Peter Parker: Spider-Man #23

Read ‘Em and Weep

Listening to his recorded manifesto, the man known as Typeface begins putting together his costume. He has vowed to get retribution from those who have wronged him. To punctuate this, Typeface has painted a large letter R on his forehead.[1]

Meanwhile, Peter Parker is watching a sunset and sending out a prayer to Mary Jane, telling her of all the things he has done recently.[2] Having come to terms with the fact that Mary Jane is dead, Peter can’t sto himself from crying. He wishes there were people other than Aunt May who understands what he is going through.[3] He guesses that its time enough to take his wedding ring and start wearing it on the other hand so people know that he is now a widow.[4] He then makes himself laugh but wondering if they have instruction manuals for being a widow.

That evening, Typeface is walking through an alley when he is confronted by some muggers. When they refuse to join his crusade, he knocks them all out with his large letter based weapons. With the skermish quickly over, Typeface takes one of the mugger’s pants as a trophy for his victory.

Later, Peter Parker has a strange dream of an owl, Mary Jane, a burning building, and a massive spider. A voice in the dream tells him not to be afraid and to wake up. Suddenly, Peter is woken up by when the telephone starts ringing. It’s a call from Mister Whipple, the man who is displaying Peter’s non-Spider-Man photos in a gallery asking when Peter was going to be dropping off the source material. Thinking it is 2 in the morning, Peter is shocked when Whipple corrects him and says it’s actually 2 in the afternoon. Leaving his room, Peter discovers Randy in a trance in the living room. He tells Peter he just had the weidest dream about their apartment being on fire.[5]

While at the Daily Bugle, J. Jonah Jameson is disappointed to see that other newspapers are scooping them on Typeface who has been smashing up the city. He asks Joe Robertson where Peter Parker is, and Joe reminds him that Peter is dealing with a lot right now. Jonah dismisses this, thinking that a photo job will help Peter get his mind off his troubles. Meanwhile, Randy has gone to a sports bar with Peter, Jill Stacy, and his girlfriend Glory Grant. He keeps on yawning and tells them about the strange dream he had the night before, unaware that elements of his dream are exactly the same as the one that Peter had. Jill then returns everyone’s attention to Peter, who is sitting by himself at the bar and comments about how lonley he looks. Just then, another man comes up to the bar named Michael. Peter notices that he is wearing a ring on his right hand and assuming it means that he too is a widow strikes up a conversation. After a conversation, Peter returns to his friends in a more cheery mood, telling them all about the conversation he had. That’s when Randy points out that Michael isn’t a widow saying that gay people wear rings on their right hands.[6] Realizing how out of touch with he is, Peter is embarassed because of what he said in the conversation must have been for Michael. This all gives Randy, Jill, and Glory a good laugh.[7] That’s when Peter catches a newsflash about Typeface going on a rampage in Times Square and excuses himself.

By the time Spider-Man arrives on the scene, Typeface has been blowing up buildings with his Letter Bombs. When Spider-Man tries to fight Typeface, he quickly discovers that his foe has had some formal fighting training, probably from the military. Not wanting to get into a prolonged battle with the wall-crawler, Typeface tosses some lettered tiles that spell out the word sleep. These tiles release a knock out gas that stars knocking out the web-slinger. Before he completely blacks out he overhears Typeface saying that he will have his final reckoning at 7 pm the following evening. Recovering from the sleeping gas, Peter returns to his apartment and tires to figure out how he’s going to stop Typeface at 7 pm when he’s supposed to be at the gallery showing off his photos. He wonders if his life is all part of some strange experiment being conducted by a higher power when he falls asleep. He then has the same dream again but this time when the voice commands him to wake up Peter finds himself strapped to an opperating table surrounded by aliens. Communicating telepathically, these creatures tell Peter Parker that they need his help.[8]

Recurring Characters

Spider-Man, Typeface, Randy Robertson, Joe Robertson, J. Jonah Jameson, Jill Stacy, Glory Grant, Brll’nah>Zhhk< (unidentified)

Continuity Notes

1. Typeface is depicted using a pocket tape recorder to record his manifesto. This should be considered a topical reference as the technology is considered obscelete.

2. At the time of this story, everyone thinks Mary Jane died in a plane crash in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #13. She did not, as we’ll learn in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #29. Peter mentions how he recently tried his hand at stand-up comedy and bombed, that was in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #.21.

3. May’d know from dead husbands, Amazing Fantasy #15.

4. Peter and Mary Jane are identified as being married here. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. In this new reality, the couple are still engaged as explained in Amazing Spider-Man #639. As such, one could assume that Peter is wearing an engagement ring as opposed to a wedding band.

5. Peter jokingly asks Randy if he ate the old cheese in the fridge. He’s referring to Kevin, a chunk of cheese Peter has been keeping on his side of the fridge. This is what’s commonly referred to as a running gag, albeit not a very good one.

6. Michael comments that he is not used to talking so openly about his sexuality to strangers particularly since homosexuals were commonly discriminated and victims to hate crimes at the time (sadly they still are, but I’d like to think not as much as back then, but I’d be giving humanity too much credit) At the time this story was published homosexuality was still greatly frowned upon by certain aspects of society forcing gays and lesbians to be refrain from being openly gay in unfamiliar environments. Since then homosexuality has become more commonly accepted in society and wearing a ring on one’s right hand is less “code” for being gay and usually used to signify a marriage between a same-sex couple. The context in which the ring is explained in this story should be considered topical.

7. Randy, Jill, and Glory all laugh at the idea of Peter unknowingly being hit on by a gay man. Which is an outdated cliché of the era and should be considered topical because it reflects the sensibilities at the time. This was pretty progressive for the time though, but nobody who’s actually progressive would find Peter’s mix-up something overly funny because Peter was talking to a gay person.

8. Unidentified here, these aliens are identified as the Brll’nah>Zhhk< next issue. They have no apparent relation to the Other an alien entity that takes on a similar form first seen in Silver Surfer (vol. 3) #-1, nor the Greys first seen in Iron Man (vol. 5) #10.