As a high school student, Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, gaining amazing powers in the process. Now he fights crime as the Amazing Spider-Man!

Recently, Peter’s estranged wife Mary Jane has returned to town with the news that she’s six months pregnant with Peter’s child! It finally seems that after a run of horrible luck, including the death of a close friend, Ben Reilly leaving town to find himself, and finding out that he’s the father of a cloned teenage son, Peter’s life may be starting to improve…

Peter Parker was adjusting his tie in the mirror as Aunt May turned him around, retying it for him. It was the night of the premiere of Mary Jane’s first feature film, the Family Circus, and Peter had to look perfect. It was one of the biggest events of the year, and it would be the first time Peter and Mary Jane would be seen in public as a couple since MJ had left for Hollywood to start her film career.

“Your Uncle Ben was the same way when it came to ties,” May said as she finished the tie and stood back. “He always had to wear a clip-on tie when I wasn’t around. Had an entire drawer full of them. You look nervous, Peter.”

“This is kind of nerve-wracking,” Peter told her as he went to get his dress shoes on. “MJ and I are finally making our way back to each other. I just don’t want to blow it.”

“You’ll do fine,” May promised. “I knew one day you two would reunite, and now you’re going to have a brand new baby for me to spoil.”

“Is– is it wrong?” Peter asked. “That I’m happy to have this baby on the way? I mean, I feel… guilty about our first baby. She’d be walking and talking right now, and probably giving me a bunch of gray hairs. But I couldn’t save her, with all of my powers and intellect, I couldn’t save something so precious. I want to love this baby, but I don’t want our first child to think I don’t love her. And then there’s Drew. I have a teenage son that I can never tell the truth to. What if he finds out and sees that there’s a baby that I’m giving all this love to?”

“Peter Parker, that was not your fault,” May said as she stared into her nephew’s eyes. “And Drew is a fine young man. I do wish you could tell him, though. He’s been through so much, he deserves to have a family that cares for him. You really should consider telling him the truth.”

“I’m afraid I’m going to such a horrible dad,” Peter said. “Uncle Ben, Gwen, Harry, my daughter, A.J… I’m tired of losing the people I love.”

“Peter Parker, stop sulking,” Mary Jane said as she stood at the door, holding a hand on her pregnant stomach. “This baby is going to come, and it’s going to be loved and protected, understand?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Peter said as he kissed her. “Come on, we’ve got a premiere to attend and I have two lovely women to escort.”

Peter took both of them by the arm as they headed toward the door, just as the police scanner on the table went off, alerting any available officer to a high-speed chase through the city.

“You know what? No, tonight’s about taking my best girls out,” Peter said. “The police have this covered.”

“Two officers and three civilians down, including one child who was shot in the shoulder by a stray bullet–”

Peter just closed his eyes as he stood there. Mary Jane put a hand on his shoulder.

“Just be at the theater by 7.”

Peter gave her a quick kiss as he was already in the bedroom, shedding his clothes and pulling on his tights. Within minutes, Spider-Man was out of the window and swinging his way across the city.

A figure in a red and black hooded cloak stood on top of the building across from the Kew Gardens Theater that was hosting the premiere of the Family Circus movie. The red carpet and velvet ropes were still being set up as he watched.

“Soon, the world will see you for who you really are, Riley,” the person under the hood said. “And then, you die.”

Spider-Man finally spotted the car that was leading the police on the high-speed chase through the city. He swung as fast as he could to get past the police cars before flipping off of the webline and landing on the hood of the car.

“Alright, Lightning McQueen, pull over!” Spider-Man said as the man in the passenger seat pulled out a gun. As soon as he put his arm out the window to shoot, the hero had shot a web to pull his gun away. “You call that a weapon?” Spidey asked as he pulled a small button shaped device out of his belt and slammed it on the hood. “Now this is a weapon!”

Spidey shot a web at a light pole and pulled his way up as the device sent out an EMP that was just powerful enough to shut down the car. It came to a stop as the men started to get out and run as two webs attached to the legs, pulling the men back and up to the lightpole where Spider-Man was sitting.

“Ooh, I love when company drops by,” Spider-Man said as he left them hanging by the strand of webs on their legs. “I wish you’d have called first, I didn’t have time to prepare anything,” the police cars arrived as Spider-Man shot another web. “You know what, I’ll just go get some take-out, I hope it isn’t cold by the time you get out of jail in twenty years.”

Spider-Man swung away as he waved at the officers, who now had to figure out how to get the crooks down. Spider-Man now had just enough time to grab his clothes from the apartment and change near the theater.

