Amazing Spider-Man Annual #36
Peter Parker Must Die!
Several Years Ago: Portland, Oregon[1]
In a burning house, a scientist is being beaten by someone as the home turns into an inferno. The man pleads with his attacker to allow his wife Laura and his children to escape however the attacker — who looks exactly like Peter Parker — refuses to relent.
Now: Boston, Massachusetts
Peter Parker finds himself in the middle of something that he is dreading more than any of his battles as Spider-Man, having to sit through a dinner with his brother-in-law to be, J. Jonah Jameson.[2] After ribbing J. Jonah Jameson over their soon-to-be familial relation, Peter asks Jay Jameson why they are having an engagement party in Boston. After a prolonged toast, Jay starts revealing the reason they have come to Boston first by giving May an old family photo of the Reilly family that he was able to dig up. That’s when Jay pulls back a door in their private dining room to reveal that he has invited May’s sister Jan and the other members of the Reilly family, much to May’s delight. Peter is also excited to meet the other side of the family he’s never known much about. J. Jonah Jameson, on the other hand, isn’t the least bit interested.[3]
As the Reilly’s are having their reunion, they are unaware that they are being spied upon by a man in a costume who is surprised that he happens to find his target during a family reunion. In the restaurant below, Peter is introduced to his cousins and is shocked by how attractive they all are which he tries to push out of his mind since they are all related to him. After a frosty introduction with his Aunt Jan where his jokes fall flat and is told his career as a freelance photographer is directionless, Peter escapes to the bathroom. There he is ambushed by the costumed spy — a man calling himself the Raptor.[4] Peter doesn’t recognize his attacker who seems to know who he is. In order to protect his secret identity, Peter flails around until he can pull himself and Raptor out of the window. While Raptor falls to the street below, Peter uses his wall-crawling ability to break his fall, buying himself time to change into Spider-Man and face his opponent.
As Spider-Man tries to get answers as to why Raptor is going after Peter Parker, all he will say is that Parker is a murderer that needs to die. When Raptor then pulls out an uzi and begins opening fire, Spider-MAn quickly yanks the weapon on of Raptor’s hand. With no other choice, Raptor pulls out his arm talons and gores Spider-Man. That’s when Raptor notices that his stray shots hit some on the bystanders watching the fight and they begin to boo him. After binding his wounds with webbing, Spider-Man is touched to hear the Bostonians cheering him on. With the battle turning on him, Raptor flees. Spider-Man stops to ask if anyone needs a quick lift to the hospital. Surprisingly, the crowd isn’t concerned with their injuries and tells Spider-Man to stop Raptor. Swinging away from the scene, the web-slinger finds himself falling in love with Boston. Spider-Man follows Raptor onto an aquatic tour bus where their fight continues. It’s during this bout that Spider-Man mocks Raptor for his name, thinking he’s named after the bird. That’s when Raptor explains that he’s named after the velociraptor and suddenly grows a pair of fangs and tries to bite Spider-Man. Evading the attack, the wall-crawler knocks him off the bus and into the street. Their fight takes them off an overpass onto the top of a speeding truck. There, Raptor decides to stop fighting and asks Spider-Man is defending a killer. When Spider-Man says Peter Parker isn’t a killer, that’s when Raptor says his target isn’t named Peter Parker, but Ben Reilly. Hearing this name causes Spider-Man to pause, as it is one that he hasn’t heard for years.[5]
Suddenly, all the memories of his encounters with Ben Reilly come flooding back. He recalls how Ben was a clone of himself created by the Jackal in an attempt to kill the real Spider-Man. How the clone lived on the road for years taking the name Ben Reilly before entering Peter’s life again. How at one point they were both convinced that Ben was the real Peter Parker until they learned that was a lie. When Spider-Man can finally talk again, he tells Raptor that Ben Reilly is dead and that he’s got the wrong guy.[6] This causes Raptor to pause only for a moment before he calls Spider-Man a liar and manages to break free and escape. Reflecting back on this battle later, Spider-Man managed to learn from the police that fingerprints left by Raptor during the battle were tied to a man named Damon Ryder, nobody Peter ever heard of before. Peter then returned to the scene where the battle first started and after stripping off his costume put himself among the wounded. As he was being taken away in a stretcher, he tells May and Jay that he went to get photos of the fight between Spider-Man and Raptor and was injured in the process. Later, once he returned to New York City, Peter uses the computers at the Front Line to look up Damon Ryder and finds an old article from a Portland newspaper about the fire at the Ryder home in which Damon was the only survivor. The only information on the arsonist is a police sketch of the man responsible based on Ryder’s description. Seeing a sketch that resembles himself, he wonders what Ben Reilly had done.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Raptor, Aunt May, Jay Jameson, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson, The Reilly Family (Jan, Sam, Julia, Amy, Alexa, Amanda)
Continuity Notes
The flashback in this story is expanded upon in greater detail in Amazing Spider-Man #608-610. Per the Marvel Chronology Project, this flashback takes place between the flashback in Spider-Man Unlimited #11 and Spider-Man: The Lost Years #1. Per Spider-Man: The Lost Years #1, Ben Reilly had been on the road for about 3 years following the events of Amazing Spider-Man #151. Placing this story roughly around the same period. As such, per the Sliding Timescale, the flashback in this story happens roughly five years prior to this story.
