At a demonstration on radiation, high school student Peter Parker was bitten by an irradiated spider from which he gained the arachnid's incredible abilities. When a burglar killed his beloved Uncle Ben, a grief-stricken Peter vowed to use his great powers in the service of his fellow man, because he learned an invaluable lesson: with great power there must also come great responsibility.

PETER PARKER: SPIDER-MAN

#159

Starring:

Peter Parker, aka SPIDER-MAN

Norman Osborn, aka THE GREEN GOBLIN

Mary Jane Watson-Parker

Aunt May Parker

Wilson Fisk, aka THE KINGPIN

Vanessa Fisk

NY Asst. Homeland Security Director Alex Lane

Fancy Dan, Montana, & Ox, aka THE ENFORCERS

Spider-Girl

Previously:

During a pivotal battle with the Robot Master, Peter Parker was alerted that his wife, Mary Jane, was in child labor, and rushed off. As he arrived at the hospital, he was drugged at the first opportunity. Several rooms away, MJ delivered, only to have it be a "stillborn." Unbeknownst to her, the child was alive but was secretly snatched by "nurse" Alison Mongrain, an employee of Norman Osborn's, the man who had been in hiding for years. Peter soon awoke to come face-to-face with Norman and defeated him handily.

The fate of the child, meanwhile, has been unknown to anyone except Osborn himself, who met up with Mongrain again in a villa in Tuscany a few months later to relieve her of the infant. Two years later, the Parkers still have no word on the fate of their child. One night, Peter is distracted while web-swinging and attacked by the Ox in the air, who knocks him unconscious and is able to find out his identity. Peter confirms that no one else is permanently able to recall his identity, but then the Ox returns to attack Spider-Man again, in his home where luckily Mary Jane is not present, at a movie filming in Albany. A fatigued Spidey is handily defeated, and then Ox reveals that the Kingpin is his backer, who at the same time in Europe has his wife, Vanessa, send Aunt May (with MJ in Albany) a telephoned threat. As the Ox is leaving, Osborn appears in his Goblin garb, knocking him out.

Osborn then explains to Peter that his daughter is alive, and that she has been adopted, thanks to him, by the Kingpin, who has brought his family to the States and is illegally cleared through customs by Director Alex Lane. Although Osborn does not want to cause anyone any misery anymore, he urges Peter to trust him and not go right after Fisk. Peter takes off, not knowing what to believe, but as he is reflecting, the Enforcers come in their entirety and begin attacking Peter, pulling him away from where he is most needed at a nearby boat explosion. Luckily, another rescuer shows up and saves the day...claiming to be "Spider-Girl, heir to the webbed legacy."

The Face On The Milk Carton--Part Four of Ten

"Move Over"

Albany

"Oh my god! He said yes!!! He said yes!!! Roxy, I can't believe this is happening!!! How can I ever thank you??? You're my best friend in the whole world..."

The answering machine beeped, showing a teary-eyed child listening over and over again to the same message, afraid to reveal what had been communicated to no one yet but him. The media had not relayed the message yet, but would probably do so within minutes, and within a day release the name as well.

His mother was dead, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Suddenly, a shimmering figure appeared, and for a second he couldn't believe it. He gaped, and stared at her, in a white ethereal sort of gown.

"Mom...?" he asked, unbelieving.

Hello, my son...there has been so much I've been wanting to tell you...for all this time...but just remember this much...no matter how far away we are from each other...I will always be there for you...remember that...anytime you wish it, you may just call for me and you know that in your heart, I will be there...I—

The speech was cut short, suddenly, as shouting began to emanate from the back of the room.

Then it became clear what was going on, and "Roxy" sighed. She shook her head at the kid sadly, and shrugged. The cameras had obviously stopped rolling, so she knew it didn't matter right now. She grabbed a bottle of water, removed her gown which she wore over a tank top and jeans, (it was burning outside) and took the kid's hand, walking off the set.

Man...that felt so cool, she mused. Playing a dead chick. Heh.

Mary Jane Watson-Parker looked around at what, until that point, had been a fairly calm directorial staff. Now, however, they all seemed on edge. She didn't understand why...until she looked to the source of the shouting.

There were two men in black suits and sunglasses, looking very official, in sharp contrast to her director, who was looking very angry and very casual. A chill came over her, as she recalled the events of the past few days.

Her husband's Aunt May, who was with her on this filming trip, had received a threatening call yesterday from an unknown woman who had told her to "stay out of her business," and had then hung up on her. It might be related to the fact that Peter Parker was Spider-Man, and that his identity might be at stake, but last night, sitting with Aunt May in the hotel room, MJ had begun to get a suspicion that this was about something more...

