Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #21
Aftermath
This story continues from Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #3…..
Having heard there is bad news involving Peter, Mary Jane rides the elevator up to the top floor of Stark Tower preparing herself for the worst. Outside of the infirmary, she finds Aunt May in tears being consoled by Jarvis, the Avengers butler.[1] May doesn’t know what happened to Peter and Mary Jane has to break the news that Peter is dead.[2] After comforting May, Mary Jane tells her that she needs to go upstairs to see the body. On her way out, she walks into Steve Rogers — aka Captain America — who offers his condolences. She thanks Steve and agrees that he should go and talk with May, since the elderly woman totally respects Captain America, and knows how much Peter looked up to him as well.
Mary Jane pushes herself to keep going and she soon finds herself in Tony Stark’s office. Tony says that there are some decisions that they need to make as quickly as possible. Tony says that for those heroes whose identities are secret at the time of death are at risk of having their identities revealed and there have been moments where their surviving family members became targets of foes looking to take a consolation. Tony says there is a means to alter the body of the deceased so they can fabricate a different cause of death. When Mary Jane asks why they can’t just make up a story, Tony points out that a coroner would be well versed on coup contra coup, thus they need to initiate a cover-up to hide how Peter Parker really died. Although this is really upsetting to her, Mary Jane asks what their options are. Tony says the simplest solution is to make Peter’s body disappear, but its difficult to convince insurance companies to pay out unless there is concrete proof of death. The second option is the grisly choice of trying to surgically alter the wounds in order to hide their real cause, but a skilled coroner might notice and decide to do a more thorough autopsy and expose the cover-up. The last, and most gruesome, is to burn the body enough to destroy most of the physical evidence, but they would need some extra work to explain the more serious injuries. This is all too much for Mary Jane to hear and she bolts out of Tony’s office to cry in the bathroom.
Hearing her cry, Wolverine comes into the bathroom to offer his own condolences. However, Mary Jane doesn’t want to hear any of it especially after all the negative things Logan had said about both Peter and her since they moved into Stark Tower. That’s when, audaciously, Logan asks if she ever wants to go out on a date to just ask. Horrified by this, Mary Jane slaps him in the face and runs away. This is overheard by Jarvis who scolds Wolverine from saying something so insensitive. However, Logan says he knows exactly what Mary Jane is experiencing and knows she has a lot of rages that she needs to get out, so she gave her a something to hit. He doesn’t care if this make Mary Jane hate him or not, and figures that if she is up at night thinking of ways to hurt him it’ll give her a reason to keep on living, saying it’s what always works for him.
Meanwhile, Mary Jane returns to Tony Stark’s office and tells him that she has made up her mind over what she wants to have done with Peter’s body. She tells him that she loves him too much to let them make his death look like an accident. She wants people to know that he died like the hero he is and suggests a cover story that he was beaten to death by some muggers while trying to protect her. She pleads with him not to do anything else with the body, as Peter has suffered enough. She reminds Tony that the mask wasn’t the hero, Peter was, and she wants people to be able to remember him that way. Tony understands and says he will set things up in such a way as to separate Peter Parker’s death from that of Spider-Man. Mary Jane thanks Tony and excuses herself so she can return to mourning Peter with Aunt May.
Later that evening, Mary Jane is standing out on a balcony thinking when she is joined by Jessica Drew — aka Spider-Woman — who has come to see how she is doing.[3] Jessica thinks that both Mary Jane and Aunt May will persevere as she has never seen a family so strong as the Parkers. She can relate a little to how Mary Jane feels, saying that her similar powers to Peter allowed her to feel something as Peter was killed but can’t put it to words, something that Mary Jane completely understands. Mary Jane worries that she will figure out what to say and that in doing so it will mean that Peter is really gone.
At that same moment, Tony Stark is heading up to the infirmary, when suddenly something lands on top of the elevator car. He quickly hits the alarm drawing out the rest of the New Avengers. Mary Jane joins them as they rush up to the lab where Peter’s body has been since his death. There, Tony Stark tries to stop Mary Jane from going in, but she pushes her way past him. What she sees is a horrific sight. Something under Peter’s spin has burst free leaving nothing more than a withered husk. This is all too much for Mary Jane who faints. As Jessica takes her back down to her room, Tony and Steve examine the remains of Peter Parker and wonder what happened. At first, Tony believes someone did something to Peter’s body, but examining the evidence, Steve Rogers concludes that nobody broke in, but something broke out. Still, they send Luke Cage out to look for clues around the building.
The following morning, a teacher is taking her students on a nature walk near a beach educating them on how spiders lay their eggs while the children collect samples. One boy is upset that the other students were able to find neat specimens but he hasn’t been able to find anything. She suggests they look around an old covered bridge made of wood. The boy wanders away from the group and manages to catch a small crab in his car. That’s when some grey goop drips onto his hand from above. Looking up, what the boy sees frightens him. When he catches up with his classmates, he quickly dismisses what he saw as nothing and the class heads off. While there, under the bridge, a massive cocoon made of webbing rests with something growing inside.
…This story is continued in Amazing Spider-Man #527.
Recurring Characters,
Mary Jane Watson, Aunt May, New Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Wolverine, “Spider-Woman”, Luke Cage), “Edwin Jarvis”, Spider-Man (corpse)
Continuity Notes
This isn’t the real Jarvis but a Skrull spy as we’ll learn in Secret Invasion #1. The real Jarvis was swapped out prior to New Avengers #1.
Peter was seemingly killed by Morlun in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #3. However, he is actually going through a metamorphosis that will conclude with is rebirth in Amazing Spider-Man #527.
The woman who appears to be Spider-Man is actually a Skrull spy as revealed in Secret Invasion #3. She replaced the real Spider-Woman during the events of Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1.
