SPIDER-MAN: TEN SECONDS, ISSUE 4

Black.

As if from a distance, “Peter.”
Closer this time, “Peter.”
“Peter?”

Peter opens his eyes to find that he is chained up, lying on a couch, in his tattered Spider-Man costume, minus the mask, with Aunt May in a chair looking over him.

“Wha, Aunt May? Where am I? How did I get here? I still have my costume on!” He begins to struggle and is on the verge of tears.

“Ssshhh, Peter, relax.” She pets his hair. “We are in Matt Murdock’s office. Daredevil brought you here.”

“Why am I chained up?”

“I wanted to make sure you stayed put.”

“Oh my God! How long was I out? I have to go! People could be dying!” He struggles again, becoming hysterical.

“Peter. PETER! Listen to me!

He stops.

“Peter, it’s OK.”

He relaxes reluctantly.

“Peter, I already knew that you are Spider-Man. Do you really think that you could keep a secret that big from someone so close to you? Here have some water. Drink it slowly; I don’t want you to choke. I knew that you were going through one of your “Peter Parker no more” phases, but when you wouldn’t take my calls, I figured I would have to get a little more drastic. I went to see Matt Murdock and had Daredevil find you and bring you here, to me, so that I could have a talk with you. So, why don’t you tell me what all the fuss is about?”

“Aunt May, someone died because of me. If you know that I’m Spider-Man, you must realize that I take pictures of myself, using the timer on my camera. Well, about two weeks ago, I was doing just that. Someone was being mugged in an alley, so I stopped to set up my camera. It only took about ten seconds, but in that time, the mugger shot the muggee and took off. I took him to the hospital as fast as I could, but he still died soon after. If I hadn’t stopped to set up my camera to make some money, he would still be alive! It’s my fault he is dead.
And it’s my fault Uncle Ben is dead too. When I first became Spider-Man, I was only in it for myself. At one point, the police were chasing a criminal and he ran past me. They yelled for me to stop him, but I didn’t, because it wasn’t my job to. The man I let run by, was the man who killed Uncle Ben.” Peter starts crying.

“Ok Peter, let’s work backwards. First of all, you need to take care of yourself. You can’t do anybody any good if you are a mess. Second, in this world, the way it is, you need money to live. I understand how bad you feel about making a living indirectly from other people’s suffering and the good you do, but until the government decides to pay everyone for their good deeds, you have to make a living somehow. Third, you are in no way at fault for any of those who died, including Uncle Ben. The only ones at fault are the ones who pulled the trigger.”

“But..”

“But nothing! That is the truth, and you take that into your heart right now young man!”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Ok, now part of why you came to those conclusions is because of your scientific mind. While your mind is amazing and capable of great things, it can also be your undoing, if you let your ego get the best of you. Your ego worked out a scenario, in perfect “post hoc, ergo propter hoc” fashion, which led you to the conclusion that YOU are responsible for those deaths.”

“Post hoc…? Where did you learn…?”

“Your dear old Aunt May is a lot smarter than you think. Anyway, you decided that it is up to YOU whether someone lives or dies. You gave yourself the Power and Responsibility of God. You know Peter; we never talked much about God when you were young, mostly because we didn’t need to. Religion is taught much of the time to make kids behave, and since you were such a good boy already, we didn’t feel the need to “put the fear of God” into you. Also, we knew that with your scientific mind, it wouldn’t be your language. You would want to prove whether or not God exists, but it doesn’t work that way. We figured that at some point you would come to terms with God in your own way. But right now, I feel that you need some perspective on God. Peter, why are you Spider-Man?”

“Because I was given this Power, and I have the Responsibility to..”

“Peter, you were also given the Power of that amazing scientific mind of yours. What about the Responsibility to use that?”

“…”

“We already know that a big part of why you are Spider-Man is out of guilt. Guilt because of what happened to Uncle Ben and how you thought it was your fault. But Peter, what do you enjoy about being Spider-Man?”