Perhaps, she hoped, it finally had something to do about her long-lost daughter May.

But maybe that's hoping too much, she thought, as she moved a bit closer to hear what was up, releasing the kid's hand.

"Whaddaya mean, that's it, wrap up???" yelled the big man. "This is supposed to be a huge Hollywood hit!!! Did my producer say anything about this??? I swear, if that son of a—"

The more built of the two men spoke. "Before you continue your tirade, sir, I will repeat what I said earlier. The filming of this movie has been deemed by the office of New York Homeland Security to be a safety issue. No more questions asked. We have the backing of the government, and you have the rest of the day until we make you leave."

He looked the director in the eye, and smiled creepily. "End of discussion." He and his buddy then turned around, proceeding to leave.

The director sagged, his energy drained. From what it looked like, he couldn't believe this. And MJ didn't blame him—this had been the movie he had constantly been telling them would make or break all of their careers. Well, she thought, I'm gonna do something about it. She walked up to the guy who had spoken, and tapped him on the shoulder.

As he turned around, MJ got in his face. "Excuse me, Mister. Just who the hell do you think you are???"

The man did not respond, but then he did something that made MJ wish she would have never bothered—he leered at her, sizing her up in a way that made her feel dirty and wish she would have kept the gown on.

"Ms. Parker," the man began (he knew who she was???). "I should warn you, I was told to look out for you. Talk too much...and we could...ah...take you downtown for some fun." He grinned evilly.

MJ wanted to slap him. She wanted to say the crudest words she could think of. But at this point, she could do nothing except turn around and walk away.

Which is what she did, much to the amusement of the two men, who walked away, chuckling.

When the men were far enough, they made a call.

Jamaica, Queens

Alex Lane sighed.

This was indeed something unbelievable. The Kingpin was back, and he was actually getting to do...more interesting things.

But oh, at what a cost. He had promised his family that he would take them out to dinner tonight, and the return of his former employer had spoiled that.

Oh well, perhaps they would be appeased with some gifts. Things like that, they always seemed to work on those poor-turned-materialistic types. He wondered why he had bothered to continue to live with this, but the money (and the high-class whores it brought with it) usually took his mind off that.

As he wondered about his multi-dimensional life, the phone rang. He grabbed it immediately.

"Yes?"

"Boss...it's done. They're unpacking as I speak. Anything else?" asked a voice.

Lane smiled. Those high-class whores could turn into Hollywood whores if he kept this up. "Nothing more for now, return here. Nicely executed. You two are overdue for a promotion," he said mysteriously, and then he hung up.

He lay back in his seat, anticipating the delights of a future that promised so much more.

A Few Miles Away

Spider-Man surveyed the three goons leering at him.

Yep, it'd be the typical Parker luck when you've got this kind of situation presenting itself...broken ribs...civilian situation which I'm prevented from assisting...no web-shooters...no backup...and three losers who're being backed by a particularly big loser staring me down in the face.

Although he had promised himself moments ago that he was not going to make wisecracks, he couldn't resist.

"Well boys," he said, nodding at them. "It was nice of you to drop by and all...but this is NOT what I had in mind when I was thinking about a threesome."

This enraged them all, but most of all it infuriated the Ox, who had spent the last two nights torturing Spider-Man on his own until he could make the revelation that the Kingpin was behind the attacks, which was quite a surprise to Spider-Man.

The trio had gotten started under the Big Man, one of the greatest enemies of the Kingpin back in the first year when Peter Parker was just a teenage Spider-Boy (The classic Amazing Spider-Man #10). However, after the Ox did some work for the Kingpin a year ago (Issue #94-95), and soon after the whole gang got into a confrontation with Jimmy 6 (Amazing Spider-Man #469), a man who never got along well with the Kingpin, it seemed to only be logical.

Unfortunately, there had been a lot of things on Peter's mind as of late...and a lot of revelations to deal with...that were testing his belief in logic.

The Ox sputtered and spattered, and then decided to simply raise a fist to run into Spidey's face, but was not prepared for what happened next.

Spidey grabbed the giant's arm and used it to climb up and balance himself on it. The general mental slowness of the guy helped him generously, as this allowed Peter to quickly lock his legs around Ox's giant neck, and then start punching the crap out of him.

"Left, left, left, right, left," sang Spider-Man, military-style, while punching Ox's face at the same time. He was cheerfully oblivious to the attempts of Fancy Dan and Montana to try and get him off their companion's back.

Finally, their pulling started to work, and then, instead of resisting, as they pulled a second time, Spider-Man dropped all his resistance.

