June 14th, 2012

Damn, it's been a while since I've written in this thing. Well, it's me. Peter Parker. Just plain old Peter Parker now. It's been exactly 9 years since my last entry. 9 years since I hung up the suit. I guess I should explain what's happened since then. A few days after I quit being Spider-Man, some guy found the costume in the river. He gave it to old Jolly Jonah for cash, and now he's got it hung up next to his desk. It's his pride and joy.

The news spread pretty quickly that the now infamous Spider-Man had thrown in the towel, and the response was pretty much universal joy. I guess Norman was right in the end. "In spite of everything you've done for them, they will eventually hate you."

Unfortunately, without Spider-Man around, the new pictures I was taking weren't enough for Jonah to want to keep me on. I lost my job and ended up bouncing between a lot of jobs for a while after college until I eventually became a barista at Starbucks. I also had to move back in with my Aunt May since Harry became head of Oscorp's "Special weapons" division and isn't living in the city apartment anymore.

Speaking of which, from what I hear, Harry and MJ are doing pretty well for themselves, even though I haven't seen them in years. Harry's taken Oscorp farther than his father ever did, and MJ's a famous actress now. Indy…she was taken off life support only a few months after I hung up the costume. The doctors said there was nothing they could do. The funeral was the last time I saw MJ or Harry.

Dammit. If I had just listened to my own vow I made at Norman's funeral, none of this would've happened! If I hadn't been so stupid, Indy would still be alive! But I guess It's no use pondering the past. Anyway, getting back on topic, I stayed a barista for the next 5 or 6 years. It wasn't exactly the most exciting or profitable job, but at least I wasn't completely broke. That all ended up changing one day in 2009, when I saw a guy in an iron suit stop a derailed train from crashing into a group of people.

The press dubbed him "Iron-Man", and I saw an opportunity. Maybe if I could get some shots of Iron Man, Jonah would hire me back. There weren't any opprotunities to get good shots at first, but thanks to me using my good ol' webs to take the best possible shots of Iron Man's first fight with the Living Laser, I was able to impress Jonah enough to hire me back. But I've noticed that ever since I quit being Spider-man, Jonah's been a lot more depondent than he used to be. Does he actually miss Spidey? I doubt it.

Anyway, ever since I was rehired, I've been taking photos of Iron Man and other "Superheroes" that have shown up since I quit. When that whole "Makulan invasion" thing happened last year, I….put on my old "human spider" suit and saved as many civilians as I could. I couldn't just stand by and watch people die. But that was only a one time thing. Spider-Man is dead, and he's never coming back. I accepted that a long time ago.

-Peter Parker, 2012