“What do you mean?”

“Hahaha, that fact that you don’t know what I mean is exactly the problem. Do you have fun cracking jokes, being sarcastic and embarrassing and punching out bad guys?”

“Yes.”

“Does it make you feel good to do what is right? To be the good guy?”

“Of course.”

“Do you feel amazing and free when you are swinging through the buildings of your city on your webs?”

Now with a smile, “Yes.”

“Peter, that is why God wants you to be Spider-Man. Not out of guilt or responsibility. Because you LOVE being Spider-Man. Because it is one of the things in this world that makes you the happiest. Because it is WHO YOU ARE. Peter, that is why Uncle Ben wants you to be Spider-Man, and it is why I want you to be Spider-Man.”

Peter weeps.


EPILOGUE

That weekend Peter calls aunt May. He is wearing his costume, minus the mask. (It is clean now.) She isn’t home so he leaves a message.

“Hi Aunt May, it’s Peter. I just want to thank you again for our little talk the other day; today is a brand new day for me. Oh, and I also wanted to let you know that I’ll be a little late to dinner tonight. I’m going to be out “doing what I love”, hehe. Ok, I’ll see you tonight. I love you.”

He pulls on his mask, leaps out the window and begins his patrol, swinging off into the sunset.

“Spider-Pig, Spider-Pig. Does whatever a Spider-Pig does. Can he swing from a thread? No he can’t, he’s a pig…”

At almost the same time, while Peter is leaving the message, Aunt May and J.J.J. Sr. are just walking in the door with a lot of luggage.

“Oh Jay, what a wonderful vacation that was! We will have to take two week cruises more often! It is good to be home, though. I hope Peter didn’t miss me too much. I think I heard him leaving a message as we were coming in.”

She hits the button and listens to his message.

“I wonder what talk he’s referring to? I am glad that whatever it was, he is doing what he loves! Well, if he’s planning on coming to dinner tonight, I guess I should get started making it.”

THE END

SPIDER-MAN: TEN SECONDS, ISSUE 3

This issue… Spider-Man VS Daredevil!!!

“I may be old, Mr. Murdock, but I’m not stupid.” Aunt May says. “You expect me to think that it’s coincidence that my nephew is the only one to be able to take a decent picture of Spider-Man, and that they are always from some inhumanly high perspective, AND that every time Spider-Man fights a super villain, Peter is mysteriously missing, then shows up looking like he’s a member of Fight Club.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

“I know, I know, the first rule is you don’t talk about it. Believe it or not, I’ve actually seen it.”

“Mrs. Parker,”

“May.”

“May, what?”

“My name. It’s May. If I’m going to be so forward with you, the least I can do is let you use my first name.”

“Alright, May. Whatever your allegations are about your nephew and his “secret identity”, you have no right to come in here and harass me with accusations that have already been proven false.”

“Matthew, I am not your enemy, quite the opposite actually. However I do apologize for catching you off guard. I know it was very difficult when you were outed before, so I’ll pretend like you and Daredevil are two different people. Mr. Murdock, couldn’t you contact your friend Daredevil and tell him that an old woman wants him to help his friend Spider-Man.”

Matt calms down, and lets his super-senses do their thing. Everything checks out, and then some. There is something familiar about her, something…comforting. He’s not sure why, but he trusts her.

“You know Mrs. Parker, sorry, May, I did have this odd feeling before, like I used to know who Spider-Man was, but then I forgot. But that doesn’t make any sense! How would I forget something like that? Maybe that’s why you seem so familiar.”

“Maybe.”

“Well, what is it you want me…Daredevil…ME to do?”