The two men pulled so hard that they fell back onto the rooftop floor, and took Spider-Man way back with them.

This gave Peter the opportunity he needed, as Ox was too far back to charge forward, and the wall-crawler used his spider-strength to hop off the rooftop and stick to the nearest building. As he stuck to the wall, he turned around, pulled up his mask slightly, stuck his tongue out, and put his fingers in his ears and began wiggling them at the Enforcers.

The downed men could not believe it. Spidey wasn't going to stick around to see what else they could not believe, though. He climbed up to the top of the roof and quickly ran and jumped from roof to roof, until he reached the site of a boat explosion that had taken place earlier. He could have been there sooner had the Enforcers not tried to delay him.

As he arrived at the scene, he looked at the smoke billowing, and didn't notice anything else out of the ordinary. The boat looked charred, but other than that, he saw ten men lying down on the dock, safely away from the boat. They looked like they had been through better times, but seemed OK for the most part.

Peter walked over and asked them what had happened.

One of them shook his head and waved dismissively at Spider-Man, smiling. "Don't worry about it, pal...you're too late."

Another guy looked up, reminiscing happily... "Man...she's something else, ain't she boys?"

A third guy was up on his feet, calling the news services, relating some kind of story about Spider-Girl...

Waitaminit—

SPIDER-GIRL????

Spider-Man watched the guy, unbelieving, and then he saw the authorities that had been safely converged away from the explosion move in towards the ten boaters. He took this as his cue to leave, but as he left, jumping from wall to wall, he could not believe what he was hearing, for the third time in less than twenty four hours.

Spider-Girl? he wondered again. Oh man, either I'm losing it or Fisk really wants to make a fool out of me.

Unless...this had something to do with May.

Could it?

He went off in search of this...girl. Or Osborn. Whichever held the answers to this mess.

Osborn Industries, Inc., HQ

Norman Osborn sat at his desk, the sole man in the building.

He knew this to be true because it was 5 in the morning, he wore his Green Goblin garb (sans the mask), and he had deactivated the security to let himself, and only himself in.

But he was having trouble believing the headline he was reading in the online edition of the Bugle, which had just been released two minutes ago.

"New hero in town?" What was that supposed to mean?

The lab...

With that thought, Osborn immediately rose, and pressed a button on his desk. It would set the alarm to reactivate on the building in one minute, and at the same time it parted the metal ceiling above him to reveal an opening into the night.

He hopped onto his glider, donned the mask of the terror that he was, known as the Green Goblin, and soared off.

I have to be sure.

He recalled the name of the spy he had pulled up while at his desk, and tapped a few buttons on his glider with his foot.

For some reason, this caused him to recall some sort of game he had seen at one of the malls where children had been stepping around like fools...and he had been with an executive at the time who had excitedly recommended it for promotion of their sales.

Osborn had looked him in the eye, proclaiming that he would never use such a thing like that. But after firing the man a year later, he picked up on the idea and used it to his own advantage. The technology from Dance Dance Revolution worked rather nicely for someone with his special needs.

As the audio on the glider crackled to life, Osborn spoke through an earpiece that he had pulled out of his pocket—it had a wireless link to his glider.

"32, report."

"This is 32 reporting," came the crisp reply.

"32, your new target is Wilson Fisk. Find one of his operatives, bribe them, and give me the location of his residence for the duration of his stay in New York."

With that, he tossed the headpiece back in one of his many compartments and pressed his foot against a button which ended the transmission.

This has to work, he thought...

Hours later, nearby

As he heard an alarm bell go off in the distance, Peter put aside all thoughts of finding the Goblin or Spider-Girl, and turned his attention to this danger.

He looked around, and noticed a building was on fire about 3 miles away. He estimated it would take him no more than 2 minutes to get there.

Wish people would take care of their stoves, he mused, as he began hopping from rooftop to rooftop, without his webshooters.

Of course, if I wasn't as handicapped as I am tonight, this would be a piece of cake.

Spider-Man's thoughts were suddenly interrupted as a flying figure smacked into him in mid-air, yet again, and sent him falling into the alleyway below.

Luckily, this time the buildings were very close together, so in-air Peter managed to stick onto the wall of one of them.

He then looked up, and could not believe it.

The Ox flew around in...something...that was strapped onto his back, and had wings protruding from either side that jutted out just past his arms. Fancy Dan seemed to be bouncing around on what looked like an "Ultimate Pogo Stick." And Montana had a pair of boxing gloves that robotically extended about...well, they extended pretty far.

Where the hell (and how the hell (and when the hell)) had these guys gotten this upgrade?

