Fear and Mr. Parker

Years Ago…

While on vacation, a young Peter Parker asks his Aunt May to explain fear to him. She tells him that there are different types of fear. Saying that it is sometimes you can have fear over the safety of their loved ones. When he asks if bugs and plants show fear. She figures that bugs probably do, but doesn’t think plans can feel fear. When she suddenly feels a pain in her chest, Uncle Ben comes out to remind her to take her heart pills.

Now

Peter Parker has brought May on vacation to Florida so she could visit some of her retired friends. He thought it would also be a vacation from being Spider-Man but soon has to go out in costume because the Man-Thing is on the rampage. Spider-Man is unhappy to be fighting the muck-monster in the middle of the Florida swamps in the middle of July but there are lives at risk. He warns the locals to keep away from the Man-Thing’s touch since the creature can burn people who exhibit fear. Luckily for Spider-Man, that trick won’t work because he’s not afraid of the Man-Thing. However, the Man-Thing produces thorns and slashes Spider-Man before running back into the swamp.

With the battle over, Spider-Man is patched up by the locals whose home he just saved. He asks them why the Man-Thing went on a rampage like that since it is entirely out of character for the typically benign muck monster.

Months Later

Peter Parker is out for a walk with his Aunt May in Queens. He expresses his concern over her walking home from her volunteer job at the community center because it means she has to walk home alone at night. She tells him that he’s just being a worrywart but Peter still can’t help but wonder what he would do without her in his life. Peter suddenly feels a pain in his chest and his spider-sense begins going off. He tells May to wait there and runs into a nearby alley where he finds he Man-Thing. The creature grabs his hand and holds on for a moment before retreating back into the darkness, leaving Peter to wonder what it’s doing away from its home in the Florida swamps. He returns to Aunt May and assures her he is fine, but he admits to himself that he’s been in a weird fog lately.

He almost forgets a dinner date with Carlie Cooper and while she is talking shop about her job doing forensics for the NYPD, she notices that Peter isn’t listening. Suddenly, his spider-sense goes off again and he sees the Man-Thing for a second time. Confused, Peter runs off and when he opens up his shirt he is surprised to see plants sprouting from the places where the Man-Thing scratched him earlier. Realizing he needs to see a doctor, Peter decides to pay a visit to Curt Connors as Spider-Man. By this time, the plants are growing out from under his costume. Connors examines Spider-Man and recalls how the Man-Thing was created when Ted Sallis injected himself with his own dervative of the Super Soldier Serum while crashing into a swamp.[1] He theorizes that the formula works the opposite of the one that first turned him into the Lizard.[2] He suspects that the remnants of that serum have interacted and latched onto the enhanced markerso of Spider-Man’s blood.

Although he needs some time to examine his findings, Connors gives Spider-Man a formula that will slow the process down and tells the web-slinger to take it easy because too many injections could turn him into the Lizard. Spider-Man leaves the lab and soon spots the Man-Thing following him again. He realizes that the creature is following him because he is transforming into a creature just like it. That’s when Curt calls Spider-Man on his cell phone and tells the web-head that the process will become permanent unless they can find a way to burn the infection out of his body on a molecular level.

Remembering his long ago conversation on fear, Peter injects himself with the full formula and his fear for what might happen to Aunt May if he became a plant monster or lizard creature triggers the Man-Thing who grabs him and burns out the infection. Fully cured, Spider-Man’s fear washes away and the Man-Thing becomes benign again. Spider-Man realizes that the Man-Thing had followed him from Florida because it sensed another plant being coming into existence and that it’s only fear was to be alone. With that, the Man-Thing suddenly immolates itself due to its fear of being alone. After he checks on Aunt May who insisted she is fine. He then tells her that her advice on fear helped him with a friend, telling her that one of the most important lessons he has learned about fear is that the only way you can beat them is by facing them. Meanwhile, in the Florida swamps, a plant begins to grow.[3]

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Man-Thing, Curt Connors, Carlie Cooper, Aunt May, (flashback) Uncle Ben

Continuity Notes

1. The origin of the Man-Thing was first told in Savage Tales #1.

2. Curt Connors developed the formula that turned him into the Lizard in Amazing Spider-Man #6. The similarities between his and Ted Sallis’ formula is unsurprising as Web of Spider-Man (vol. 2) #6 reveals, since Curt and Ted often bounced ideas off one another while developing their individual formulas.

3. Although the Man-Thing seemingly dies here the creature usually re-grows in the Florida Everglades whenever its physical body is destroyed. It will resurface again in Ghost Rider (vol. 6) #32.

Topical References

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