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Appearing in "Cunning Attractions!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Amazing Spider-Man #327

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Synopsis for "Cunning Attractions!"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Amazing Spider-Man #327

This story continues from Web of Spider-Man #59...

Spider-Man is testing out his newfound powers, discovering that he can shape his webbing into any form with his mind, creating a massive scale model of an atomic structure.[Continuity 1] His wife Mary Jane is surprised at Peter's new powers, but wonders where they came from.[Continuity 2] This isn't the least of Peter's worries as he has been attacked by villains that he has never fought before or haven't seen in quite some time.[Continuity 3] Still learning how to control his new abilities, Peter fears that he might seriously hurt or kill someone. Mary Jane scolds Peter for thinking that way, telling him that he was given these new powers for a reason and he will soon figure out why. She then goes about cleaning up Peter's webbing, while Spider-Man tries to comprehend a time he wasn't married to Mary Jane.[Continuity 4]

Elsewhere in Manhattan, the Wizard reads the front page story about Spider-Man's battle with Titania.[Continuity 5] He tells Magneto, the Kingpin, and Doctor Doom about Spider-Man's victory was due some newly discovered powers. The Kingpin, having had the most experience with the wall-crawler, confirms that the masked hero has never had such power in the past. For their "Acts of Vengeance" to work, they need to find an adversary that Spider-Man has never faced before, but also has the power to match Spider-Man's new abilities. Magneto offers to do so, much to the surprise to his fellow prime movers as they had all agreed not to get directly involved in this conflict. However, Magneto points out that an unusual move is required for such an unusual set of circumstances. He also tells them that he has a personal interest to investigate. As Magneto leaves, Doctor Doom thinks about his own interests and vows to destroy Magneto should their interests interfere with one another.

Meanwhile, Peter and Mary Jane have come to a gym to watch Flash Thompson's practice for one of his upcoming boxing matches. After practice is over, Flash introduces them to his newest girlfriend, a ditzy blonde named Blaze. When Peter asks Flash if he is worried about getting hurt, Thompson says he knows the risks and accepts them. When he goes off to hit the showers, Blaze attempts to hit on Peter, which isn't received well by Mary Jane. As Blaze rushes off to rejoin Flash, the Parkers worry about how Flash hasn't found a suitable girlfriend yet. However, their concerns go by the wayside as Peter has to report to class, giving Mary Jane hope that Peter will be too distracted in his work to worry about his new powers. At that moment, Magneto arrives in Central Park. He thinks about how the upcoming war between humans and mutants is fast approaching. He believes Spider-Man could be the key to mutant victory, believing his new powers might be the result of mutant abilities manifesting themselves at a later date.[Continuity 6] When a jogger mocks Magneto's costume, he uses his powers to press the man's headphones painfully to his ear. Worrying that any action might draw the Fantastic Four or the Avengers, Magneto decides to sit on a park bench and bide his time.

At that moment, at Empire State University, Peter Parker is going over Max Lubisch's lab to try and figure out how Max's experiment with an unknown energy source gave him his new powers. However, when Lubisch enters the lab, he is suspicious of Peter's intentions and kicks him out, leaving Parker with no answers. Changing into Spider-Man, the hero decides to go to an auto wrecking yard in Brooklyn to further test out his new powers. As he unleashes his powers on the wrecked cars, one of the employees calls it in his activities to one of the local news stations. At that same moment, Mary Jane is on set at the studio that films the soap opera "Secret Hospital". The scene she is in requires her to seduce and kiss another actor. After the director calls cut, MJ thinks about this is the first man she has kissed since she married Peter, but knows her husband won't feel threatened because he's strong. At that very moment, Spider-Man is testing out his augmented strength by lifting a garbage barge out of the water. His activities draw the attention of Magneto who arrives to battle the wall-crawler. Magneto uses his powers to hurl scrap metal at the hero. However, his new cosmic powers and enhanced spider-sense allows him to dodge the metal and blast the debris.

Magneto then takes control of a magnetic loading crane, boosting its power to the point magnetizes Spider-Man thanks to the metals in his bodily fluid. He is then tossed on a huge pile of broken glass, but the wall-crawler is unharmed. Magneto then tries to crush Spider-Man with some junked cars, but the hero is able to deflect these attacks by creating a massive web bat to knock them into the water. Spider-Man then leaps up into the air and attempts to blast Magneto, but the mutant terrorist deflects the blast with a magnetic shield. As the battle rages, Spider-Man's enhanced hearing alerts him to the fact that one of the cars he batted away has landed on a boat, endangering the passengers. Wondering how he can save them, the wall-crawler is amazed when he suddenly is capable of flight. As he flies away, Spider-Man wonders if there will be an end to these newfound powers. Witnessing the wall-crawler take flight, Magneto is convinced that Spider-Man is not a mutant as he is demonstrating multiple new powers when mutants typically only demonstrate one specific ability.[Continuity 7] Although this isn't the mutant he is looking for, Magneto departs and begins planning how he can manipulate Spider-Man's new powers for his own ends.

