Crash and Burn

Once Upon a Time[1]

Spider-Man was in a fistfight with a man named Joe Smith. Joe was not in his right mind after a chemical accident on a movie set made him a superpowered lunatic. After a series of direct blow, Joe regained his senses as the effects of the chemicals wore off. Much to Spider-Man’s annoyance, Joe was able to talk his way out of trouble. Watching this whole scene unfold, Peter Parker was envious of Joe, longing for the days were his biggest worries were avoiding Flash Thompson’s bullying at school.

When Peter Parker arrives home late he apologizes to his Aunt May. He then turns on the TV only to find it is not working properly. After tinkering with it a bit, he manages to get a reception.[2] He happens to catch a television report about Spider-Man’s battle with Joe Smith and is even more annoyed to hear that Joe is being hailed as a hero who not only fought Spider-Man to a standstill, he was also offered a job on a new television show. Peter excuses himself to go and study and Aunt May tells him that it’s a good idea because the news could give him nightmares.

Now

Peter Parker is relating this experience to the reader. Peter thinks back to those days with fond memories even though at the time he wasn’t particularly happy with his lot in life. He remembers that back then how his Aunt May and her friend Anna Watson tried to set him up with Anna’s niece. At the time he feared that this girl would be unattractive, something he finds hilarious now.[3] He then reflects back on another event that happened around that time…

Them

On that day, Peter was trying to lose himself working with his chemistry set to try and escape his thoughts. However, he proves to be too distracted and his latest batch of web fluid ends up blowing up in his face. Unfortunately, his Aunt May heard the blast and is heading up to the attic to see what the noise was. Fearing that this might expose his secret identity, Peter quickly hides his gear and convinces his aunt that he was working on a science experiment. She insists on calling the family doctor, something that Peter finds humiliating.

At that moment in a sleazy hotel in Manhattan, another individual is also struggling with his own feelings of embarrassment. This man is Quentin Beck has called an old filmmaking friend to try and get a job in special effects. To his disappointment, Beck is turned down due to his past. Furious, Beck looks in a storage trunk and considers what is inside and decides against it. Instead, he decides to go for a walk and soon finds himself standing outside of the apartment building he grew up in as a child. Knocking on his old apartment, Quentin pays the woman living there to allow him to come inside and look at his old bedroom. There, memories of his childhood flood his mind. He remembers when he was nine years old and his uncle gave him a beat-up movie camera which he experimented with. He spent hours making short films inspired by special effects artists like Ray Harryhausen. One day his father, Elmore, came home and was annoyed with his son ignorantly smashes the camera because it’s cluttering up the house. Beck is snapped out of his reminiscents by the woman who tells him to beat it. On his way out, he bumps into Betsy Scheider, a woman who he grew up within the building. She was going to visit her mother, who still lives in the building, and is happy to see him after so many years. She last heard that Quentin went to Hollywood and gets lost in memories of how they used to play together as kid. When she finally stops to ask Beck how life has been treating him she realizes that he slipped away.

Back at the Parker home, Peter is turning down another serving of wheat cakes when Aunt May shows him what she found when she was cleaning the attic: a box of Uncle Ben’s old pulp magazines. Peter reminisces of how much fun he had reading these old books and how Uncle Ben would also take him to science fairs. He admits to Aunt May that kids at school treated him weird because he was an orphan, but he tells her that he never felt like one because to him, May and Ben were his parents.[4] Touched by this, May hugs her nephew and allows him to go off and see a movie. When Peter lines up at the movie theater he spots Flash Thompson approaching with Harry Osborn and Gwen Stacy. Not wanting to have to deal with abuse from Thompson, Peter quickly leaps out of sight with his spider-powers. When the coast is clear, Peter gets back in line and buys a ticket to see a restored re-release of King Kong. There, Peter ends up sitting in the same row as Quentin Beck. When the movie is over the two have a moment when they share their love for the film. Peter relates to how his Uncle Ben showed him an old magazine that explained how the stop-motion special effects were done. The pair hit a patch of awkward silence and soon part company. Peter walked away thinking that he and Beck had something in common and that they could have become friends if they were ever given a chance. Elsewhere, Betsy Schneider can’t sleep because she is still thinking of Quentin Beck. She remembered how he brought so much joy to her an otherwise miserable life and she was upset when he moved away. Meanwhile, Quentin Beck is wandering the streets again when he comes across an issue with the Daily Bugle that has another anti-Spider-Man editorial on the front page. Reading it, Quentin Beck suddenly gets a moment of inspiration.

Back at Aunt May’s, Peter tries to study for an exam but can’t focus on what he is reading. Needing to get away from his depressing thoughts for a while, he changes into Spider-Man and goes out web-slinging. At that same moment, Quentin Beck was putting a costume of his own, the costume of Mysterio. After swinging through the city, Spider-Man decides to make a stop at the offices of the Daily Bugle. There he listens in on J. Jonah Jameson dictating another one of his editorials against the wall-crawler. Spider-Man then mocks Jameson’s journalistic integrity and then — adding insult to injury — webs him to the ceiling. When his new secretary comes in to see what the commotion is, Spider-Man cracks some more jokes at Jameson’s expense before leaving.[5] Peter feels better the next morning until he sees a news report that announces that J. Jonah Jameson is dead. Peter watches in horror as the newscaster shows an amateur video that records someone swinging by Jameson’s car causing it to crash into a tree. The kid also managed to get a clear shot of Spider-Man at the scene who is blamed for the accident. To make matters worse, the authorities questioned Jonah’s secretary who told them all about Peter’s stunt earlier that night. Aunt May quickly shuts off the news so Peter doesn’t get too upset, but Peter doesn’t hear her doting words as he is trying to understand everything that happened.

