Back to GatefoldIssue #22 by Mike Exner III
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"AN ENFORCER TO BE RECKONED WITH - Part One - Read All About It"
Previously in the Amazing Spider-Man: Peter found Randy beaten and battered in their apartment after the events from last issue and got him to a hospital. After Jill Stacy ponders the situation with her brother she meets Peter at the hospital and they go for a drink. Jonah orders the staff of the Daily Bugle to print a story incriminating Spider-Man in the Starbuck's bombing along with pictures taken by Angela Yin. Jonah's good mood is soured when he gets a mysterious phone call that piques Ben Urich's curiosity. The Dragon Man and Spider-Man battle at the Museum of Natural Art and Dragon Man escapes with the aid of the Enchantress. Peter kisses Jill while under the goddess' spell and neither sees her brother Paul looking on.
Robbie Robertson clamped his pipe sharply between his teeth as he frowned down at the printing before him. “This headline is just wrong, Ben.”
Ben Urich nodded his head slightly in agreement as he scratched lightly at the stubble on his chin. “You won’t hear any arguments from me, Robbie. But the headline was Jonah’s pick. I don’t think he’d take kindly to us changing it now.”
The creases in Robbie’s forehead deepened as he crumpled the piece of paper before him. “I take it this has already gone down to copy?”
“Yeah, they took it down a couple hours ago,” replied Ben and Robbie cursed under his breath.
“I think Jonah might have gone a little bit too far this time,” said Robbie as he crossed over to his desk. He picked up the phone and let his fingers trace over the keypad. The line on the other end rang twice and then picked up. “Hi, sweetie. I’m going to be home in about a half hour. I thought we could go see Randy. Ok, sounds good. I love you too. Bye.”
Ben tapped his pen on the pad of paper sitting in front of him and watched Robbie slip his arms into his coat. “There’s something we’ve got to talk about before you leave, Robbie. It’s about Jonah.”
“Can it wait until tomorrow, Ben? I really don’t have the time today,” replied Robbie and then looked up at Ben and gasped. Ben was holding a picture in his hand… a picture of a man with deathly white skin surrounded in a cloak of black.
Robbie moved over to the chair opposite Ben and sat down heavily. “Do you remember the work I was doing on Norman Osborn? Do you remember the reports of the Scrier?”
“I remember,” replied Robbie as he took the photo from Ben’s hand. “What does this have to do with Jonah?”
Ben continued to tap his pen on the pad of paper but the pace had increased significantly. “I overheard Glory forwarding a call to Jonah from a Mr. Scrier. Jonah and Norman were good friends. Scrier was the name of a cabal Norman had under his control. Jonah rushed out of here without telling anyone where he was going not long after he received the call. That’s a lot of coincidence.”
Robbie drew long and hard on the pipe clenched in his jaws. It was beginning to look like he wouldn’t be getting home to his wife anytime soon. He hoped Randy and Martha could forgive him.
“Tell me everything you know,” he said and Ben started talking.
The Next Morning
“Jesus,” said Detective Russ Anderson as he flipped open the front page of the morning edition of the Daily Bugle. The headline hit him like a brick to the back of the head. The picture below it was enough to make him sick to his stomach.
SPIDER-MAN KILLS IN TIMES SQUARE
A simple headline that got straight to the point. He could appreciate that. Russ Anderson was a homicide detective, after all. Having people get straight to the point with him was part of his job. Cutting through all the crap people placed around the truth was another. As Detective Russ Anderson read the article and editorial that accompanied it, he knew that the crap placed around this article was going to fly. And it was all going to land on the man known as Spider-Man.
The pictures were beautiful and terrible at the same time. The first had Spider-Man caught in a pose that was just pleading to be captured on film and presented to the public. Anderson had been at the scene when Spider-Man had pulled that dead young man from the entrance to the Starbuck’s coffee house. Now the entire world was seeing it too.
The second was a view of the people in the coffee house as it began to explode. Terror was etched on their faces. In the very far corner of the picture Spider-Man could be seen holding the dead victim in his hands. The parchment with the horrible message written on it was viewable to anyone who cared to look.
