broke off in the battle and tells the police to keep the Rhino contained while he goes and finds a way to remove his hide.
To that end, Spider-Man paid a visit to his friend, Curt Connors. Examining the hide under a microscope, Connors determines that this hide was created using Rhino DNA and it has natural self-replicating process not unlike the formula that brought about his own problems in the past.[5] Remembering his earlier science class, Spider-Man suggests they create a chemical reaction that causes the polymers in the rhino hide to dissolve. While they waited, Spider-Man asked how Curt’s family is doing and learns that Martha and Billy were planning on coming up from Florida next week.[6] When Curt began preparing the chemicals needed, Spider-Man expressed his concerns that contact with them might trigger another transformation into the Lizard. However, Curt was willing to take that risk as lives were in danger the longer the Rhino was on the loose. By the time the formula was ready, the Rhino was on the rampage again. Spider-Man arrived on the seen shortly and sprayed his foe with webbing tainted with the formula. Although the Rhino continues to put up a fight, the formula ultimately eats away at his hide. Powerless, the Rhino was easily defeated with a single punch from the web-slinger.[7]
Peter was delighted that a single comment that Gwen made in science class helped him defeat the Rhino. Rushing home to change and meet up with Gwen, Peter found Aunt May waiting for him at the door. She is glad he’s all dressed up, reminding him that tonight was the night he was going to finally meet Anna Watson’s niece, Mary Jane. Thinking back to that moment, Peter recalled thinking that Mary Jane Watson was going to be a complete dud and he’d just have to spend just enough time to be polite and be a little late for meeting with Gwen. That’s when the doorbell rang and Peter opened the door. Getting a look at Mary Jane for the first time and seeing how attractive she was, Peter suddenly realized that Gwen wouldn’t understand this at all.[8]
Sometime later, Spider-Man
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Kraven the Hunter, Rhino, Gwen Stacy, Flash Thompson, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson, Curt Connors, Aunt May, Mary Jane Watson, Miles Warren
Continuity Notes
According to the Marvel Chronology Project, Peter Parker’s narration was recorded during the events of Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #43. I explain last issue why I think that is incorrect and why I think this story fits better between Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #50 and 51. Peter’s recollections take place around the events of Amazing Spider-Man #42-43
This story makes reference to the battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin that occurred in Amazing Spider-Man #39 and 40. In that story both Peter Parker and Norman Osborn learn each other’s secret identities. In the end of that battle, Norman was struck with selective amnesia, forgetting about his Goblin persona and everything about it, including Peter Parker’s secret identity.
This man is Kraven the Hunter. As we learn in Amazing Spider-Man #47, the Green Goblin hired Kraven for a job prior to his defeat in issue #40. He’ll later come after Norman Osborn for the money he is owed in that same story.
Spider-Man first fought the Rhino in Amazing Spider-Man #41.
Connors is referring to the formula that turned him into the Lizard back in Amazing Spider-Man #6.
Martha and Billy arrive from Florida in Amazing Spider-Man #44.
The events of this battle happened in Amazing Spider-Man #43. This story frames it as though it happens before Peter first meets Mary Jane, which happened at the end of Amazing Spider-Man #42. I’ll explain the issues with continuity in this story below.
Peter first met Mary Jane in Amazing Spider-Man #42. Aunt May and Anna Watson had been trying to set Peter up with Mary Jane since issue #15 of that series.
Explaining Continuity
As I said at the end of last issue, the chronology of this story has not been paired up with the rest of Spider-Man’s history over at the Chronology Project. The main reason they haven’t done so is that some of the plot elements in this series don’t match the original Stan Lee/John Romita stories. This issue specifically mixes up plot elements from Amazing Spider-Man #41 to 43. Particularly, Jeph Loeb swaps the Rhino’s defeat in Amazing Spider-Man #43 and places it as happening prior to Peter Parker meeting Mary Jane at the end of issue #42. This is particularly problematic when you consider that Mary Jane was on the scene when Spider-Man defeated the Rhino because Peter rode her there on his motorcycle.
Also absent is the primary conflict in issue #42 where John Jameson gets superhuman strength and battles Spider-Man. As I said previously, the original stories were told in the third person perspective while this story is told in the first person by Peter Parker. I also pointed out last issue how people’s memories aren’t necessarily reliable or accurate and how people often embellish or resort events to come off looking better than they might have when things originally happened.
From a story writing perspective, I can understand why Jeph Loeb’s story choices. The entire John Jameson story arc and the fragmented battle with the Rhino would have overly complicated the story he is trying to tell. This was a six-issue limited series, trying to condense the events of three issues of Amazing Spider-Man into one issue and maintain the usual page count required some pruning. Rearranging the plot was necessary for narrative pacing since Spider-Man’s key to defeating the Rhino came from a suggestion that Gwen made in science class earlier. It wouldn’t work quite as nicely if you crammed the meeting with Mary Jane into the middle of that.