“I want you to find him and bring him to me. I haven’t heard from Peter in about two weeks, but I keep hearing reports of Spider-Man being sighted, or saving people, so I know he’s ok. Well physically anyway, but something must be wrong emotionally. He has done this before, where he will lose himself in Spider-Man for a while. But it isn’t healthy because he usually becomes self-destructive when he does it. I need to talk to him and help bring him back from the edge. I need you to bring him here so I can do that”

“How am I supposed to find him? It’s not like he wears a watch that emits a high pitched frequency that only I can hear with my super-hearing.”

“He will easier to find than you think. When you find him, bring him back here. I’ll be waiting.”

“I’m not sure I can leave Hell’s Kitchen unattended. She needs me.”

“The Kitchen will be fine without you, just for tonight.”

Again he feels comforted and trusts her. “Ok,” he agrees.


Later that night, Daredevil is out looking for Peter. He is actually able to track him pretty quickly and easily, using just his sense of smell. After two weeks of not bathing and having food poisoning on top of that, Spider-Man has a vey unique odor, which is very easy to locate, even in the City. When Daredevil finally catches up with him, he is almost glad that he can’t see how bad he looks. It’s as if there is someone else behind the mask. Spider-Man’s body is frail and his costume is torn and dirty. His right arm is in a sling made out of old rags and he can barely walk. It’s a wonder he was able to make it to the roof. Daredevil swings over and lands on the roof directly in front of Spider-Man.

“Spider-Man, we have to talk.”

“No. You can’t delay me, not even for ten seconds!”

“Spider-Man, you…”

“Out of my way, Daredevil!”

“Peter, listen to me.”

“What did you just call me!?” Spider-Man lunges at him, but Daredevil easily steps out of the way.

“Your Aunt May came to me for help. She is worried about you.”

“WHAT!? How do you know who I am! Does she know? Did you tell her!?!?” He lunges again, Daredevil easily evades again.

“No, she came to me. She wants me to take you too her.”

“She’ll be fine. I have to go. People could die!” He runs away in the opposite direction.

“Sigh, I’m sorry Peter.” Daredevil throws his billy-club at Spider-Man. He is too weak to respond to the faint buzzing of his Spider-Sense, and the billy-club hits him in the head, knocking him unconscious.

TO BE CONCLUDED!

SPIDER-MAN: TEN SECONDS, ISSUE 2

We begin this chapter with Spider-Man web-swinging through the city, only now, it is not so glorious. It has been over a week since he decided to be on the job 100% of the time. He has not showered, slept, or changed his costume in all that time, and the only food he has eaten is what he can grab on the run. He has only been back to his apartment when he needs more web cartridges, and even then he is in and out as fast as possible, for fear of someone else paying the ultimate price for his delay. Needless to say, he is exhausted, but he doesn’t let that stop him.

“Shoot. I’m almost out of web fluid, but I haven’t finished my patrol yet. I can stay out longer if I conserve it by running and jumping from building to building instead of web swinging. That should at least get me through the rest of this round before starting over again.”

He lands on the nearest rooftop and begins his run-and-jump through the rest of his route. Soon it pays off.

“HELP!”

“I told you to shut up!”

Once Spider-Man hears this, he is in the alley like a bullet. He makes quick work of the would-be mugger, punching him out and webbing him to the wall. No jokes, no sarcasm, and before the woman can say “thank you”, Spider-Man is gone. He is back to the rooftops to look for his next potential victim to save.

After more exhausting running-and-jumping, Spider-Man finally gets back to his apartment. He bolts I through the window and goes right to where his web-cartridge stash is.

“Oh man, this last batch is all that’s left. I guess I should keep running and jumping from building to building. It’s much more tiring, but I’ve got to conserve these since they’re my last. I haven’t figured out how I can make more since in the time it would take me to mix up a new batch, people could be dying. I’ve already wasted too much time here as it is. I should grab some food for the road and take off.”

He drops the cartridges on the kitchen table and begins rummaging through the fridge. While he is doing that, the phone rings, which at first he ignores. However, once the machine picks up and he hears Aunt May’s voice, he lifts his head up out of the fridge.