Riley was sitting in a cab on his way to the theater. This was his first time back in New York since he was an infant when his mother was still alive. As he stared out the window, he started thinking about what he was going to do with his future. He loved acting, but he wasn’t sure if it was really something he wanted to do forever. Plus, he had family in this city now, even if Riley wasn’t sure if Felicia was actually being serious about wanting to spend time together when he came to town.

Spider-Man texted Mary Jane to tell her he’d be at the theater soon, he just needed to change first. Landing on the rooftop across from the theater and dropping his duffle bag to the ground, he started pulling down his tights when his spider-sense went off. Turning around with his Captain America boxer shorts on full display, Spider-Man saw the masked figure with the red and black cloak standing not too far away. There was a brief awkward pause that seemed to last for hours.

“So, uh… looking forward to the movie?” Spider-Man asked as he pulled his pants up. The masked figure pulled out his broadsword while remaining silent.

“Oh, the strong silent type, I get it,” Spider-Man said. “Nice sword, is that a prop or–”

The sword came down as Spider-Man flipped into the air, attaching himself the wall. The sword had sliced clean through the concrete like a hot knife through butter.

“Okay, not a prop. Look, uh… do you have a name? I typically like knowing the names of people I’m about to thrash.”

“You may call me… Gemini,” the masked figure said. “I have time before my true target arrives. Face me, Spider-Man, and DIE!”

The hero just stared blankly at him, blinking under his mask. He held up a finger, searching for the right words.

“That… is the single WORST piece of acting I have ever heard in my life. Are you trying to be a villain or are you auditioning for a Uwe Boll movie?”

Gemini screamed in rage as he rushed toward Spider-Man.

“Riley!” Mary Jane shouted as she found the young man near the theater. “I was starting to think you weren’t going to make it for the premiere.”

“The reshoots took longer than we thought,” Riley told her. “Plus I grew another inch so they had to make a new costume.”

“Riley, this is May Parker,” MJ said as Riley smiled at her. “She’s Peter’s Aunt.”

“Hello, ma’am,” Riley told her as he kissed her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Such a nice young man, I can’t wait to see you as Spider-Man,” May said as they headed toward the theater. “Was it fun playing him?”

“Yeah, it kind of was,” Riley said. “I’m signed up for three movies, so we’ll see if this one does well. I heard you did an uncredited rewrite on the script, MJ.”

“I was friends with the screenwriter and he asked for some help with some dialogue and characters and–”

“And Spider-Man’s love interest is a redhead in the movie,” Riley realized. “Now I know where the writer got his idea for that character from.

“So, did you bring a date, Riley?” Mary Jane asked, changing the subject.

“The studio wanted me to date the star of their other tentpole franchise for this. You know, the one about the sparkling vampires that attend the wizarding school? But I turned ’em down. I’m tired of dating fake people. I want someone real that I can connect with for once,” Riley sighed. “Like what you and Peter have. Speaking of which, where is he?”

“Missed me!” Spider-Man said as he flipped backward, kicking Gemini in the face and sending him flying back. “I gotta say, you are really disappointing for a villain. I mean, you have the costume and the cool sword, but you kind of suck at the fighting thing. I’m hardly even breaking a sweat. I mean, come on, how do you expect to beat me?”

The sword started to light up as Gemini’s eyes started to glow a bright yellow.

“Minashigo Sureiyā has been angered!” Gemini shouted.

“Hang on, gotta think of what that means in Japanese,” Spider-Man said as he thought for a moment. “Wow, most people would probably have to use Google Translate to get that, or worse yet, use it to actually come up with such a stupid name.*”

(*HEY! – TC)

Spider-Man shot two strands of webbing at the sword, yanking it out of Gemini’s hand. The sword embedded itself in the ground as the two rushed toward each other. While Spider-Man wasn’t looking, the sword pulled itself out of the ground and began twirling in mid-air. The hero’s spider-sense went off as he ducked, watching the sword speeding back toward him.

“Is that really a cursed sword? Can’t wait to learn what the story is behind that,” Spider-Man said as he grabbed the sword’s handle as it flew past. Using all of his strength, Spider-Man forced it to the ground and used all of the webbing in his shooters to pin it down. “There, that should hold it. Now for–”

Gemini was looking across the street as he premiere was starting. He spotted Riley heading up the carpet with Mary Jane.

“To me, Minashigo Sureiyā!”

The sword ripped through the webbing and flew into Gemini’s hand. Before Spider-Man could get to him, he jumped over the roof ledge.

“Great,” Spider-Man said as he quickly switched out the cartridges in his web-shooters. “He’d better not say anything about my boxers to that crowd.”

