Old Haunts

Spider-Man has arrived in Jamaica Bay in Queens after Norah Winters asked for his help on something. Changing out of his costume, Peter meets up with Norah. He asks her why she needs his help, reminding her that he works for Horizon Labs now.[1] However, he still owes Norah for the time she paid him under the table to a job when he was blacklisted from photography.[2] She is currently working on an exposé on some shady real-estate deals that are happening in the area and has a need of his photography skills. As Peter looks around, he recognizes one of the buildings as the warehouse he tracked down Uncle Ben’s killer many years ago.[3]

As Norah checks her equipment, they are caught by a security guard who tells them that they are trespassing on private property. Peter recognizes this guy as a former security guard for the Brand Corporation from back when he was in Grad School.[4] His spider-sense warning him of danger, Peter grabs Norah by the arm and suggests they get out of there, telling her that they’re not going to learn anything this way.

Back at the Daily Bugle, Norah tells Peter off for wussing out. Peter gets upset by this and leaves. When Joe Robertson asks Norah what happened, she tells him how they went to check out the old Acme Warehouse. That’s when Joe informs her that was the place where Spider-Man caught the man who murdered Peter’s uncle. This is news to Norah, who is surprised to learn this.

Meanwhile, Peter has returned to the warehouse as Spider-Man to see what an ex-Brand Corporation goon is doing guarding the place. Inside, Peter can still feel his hatred for the place as memories of his confrontation with Uncle Ben’s killer play through his mind. He recalls how young he was back then and how he could have stopped the burglar days earlier if he took he used his newfound powers responsibly.[5] He finds nothing of interest upstairs and decides to check the basement by going down the elevator shaft. He discovers an excavation going on there. He overhears the guard from earlier arguing with another man about the possibility of the storm outside causing their make-shift tunnel to flood. Crawling along with the ceiling, Spider-Man takes a look at their blueprints and sees that they are trying to dig their way into the old Brand Corporation facility.

That’s when a thunder crash from the above-ground causes the guard to look up and spot Spider-Man. The web-slinger quickly webs them up, but when they refuse to talk, he goes down the tunnel to figure out what’s going on. As Spider-Man heads down the tunnel he thinks about the time he tangled with the Brand Corporation at the facility ahead. At the time, Brand was a subsidiary of Roxxon and they were conducting illegal experiments, one that turned the Tarantula into a monster.[6] He recalls that after this, Roxxon cut all ties with the Brand Corporation, and the building in question had been tied up in litigation ever since. He figures the current incarnation of the Brand Corporation got impatient with waiting. At the other end of the tunnel, he finds men who only speak Spanish digging the tunnel with an English speaking foreman. He webs up the foreman and tells the workers that the tunnel might flood and orders them to evacuate.

Meanwhile, the guard he webbed up earlier has cut himself free with a saw and sets off some explosive charges. Spider-Man gets everyone to safety just moments before he’s swept away in the rapidly flooding tunnel. While Spider-Man is finding another way out through a drainage pipe, the workers attack the guard and accidentally set off all the other charges at once. When Spider-Man comes up to the surface outside he is just in time to witness the Acme Warehouse collapse to the ground. Fearing for the safety of the others, Spider-Man digs through the rubble and extracts everyone from the tunnel. He leaves the workers with the plans so they can give them to the authorities. When one of them explains that their working papers aren’t in order, Spider-Man tells them to get in touch with his lawyer friend, Matt Murdock, who will help them out.

The story lands on the front page of the Daily Bugle and later, Mayor J. Jonah Jameson holds a press conference saying the area will be revitalized to eliminate the blight to the neighborhood. Peter is watching from the crowd and isn’t surprised when Jameson uses the opportunity to blame Spider-Man. He bumps into Norah who apologizes for earlier, saying she didn’t know about his history with the Acme Warehouse. Peter forgives her because she couldn’t have known. As he walks home, he thinks about how his one mistake taught him that With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility, a motto he tries to live by every day in the memory of his late Uncle Ben.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Brand Corporation, Norah Winters, Joe Robertson, J. Jonah Jameson

Continuity Notes

This issue is part of the 50th anniversary of Spider-Man. Previously canceled Spider-Man titles were briefly brought back with new .1 issues that continue where the series left off. This issue appears to take on legacy numbering from Spider-Man and Peter Parker: Spider-Man. Each title ran for 99 and 57 issues respectively, which equals 156 issues. That said, according to the Marvel Chronology Project this story takes place chronologically after Spider-Man’s appearance in FF #17.

1. At the time of this story, Peter recently got a job at Horizon Labs. See Amazing Spider-Man #648.

2. The job in question was photographing a citizenship ceremony in Amazing Spider-Man #625. At the time, Peter had been blacklisted from photojournalism after he was caught doctoring a photo of J. Jonah Jameson fighting off the Vulture. See Amazing Spider-Man #623-624.

3. An obvious reference to Amazing Fantasy #15. Per the Sliding Timescale, the murder of Uncle Ben happened about 12 years prior to this story.

4. That was in Amazing Spider-Man #235. Peter’s got some pretty good memory since he met that guy once about 7 years prior to this story.

5. Peter states that he was so young back then. Per Civil War #2, Peter was 15 when he first got his powers. That would make him about 27 years old now.

6. Spider-Man’s clash with the Brand Corporation and the Tarantula occurred in Amazing Spider-Man #234-236.