“Hello, Peter, are you there?”

“Maybe I should answer it… No. In the time it would take, someone could die.”

He slams the fridge door closed, taking with him whatever he happened to have in his hand at that moment, without even checking to see if it is still good (P.S. it isn’t). He swipes the web cartridges from the kitchen table and dives out the window, going out on patrol again.

“Peter, please pick up if you’re there. I haven’t seen or heard from you in over a week and I am worried. Peter, if there is something wrong or if you’re in trouble, I hope you know that you can always talk to me about it. Well, please call me as soon as possible to let me know you’re all right. I love you, Peter.”


Aunt May hangs up the phone, thinks for second, picks it up again and dials a new number. After a moment she says, “Yes, hello, I’d like to make an appointment. It’s rather complicated; I’d prefer to just explain when I get there. Yes, thank you. It’s May Parker. Ok, I’ll see you then. Thank you, goodbye.”


A few days later, we catch up with an even worse-off wall-crawler. He ate the rotten food from his fridge, giving him food poisoning, which normally, wouldn’t affect him this bad. However, with the lack of nourishment and rest, it hit him almost as hard as it would the rest of us. (You can imagine for yourself what it’s like trying to deal with vomiting and diarrhea in that costume.) By this point his costume is starting to look a little loose on him, due to a loss of weigh and muscle mass.

Still using his running and jumping method, he comes to a gap in buildings that he cannot leap in a single bound. After running and jumping as far as he can, he relies on his trusty right-hand-web-shooter to take him the rest of the way… and it fails. It takes him a second to realize he shot a blank. He franticly tries it a few more times, but it is completely empty. He tries his left-hand one, which does shoot a web-line, but now he is taken by surprise and off balance. He is able to hold on to the web line, but without being able to shoot a web-line from his right hand, or switch hands and shoot another web-line from his left hand (remember, he’s sick) to stabilize himself; he just ends up slamming into the side of the building. After taking a moment to catch his breath, he climbs his way to the top of the building that he just crashed into and assesses the situation.

“This is my absolute last web-cartridge. I should switch it to my right hand, since if I’m only going to have one, it should be on my dominant hand.” While he is doing that, he hears a scream.

He jumps of the building and on his way down, looks for the source of the scream, which he soon finds. There is a car-jacking taking place, but instead of the driver getting out, the car-jacker made her move to the passenger seat. At first, Spider-Man follows the car, web-swinging with his one web-shooter, while he figures out what to do.

“I don’t want to hurt the woman, so I can’t just swing in the side window feet first and kick the driver. I also can’t just slam down on the hood, smash the windshield and jerk the wheel. She probably doesn’t have her seatbelt on, so I should slow the car down gradually. I also don’t want him to freak out and shoot her. Ok, first priority is to disarm him. I’ve got it!”

Spider-Man lands, clinging to the side of the car. This surprises the car-jacker, so he points his gun at Spider-Man, as he hoped. Spider-Man webs up the gun and gives him a quick punch to the face, knocking him unconscious.

“Put it in neutral!” he screams at the woman. When he sees that she does, he leaps from the car. “Please, God, let me have enough left,” he thinks. While flipping through the air he shoots a web-line at the driver’s side rear fender, which he quickly takes it in his left hand, and then does the same to the roof, trunk, passenger’s side rear fender, and once he lands, the same to the rear axle. Making sure he has a good grip on the web-lines in his left hand, he plants his feet and right hand to the street. The web-line stretches and starts to become taught, then tight as he strains against the weight and speed of the car. It gradually comes to a stop, at which point he releases his hold on the ground.

Still holding onto the webs he walks, on uneasy legs, to the car, it’s engine still revving. He opens the driver’s side door, and pulls the car-jacker out. The engine idles down, now that his foot is no longer on the gas. Considerate until the end, Spider-Man gets in, presses the brake, puts the car in park, and turns off the engine. To conserve webbing, he wraps the car-jacker up in the webbing he used to stop the car. As the woman finally gets herself together enough to come say “thank you”, Spider-Man crawls up a lamppost and hops to the nearest building top.