“And here is the star of the new Spider-Man movie, Riley Alexander!” the reporter said as he saw the young man approaching. “Tell us, Riley, what can we expect from the new motion picture?”

“Well, I–,” Riley started to say before being cut off.

“RILEY ALEXANDER! Come face me, you coward!” Gemini shouted as he held his sword. “Face me and show the world what you truly are!”

“Uh… excuse me?” Riley asked. “Do I know you?”

“More than you know,” Gemini said as he raced toward Riley with his sword. Not knowing what else to do, Riley clenched his fist and punched the villain, knocking him onto his back.

“So, Mario, like I was saying–”

Spider-Man arrived just in time to see Gemini laying on his back. The crowd started going wild as Spider-Man just smiled and waved. He looked at Riley and put a hand on his shoulder.

“You okay, kid?”

“Wow, you’re really– Oh my God, this is such an honor,” Riley stammered before he saw the sword lifting itself up. “What’s happening right now?”

“Ugh, not again,” Spider-Man said as the sword flew towards Riley’s heart, but Spider-Man grabbed the handle, stopping it just a half an inch away from its target. “Okay, not a fan of mystical swords.”

“What is this thing?” Riley asked nervously, afraid to move.

“Magic sword, won’t stop ’til you’re dead or something,” Spider-Man said as he tried pulling the sword back. “You might want to move.”

“No,” Riley said. “Let it go.”

“What? Are you insane?”

“If it wants me, let it have me,” Riley said, opening his jacket for a cleaner shot. Spider-Man couldn’t hold on any longer as the sword flew forward and Riley fell back onto the red carpet.

“YES!” Gemini shouted as he grabbed the sword. “Victory! My sworn enemy is dead and–”

Spider-Man tapped him on the shoulder and punched him out. It didn’t take long for the police to come and take the villain away, while Mary Jane held Riley in her arms.

“Why did you let him kill you?” MJ asked as Riley slowly opened his eyes.

“Because I’m an awesome ass actor,” Riley smirked. “The guy wanted me dead, so I played dead. When no one was looking, I opened some ketchup packets from the restaurant we went to make it look like I got stabbed. I moved at the last second and the sword went under my arm. Don’t think I’ll get the deposit back on this rental suit, though.”

Peter arrived, just as the squad car with Gemini was driving away. “What’d I miss?”

As Gemini was being driven away, the sword in the vehicle behind cut its way out before slashing the tires of the vehicle Gemini was in. The car came to a halt as the sword cut through the door, allowing Gemini to escape into the night.

“You were great in that movie,” Peter said as he kissed Mary Jane’s cheek while they were walking out of the theater afterward. “I can see why it’s getting all of those Oscar nominations.”

“What do you think your next role will be?” Riley asked her.

“Mother,” MJ told him as she felt her stomach. “I think I’ll put things on hold in Hollywood for a while, at least until after the baby is born.”

“What about you, kid?” Peter asked. “You going back to Hollywood to get more roles?”

“Actually… I was thinking of doing something else for a while,” Riley told them. “My sister lives in this city, so maybe I’ll try my hand at doing a Broadway show or something, maybe try to find a nice, down to Earth girl while I’m here. I mean, if the Spider-Man movie does well, it’ll probably be at least another two years before they start shooting, so I won’t have to go back anytime soon.”

“Plus it’ll help Spider-Man keep an eye on you if you’re close by,” Peter thought to himself. “I don’t know who this Gemini guy is, but I can guarantee the second he figures out Riley faked his death, he’ll come gunning for him again. What’s weird is that the sword appeared to be alive. Wouldn’t the sword itself had realized it didn’t actually kill Riley?”

Gemini returned to the small room he was renting out in Queens, putting the sword in a glass case.

“He faked his death, he is the better actor,” Gemini said as he started removing his costume. “But he won’t survive the next time. He will suffer for everything that he’s stolen from me.”

The villain removed his mask and cloak, revealing a face that looked exactly like Riley as he stared into the mirror.

“I will destroy you, Riley, and then I’ll claim the life that is rightfully mine.”

To be continued…

THE FOLLOWING PREVIEW HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR ALL AUDIENCES

Except for you, Adam. You have to leave the theater because I hate you. I hate you so, very, very much.

“I think your ex is running the projector room tonight, Adam.”

A smaller boy was being tucked in by an older boy named Jason (Riley Alexander) as they lived in an orphanage. The boy looked up at his surrogate brother with the dim generator operated lamp being the only source of light in the room.

“Good night, Sammy,”

“Can you tell me a story, Jason?” the boy asked.

