Peter Parker: Spider-Man #20
The Best Medicine
It’s a rainy day when Peter Parker visits the grave of his late Uncle Ben. When the wind carries a front-page story about Spider-Man stopping a bank robbery, Peter asks his Uncle what’s funny, because he doesn’t know anymore.[1] Picking up the paper makes an old joke Uncle Ben used to make about the newspaper about the peasants being more revolting than usual. This makes him laugh which is followed by tears as Peter asks his dead Uncle if he really messed things up. He figures things need to change now that Mary Jane is dead.[2] He asks Ben to apologize to Mary Jane for him for not being honest with her about becoming Spider-Man again.[3]
Peter admits that early on in his career he used to rely on humor a lot as Spider-Man.[4] He figures it’s easier to laugh in the face of danger if he didn’t take anything seriously, and he thanks Ben for giving him his sense of humor.
Peter remembers the first day back at school after his parents died and how he was nervous.[5] Eventually, he was sent home early because he wouldn’t stop crying in class. When he was brought home by Aunt May, Uncle Ben tried to cheer him up by making a scary face. At first, this frightened Peter which led to a brief argument between his aunt and uncle. But when Peter realized his uncle was doing it to be funny and trying to cheer him up, Peter then started finding it funny. Soon, Ben and Peter began bonding over their mutual love of jokes and pranks. Ben’s sense of humor helped mold the person Peter grew up to be. In school, Peter’s jokes often gotten him into trouble with bullies, but he never really lost a fight if he was able to laugh about it after.
When it starts raining again, it reminds Peter of a series of pranks he and Ben played on each other. It all started when Ben told Peter to come in out of the rain. When he ran inside, Peter was unaware that his uncle perched a glass of water over the door and got soaked when it fell. Deciding to get even, Peter went to a joke shop the next day and bought soap that turned Ben’s skin black. Things went back and forth for days. One day, Peter put a whoopie-cushion under the seat of Ben’s favorite chair. When Peter insisted that Ben sits in it, Ben saw through the charade. However, they still got a good laugh when May unknowingly sat in the chair instead. When the whoopie-cushion went off, Ben and Peter blamed each other before breaking out in laughter.
Thinking about the good old days, Peter can’t help but think about how far away they seem to him now. However, he recalls that there is one lesson that his Uncle gave him that stays with him to this day. Peter recounts a story we’ve all heard to death. You know the one. Radioactive spider. Spider-Man. Showbiz. Uncle Ben getting shot. Yadda yadda yadda. As you can expect, Peter begins sobbing when he recounts the guilt he felt when he realized the man who killed his uncle was the crook he could have stopped days earlier. Great Power. Great Responsibility. Etc. Etc.
Peter says he lived by that example for years, and with each villain, he fought he’d tell jokes in the face of the danger he was facing. Even after the death of Gwen Stacy, he still tried to laugh in the face of danger.[6] However, now that Mary Jane is dead — without even getting to say goodbye — and it has led him to wonder if he could have done things differently. What makes things difficult is that villains don’t stop to give him a day off. He thinks back to the moment earlier that day at the bank. That time, he busted the crooks without cracking a single joke, he just acted. When it came down to the last robber, the crook was so unnerved by Spider-Man not speaking that he choked under the pressure and surrendered. The whole time, Peter was hoping that maybe this time the crook will shoot and he won’t have to worry about things anymore. With Mary Jane gone he would give up Spider-Man even if it meant being able to talk to her one more time and tell him he was sorry. When he asks his Uncle again what’s funny anymore, a car drives by and splashes mud all over him. Pausing for a moment to register what happened, Peter can’t help but start laughing.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, (in flashback) Uncle Ben, Aunt May
Continuity Notes
1. There are going to be a lot of references to Uncle Ben getting killed so let’s just say Amazing Fantasy #15, put our sobby Toby gif and move on. Oh, in case you're wondering per the Sliding TImescale, Uncle Ben has been dead for roughly a decade at the time of this story.
2. Everyone thinks Mary Jane died in a plane crash in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #13. However she is still alive and has been held prisoner by a stalker as we’ll learn in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #29.
3. Peter promised Mary Jane that he was going to retire as Spider-Man in Spider-Man #98. This didn’t last long as Peter was back in the webs in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #2. Mary Jane discovered that Peter had been lying to her in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #10, because she’s not an idiot.
4. Peter thinks about his battle with the Living Brain from Amazing Spider-Man #8.
5. Peter’s parents were government agents who were killed in action while Peter was still a toddler as seen in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5.
6. Gwen Stacy was killed by the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #121. He talks about how he brought down the Green Goblin shortly after. That was Amazing #122.