Peter recounts his battles with Wolverine, the Hulk, Doctor Doom, the Juggernaut, and how he even fought a Sentinel once. The first time Spider-Man fought these opponents were in Spider-Man vs. Wolverine #1, Amazing Spider-Man #14, Amazing Spider-Man #5, Amazing Spider-Man #229 for Wolverine, the Hulk, Doctor Doom, and Juggernaut respectively. The Sentinel, however, is a bit vague. He could either be talking about the time he fought the Tri-Sentinel in Amazing Spider-Man #329 or the time he fought a normal Sentinel circa Spider-Man #72.
J. Jonah Jameson complains about having a city to run as he was just elected mayor of New York City in Amazing Spider-Man #591.
Peter wishes he was ambushed by actress Megan Fox instead. This should be considered a topical reference.
The image of Ben Reilly that is seen in Spider-Man’s memory is taken from the cover of Sensational Spider-Man #4. Peter says he hasn’t heard that name in years. In case you’re curious the last time Peter thought about Ben Reilly was in Marvel Knights; Spider-Man #7 which, per the Sliding Timescale, was roughly a year prior to this story.
Spider-Man’s recollection drops a lot of Clone Saga history let’s break it down:
How the clone was created by the Jackal to destroy Spider-Man. That happened in Amazing Spider-Man #149
How the clone went on the road for years after its defeat. This followed Amazing Spider-Man #151. Ben Reilly eventually resurfaced in Web of Spider-Man #114. Ben Reilly re-entered Peter’s life in Spectacular Spider-Man #216.
The pair were tricked into thinking that Ben Reilly was the real Spider-Man in Spectacular Spider-Man #226. How this deception worked is explained in painstaking detail in Spider-Man: The Osborn Journal #1.
Peter learned the truth when Ben Reilly was killed during a battle with the Green Goblin in Spider-Man #75. Although Reilly appeared to die for good here, he will turn up alive again in Free Comic Book Day 2016: Captain America #1. How he survived is detailed in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 4) #22.
The images used for Spider-Man’s flashback are:
The picture of Ben Reilly in his Spider-Man costume fighting Doctor Octopus is from the variant cover to Amazing Spider-Man #525.
Spider-Man face-to-face with Ben Reilly is taken from the cover of Web of Spider-Man #117
There are two panels of Spider-Man fighting the Spider-Clone from Amazing Spider-Man #149.
The image of Ben Reilly emerging from Miles Warren’s cloning vat is taken from the second story in Web of Spider-Man #117.
The image of Ben Reilly riding a motorcycle is taken from Spider-Man: The Lost Years #1
The image of Ben arm-in-arm with Janine Godbe is from Spider-Man: The Lost Years #2
The image of the Scarlet Spider fighting Spider-Man is taken from the cover of Amazing Spider-Man #404.
Lastly, the scene of Ben Reilly crumbling into dust is from Spider-Man #75.