“Okay,” Jason said as he sat down on the bed. “This is the story of an orphaned prince, who had no family to call his own. He spent his entire life watching everyone he loved move on to bigger things. But then, one day, something magical happened that changed the prince’s life forever.”

Jason was stealing food from a fruit stand when he put his hand on an apple, where a spider bit him. The boy pulled his hand back and looked at the spider bite.

“Did the prince use his powers to help people?” Sammy asked. “I heard somewhere that with great power comes great responsibility.”

“Yeah, that’s bullsh–”

OMEGA PICTURES 

“Jason Ditko,” the orphanage director (Helen Mirren) said as she looked at his file. “He’s lived here his entire life. Constantly getting into trouble for stealing,”

As a grocer was unloading his truck, several strands of webbing started picking up various pieces of food every time he turned around as Jason, wearing a homemade red and blue costume, shoved them into his backpack.

“Fighting.”

Jason shoved a playground bully that had punched Sammy in the face, sending the bully flying across the yard and onto his back.

“And running away.”

As a police car chased Jason down an alley, he jumped a good ten feet and scaled a large chainlink fence within seconds to escape.

 “So you have these weird, messed up powers, and you’re using them to steal food and stuff?” Jason’s red-headed best friend Matthew Jacob (Colin Ford) asked. “Shouldn’t you be using them to fight crime?”

“I’m not a superhero,” Jason told him. “I’m the orphan that nobody wants, remember? I don’t owe this world a damn thing.”

The wall to an office building was blown open as a man in black and white armor stepped through, destroying everything in his path with wrist mounted energy gauntlets to get to a computer.

“Who are you?” the man cowering behind his desk asked.

“You can call me… the Looter,” the villain (Billy Zane) said as he blasted his way out, where Jason was standing, having been screwed over by the company after doing some work for them.

“That guy is on a rampage, you can use your powers to stop him,” Matthew said as the two young men sat outside the window, on the slanted roof of the orphanage.

“Let the police handle it,” Jason said. “It’s not my problem.”

In a stand-off with the police, the Looter shot a blast past them, hitting a wall. Debris started falling towards Sammy, who looked up just in time to see it coming down with a hard cut to black.

“I could have stopped him,” Jason said with tears in his eyes. “I had the power and I did nothing. I have to stop this guy before anyone else gets hurt.”

While fighting the Looter, Jason, wearing a homemade costume, got thoroughly thrashed and thrown through the wall. The Looter approached him, not even having broken a sweat. Jason was trapped on his stomach under a pile of debris.

“Why are you doing this?” Jason asked as the Looter smiled, leaning in real close and taking off his helmet to show his face.

“Because I have the power to,” the villain whispered into Jason’s ear.

“The Looter’s going to destroy the city if I don’t stop him in time,” Jason said as he stared down at his torn and shredded costume.

“Do you really think you can stop him by yourself?” Matthew asked as Jason turned around with his mask in his hand.

“I’m not going to stop him,” Jason said, realizing he needed a better costume. “Spider-Man is.”

Spider-Man was hanging from a helicopter by strands of webbing as it flew over the ocean; The Looter destroyed a prison a wall, letting loose dozens of inmates; Spider-Man having stopped a semi-truck from hitting a group of people with his bare hands; Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) pounding his fist on a desk while shouting; Spider-Man jumping off of a building and gliding toward Matthew, who was plummeting toward the ground; A red and black glove punched out of the dirt covered ground.

“What the hell is this?” the Looter asked. “Are you still pretending to be a hero?”

“I’m done pretending,” Spider-Man said as he started a furious attack on the villain.

THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN

Spider-Man lowered himself down on a strand of webbing, wearing a new, sturdier costume as he watched a group of bank robbers. They started handing bags of money to each other as Spidey tossed the bags up and webbed them to the ceiling. They turned around to see the hero standing there, but no money in sight.

“Looks like interest rates are hitting the roof! What? No one’s laughing? Oh, screw you, that was funny,” Spidey said as he started fighting the robbers, webbing them to the wall.

NEXT SUMMER

“A Pound of Fleischer”

Spider-Man was swinging his way through the city, holding a bouquet of flowers for his Aunt May’s birthday. The sun was shining, and the birds were singing as the hero headed toward his old home in Queens, passing by what seemed to be the same stretch of buildings over and over again as he sang.

“I’m Peter the Spider-Man,”

Thwip! Thwip!

“I’m Peter the Spider-Man,”

Thwip! Thwip!

“I’m strong to the finish, ’cause of my physical fitness, I’m Peter the Spider-Man.”