Anderson narrowed his eyes and rushed over to his television set. He turned it on hoping that what he knew would be there wasn’t. It was.
The mayor of New York was holding a copy of the Daily Bugle over the podium he was standing behind for the people of New York to see. His voice was powerful and noble. He assured the people that the menace of Spider-Man would be dealt with in a quick and decisive manner. The mayor was billing it as a crusade for justice. Spider-Man would be pursued as relentlessly as the terrorists that had struck their fair nation on September the eleventh.
Detective Russ Anderson cursed under his breath in the same manner Robbie Robertson had done hours before. He flicked the power control on his television set and then returned to the paper on his kitchen table. His eggs had gotten cold as he watched the news program so he scraped them into the trash. He threw the Daily Bugle in with them.
“This isn’t right,” he said under his breath to the empty kitchen. His coat was hanging by the door so he went over to it. He took his coat off the hook and saw his gun and badge hanging underneath. He looked at them for a long time before he made his decision. Detective Russ Anderson slipped his gun and badge on and then pulled on his coat. He left his apartment and was soon on his way downtown.
Peter Parker burst through the door to the stairwell leading into the offices of the Daily Bugle and began immediately stomping towards J. Jonah Jameson’s office. Glory Grant and Robbie Robertson were both standing in front of the Jonah’s door and appeared to be having a heated conversation. Robbie glanced up at Peter and stopped talking to Glory as he saw the look of anger on Peter’s face.
“Jonah’s not here, Peter. I’m as upset as you are over what the Bugle printed but…” started Robbie but Peter immediately cut him off by shoving him hard into the wall.
Robbie hit the frame of the door with his shoulder and winced in pain. Peter took hold of his arms and held him in a grip of iron. “How could you let him print that garbage, Robbie? You know Spider-Man would have saved every person in that building if he could have!”
“I know, Peter. Believe me… I know. I was at the hospital when Jonah sent the copy down to be printed. By the time I got back to the Bugle it was too late,” said Robbie through clenched teeth. Peter looked up at Robbie Robertson with rage boiling in his heart and saw the look of pain etched onto Robbie’s features. He was hurting his friend.
Peter released Robbie and dropped his head in shame. What was he thinking taking his anger out on Robbie like this? What if it had been Jonah? He might have killed the man. Peter shuddered as the thought of losing control danced within his mind. Part of the reason the people at the coffee house had died was because of his lack of control. With all of his power, losing control could only make things worse.
“I’m sorry, Robbie. I don’t know what got into me. I just saw that headline and Jonah has always been so unfair to Spider-Man and I just lost it and I’m sorry,” said Peter and he knew he was babbling. He knew that everyone in the office was staring at him. He could feel their eyes stabbing into his back like daggers.
Peter felt Robbie place a hand tentatively on Peter’s shoulder. The hand squeezed lightly and Robbie led Peter to his own office. “Look, Pete. It’s ok. No real harm done. You were just angry and you reacted… that’s all. I’m angry too. Jonah kicked up a storm with this front page and he’s not even around to take any of the dozens of calls he’s received because of it.”
Peter looked up at Jonah and frowned. “Jonah isn’t here? I would have thought the old buzzard would be basking in his own glory and making everyone take notice.”
“You and me both, Pete. I don’t know where he’s gone. He left last night while I was at the hospital and he hasn’t returned. I’m honestly a little worried about him,” said Robbie. His conversation with Ben Urich was still fresh in his mind but there was no reason to share the details of it with Peter.
“Sorry if I don’t exactly share your concern right now, Robbie. I should probably just go. Chances are if I saw Jonah right now the police would have more than one man-hunt to deal with,” said Peter and got up to leave. Peter reached for the knob but the door was suddenly wrenched open. Ken Ellis burst into the office and brushed past Peter roughly.
“Some kind of superhuman villains are causing property damage downtown. My sources tell me that the place these super-types are trashing belongs to Wilson Fisk!” spluttered Ken Ellis and Robbie immediately looked over in Peter’s direction.
