Ultimate Spider-Man 31
From Ultimarvel
“Black Van”
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inker: Art Thibert
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Publication Date: January 2003
• At a police conference in Atlantic City, Captain John Stacy are interrupted from a conversation by a man in a Spider-Man costume attempting to rob an armored car. Captain Stacy pulls a gun on him and orders him to put his hands over his head.
• At Midtown high, Peter Parker is having problems remaining conscious in his Literature class due to his gunshot wound from the night before (Ultimate Spider-Man 29). The teacher sends him to the nurse’s office thinking he has something like the flu.
• Peter stops at his locker on his way to the nurse and finds and message addressed to him inside. It instructs him to go to a black van in the parking lot to have his shoulder taken care of. After being cautious, and determining that his Spider-sense is not going off, Peter approaches the van. He is greeted by a woman introducing herself as Janet Van Dyne who says that Nick Fury sent her.
• Janet tells Peter that they saw his injury on the news the night before and Nick Fury sent her to help him. She injects Peter with a genetic cocktail to accelerate his healing. She tells him that the serum has been synthesized for his DNA based on a blood sample that Fury has of him. Peter asks where Fury got a blood sample of him and Janet cannot answer. Peter also asks her if Fury said anything about the guy who is impersonating him, or anything about “a guy named Harry”. Janet tells Peter that Fury did not mention any of these things, but they are small issues to the Ultimates. She then tells him if someone was impersonating her, she would “beat the holy snot out of him.”
• Peter begins feeling better by the end of the day from the medicine given to him by Janet. He walks home with MJ and Gwen. Gwen accuses him of acting sick in class and doing a bad job at it. She also indicates that she thinks that Peter and MJ are sleeping together and hiding it. She backs this up with evidence of Peter coming in late in the night.
• Peter sees a group of police cars in front of his house. He rushes to the house thinking that Aunt May has been hurt. He finds May inside with Captain Stacy’s men. They give Gwen her father’s badge and inform her that her father has died.
• Ben Urich interviews bystanders that saw the events leading to Captain Stacy’s death. After Captain Stacy had pulled the gun on the Spider-Man imposter, he took off fleeing to the roof of a nearby building. The imposter was wearing a backpack which was hit by a bullet while the cops fired on him. The backpack began to smoke and the imposter took it off and threw it. It was about to land near a passing kid, but Captain Stacy knocked the kid out of the way. However this put him next to the backpack which then exploded, killing him.
• Peter relays the information that Ben received to Gwen, telling her that her dad died a hero. He tells her that the cops believe that the backpack contained plastique. Gwen blames the death on Spider-Man and asks Peter and MJ to leave her alone for a while.
• While coming to work at the Daily Bugle, Peter sees Ben Urich running off to cover a story. Peter asks Robbie Robertson about what is going on and finds that the Spider-Man imposter is in another standoff with the police. Robbie keeps talking about the event to find that Peter has disappeared somewhere during his conversation.
• Peter makes his way to the standoff. He swings overtop the police barricade into the bank where the imposter Spider-Man is holding hostages. The police led by Captain Jeanne DeWolfe question the appearance of two Spider-Mans.
Notes:
- Death of Captain John Stacy.
- First appearance of Ultimate Jeanne DeWolfe.
- Peter’s literature class is reading Animal Farm.
- Peter recognizes Janet as the Wasp, a member of the Ultimates. According to the Ultimates series, Janet’s full name is Janet Pym. She is married to Hank Pym (Giant Man). The two become separated after a bout of domestic abuse, but do not get a divorce for quite some time. Therefore, at this time, Janet’s name should still be Pym, but is understandable that she would use her maiden name instead.
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