So how do you explain this situation? My opinion is that Peter Parker is not remembering things correctly. As such the sequence of events when plotting the chronology of this story is going to bounce around a bit. Some of it takes place before Amazing Spider-Man #42 and some of it takes place during issue #43 and then bounces back to issue #42 again. Given the number of battles that Spider-Man has had over the 8 years between events, you can understand that he might not remember every detail of every battle he’s had correctly. In fact, many issues of Spider-Man feature the web-slinger being unclear on details of past battles, so it’s not like this is an outlandish idea.
Chronology
With the above in mind, this is how I would plot out the chronology for this story:
Page 1-4: Spider-Man and Kraven the Hunter get their newspapers.
This sequence would best fit before the start of Amazing Spider-Man #42 (ASM #42)
Page 5-7: Peter attends class. Gwen suggests they study together. Peter argues with Flash.
This would best take place between page 8 and 9 of ASM #42. OnPage 8, Peter arrives at Empire State University when he is asked to attend a party at Gwen’s that Sunday. The first panel on Page 9 is Peter leaving ESU after classes were over for the day. From here, this is where Peter gets his facts mixed up as…..
Page 8: Kraven the Hunter frees the Rhino from battle.
This fits neatly before page 2 of Amazing Spider-Man #43 (ASM #43) which starts with the Rhino escaping from his gas-filled cell.
Page 9: Peter goes to the Daily Bugle to ask J. Jonah Jameson for money. Joe Robertson tells him about the Rhino’s rampage.
This is at odds with Amazing Spider-Man #43, which depicts Peter finding out about the attack on the television and takes Mary Jane with him to the scene of the battle. Peter is basically locked in place here because he was meeting Mary Jane for the first time.
Regardless if can only fit between ASM #43 page 4, panel 4 (Peter and MJ leave Aunt May’s house) and page 6, panel 4 (Peter and MJ arrive at the scene of Rhino’s rampage) I suppose you could say Peter had to stop at the Bugle for something other than begging Jameson money and already knew about the Rhino situation when Joe told him and didn’t say anything since Joe was being nice.
Page 10: The Rhino demands Spider-Man show himself, the web-slinger kicks the Rhino in the back of the head.
This fits in between panels 5 (Spider-Man sets up his camera) and 6 (hurls insults at the Rhino from behind) of page 7 in ASM #43.
Page 11-13: Spider-Man battles the Rhino who gets buried under the rubble of a collapsing building. Spider-Man finds a piece of Rhino’s hide and swings away, telling the police to hold the fort.
This sequence runs counter to the battle between the Rhino and ASM #43 pages 7-13. The battle ends with Spider-Man taking a beating and needing to be dragged away from the battle by a cop as a bunch of steel girders. The Rhino then escapes. Spider-Man slips away changes back into Peter Parker and then finds the piece of the Rhino’s hide.
I think this sequence fits best between panel 2 and 3 of page 11 of ASM #43 Since between panels, Spider-Man is suddenly feeling tired. The final panel on page 13 of Spider-Man: Blue #2 (SMB #2) shows a single pebble moving on a pile of rubble. Panel 3 on page 11 of ASM shows the Rhino getting up off the ground around a cloud of dust. One could assume he’s breaking free of the rubble he got trapped under in the building collapse. This would allow for the sequence where Spider-Man has to be pulled away by the police and the Rhino escapes.
The only thing to reconcile is how Spider-Man (in costume) finds the chunk of Rhino hide on panel 2 & 3 on page 13 of SMB #2, and him finding it again (as Peter Parker) on panel 9 of page 13. Back in those days, Peter routinely went out of his way to try and eliminate any connection between Peter Parker and Spider-Man. One could assume that Peter “discovering” the hideout of costume was just a contrivance in case someone who saw Spider-Man pick up the piece of hide that might catch Peter Parker with it.
Page 14-15: Curt Connors examines the Rhino’s hide and determines its composition and begin working on the solution to destroy it.
In the original story, they leap from Spider-Man and Connors preparing to work on a formula to a solution. So this scene fits neatly between panels 6 (Curt suggests becoming the Lizard to help) and 7 (Spider-Man and Connors complete the formula.
Page 16-18: The Rhino demands Spider-Man show up. Shot at by the cops. Spider-Man arrives and covers him with the corrosive webbing. The Rhino rams him into a fire hydrant.
Page 16-18 of ASM #43 shows the Rhino going to the hospital where John Jameson is recovering and Spider-Man attacks him indoors. Douses him with some webbing and knocks him outside. There his costume dissolves.
