Amazing Spider-Man #506
The Book of Ezekiel: Chapter One
Peru
Two armed guards stand outside of a temple devoted to the worship of spiders. As they tell jokes among one another they are ambushed by Ezekiel Sims.[1] Sims enters the temple and finds a man named Miguel, a descendant of Aztec royalty and asks him for help because he is burning up. Miguel agrees to help Ezekiel but warns Ezekiel that this will be the last time he’ll help as the next time could mean the death of one or both of them. Ezekiel doesn’t care, saying he’ll get help from somewhere else after this and then ties himself to the altar where he first underwent the ceremonial bloodletting that first gave him his spider-powers.
New York
Spider-Man is chasing some crooks across a busy New York City street. Although he manages to web most of them up, one of the crooks manages to get a hostage. Spider-Man tries to fake out the gunman, but the crook is ambushed from behind by Ezekiel who plays a little too rough. Spider-Man has to pull the crook free, but luckily the police are there to take him into custody. Spider-Man and Ezekiel then take to the rooftops where Spider-Man asks him what brings him to New York. Ezekiel says that he has come for Peter and says he’ll explain everything over dinner.
Meanwhile, Mary Jane is spending time with Peter’s Aunt May, and as May talks about a shopping dilemma, she notices that Mary Jane isn’t really listening and asks what’s wrong. Mary Jane tells her how her last audition fizzled out because the director was fired and nobody wanted to hire her because they thought of her as nothing more than a model with delusions of grandeur.[2] She was humiliated from hearing this and lied to Peter, telling him that she turned the role down instead. When she asks for May’s advice on what she should do, May is brutally honest. She says all of the roles that she has played were to fill a niche in the plot that don’t require a lot of acting skill and says that if she' really wants to seriously pursue acting she should look in the section of the newspaper she intentionally left on the couch. Picking it up, Mary Jane sees that May has opened the paper to the section where there are open calls for roles in theatrical plays.
Later that evening, Mary Jane is delighted to have one of Peter’s Spider-Man associates over for dinner, since he usually can’t on account of his secret identity.[3] When Mary Jane mentions how she heard that Ezekiel once told him that he got his powers from mystical sources, Ezekiel takes the time to explain it without Peter’s trademark sarcastic humor.[4] Ezekiel suggests that there is a mystical component to Spider-Man’s powers, that they were intentionally passed along to him by the spider that bit him. Peter, as usual, disputes this but Ezekiel points out that Spider-Man’s spider-sense is an ability that spiders don’t have in nature. Ezekiel says that ability has more in common with prescience, precognition, and remote viewing than it suggests that Peter has extra eyes on the back of his head. This leads to Peter teasing Mary Jane while Ezekiel clears the table. As he is rinsing plates, he notices that Mary Jane has tossed the theatre directory in the trash.[5] Before leaving, Ezekiel asks Peter to join him on a walk, but before he leaves he tells Mary Jane that people have the power to chose and he sees that Mary Jane will choose to be on the stage and see every doubt she had removed. This causes Mary Jane to go back to the kitchen and fish the newspaper listing out of the trash.
Later, Ezekiel takes Peter high above the city so they can talk in private, although Peter knows that whatever Ezekiel is going to say is going to ruin an otherwise excellent evening. Sims warns Peter and everyone around him is in great danger. He reminds Peter that lately, he has been fighting a lot of supernatural beings and that’s because he has been noticed by supernatural forces regardless of where he believes his powers come from.[6] He goes on to explain that there are three components of power: those who want it, those that give it, and that control it. He says that the spider-totem is real and that it is usually given through supernatural means. However, the way Peter got his powers circumvented that process through scientific means which isn’t bad unless he gets the attention of one of the gatekeepers of that power.[7] Now that Peter has been noticed, he has been put under various supernatural trials and that Shanthra was nothing compared to what’s coming next. Ezekiel warns Peter that the Gatekeeper is coming and will soon attack him as early as this evening. Sims gives Peter two options: Either stay in New York and fight and probably die while putting Mary Jane at risk or come with Ezekiel to South America.
At that moment, a homeless man tries to squash a spider he has found in the abandoned apartment building he is squatting in. However, more spiders begin coming out of the cracks in the wall prompting the squatter to flee. These spiders then begin combining until they make up the humanoid form of the Gatekeeper.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Ezekiel Sims, Mary Jane Watson, Gatekeeper
Continuity Notes
There are a few Michael Jackson references off the top:
One of the guards tells a knock-knock joke about singer Michael Jackso that goes like this: “Knock, Knock?” “Who’s there?” “Michael Jackson” “Michael Jackson, who?” “Congratulations, you’re on the jury!” This is a reference to the fact that, at the time this comic book was published, Michael Jackson was on trial for allegations of the sexual abuse of children.
The other guard says he owns Michael Jackson’s 1982 album Thriller on cassette tape, vinyl record, compact disc, and MP3 format.
These references should all be considered topical. Particularly since Jackson’s trial ended in an acquittal in 2005 and Jackson later died in 2009.
The references to the various audio formats are topical because of a number of them are obsolete formats. Cassette tapes fell out of popular use in the early 2000s, vinyl records are still around but don’t have a wide commercial appeal. MP3 was a popular form of digital music in the 2000s but has since been replaced with the AAC (aka MP4 format) in recent years. The compact disc still endures as the standard format for physical media, however, people have been saying the CD has been on death’s door for the last 20 years (as I write this) it’ll probably go the way of the dodo sooner or later.
Mary Jane was rejected for a film role last issue.
There is a “Never Forget” 9/11 tribute poster hanging in the Parker’s kitchen. This should be considered a topical reference as well.
Ezekiel first suggested to Peter that his powers might come from mystical sources in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #30.
Peter’s teasing makes reference to a few films. These references are, of course, topical as well:
First he starts “talking” through his index finger saying “redrum”, which is a reference to the character Jack Torrence from the 1980 Stanley Kubric film The Shining which is based on the 1977 novel by Stephen King of the same name. In the film, Jack Torrence has an imaginary friend named Tony that “speaks" to him through his finger.
He also makes reference to actor Jeff Goldblum picked up the traits of a fly in “that movie”. He is referring to the 1986 remake of The Fly which starred Jeff Goldlum as Seth Brundel who has his DNA mixed with that of a fly while testing out an experimental teleportation system of his own invention. This cause him to slowly transform into a monstrous fly/human hybrid.
Ezekiel’s exposition of the supernatural forces are depicted in a collage of the villains he has recently encountered. They are:
Morlun, whom Peter fought in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #30-35.
Shade in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #40-42
Shanthra in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #46-48
Digger in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #51-54
Dormammu in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #57-58 and Amazing Spider-Man #500.
Lastly, Morwen and Loki in Amazing Spider-Man #503-504
Ezekiel says that these battles all happened over the past year. This is a fairly accurate measurement of time between Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #30 and this issue as these stories take place over the course of year ten and eleven of the Modern Age. Based on the Sliding Timescale, these battles would have taken place over the course of eight months. So Ezekiel is not that far off.
Peter got his powers when he was bitten by a radioactive spider in Amazing Fantasy #15.