Meanwhile, J. Jonah Jameson finds himself in a tunnel of light and is told that he has died. Jameson refuses to accept the fact that he is dead. Slowly accepting this, Jonah asks the god-like figure if he’s going to heaven. He is rejected and soon finds himself banished to what looks like Hell. There Jameson is surrounded by demons mocking his demands to see his lawyers. Although Jameson is convinced that he is in the afterlife, he is actually in a very sophisticated stage constructed by Mysterio who delights in torturing Jameson. He can’t wait until he lures Spider-Man into his trap as that’s when the real fun is going to begin.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Mysterio, Joe Smith, Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Betsy Schneider

Continuity Notes

1. The battle between Spider-Man and Joe Smith took place in Amazing Spider-Man #38.

2. Aunt May’s television is depicted as an old black-and-white television with a television antenna. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.

3. Aunt May and Anna Watson began trying to set up Peter with Anna’s niece Mary Jane since Amazing Spider-Man #15. Peter eventually met her in Amazing Spider-Man #42 and was totally floored by how attractive she really was. The couple eventually got married in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21… at least until the marriage was erased from existence in Amazing Spider-Man #545 but that’s a whole other story.

4. I shouldn’t have to tell you that Peter’s Uncle Ben was murdered by a burglar in Amazing Fantasy #15, but here we are. Peter mentions he is an orphan. Peter’s parents were CIA agents who were killed while on a mission as explained in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5.

5. Spider-Man asks Jonah how many secretaries he had gone through since Betty Brant left the Daily Bugle. At the time of this story, Betty Brant abruptly left New York in Amazing Spider-Man #34 to sort out her conflicting feelings between Peter Parker and Ned Leeds (Leeds had recently proposed to her in Amazing Spider-Man #30). She will return to New York in Amazing Spider-Man #41.

The Kiss

Looking through old photos, Peter Parker finds some old photos of Gwen Stacy and thinks about how the young woman was the first person to teach him the meaning of the word love.[1] Looking back at it now, Peter wonders if he is looking at the past through rose-colored glasses. He thinks about how they both had their share of tragedies at the time, Peter had lost both his parents and his Uncle Ben while Gwen lost both of her parents.[2] He remembers one night he went to Gwen’s for a date. When she went upstairs to do her hair, he recalls looking at a portrait of her father, George, and felt a dreadful premonition. At the time, he dismissed this as merely remembering the loss of the father figures in his life. They went to a movie that night, and he wonders if he really recalls the evening the way he does. After the movie, Gwen suggested that they walk in the rain because it would be romantic. Instead, Peter insisted they get a cab, although he was oblivious to it at the time, Peter now realizes that Gwen was crushed by this. He wonders how often lovers put things off for another time only for it never to happen because of tragedy steps in the way.[3]

He recalls taking her to the Coffee Bean afterward and how their friends spent the evening trying to cheer Gwen up. Harry kept telling jokes, the defense he developed from living under the mentally unhinged shadow of his father, Norman Osborn. Flash tried to change the conversation and make it about him. Peter recalls how Flash was his nemesis in high school but by the time they were in college they had formed an uneasy peace. Then there was Mary Jane, who at the time was just as much a mystery to him as before he met her and his Aunt and Anna Watson were trying to set them up. At the time it was nearly impossible to break through MJ’s party girl facade and get to know the real her.[4] To his recollection, Peter was drawn to Gwen over Mary Jane since —at the time — Mary Jane was so distant while Gwen was more upfront with her feelings.

Realizing that he was going to be in for a lousy night unless he found a way to pick up Gwen’s spirits, Peter quickly ushered her out of the Coffee Bean. He then took her on a carriage ride through Central Park. It was there that the couple shared a romantic kiss. A kiss that feels like it went on for an eternity. Now Peter wonders if somehow, back then, they both knew that Gwen was living on borrowed time and that they made the most of their romance while it lasted. This is how Peter chooses to remember this evening, remembering how he took Gwen home and she kissed him tonight and how he went home practically skipping. It was one of the happiest moments during their relationship and this is how he chooses to remember the last date they ever went on before Gwen was killed.

Looking at all these old photos, Peter wonders if Gwen had lived if they would have remained together or if they would have drifted apart and begun dating other people. As Mary Jane, Peter’s wife puts her arms on his shoulder he resigns to the fact that perhaps there is no use wondering. His memories of Gwen are his and nobody can take them away from him. He’s glad now that he overcame the hurt and eventually found a way to love again, this time with Mary Jane. Putting the photo album down, Peter gets up and kisses his wife and they both leave the room together. Peter’s final thoughts about Gwen are that she would be happy that Peter was able to find love again and be happy that Peter and Mary Jane are together.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Gwen Stacy

Continuity Notes

1. Peter remarks about how young Gwen was when they were dating. According to Civil War #2, Peter Parker was 15 when he first became Spider-Man. By the time he was dating Gwen Stacy (around Amazing Spider-Man #47) until her death in Amazing Spider-Man #121, Peter had been Spider-Man for roughly 17 to 18 years old. Gwen was roughly around the same age.

2. There are plenty of dead parents to go around here! Peter’s biological parents were killed while on a mission for the CIA while Peter was still a baby as explained in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5. His Uncle Ben was murdered by a burglar not long after Peter got his powers in Amazing Fantasy #15. Gwen’s father died saving a child from falling debris during a battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus in Amazing Spider-Man #90. This is the first time that it is mentioned that Gwen’s mother died. Her cause of death is unrevealed.

3. Peter’s narrative mentions how not long after this Gwen would be dead. Gwen was murdered by the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #121.

4. Mary Jane put up the party girl image to keep people at a distance due to her abusive family life as detailed in Amazing Spider-Man #259.