Retraction

A young man named James Murray barges his way into the office of J. Jonah Jameson demanding a retraction from the Daily Bugle. This interrupts a meeting between Jonah and Joe Robertson. While Joe tries to diffuse the situation by suggesting the young man leave a complaint with the front desk or to send an e-mail. However, Jonah isn’t one to be ordered around and threatens to call security. However, Murray refuses to be given the runaround and when they refuse to comply, James pulls a gun and grabs Betty Brant.

This changes both Jonah and Joe’s tones as they become concerned for Betty’s safety. When they ask what James wants, he tosses them the day’s edition of the Daily Bugle and says the story in question has been circled. It turns out to be a story about how a man named John Murray was arrested near the scene of a robbery and taken into custody by the police. When Jameson asks what’s wrong with the story, James says his father was innocent and the police let him go without any charges.

James says a lot of the story was left out and tells his own version of events: The other day his father was coming home from work when a ran past him carrying a bag. He saw the man try to ditch his stole loot because Spider-Man was after him. His father recovered the stolen lot and the thieve’s mask when the police arrived on the scene and, mistaking him for the real thief, put him under arrest. When it’s pointed out that’s how the story was reported, James becomes agitated and tells them he’s not done yet and to let him finish.

He continues by telling them how his father was taken down the police station. When a reporter came in for the story, the desk sergeant tells him that John robbed the liquor store. However, after the reporter left, the police brought in the real thief. The patrolman verifies his father’s story, saying they found the real thief webbed up to a wall by Spider-Man. He then concludes his story by saying his father was apologized to by police and let go, but that part of the story didn’t end up in the Daily Bugle. Joe tries to explain that these details must have come out after the Bugle’s publishing deadline, saying there was no reason to mention it again since it was such a small story in a city full of them. He tries to explain the difficulty of following up with every story. James doesn’t want to hear any excuses and goes out into the bullpen to tell all the reporters there that they are all his hostages now and orders them to lock the doors and pile their desks up against them. He then orders them to sit down with their hands on their heads. When Joe Robertson offers to stay if James lets the others go, the young man rejects the request.

However, J. Jonah Jameson is quickly losing his temper, but Joe manages to convince him to keep quiet. When Joe suggests that James get them all something to eat, Murray decides to order steak and lobster for everyone, on J. Jonah Jameson of course. While James is out of earshot, Jonah tells Joe that he refuses to print a retraction because their story was accurate at the time it was published. Joe tries to get Jonah to publish and update, saying that the Bugle’s policy doesn’t mean much to someone who is actively waving a gun in their faces.

When James asks what they are talking about, Joe says that he was just telling Jonah how this hostage situation could make things more difficult for his father. James takes offense that when Joe calls him “son”, but Joe says he can’t help it because James reminds him of his own son.[1] This starts calming James who says that his father always looked out for him, but John lost his job yesterday when his boss read the story in the paper. He says that he decided to repay his father for all he has done and stole his father’s gone, since in his neighborhood a gun is a sign of respect. Joe can understand James’ way of thinking as he tried a similar stunt when he was the boy’s age. Thankfully, his father caught him and warned Joe that guns can make a situation worse, landing him in prison or a cemetery. Joe has almost convinced James to hand over his gun when he notices his father is on the television news. Ordering Betty to turn up the volume. His father is pleads with his son to surrender to the police before he gets hurt. With police closing in on the Bugle’s bullpen, Joe notices a sniper on the roof across the street. He quickly lowers the blinds to spoil their shot and convinces James to hand over the gun. The young man complies and the police rush in to take him custody. Following in behind them is Peter Parker, whom Jameson scolds for not being there to get pictures. As the police take James away, Joe tells James to look in tomorrow’s Bugle, as he is getting Ben Urich to write a story to explain his motivations. That’s when the delivery arrives, and upon seeing the bill, Jonah gets very upset.

Recurring Characters

J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson, Ben Urich, Betty Brant, Peter Parker

Continuity Notes

1. That would be Randy Robertson, first seen in Amazing Spider-Man #67, who is definitely not known for waving a gun around at people, but Joe’s just trying to relate to his captor.

Topical References

• The Daily Bugle bullpen is depicted as having some CRT monitors for the computers and a CRT television. These should be considered topical since those sorts of televisions/monitors are considered obsolete technology.

Facing Down the Darkness

At the Empire Bank, a trio of masked gunmen are order the teller to empty all the money in their bags. That’s when a squad car arrives making them realize that someone tripped the silent alarm. It was triggered by the elderly security guard named Rudy Cullers, who is quietly cursing his wife for calling him useless for the day before. Grabbing Rudy the leader of the bank robbers tells him that he’s just volunteered to be their human shield. Using Cullers as a hostage, the gang is able to load him into the tunk of their getaway car and flee the scene as the police won’t open fire for fear of hitting the hostage. In the trunk, Rudy chastises himself for not listening to his wife and getting a cell phone, although he wonders who he could call from the trunk of car.

At that moment, the getaway car is spotted by Spider-Man from the rooftops. When they have lost the police, Spider-Man lands on the hood of their car, caring the vehicle to swerve off the road. The bank robbers bailout and the car ends up smashing through a barrier and landing in the river. As the trunk of the car begins filling with water, Rudy thinks about his wife and daughter and tries desperately to try and break free from the vehicle. Meanwhile, the crooks try to steal another vehicle, but Spider-Man stops them. As he is beating on the crooks, one of them mentions how Spider-Man failed to save their hostage. By this point, the trank has filled up with water and as his breath begins to give out, Cullers wants his last thought to be the memory of his wife giving birth to their daughter. Thankfully, Spider-Man manages to pull the Rudy out of the water.

A week later, Peter Parker pays visit to the bank and asks about Rudy, his co-worker says that Rudy now works night so he can spend more time with his daughter and so his wife can go to college. This makes Peter think that maybe there’s a reason for everything in our lives, including mistakes.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man