His arms and legs are like rubber, but still he presses on, making his way back to his patrol route. After a few leaps from building to building, he comes to another huge gap. Without thinking, he launches himself as far across as he can, and aims his web-shooter to do the rest. It shoots about four feet of webs followed by nothing but air, like an emptied silly-string can. He falls, barely even having the energy to flail. He hits a fire-escape which bounces him to the adjacent building and he slides down the wall to finally land in a dumpster; bloody, broken and unconscious.


The next day, Aunt May walks into a waiting room.

The receptionist asks, “May I help you?”

“Yes, I have an appointment. My name is May Parker.”

“Ah yes, Mrs. Parker, go right in.”

“Thank you.”

“Hello Mrs. Parker, what can I help you with?” asks the man behind the desk.

“My nephew Peter needs your help, Mr. Murdock. Or should I say, Spider-Man needs your help, Daredevil.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

SPIDER-MAN: TEN SECONDS, ISSUE 1

A lot can happen in ten seconds…

We begin our story with Peter Parker, the Amazing Spider-Man, web-swinging through the fine city of New York. It is a beautiful day, the sun is shining and our hero is in high spirits.

He is singing (to the tune of the Batman TV theme), “Na-na-na-na na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na na-na-na-na, Spider-Man… Spider-Man… Here-comes-Peter-on-a-web-line, but-his-name’s-not-Peter-it-is, Spider-Man… Spider-Man…”

He happens to look down an alley while he is swinging by and notices a mugging taking place.

“Whoa, looks like someone didn’t get the memo that today is my day off, so no mugging is allowed. And this poor soul didn’t get the memo that you shouldn’t walk down alleys in New York. Lucky for him, his Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man happened to be swinging by. Lucky for me too, my rent is due in a couple of days and I’m almost out of web fluid, not to mention food. It’ll just take me ten seconds to web my camera to the corner of the building, angle it toward where the action will take place and set the timer. There, all…”

BANG!!

“What the!?”

Spider-Man turns his attention from his camera to the alleyway just in time to see the victim lying on the ground and the mugger running out to the street.

“Oh no…”

Less concerned with stopping the mugger, Spider-Man jumps into the alley to check the condition of the victim.

“Hey, are you ok? Can you hear me? Oh my God, I don’t think he’s breathing. I better get him to a hospital. There’s so much blood. This web bandage should help in the meantime.”

Spider-Man gently picks the man up and puts him over his shoulder. He web-swings as fast as he can without jostling the man too much. He arrives at the hospital in less than five minutes.

“HELP! Please, I need a doctor! Hurry, this man has been shot!”

“Here, I’ll take him. What happened?”

“I saw him getting mugged so I was going to help him. I just stopped for ten seconds to…”

“Ok, I’ll take it from here.”

“I’ll be here waiting, I need to know he’s ok. Please, let me know when he’s ok.”

“Someone will let you know.”

“I don’t care if it takes all day…”

It does not take all day however. Within minutes, the doctor returns.

“Doctor, how is he? Is he ok?”

“I’m sorry Spider-Man, but I’m afraid we lost him. He’d lost too much blood by the time you brought him here. We tried, but could not revive him. Now if you’ll excuse me, we need to contact his family.”


Spider-Man returns to the alley to get his camera, and starts to think out loud.

“It’s all because of this. All because I just had to stop and set up my camera. I just had to make sure I got pictures of me being a hero. If I had just stopped the mugging as soon as I got here, that man would still be alive. Once again, someone died because of my inaction. I’ve been so selfish, making a living off of these crimes and other people’s misfortune. From now on, I am only about the mission. No one else will die on my watch!”

Spider-Man swings off to patrol, purposefully leaving his camera behind.

TO BE CONTINUED…