Spider-Man arrived on the porch, landing right on a loose board that flipped the morning edition of the Daily Bugle right into his hands. The hero looked at the front page, where the headline ‘SPIDER-MAN IS A MENACE!’ greeted him, just above a picture of Spider-Man swinging through the city. The Spider-Man in the picture shot a web at the picture of a gloating Jonah Jameson in the upper right-hand corner, pulling the cigar out of his mouth.

“Why you, I oughta,” Jameson mumbled as he started fuming, causing the paper to burn up right in Spider-Man’s hand.

“I guess that was hot off the presses,” Spider-Man muttered as he pushed the doorbell, which caused a knocking sound for May to hear from the inside. Peter’s rail-think Aunt May opened the door and smiled at her nephew.

“Oh, there’s my nephew,” May said as she saw the flowers.

“Happy birthday, Aunt May,” Spider-Man said as May put them aside and immediately grabbed several plates filled with wheatcakes, shoveling entire stacks into her nephew’s mouth after lifting his mask up.

“Oh, you’re getting so thin, you need to eat,” May said, shoveling stack after stack into Spider-Man’s mouth.

Across the street, Doctor Octopus was watching from a rooftop, staring at May through a pair of binoculars. His four tentacles were also holding binoculars as all of them spied on her. Hearts started fluttering around the villains head as he swatted them away like they were insects. Doc Ock and his tentacles put the binoculars down in unison as Doc Ock decided he wanted May for himself.

“Time for a house call,” Doc Ock said as his tentacles linked up, forming into two wheels and speeding over to the porch. He arrived and tossed Spider-Man aside. “Out of the way, short stack. She should be dating a real man. How about a kiss for your old boyfriend?”

“Fresh!” May shouted as the tentacle reached out for her. She smacked each tentacle away as it got close to her.

“I got you flowers, too!” Doc Ock said as one of the tentacles uprooted an entire rose bush and handed it to her.

“Oh, you don’t around the bush, do you?” May asked.

“Hey, you leave my Aunt alone!” Spider-Man said as he headed to the porch, just to be punched back by Doc Ock’s tentacle, with the cycle repeating several times as he tried to rush forward. “Looks like I’m on the wrong arm of the law.”

Spider-Man ran toward him again, but Doc Ock pulled out a spray gun of insecticide and fired it at him, enough to create a large cloud while the hero coughed and hacked.

“You’ve been a pain in the gas for too long,” Doc Ock muttered as he grabbed May and slung her over his shoulder as he laughed.

“Spider-Man, help!” Aunt May shouted while her arms flailed. As Doc Ock jumped onto a bicycle, his tentacles started peddling as he rolled away. A window blind flapped open inside of the cloud of insecticide as Spider-Man saw what was going on.

“Looks like three’s a cloud,” Spider-Man muttered as ran out of a door that appeared in the cloud, disappearing just as quickly after the hero slammed it. He ran after the bicycle as the other two tentacles kept punching the hero away repeatedly, finally knocking Spider-Man into a pile of garbage bags on the sidewalk, where in a dazed state, he saw several tiny Deadpools riding different colored unicorns while flying around his head.

“I trashed him real good. Now it’s just you and me,” Doc Ock laughed as Aunt May continued flailing while slung over his shoulder. The bike stopped as the villain started scaling the wall with his tentacles, climbing the building within seconds. In the garbage pile, one of the tiny Deadpools reached into Spider-Man’s tights and pulled out a can of wheatcakes.

“Aw, I was looking for his wallet,”

Spider-Man flicked away the tiny Deadpool and grabbed the can, lifting up his hood and squeezing the can, shooting the contents into his mouth. The 60’s Spider-Man instrumental played Spider-Man felt his muscles growing, as well as his webshooters. Spider-Man shot webbing toward the building, creating a large ladder to the top. Spider-Man quickly raced up the building, beating Doc Ock to the top by seconds.

Grabbing Aunt May out of his grip, the two started punching at each other while May watched, with the slugfest continuing for several seconds. Spider-Man grabbed one of the tentacles and sent Doc Ock spinning in a furious circle before uppercutting him, sending the villain flying high into the sky. Seconds later, several pieces of wood fell, forming a sale stand. Plates starting falling with food on them, followed by a hanging sign that read ‘SUSHI 5¢’.

“My hero,” May said as she kissed his cheek.

“I’ve got what it takes, ’cause I eats me wheatcakes, I’m Peter the Spider-Man!”

Twhip! Thwip!

See you in Amazing Spider-Man #37, true believers! Thanks for sticking with me for this last crazy decade, and stay tuned, because there’s plenty more Spider-Man stories to tell!

-Tobias Christopher