Bad Day at the Bugle

Struggling with a cold, Peter Parker takes the subway into Manhattan, thinking about how he would never have gotten out of bed had he not gotten a call from J. Jonah Jameson.[1] At that same moment, Eddie Brock is being driven into the city by his handlers at the Overwatch Committee.[2] Along the way, Agent Daryll Smith explains how the Committee is not happy with J. Jonah Jameson due to his newspaper investigation into Operation: Zero Tolerance and its organizer, the man known as Bastion.[3] When Brock asks Daryll what he wants done, Smith says he’s not telling him anything so the government can maintain plausible deniability.

As Peter Parker emerges from the subway and enters the Daily Bugle he is so concerned with his cold that he doesn’t notice Brock emerge from the limo that pulled up beside the building.[4] In the lobby, Peter bumps into Betty Brant who confirms that Jonah is still upstairs in the Bugle office. As he takes the elevator up, Eddie Brock scales the side of the building, transforming into Venom along the way. Venom ends up smashing in through Jameson’s office window just as Peter Parker is called in. Fearing that Venom might reveal his secret identity, Peter smashes his foe in the fact with a computer monitor only to get knocked clean out of the room.[5] Since the office is deserted, Peter is able to change into his Spider-Man costume quickly without anyone seeing. When Spider-Man enters Jameson’s office, Venom can easily tell he is facing the real Spider-Man this time around.[6] When Spider-Man orders Venom to put Jameson down, Brock notices that the wall-crawler has a cold.

By this time, Mary Jane has arrived in Manhattan to bring Peter the flash for his camera that he forgot at home. While at the same time, the agent driving Daryll Smith warns suggests that maybe Venom won’t be subtly enough to handle this situation with the appropriate delcacy. It’s then that both Smith and Mary Jane hear J. Jonah Jameson screaming as Venom tosses him out the window. When Spider-Man tries to go after him, Venom grabs him with one of his symbiote’s tendrils. With no time to lose, Spider-Man rams into Venom, sending them both falling out the window after Jameson. As he expected, Venom lets go of Spider-Man in order to save himself. The wall-crawler then dives downward to catch up to Jameson. He manages to grab the newspaper publisher and uses a webline to swing them over to a nearby construction site, although the stunt nearly pulls Spider-Man’s arm out of its socket. Realizing the situation is out of control, Agent Smith leaves the limo to make sure Jameson is still alive as he is cancelling this operation.

Not hearing screams from outside, Venom looks back out the window and sees that Spider-Mand and Jameson managed to survive and swings over to the construction site to confront them. While Spider-Man resumes his battle with Venom he tells Jameson to run for it, but the newspaper man refuses to go since he considers this the story of the century. Meanwhile, Agent Smith shoots the lock off the fence sealing off the construction site and goes inside, unaware that Mary Jane if following behind him. Above them the battle rages on and Venom vows that this time there is no way Spider-Man can trick him like he did on that desert island.[7] As Smith and Mary Jane make their ways up to the upper levels, Venom gains the upperhand in the fight and has Spider-Man at his mercy. Surprisingly, J. Jonah Jameson can’t bring himself to watch even though he hates Spider-Man. Deciding to crush Spider-Man to death, Venom climbs up higher and then causes a bunch girders to fall on the wallcrawler, causing him to go crashing down to the ground below. While the sudden damage to the structure doesn’t impede Agent Smith’s ascent, Mary Jane finds herself trapped in the elevator. She’s not the only one who is trapped either as Spider-Man soon finds himself pinned under tons of rubble.[8] As both Spider-Man and Mary Jane struggle to get free from their perdicaments, Agent Smith continues to get closer. Venom, is too busy ranting and raving about how much he is going to enjoy killing Jameson to get the job done.

Surprisingly, Mary Jane manages to get to Venom first, just as Spider-Man manages to lift the rubble off of himself. When Mary Jane tries to blind Venom with Peter’s camera flash, he grabs her by the throat. Arriving in time to see this, Peter lunges at Venom, freeing Mary Jane and sending the two of them falling over the edge of the half constructed building. As the duke it out, Spider-Man notices that a bunch of dynamite has been knocked loose and figures a concussion will set them off. As everyone gets off the construction site, Spider-Man allows Venom to punch him as he fires a webline upward to pull down a chunk of cement from the building. As he planned, it lands on the nearby dynamite causing it to explode. The sound of the explosion weakens Venom significantly enough that the flying debris hurts when it strikes him. The cascading explosions are causing too much pain for Venom to continue fighting and so he flees the scene. As does Spider-Man when he finds Mary Jane and makes sure she is okay. The only person who is left is J. Jonah Jameson who woners where everyone went.

Later, Peter and Mary Jane are taking the subway home, where Peter tells her that she was very brave facing Venom by herself. While back in the city, Agent Smith is patching up Eddie Brock’s wounds when he asks why Spider-Man got involved. Eddie Brock is confused himself, he seems like he should know something very important about the wall-crawler but for the life of him he can’t remember what it was.[9]

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Venom, J. Jonah Jameson, Agent Daryll Smith, Betty Brant, Mary Jane Watson

Continuity Notes

1. Peter makes a reference to feeling like Evander Holyfield’s ear. This is a reference to the June 28, 1997 boxing match between Evander Holyfield and his rival, Mike Tyson. This fight became infamous due to the fact that Mike Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear twice during the match. The second time Tyson bit he tore off a small piece of Holyfiend’s helix and spat it onto the mat. I shouldn’t have to tell you that such a dated sports reference is a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.

2. Venom has been working for the Oversight Committee since Venom: The Trial #3 when they faked his death and forced him to work as a government assassin.

3. Operation: Zero Tolerance was an attempt by the government to combat mutant threats following the Onslaught incident. Zero Tolerance ran in Generation X #27-31, X-Men (vol. 2) #65-69, X-Force #67-69, Cable #45-47, Uncanny X-Men #346, and Wolverine (vol. 2) #115-118. Jameson’s investigation into O:ZT was depicted in Uncanny X-Men #346.

4. Brock mentions that he used to be a reporter. As explained in Amazing Spider-Man #300, Eddie used to work for the Daily Globe. He ran a series of interviews with a man who claimed to be the spree-killer known as Sin-Eater. However, he was exposed as a fraud when Spider-Man caught the real Sin-Eater in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #110, Brock ended up losing his job.

5. The reason that Brock knows Peter’s secret identity is due to the fact that the symbiote was previously bonded to Peter Parker from Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 until Amazing Spider-Man #268. When it later bonded with Brock he learned everything the symbiote knew. This was also explained in Amazing Spider-Man #300 as well.

6. Due to his connection to the symbiote, Brock was able to tell the difference between Peter Parker and his clone. He first exhibited this ability when he fought Reilly when he was the Scarlet Spider in Web of Spider-Man #118. Reilly took over as Spider-Man for a period of time between Sensational Spider-Man #0 to Spider-Man #75. During that period he faced Venom one more time in Venom: Along Came a Spider #1-4. During this fight Venom could sense he wasn’t fighting Peter Parker.

7. Spider-Man tricked Venom into thinking he died while they fought on a deserted island in Amazing Spider-Man #345-347. The ruise worked until Venom learned Spider-Man actually survived in Amazing Spider-Man #362.

8. Spider-Man has a feeling of deja vu when he is pinned under the girders. That’s because he found himself in a similar situation back in Amazing Spider-Man #33.

9. If it’s not immediately clear, all the blows to the head in this issue causes Eddie Brock to forget everything to do with Spider-Man’s secret identity as confirmed in Venom: Finale #2.