After Spider-Man brings the boat safely ashore, he notices that Magneto has departed and decides to leave himself. However, he is disturbed by his newly acquired ability of flight and heads off by web-slinging. Later, back at his Soho apartment, Peter tells Mary Jane about everything that happened. He is still worried about being able to control this seemingly limitless array of powers. Mary Jane points out that even with this great power, Peter was still able to save lives. Peter is still concerned, even though he saved lives this time, he fears that he might not be able to do so in the future.

Spider-Man's involvement in the Acts of Vengeance continues in Spectacular Spider-Man #159...

Appearing in "One Moment in Time, Chapter Two: Something New"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Amazing Spider-Man #639

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Synopsis for "One Moment in Time, Chapter Two: Something New"

Reprint of the 1st story from
Amazing Spider-Man #639

Note: Read synopsis of last issue. It's present day again and Peter asks MJ if he has to keep going with the story. She says there are things she wants to tell him but he has to finish his story first. Peter begins again and we find Spider-Man sitting on the edge of a building, head in his hands. He is freaking out about the marriage and wonders what he has just done. Peter tries calling MJ but she doesn't answer, he smashes his phone from frustration. He decides to see if she went back home, he starts to desperately swing towards where MJ lives, telling himself he has to make this right. He looks into MJ's window and sees she is not there, just the stuff she had packed to move in with Peter. Spider-Man begins swinging through the whole city looking for her, screaming her name. He decides to stop searching due to his pounding head after getting hit with the cinder block. He goes home and collapses on the floor. He finds MJ's veil on the floor next to him, she was here. She asks what the deal was, what happened to make him not show? She asks if it was cold feet and asks if she means that little to him. He tries to explain but she cuts him off. She screams at him to take his mask off if he wants to speak to her. He takes it off and she sees his swollen lip and black eye. She realises that he missed the wedding due to Spider-Man. She tells him that the fact he was gone wasn't any better, she thought it was worse for him to miss the wedding because of Spider-Man rather than him having cold feet. She asks Peter how many times Spider-Man had gotten between them.She mentions that she doesn't want to be Spider-Man's wife, she wants to be Peter's. She attempts to ask him if he can stop being Spider-Man, but he interrupts her telling her he can't. She screams at Peter and throws his mask at his face. Peter tries to grab her so she won't leave but it makes her scream more and she runs out and slams the door. Peter falls to his knees in front of the door. Back in the present, Peter tells MJ that he thought that was the last time he would ever see her. MJ says it is her turn to tell him her side. Back to the story, MJ is eating lunch with Aunt Anna. Aunt Anna guesses it took just 24 hours for MJ to get back on her feet. MJ remembers laying on the couch in her wedding dress, holding the tickets to Paris for their honeymoon. On the TV she sees Spider-Man saving a vehicle from dropping off the overpass. She throws the phone at the TV shattering it. At lunch, she explains it wasn't as simple as a matter of time. As MJ and Aunt Anna talk a little boy on the side walk jumps up wearing a Spider-Man shirt, exclaiming that he was Spider-Man. The little boy's mother picks him up and apologises, MJ shoots her a dirty look. Aunt Anna tells her that Peter is a good man, he was probably just scared. MJ is motivated by this to visit Peter again. She opens the door and sees that Peter's apartment was a mess. Peter tells her he hasn't left outside of Spider-Man stuff since the wedding day. She tells Peter about how she wanted kids, and also mentions that she now knows that she could never bring a child into a life like theirs. She said that although Peter wasn't abusive like her father, the whole life with Spider-Man was just as bad. She admits the only reason she wanted to get married was to have kids, and that she didn't have to be married to Peter to be with him. She tells Peter she still wants to be a part of his life. Back to the present, Peter thinks back to his past mistakes, noting that outside of Gwen's death, unmasking was the worst mistake he'd ever made. We finished the reason why they were never married, now it starts to explain how Aunt May was save and how the world forgot Peter's identity. He says he if had never unmasked Aunt May would not have been shot. He says it's not like he didn't try to fix it, as he went to Doctor Strange and fought with Iron Man. Doctor Strange tells him there is nothing he can do. Peter sits on Doctor Strange's doorstep and tells MJ it felt like the end of the world at that moment. We are taken to the hospital where MJ sees Peter walk in and asks if he is ok. They go outside and start to talk when Aunt May's heart monitor flat lines. Peter rushes in and as the doctor's try to revive her he sees them fail. He freaks out and decides to perform CPR on her anyway. A miracle occurs and as Peter is pressing her chest the heart monitor lights up again. He had saved her, and the doctor is baffled.

Notes

  • This is a UK title that features reprints of American Spider-Man titles.

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