“Angela Yin isn’t around, Peter. I need you and Ellis to head over to wherever this is going down and find out what you can. If this is mafia-related I want two of my best out there. Bring me home a big story, gentlemen,” said Robbie around his pipe and both Peter and Ken nodded.
They both walked out of the office together but then Peter began making his way to the stairs while Ellis rushed towards the elevator.
“Where are you going, Parker? We’re supposed to be heading to the warehouse district on Juniper!” said Ken Ellis as Peter continued to backpedal away from him.
“I’ll meet you there, Ken. I’ve got my own transportation,” replied Peter and then disappeared into the stairwell.
Ken Ellis shook his head and prodded at the button to call the elevator. “Damn photographers.”
“Hello, Eugene,” said a feminine voice from the doorway leading into Eugene’s hospital room. Eugene turned his head in that direction and watched as Jill Stacy entered and crossed the floor towards him.
Eugene Patilio smiled and Jill Stacy couldn’t help but smile back. His head was wrapped in a large white bandage that covered the majority of the top of his skull. It was strung around his chin several times. Eugene looked like a mummy that had cut the cloth away from its face.
“I’m so glad you’re here, Jill. I haven’t seen any of my friends since I got here. My dad was by earlier but he left a while ago,” said Eugene as Jill pulled a chair over to his bedside. She sat down next to him and took hold of his hand. “Have you seen Peter or Randy or anybody?”
Jill closed her eyes and dropped her head slightly. “Randy was attacked in his apartment, Eugene. Peter found him yesterday and brought him here. He even asked the doctors to move Randy up here with you once he was feeling better.”
Eugene’s mouth dropped open in an expression of shock that was so comical that Jill would have laughed under normal circumstances. “I can’t believe it! Both of us attacked in the same day! Peter must have been tripping!”
Jill frowned and looked at Eugene in confusion. “Attacked? I thought you just got hit in the head with a piece of shrapnel from the Starbucks explosion?”
Eugene smiled a great toothy grin and looked away from Jill. “Oh… right! Yeah, of course that was what it was. I guess that rock that plunked me on the head messed with my brain a little. Things are kind of fuzzy, that’s all.”
“Yeah, well if you’re not feeling well I could come back and see you later,” said Jill and Eugene shook his head and grasped Jill’s hand tightly in his own.
“No, Jill. I’m glad you came by. I was hoping we’d get a chance to talk after what happened in the club that night,”* replied Eugene.
Robbie Robertson clamped his pipe sharply between his teeth as he frowned down at the printing before him. “This headline is just wrong, Ben.”
Ben Urich nodded his head slightly in agreement as he scratched lightly at the stubble on his chin. “You won’t hear any arguments from me, Robbie. But the headline was Jonah’s pick. I don’t think he’d take kindly to us changing it now.”
The creases in Robbie’s forehead deepened as he crumpled the piece of paper before him. “I take it this has already gone down to copy?”
“Yeah, they took it down a couple hours ago,” replied Ben and Robbie cursed under his breath.
“I think Jonah might have gone a little bit too far this time,” said Robbie as he crossed over to his desk. He picked up the phone and let his fingers trace over the keypad. The line on the other end rang twice and then picked up. “Hi, sweetie. I’m going to be home in about a half hour. I thought we could go see Randy. Ok, sounds good. I love you too. Bye.”
Ben tapped his pen on the pad of paper sitting in front of him and watched Robbie slip his arms into his coat. “There’s something we’ve got to talk about before you leave, Robbie. It’s about Jonah.”
“Can it wait until tomorrow, Ben? I really don’t have the time today,” replied Robbie and then looked up at Ben and gasped. Ben was holding a picture in his hand… a picture of a man with deathly white skin surrounded in a cloak of black.
Robbie moved over to the chair opposite Ben and sat down heavily. “Do you remember the work I was doing on Norman Osborn? Do you remember the reports of the Scrier?”
“I remember,” replied Robbie as he took the photo from Ben’s hand. “What does this have to do with Jonah?”
