Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #16

Jul 21

Jul 21 Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #16

Taking Wing Conclusion

During his fight above the city with the Vulture, Spider-Man was drugged with a powerful hallucinogenic drug. As he falls to the ground he is having a vivid hallucination where Debra Whitman accuses him of betraying her trust while they were dating. The whole time he kept the fact that he was Spider-Man a secret from her. When he tells her that he eventually did reveal his identity to her, Debra points out that he only did so because he knew she wouldn’t believe him.[1] In the real world, Debra is among a crowd of people outside her book signing along with Flash Thompson and Betty Brant watching Spider-Man’s plummet to the ground. They are all shouting at him to wake up and save himself, but Peter is far too deep in the hallucination. In his mind, Peter becomes fed up with Debra’s accusations and tells her that he is sick of people who keep on tearing him down since publicly revealing his identity as believing the worst of him every time instead of giving him the benefit of the doubt. When he tells her that he’s not falling for her accusations he suddenly snaps out of his hallucination and realizes he’s actually falling. With 13 seconds before hitting the ground, Spider-Man manages to fire two web-lines that allow him to spring back up into the air.

As he shoots back up in the air, Spider-Man collides with the Vulture who is also falling out of the sky. He thinks it’s some kind of trick until he realizes that something is wrong with his foe and decides to take him to a hospital. At that moment, Miss Arrow is passing by the bookstore where people had come to get Debra Whitman’s autograph and spots Flash. At that same moment, Debra is trying to process the fact that she almost saw Spider-Man die. When Flash suggested she would have enjoyed that she slaps him across the face. Arrow sees this and is about to confront Debra when Betty beats her to the punch. Having had enough for Peter Parker’s friends, Debra decides to leave. This upsets the people trying to get her to sign copies of her book. When checking to see if Flash was okay, he tells her it was a slap in the face. She remarks that a slap can hurt if you try enough, and when Flash quips that he thought she was wholesome, Betty is surprised he took offense since she recalled him having a sense of humor when they used to date.[2] Miss Arrow arrives just as Betty is saying this and becomes guarded. This is until introductions are made, and Betty adds that she is Flash’s former girlfriend. Miss Arrow eases up and shakes Betty’s hand, remarking that Betty is so sweet she could just eat her up.

Later that evening, Adrian Toomes wakes up in the hospital and after a quick examination, the doctor tells him that he suffered a stroke and that the left half of his body has suffered some paralysis. Although the doctor tells him that he can recover from this with therapy, the Vulture asks the doctor to kill him as he doesn’t want to live like this. The doctor ignores this request and leaves when an orderly comes in to change out Adrian’s bedpan. Outside, the doctor is approached by Agent Maddrox of SHIELD who wants to know what Spider-Man had done to the Vulture.[3] When the doctor explains that the web-slinger had nothing to do with Adrian Toomes’ current condition, Maddrox tells him not to underestimate Spider-Man. At that very moment, the Spider-Man drops his orderly disguise by deactivating his image inducer.

Meanwhile, Betty Brant answers a knock at her apartment door and is surprised to see Debra Whitman and asks what she wants. Debra shows Betty a doctors bill, tearfully telling Betty that her mother is very sick. She reveals that she isn’t working and the bills were adding up. When Peter revealed his identity to the public J. Jonah Jameson went digging into his past looking at past relationships and offered Debra a ton of money to write her book. Totally breaking down, Debra hugs Betty and admits that she is a terrible person. She admits that she was mad at Peter at first but got over it. However, when Jameson’s people came to her the money they were offering was too tempting not to accept. Having read the final product, she tells Betty that they twisted her words and made things sound worse than they actually were. Now she doesn’t know what to do, she feels like she betrayed Peter but fears that if she sets the record straight the publishers might go after her to get the money back. Betty assures Debra that the truth has a way of getting out and asks her to tell her whole story.

Back at the hospital, Adrian Toomes is hardly surprised that Spider-Man has come to see him at his most vulnerable moment. He implores the web-slinger to kill him as he doesn’t want to live like this. He rationalizes that Peter has it in him since he took on the identity of a natural predator and then makes the mistake of saying Peter’s Uncle Ben was lucky to have died before seeing what his nephew had become.[4] This angers Spider-Man enough for the web-slinger to grab a pillow and press it over Adrian’s face. In the hallway, Agent Marddrox gets a phone call from his superiors who tell him that Adrian’s earpiece is still on and they heard him asking someone to kill him. Maddrox dismisses this as an orderly until they tell him that Tomes mentioned an “Uncle Ben”, that’s when the nurses station gets a heart-rate alarm from Adrian’s room. Realizing it’s Spider-Man, Agent Maddrox pulls his gun and tells everyone to get back. Back inside the room, Adrian Toomes suddenly tries fighting back against Spider-Man, but only manages to pull off the web-slinger’s mask as he continues to press a pillow over the Vulture’s face. Suddenly, Spider-Man stops suffocating his foe and points out that for someone who was begging to die, Adrian put up one hell of a fight. Climbing out the window, Spider-Man’s parting words are for the Vulture to think about the things that the compassion of others isn’t the weakness he thinks it to be. When Agent Maddrox finally bursts into the room, Spider-Man is already long gone.

The following day, at the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson is furious to discover that the front page of the Daily Globe features Debra Whitman revealing the truth about her book. Jonah is furious and asks Joe Robertson who wrote the book. Joe tells him that sources are anonymous and that the story has no byline. Unphased by this, Jameson vows to get to the bottom of this. Going out into the bullpen, he assigns Betty Brant with the task for uncovering who leaked the story to the Daily Globe. Since this was Betty’s work, she accepts the assignment and promises Jonah that she’ll get right on it.

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Vulture, Debra Whitman, Betty Brant, Flash Thompson, “Miss Arrow”, Agent Madrox, J. Jonah Jameson, Joe Robertson

Continuity Notes

1. Debra Whitman was part of Peter Parker’s life from Amazing Spider-Man #196 and Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #74. During that time, Peter and Debra had a brief relationship. However, she was already dealing with mental health issues after fleeing an abusive marriage and Peter’s double life didn’t help it. She became delusional, thinking that Peter was Spider-Man not knowing her suspicions were correct. Peter basically gaslit her by unmasking, snapping her back into some semblance of sanity and convincing her to go home and sort out her life. As detailed over the last two issues, Debrah later wrote a tell-all book about her relationship after Peter revealed his identity to the public in Civil War #2.

2. Betty and Flash have dated on-and-off again since Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #98

3. This is not the Jamie Maddrox — aka the Multiple Man — but one of his duplicates. It was created in X-Factor (vol. 3) #8 to learn espionage. He will be re-absorbed by the Prime Maddrox in X-Factor (vol. 3) #15.