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Appearing in "The Last Act of Vengeance"

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Synopsis for "The Last Act of Vengeance"

During his battle against a group of super-villains, Spider-Man had his gravity negated by Graviton. The hero speeds higher and higher into the air. At risk of suffocating in the upper atmosphere, Spider-Man manages to snag a ride on a passing airplane with a line of webbing and reels himself in. He then holds onto the tail of the plane for dear life.[Continuity 1] When the aircraft lands at the airport, Spider-Man takes a moment to rest and then leaps off the plane. Much to his relief, his normal gravity has returned and he swings away before airport security can arrest him.

Meanwhile, Graviton and his colleagues Goliath, Trapster, Titania, and the Brothers Grimm return to the Chameleon's tanker and discover that there is no trace of their employer or the money he promised to pay them for eliminating the wall-crawler. The Trapster melts open a safe and discovers a memo, apparently written by the Kingpin, that implicates that the Kingpin was also in on this job. Furious, the six villains head into the city to confront the Kingpin. Watching from his yacht, the Chameleon gloats about how easy it has been to manipulate them to attack his rival in the criminal underground. While in Soho, Harry and Liz Osborn are getting ready to go out to the opera, leaving their son Normie in the care of Mary Jane. Mary Jane thinks about how she and Peter are not ready to have a child of their own, and the idea scares her. Suddenly, Normie crawls off, prompting Mary Jane to go after the child.[Continuity 2] Behind a curtain, she is shocked to discover that Harry has stored his Green Goblin gear. This comes as a shock to Mary Jane, as she thought Harry destroyed the costume after the last time he wore it.[Continuity 3] Since Harry and Liz are still on their way out the door, Mary Jane doesn't say anything until she can talk to Peter about it.

While in Manhattan, the authorities are on the scene assessing the damage of the Daily Bugle Building after it was lifted out of its foundation by Graviton. Edna Gortch of the Department of Building Safety has finished her initial assessment and has determined the building is a complete loss and has to be torn down. Overhearing this from above is upsetting to Spider-Man, who considers the Bugle a second home. He thinks that if J. Jonah Jameson still owned the Daily Bugle he'd fight the condemnation of the bulding.[Continuity 4] The wall-crawler suspects that the new owner, Thomas Fireheart, will try to use this as an excuse to get out the debt of honor he owes Spider-Man.[Continuity 5] Suddenly, the ground begins to shake as Goliath passes by on his way to Fisk Tower. Witnessing the situation, Thomas Fireheart tells Kate Cushing to contact their auxillary presses in New Jersey to be ready to prepare a special edition. At that moment, Goliath and his partners arrive at the Kingpin's office, demanding that he pays them for eliminating Spider-Man. When the Kingpin doesn't know what they are talking about, Graviton threatens to make the entire building collapse by increasing its mass with a positive gravity wave.

That's when Spider-Man arrives, firing webs into Graviton's eyes and taking him down with a single punch. Titania leaps at the wall-crawler, but he sends her falling to the ground below. As Spider-Man is swatted aside by Goliath, Titania lands safely on the ground only to be struck by a passing city bus. As Spider-Man recovers from the blow from Goliath, the Trapster tries to cover him in paste. The web-slinger dodges the paste and it strikes Goliath's oncoming fist. As Spider-Man pulls the Trapster to safety, Goliath strikes the side of the building, making his massive hand to stick to it. As Spider-Man webs the Trapster to a lamp post, he is ambushed by the Brothers Grimm. However, he manages to slip away under the cover of smoke from their explosives. Spider-Man leaps around and ambushes them from behind. By this time, Goliath has pulled his hand free from the paste. However, when he tries to turn around and rejoin the fight, he discovers that Spider-Man has tied his legs together causing him to take a hard fall. Spider-Man lands on the villain, he sees a kid near the scene and tosses his camera and tells the boy to take his picture.

In the aftermath of the battle, the Chameleon looks through the first issue of the new Jameson News Digest, which features a cover photo of Spider-Man and one of Jameson's usual negative headlines: "Would you trust this man with your city?". He gloats over his plan as it has succeeded as he intended: setting a number of super-villains to attack the Kingpin's tower only for him to be saved by Spider-Man, further undermining his position in the New York City underworld.

Notes

Continuity Notes[]

  1. The airline that owns this plane is identified as TWA. This should be considered a topical reference per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 as TWA went out of business in 2001.
  2. Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife here. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by the demon Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As such they should be considered a common-law couple here.
  3. Harry resumed the guise of the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #312 to protect his family from the Hobgoblin.
  4. Jameson lost ownership of the Daily Bugle when it was bought out from under him by Thomas Fireheart in Spectacular Spider-Man #156.
  5. The Puma believed he owed a debt to Spider-Man after accidentally accusing him of a crime in Web of Spider-Man #50.

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