Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man #8
The Bridge Part 2
It seems like everyone is looking for Peter Parker these days. Flash Thompson is furious that Parker would dare to take Liz Allan to the prom. Liz is swooning over her upcoming date with Peter. Elsewhere, Betty Brant toils under J. Jonah Jameson, while the Sandman — doused with a chemical by Spider-Man —is breaking out of Ryker’s Island. Where is Peter Parker? Skipping class and getting a tan on the side of the George Washington Bridge. After being led to believe he is going to lose his science scholarship to Empire State University, Peter has decided to stop worrying about his responsibilities and have fun for once.
Back at school, there is a tense moment when Liz and Flash bump into each other in the hallway. He warns her to tell Peter to call off their date to the prom, or else. While at the Daily Bugle, Betty Brant has finished the humiliating job of fishing J. Jonah Jameson’s reading glasses out of a toilet when Peter arrives with flowers for her. She is surprised that Peter would cut class to come to see her but gladly agrees to join him for a picnic in Central Park. While he tells her how he has decided to have more fun while he is still young, Betty takes this to mean that Peter is taking her to the prom after all. Hearing Betty gush over the excitement, Peter can’t bring himself to say that he has already agreed to go with Liz Allan.[1] While elsewhere in the city, paramedics are called to an alley where reports of a main screaming in pain were heard. There they are shocked to find the Sandman, whose sand-form has begun absorbing every bit of trash and dirt it comes into contact with since Spider-Man doused him with an experimental adhesive. He orders the paramedics to go and find the wall-crawler for him.
Back at school, Peter can’t focus on Professor Del’s tutoring because he is trying to figure out what to do about the situation with Liz and Betty. Noticing that Peter is distracted, Del asks him what’s up. When Peter talks about how he feels like he is letting the best years of his life pass him by, Hugh cannot relate and Peter tells him to forget it and leaves. Lost in thought, Peter walks right into Flash Thompson as he is leaving the school. Thompson is still furious and grabs Peter and demands that he cancel his date with Liz to the prom. Fed up with Flash’s constant bullying, Peter refuses to comply. Shocked that “Puny Parker” would stand up to him, Flash doesn’t know what to do. Becoming flustered, he tells Peter that they will do the bridge walk on the night of the prom and the winner will go to the prom with Liz.
Peter goes to a nearby rail bridge where the bridgewalk takes place. It was an old high school dare where two students would attempt to walk the length of the exposed bridge. It was so dangerous that Midtown High had placed a ban on it, threatening to expell any students who would try it again. His thoughts are interrupted by Blake, his competition for the ESU scholarship. He has come to gloat and tries to convince Peter not to do anything stupid, but Peter assures him that he is not going to do the bridge walk. Back at home, Peter is visibly depressed enough for Aunt May to notice. She asks Peter what his problems are and he complains about the prom and how he’s agreed to go with two different girls. Aunt May brushes this off as a joke and says that she was talking to Anna Watson and they both agreed that Peter should go to the prom with Anna’s niece, Mary Jane.[2] Peter soon becomes more interested in a news report about the Sandman going on a rampage and abruptly leaves, telling his Aunt to do whatever she thinks is right. Taking this to mean Peter has agreed to go to the prom with Mary Jane, Aunt May calls Anna to tell her the good news.
Changing into costume, Spider-Man arrives on the scene of the Sandman’s most recent attack and is ambushed by the villain. By this time, Sandman has absorbed so much trash that his mass has increased considerably. While Spider-Man battles the Sandman, Liz gets a phone call from Flash tries to call Liz to tell her to go to the prom with him instead, when she rejects his attempt, Flash hangs up without saying a word. Back in the city, Spider-Man threatens to douse the Sandman in more of his experimental polymer, but this throws the villain into a fit of rage as that is what has put him in his current predicament and demands that Spider-Man fix him. Back in Queens, Betty Brant is practicing her dance steps with her nephew, and tells him how she is looking forward to going to the prom with Peter since she was forced to drop out of school to help support her family.[3]
Meanwhile, the gravity of the Sandman’s condition has made Peter realize that perhaps he shouldn’t been so cavalier over the past few days. When Sandman demands to know what Spider-Man did to him, the wall-crawler admits that he splashed his foe with an untested chemical. Sandman doesn’t believe Spider-Man and attacks him with renewed savagry. At that moment at Midtown High, Flash Thompson sits in the science lab holding a baseball bat, he is ruminating over the humiliation he has suffered at the hands of Peter Parker and vows not to let it stand. Back at the scene of the battle, Sandman demands that Spider-Man cure him right away, refusing to listen to the wall-crawler’s explanations that he needs time to develop a one in a lab. Realizing that he has to do something to fix this, Spider-Man uses his webbing to set off the warehouse’s fire extinguishers coating the Sandman in foam. This allows Spider-Man to make his escape. The next day, Peter rushes to the science lab to try and whip up an antidote but he is stopped by Mister Del, who shows him that someone broke into the lab in the middle of the night and smashed it up. Peter immediately knows that this was the work of Flash Thompson. Furious, Peter ambushes Flash out on the football field and demands that Flash give him back his notes, which were stolen from the lab. Flash refuses to do so unless Parker agrees to do the bridgewalk with him. Back at home, Peter tries to recreate his notes, but can’t even begin without the original work. That’s when he is interrupted by Aunt May who has brought down Uncle Ben’s old tuxedo and tells Peter that after some alterations he it will look great on him and, not only that, it will match the dress that Mary Jane intends to wear. That’s when Peter realizes that Aunt May has told Anna that he will take Mary Jane to the prom and realizes that things are worse than he thought.
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Sandman, Flash Thompson, Betty Brant, Liz Allan, Aunt May, J. Jonah Jameson, Hugh Del
Continuity Notes
Peter refers to Betty as his girlfriend here. This story takes place during the time they dated which happened between Amazing Spider-Man #7 through 18.
Aunt May and Anna Watson have been trying to set Peter up with Anna’s niece Mary Jane since Amazing Spider-Man #15. Peter will avoid meeting her until Amazing Spider-Man #42.
As explained in Untold Tales of Spider-Man #12, Betty’s mother suffered a serious head injury and requires constant medical attention. This forced her to drop out of high school and take up her mother’s job a J. Jonah Jameson’s secretary to pay for the medical bills.