The only way to reconcile these two stories is placing Page 16 of SMB #2 happening is by placing them as happening between panels 2 (The Rhino smashes through the wall to get outside) This puts the Rhino outside to get shot by police before Spider-Man sprays him in the fact with more corrosive webbing (the idea that it needed more than one spray is a bit more believable).
This would be followed by panels 3 (Spider-Man taunting the Rhino from the side of the building) and 4 (Spider-Man punches the Rhino as he leaps down from said wall) in ASM #43. Page 17 of SMB #2 (Spider-Man leaps around and sprays Rhino with more webbing) would fit nicely between panels 4 and 5 (Rhino complains about Spider-Man’s webbing) of ASM #43.
Page 18 of SMB #2 (The Rhino bucks Spider-Man into a fire hydrant) fits between panel 5 and 6 (the webbing starts to finally burn through the Rhino’s armor)
Page 19 - The Rhino’s armor begins to dissolve, Spider-Man knocks him out with a single punch.
This would work with page 18, panel 7 to Page 19 Panel 2 of ASM #43. The Rhino’s armor has dissolved, Spider-Man knocks him out. However, this entire sequence shows the Rhino without his horn on his head. It’s depicted on the ground on panel 1 on page 19.So with that in mind…..
Page 19, panels 1-3, where the Rhino gets soaked with the fire hydrant, then Spider-Man punches him, knocking the horn off of his head. This fits before panel 7 on page 18 of ASM #43
This is followed by panel 2 on page 19 of ASM #43 where Spider-Man knocks out the Rhino (sans horn) with a single punch.
That’s where panels 4 and 5 on SMB #2 page 19 fit (Spider-Man stands over the Rhino while Kraven watches from the rooftops) because….
The next panel in ASM #43 is Spider-Man leaping away as the authorities show up.
Then you have the whole sequence where Peter meets Mary Jane. As I said above, this was originally depicted in Amazing Spider-Man #42 (ASM #42) and it’s my opinion that Peter is mixing up events because they happened a while ago. As such, the final few pages of this story would actually chronologically occur during Amazing Spider-Man #42, predating the first part of the story.
Page 20 of SMB #2 features Peter Parker dressed up rushing downstairs to go meet up with Gwen and finds Aunt May waiting downstairs thinking Peter is getting ready to meet with Mary Jane for the first time. that’s when Mary Jane rings the doorbell. Page 21 and 22 is Peter giving Mary Jane a once over and Mary Jane saying her classic “Face it Tiger” line. It should be noted that Peter’s meet up with Gwen doesn’t happen or get brought up again. Spider-Man: Blue #3 opens with Peter and Mary Jane hanging out with a gang at a diner.
In ASM #42 page 19 (panel 6) through to page 20 has Peter resting in bed after his battle with John Jameson. Aunt May comes upstairs to remind Peter about meeting Mary Jane. Peter gets dressed. Then he and Aunt May go over to Anna Watson’s house to wait for Mary Jane to arrive. That’s when the doorbell ring, Anna Watson introduces Peter to Mary Jane and she says the jackpot line. So for this to work….
Page 19, panels 1-3 of ASM #42 come first (Peter is reminded he’s meeting Mary Jane and gets dressed)
Then Page 20, panels 1-5 of SMB #2 happen (Peter comes downstairs, Aunt May tells him he looks handsome. He finds out he’s supposed to meet Mary Jane tonight, the doorbell rings) I think we can chalk up Peter acting like he “doesn’t remember” he’s going to meet Mary Jane as a joke on Peter’s part since May was just upstairs reminding him about it. We can also ignore the doorbell ringing here. SMB #2 omits the part where Peter and Aunt May go over to Anna Watson’s house (probably for narrative pacing) so I think we can ignore the doorbell ringing here and move along to….
Page 20, panels 1-4 of ASM #42 (Peter and Aunt May go to Anna Watson’s to wait for Mary Jane then the doorbell rings)
Page 20, Panel 6 of SMB #2 (Aunt May figures that it’s Mary Jane ringing the bell)
ASM #42 Page 20, panel 5 (Anna Watson opens the door and introduces Peter to Mary Jane. Peter is shocked)
SMB #2 page 21 and 22 occur concurrently with panel 6 of ASM #42 (“Face it Tiger….”) The only difference between the two sequences is that Mary Jane is wearing a black sleeveless shirt and jeans in ASM #42 while SMB #2 shows her wearing a dress. Those were stylistic choices by the artists that fit with the times the stories were published so what Mary Jane was wearing in either story should be considered topical.
Topical References
Peter states that he is recording this memoir on a tape recorder. This should be considered a topical reference as cassette tapes are considered an obsolete technology.
The cost of a newspaper in this story is 25 cents.