Amazing Spider-Man #374
Murder on Parade
Below the Thrill World amusement park in Brooklyn, Eddie Brock exercises to bring himself to peak strength for his next attempt to kill Spider-Man. Needing the added boost from his symbiote, Brock turns into Venom to lift the heavyweight. Still believing that Spider-Man is to blame for ruining his life goes into a rampage.[1] He wants to destroy the wall-crawler once-and-for-all, but a recent development he learned upon his recent escape from custody has changed things. As he wills the symbiote to turn into normal street-clothing, Brock looks at a newspaper clipping showing Peter Parker reunited with a couple claiming to be his parents.[2]
Meanwhile, the Parkers have gone to Central Park to skate. Peter is able to skate circles around everyone but intentionally slips in order to cover for his spider-abilities. His wife Mary Jane comes up to him and tells him that he doesn't need to try so hard, as it's clear that his parents love him.[3] When Peter notices what time it is, he tells his family that he needs to get to class and then go by the Daily Bugle. Running late, Peter slips into the forest to change into Spider-Man and web-slings away. Seeing Spider-Man passing by, Mary Jane pulls out a cigarette and begins to smoke.[4] When Mary points out that smoking is bad for her heath, Mary Jane agrees, saying that she will quit again soon, as soon as she is no longer under so much stress.
Later that day, Peter Parker is at the Daily Bugle looking for news tips for photo assignments. Joy Mercado has nothing for him, but Ben Urich mentions how Venom had broken out of jail the night before. Hearing this, Peter rushes off, just as J. Jonah Jameson is about to invite Parker into his office. Seeing Parker leave in such a hurry, Jonah is told that he is probably going to get the coop on Venom. Jameson returns to his office, suddenly inspired on how to get a Daily Bugle exclusive on this recent development. There he picks up the phone and tells his secretary to put in a call with the Symkarian Embassy. While on the roof of the Daily Bugle, Peter fears that Venom may target his parents and quickly changes into Spider-Man in the hopes of finding them. While in Lower Manhattan, Mary Jane, Mary, and Richard are seeing May off on a city bus. After May is gone, they are approached by Eddie Brock, who asks Richard and Mary if they are the parents of Peter Parker. Recognizing Eddie Brock, Mary Jane spots Spider-Man coming by and calls out his name. Seeing the wall-crawler, Brock turns into Venom, telling the Parkers not to worry, as he will protect them from the web-slinger.
Seeing Venom leaping up at him fills Spider-Man with a sense of relief. However, his foe manages to over-power the wall-crawler, knocking him into the middle of the Winterfest parade. Fearing for the safety of the people around him, Spider-Man is ambushed by Venom. Spider-Man lays into Venom and then tries to lure him away from the crowd by leaping up onto the parade balloons. Venom doesn't follow along, instead of bursts the balloon by throwing a parking meter through it. Venom then begins beating on Spider-Man some more, until they are interrupted by a police officer who orders Venom to stop. When the villain refuses, the officer tries to shoot Venom with a shotgun. Unfortunately, the bullets do nothing to harm Brock and he responds by covering the officer's face with webbing. Spider-Man fights past Venom and quickly rips the webbing off before it can adhere to the officer's face before it can stick. This leaves the web-slinger open for yet another attack from Venom. This time, the blows from the maniac sends Spider-Man crashing through the window of a department store. Finding more innocent people inside, the web-slinger tries to lure Venom away again. Unfortunately, the psychopath is distracted when a clown in the store tells Venom to leave the children alone. Trying to show that he is no threat to innocent children, Venom is sprayed in the face with mace by the clown. In response, Venom knocks him out with a single punch.
When Spider-Man looks back to see where Venom is, he sees his foe trying to comfort a frightened little girl. Thinking that Venom might harm the girl, Spider-Man swings in and attacks. Spider-Man fires webbing into Brock's face, but the symbiote easily rips it off. This leaves Brock's face uncovered by the symbiote, and Spider-Man strikes. However, this advantage quickly ends as Venom regains the edge and beats Spider-Man into unconciousness. When he wakes up, he finds that Venom is gone. Fearing the worst, Spider-Man goes looking for Mary Jane and his parents. He soon finds Mary Jane talking to the police. When he asks her what happened, Mary Jane tells Spider-Man that Venom had just kidnapped her husband's parents.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Mary Jane Watson, “Richard and Mary Parker”, Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Venom, Joy Mercado, Ben Urich
Continuity Notes
Venom's hatred of Spider-Man is two-fold. Eddie Brock used to work for the Daily Globe during the Sin-Eater's rain of terror circa Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110. After a series of interviews with the wrong man, Brock lost his job after Spider-Man caught the real Sin-Eater. The symbiote hates Spider-Man after he rejected it from bonding with him in Amazing Spider-Man #258 and later leaving it for dead in Web of Spider-Man #1. Brock and the symbiote later found each other and vowed to get revenge against Spider-Man, as explained in Amazing Spider-Man #300.
These people appeared in Amazing Spider-Man #365 claiming to be Peter's parents. Peter's parents were killed while on a mission on a mission for the US government as revealed in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5. This pair are revealed as impostors in Amazing Spider-Man #388.
Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife here. However, years later, their marriage was erased from history by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As such they should be considered a common-law couple.
Mary Jane started smoking to deal with the stress of Peter risking his life in Spider-Man starting in Amazing Spider-Man #361.