As if reading Peter's mind, the Ox looked down on Spider-Man, who was still frozen in shock and sheer disbelief, and laughed.

"How you like us now, puny Parker?"

Spider-Man shrugged off his disbelief and finally spoke up. "Look...I think it's great and all that you guys got a better fashion sense...but to be honest, Foxy Oxy," said Peter, jumping up without warning, "You look like Buzz Lightyear."

Having said that much, he suddenly produced a bunch of Spider-Nets that he had been meaning to use for an emergency, and found that this was the appropriate time. He quickly chucked eight of these "balls that exploded into nets" at Ox and his wings, and then moved on as the netting confused the big guy and caused him to go flying off in an opposite direction.

He then turned to Fancy Dan and Montana, who sneered at Peter.

"Shut up, you punk!" yelled Fancy Dan, unable to take it. The short guy bounced up and as he was coming back down, he tried to stomp on Spidey, but spectacularly failed as he crashed back to the roof. He got up quickly and brushed himself off, even more pissed.

"Hey!" yelled Montana, pointing at Peter. "Look, we got this stuff from Columbia University...not from your freakin' ESU...so ha!"

Spidey nodded, stroking his chin. "Gee, that helps, Inspector Gadget...I mean, Montana—whoa!!"

The "whoa!!" came as a reaction to a flying extendable glove that veered his way. Luckily, Peter moved away in time.

As he climbed to a higher building, he looked down at the distant Montana. "Hah! I bet your arms can't reach this far! And tell your friend, Super Mario—"

Suddenly, Spider-Man felt his spider-sense going off. He looked up to find Fancy Dan coming down on him, and as Peter tried to get away, he suddenly noticed that the flying Ox was carrying the short guy, who was increasing their velocity with the jumps. Then he looked closer, and found that they picked up Montana, who now prepared his arm for extension...

Yikes, thought Peter. They're almost like the Transformers, except in my worst nightmare.

Scarsdale

The Goblin stood in the dark quietly, watching as the costumed figure dropped down to the windowsill of what appeared to be an abandoned building. The figure looked around a few times, and then opened up the window and entered.

The figure was Spider-Girl, and for the last few hours, the Goblin had been following her. After he had sent 32 the orders, he had stumbled upon Spider-Girl stopping a fire, and then out of curiosity had decided to follow her.

Everywhere she went, it seemed as though she was doing what Parker was not. And where was he, anyway? Why had he not done one thing to help in the past two days? It was not like him.

Something was up.

But as he had thought this, he had gotten his reply from 32, who had confirmed Kingpin's residence for him. An idea then came to his head, and he did not go to this location right away. He instead followed Spider-Girl, who had come here after that.

And sure enough, this was the location that he had been given by 32.

As he prepared to go to the windowsill to confirm what he knew to be true, he suddenly heard the sound of an approaching car...an entire motorcade, it seemed, as he scurried back into the alleyway and hid in a dark, dark corner, where he could still see but was relatively undetected.

He peeked through his little hole and saw the lead car, a Rolls-Royce, pull up to the door of the alleyway. Tons of guards emerged and it was not possible to see anything at this point. As the guards filed in, and four stayed behind at every corner of the building, Osborn decided to try another approach.

He snuck around till he was relatively far away from the abandoned building, and then glided up to the top of another nearby abandoned building. He made sure to keep the engine noise quiet, and then he pulled out a set of binoculars. He adjusted them, surveying the window of the abandoned building.

These binoculars were able to penetrate brick, and unfortunately for Fisk, he had chosen a brick building to perform his operation in.

The device showed him something that greatly contrasted with the outer appearance of the structure—a building which looked like a palace inside. It became to clear to the Goblin that this was an abandoned factory that had been converted by the Kingpin into a palace. During the day, Osborn figured that the disguise was in place, even on the inside. But at night, he knew that this was where it all went down.

Osborn took a deep breath...and then looked towards the windowsill where Spider-Girl had entered a minute ago.

Immediately, Osborn activated the microscopic bug he had placed outside the window, which used waves which could penetrate the walls, and listened through his earpiece.

"...so glad you got that scholarship, Mayday! How exciting!" exclaimed a woman, who he assumed to be Vanessa.

Osborn took a deep breath, took the earpiece out, and put the binoculars to his eyes, aiming them at the window.

There stood Wilson and Vanessa Fisk...hugging a red-haired, young girl, who appeared to be in her late teens...

And she greatly resembled Peter Parker and his wife, Mary Jane...

TO BE CONTINUED in Peter Parker: Spider Man #160 – Formulaic Flashback