Appearing in "What if Spider-Man had rejected the Spider? Poison Selves"
Featured Characters:
- Spider-Man / Poison (Peter Parker) (First appearance) (Merges with the Venom / Poison Symbiote)
Supporting Characters:
- Mary Jane Watson-Parker (First appearance)
- May Parker (First appearance)
- Edwin Jarvis (First appearance)
- New Avengers (First appearance)
- Wolverine (Logan) (First appearance)
- Luke Cage (First appearance)
- Gwen Stacy (Only appearance; resurrected) (Merges with a symbiote)
Antagonists:
- Venom / Poison Symbiote (First appearance) (Unbonded from Mac Gargan and a security guard; merges with the Spider-Man)
- Venom (Mac Gargan) (First appearance) (Loses the Venom Symbiote)
Other Characters:
- The Watcher (Uatu-616)
- Peter Parker (Earth-616) (Mentioned)
- "Great Weaver" (Death)
- The Watcher (Uatu-TRN579) (Behind the scenes)
- Morlun (Mentioned)
- Gwen Stacy's Symbiote (First appearance)
Races and Species:
Locations:
- Earth-70134 (First appearance)
- Earth-616 (Mentioned)
Synopsis for "What if Spider-Man had rejected the Spider? Poison Selves"
Uatu the Watcher summarizes a series of events in which Peter Parker, suffering from cellular degeneration, was attacked by Morlun, but instead killed Morlun before seemingly perishing himself. Confronted by the manifestation of his spider-essence, the Peter Parker of Earth-616 chose to embrace his inner spider and was reborn with augmented powers. Uatu questions what would happen if that confrontation had occurred differently.
After his death, Peter Parker encounters the manifestation of his spider-powers, but rather than accepting its offer he rips its head off. As it dies, the Spider-Totem berates Peter for his actions, but Peter retorts that he's not entitled to be resurrected since better people than him have died permanently, and that the risks of coming back more spider than man are too great. Peter refuses to be the Spider-Totem's puppet, and states that if that costs him his life then so be it. Peter's choice leaves him stranded in his dream-scape, his comatose body webbed in its cocoon beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.
In prison, Mac Gargan sneers that such a prison may have been able to hold him as the Scorpion but not as Venom, while the guards dryly snark at his rant. Gargan's tirade is interrupted by the Venom symbiote sensing that something has happened to Spider-Man and it immediately abandons him to return to its first true love. Ignoring Gargan's pleas for it to return to him, the symbiote escapes Gargan's cell, takes over a guard, and slaughters the others before using its new host as a vehicle to get to the Brooklyn Bridge, abandoning him to fall to his death. The symbiote senses that Peter's metamorphosis is stalled and enters into the cocoon intending to complete his transformation. A struggle between the symbiote's will and Peter's psyche ensues that lasts for several months, but the symbiote succeeds in gradually breaking Peter down and permanently bonds to his body.
The resulting entity emerges from the cocoon in the middle of a thunderstorm. At Stark's apartment, Mary Jane awakens from a nightmare screaming, and Aunt May tries to calm her down. As they talk, the entity crashes through the window. When Mary Jane calls him Venom, the entity attempts to reassure her that's not the case. Horrified, Aunt May recognizes Peter's voice, but the entity rebukes her, stating the permanent bond between the symbiote and Peter is an act of true love, a miracle surpassing those prayed for in church. When Mary Jane accuses him of being Venom again, the entity refutes her and denounces Venom as a "hopeless loser" and dubbing itself Poison. Poison offers to bond Mary Jane to a symbiote spawn so that they can be together, but Mary Jane snaps that she'd rather be dead. Poison remarks that he could simply resurrect her as a mindless shell controlled by his will, which he quips might actually be preferable. He is interrupted by Wolverine and Luke Cage, but easily defeats them. Mary Jane tells Poison to get out, but he refuses to go without her. To Poison's confusion, Mary Jane abruptly accepts his offer, and she explains that his existence sickens her but she's tired of living on an emotional roller coster and doesn't want others getting hurt protecting her. However, she vows that she will make Poison's life a living hell.
Poison leaves without harming Mary Jane, travelling to the Forest Hills Cemetery, unearthing Gwen Stacy's grave and cocooning her corpse to the side of a wall. As Poison watches, a red-and-black clawed hand rips through the cocoon.
Solicit Synopsis
See Also
- 22 image(s) from What If? Spider-Man The Other Vol 1 1
- 2 reprint(s) of What If? Spider-Man The Other Vol 1 1
