Amazing Spider-Man #550
The Menace of… Menace!!
Spider-Man and Jackpot are arguing over who will capture the new menace plaguing the city when they are interrupted by Blue Shield. Since Spider-Man is an unregistered super-hero, Blue Shield tries to arrest him.[1] Much to his surprise, Jackpot also tries to apprehend him. While Jackpot has Spider-Man in an arm lock, Blue Shield attempts to unmask the wall-crawler. Thankfully, the new menace flies by distracting the pair long enough for Spider-Man to break free. Hitching a ride on this villains goblin glider, Spider-Man tries to stop the menace by pulling off what he thinks is their mask. However, the Menace is not wearing a mask and jolts the wall-crawler with the electrodes rigged into their costume. The Menace then says that it has no intention of making the same mistakes as the Green Goblin by trying to toy with Spider-Man and tells the web-slinger to stay out of their affairs. To show how serious they are, the Menace slices open Spider-Man’s chest with their blade gauntlets, dumping the wall-crawler in the East River.
By the time Spider-Man crawls out of the water Jackpot has found him again and brought a cup of coffee. She figures Blue Shield left to fill out paperwork and decided to come back in the daylight to search the warehouse for clues as to what the Menace is up to. When Jackpot suggests they work together, Spider-Man resigns to the idea. As they search the warehouse, the wall-crawler once again asks Jackpot what her real name is. Surprisingly, she says her name is Sarah Ehret, and not Mary Jane as Spider-Man was hoping.[2] They end up finding a blueprint to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, making them wonder what the Menace is planning on doing.
Later, back home in Queens, Peter Parker is concerned that the Menace might be Harry Osborn. He decides to call Lily Hollister, Harry’s girlfriend, to make sure he didn’t go out last night.[3] While at Mount Sinai Hospital, J. Jonah Jameson demands that someone get Peter Parker for giving him the heart attack that landed him in the hospital.[4] When the staff refuses to do anything for him, one of the nurses almost let’s slip that the Daily Bugle was sold to Dexter Bennett, when Marla Madison, Jonah’s wife, comes in to diffuse the situation.[5] Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, Ryan Maxwell sees a lawyer after he almost died on the job changing the Daily Bugle sign. Blaming Spider-Man for what happened, is hiring a lawyer to sue the wall-crawler. The lawyer says that it is possible to sue Spider-Man and all they need to do is wait for Spider-Man to slip.[6]
At that moment, Peter Parker is arriving at the DB! offices trying to come up with an excuse to explain why he looks so disheveled.[7] When he meets with Dexter Bennnett, Bennett says that he can’t use Peter’s photos of the Menace because they are not very good quality. He says while this sort of sloppy photography was acceptable when J. Jonah Jameson ran the Daily Bugle, this is not the caliber of material Bennett wants for the DB! Later, with the help of Betty Brant, Peter uses the DB!’s online resources to learn what he can for the Spider-Tracer killings. Then using covert means, Peter gets into contact with Detective Quentin Palone who is the officer investigating the killings and gets him to agree to meet with Spider-Man off the record.[8] Palone shows Spider-Man the tracer they pulled from the first body, and the wall-crawler notes that this model of Spider-Tracer is an early model that he hasn’t used for years.[9] Quentin then reveals that this isn’t the only spider-tracer they found on a murder victim and he believes that this is the work of a serial kill and tells Spider-Man that he’ll have to take him in for questioning.
Meanwhile, mayoral candidates Randall Crowne and Lisa Parfrey are having a debate at the Apollo Theater that is interrupted when the Menace arrives to terrorize the candidates. One of the explosions is heard all the way back at the police station. Spider-Man realizes that the Menace is attacking the mayoral debate but when he tries to leave he discovers that Detective Palone has the building surrounded by a SWAT team bent to arrest Spider-Man.[10]
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Jackpot, Menace, J. Jonah Jameson, Marla Madison, Betty Brant, Dexter Bennett, Lisa Parfrey, Randall Crowne, Quentin Palone
Continuity Notes
Following Civil War #1-7, superheroes are required to register with the government under the Super-Human Registration Act. Spider-Man initially supported the SHRA until he renounced it in Amazing Spider-Man #535, making him an outlaw.
The idea that Jackpot was secretly Mary Jane Watson is a red herring. The name she gives here is Sarah Ehret is not her real name. As we learn in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #35, Jackpot’s real name is Alana Jobson. Sarah Ehret is the name of her friend who actually has super-human powers. Not wanting to be forced into being a registered super-hero, Ehret allowed Jobson to assume her identity. Jobson made up for her lack of powers by taking the drug MGH.
Harry has a history of mental illness which started after discovering his father, Norman Osborn, was the Green Goblin when he was seemingly killed in Amazing Spider-Man #122. This led to Harry taking on the mantle of the Green Goblin later in Amazing Spider-Man #136. Although Harry was cured of his mental health problems, he became unhinged and resumed the Goblin identity again in Spectacular Spider-Man #180. Following his defeat in Spectacular Spider-Man #200, Harry was sent off to Europe where he was cured of his Goblin persona (as revealed in Amazing Spider-Man #581-582) leading to his return to New York City in Amazing Spider-Man #545.
Jameson suffered a heart attack while in an argument with Peter in Amazing Spider-Man #546.
Fearing that the Daily Bugle might one day cost Jonah his life, she sold all shares of the company to Dexter Bennett in Amazing Spider-Man #547.
Spider-Man actually saved this ungrateful son-of-a-bitch after the Menace knocked him off some scaffolding last issue.
Peter considers using a mugging as his excuse but realized that he already used that excuse recently because he actually was mugged in Amazing Spider-Man #546. Peter says he used that excuse last month. This measurement should be considered topical as it measures the length of time between publications. Per the 4:1 ratio, this mugging would have happened roughly a week prior at the latest.
Spider-Man is relieved to learn that Palone isn’t a police captain, quipping that he’s bad luck for police captains. This is a reference to George Stacy and Jean DeWolff, two police captains who ended up getting killed due to their involvement with Spider-Man. Stacy died pushing a child out of the way of falling debris during a battle between Spider-Man and Doctor Octopus in Amazing Spider-Man #90, while Jean DeWolff was murdered by the Sin-Eater in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107.
The Spider-Tracer seen here is one of the early models that Peter first used back in Amazing Spider-Man #11.
Spider-Man recalls that that one of the 2005 mayoral debates also happened at the Apollo Theater. IRL there was a debate between mayoral hopefuls Fernando Ferrer and Tom Ognibene on October 6, 2005. It’s a reference that should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616.