Ben continued to tap his pen on the pad of paper but the pace had increased significantly. “I overheard Glory forwarding a call to Jonah from a Mr. Scrier. Jonah and Norman were good friends. Scrier was the name of a cabal Norman had under his control. Jonah rushed out of here without telling anyone where he was going not long after he received the call. That’s a lot of coincidence.”
Robbie drew long and hard on the pipe clenched in his jaws. It was beginning to look like he wouldn’t be getting home to his wife anytime soon. He hoped Randy and Martha could forgive him.
“Tell me everything you know,” he said and Ben started talking.
The Next Morning
“Jesus,” said Detective Russ Anderson as he flipped open the front page of the morning edition of the Daily Bugle. The headline hit him like a brick to the back of the head. The picture below it was enough to make him sick to his stomach.
SPIDER-MAN KILLS IN TIMES SQUARE
A simple headline that got straight to the point. He could appreciate that. Russ Anderson was a homicide detective, after all. Having people get straight to the point with him was part of his job. Cutting through all the crap people placed around the truth was another. As Detective Russ Anderson read the article and editorial that accompanied it, he knew that the crap placed around this article was going to fly. And it was all going to land on the man known as Spider-Man.
The pictures were beautiful and terrible at the same time. The first had Spider-Man caught in a pose that was just pleading to be captured on film and presented to the public. Anderson had been at the scene when Spider-Man had pulled that dead young man from the entrance to the Starbuck’s coffee house. Now the entire world was seeing it too.
The second was a view of the people in the coffee house as it began to explode. Terror was etched on their faces. In the very far corner of the picture Spider-Man could be seen holding the dead victim in his hands. The parchment with the horrible message written on it was viewable to anyone who cared to look.
Anderson narrowed his eyes and rushed over to his television set. He turned it on hoping that what he knew would be there wasn’t. It was.
The mayor of New York was holding a copy of the Daily Bugle over the podium he was standing behind for the people of New York to see. His voice was powerful and noble. He assured the people that the menace of Spider-Man would be dealt with in a quick and decisive manner. The mayor was billing it as a crusade for justice. Spider-Man would be pursued as relentlessly as the terrorists that had struck their fair nation on September the eleventh.
Detective Russ Anderson cursed under his breath in the same manner Robbie Robertson had done hours before. He flicked the power control on his television set and then returned to the paper on his kitchen table. His eggs had gotten cold as he watched the news program so he scraped them into the trash. He threw the Daily Bugle in with them.
“This isn’t right,” he said under his breath to the empty kitchen. His coat was hanging by the door so he went over to it. He took his coat off the hook and saw his gun and badge hanging underneath. He looked at them for a long time before he made his decision. Detective Russ Anderson slipped his gun and badge on and then pulled on his coat. He left his apartment and was soon on his way downtown.
Peter Parker burst through the door to the stairwell leading into the offices of the Daily Bugle and began immediately stomping towards J. Jonah Jameson’s office. Glory Grant and Robbie Robertson were both standing in front of the Jonah’s door and appeared to be having a heated conversation. Robbie glanced up at Peter and stopped talking to Glory as he saw the look of anger on Peter’s face.
“Jonah’s not here, Peter. I’m as upset as you are over what the Bugle printed but…” started Robbie but Peter immediately cut him off by shoving him hard into the wall.
Robbie hit the frame of the door with his shoulder and winced in pain. Peter took hold of his arms and held him in a grip of iron. “How could you let him print that garbage, Robbie? You know Spider-Man would have saved every person in that building if he could have!”
“I know, Peter. Believe me… I know. I was at the hospital when Jonah sent the copy down to be printed. By the time I got back to the Bugle it was too late,” said Robbie through clenched teeth. Peter looked up at Robbie Robertson with rage boiling in his heart and saw the look of pain etched onto Robbie’s features. He was hurting his friend.
Peter released Robbie and dropped his head in shame. What was he thinking taking his anger out on Robbie like this? What if it had been Jonah? He might have killed the man. Peter shuddered as the thought of losing control danced within his mind. Part of the reason the people at the coffee house had died was because of his lack of control. With all of his power, losing control could only make things worse.
“I’m sorry, Robbie. I don’t know what got into me. I just saw that headline and Jonah has always been so unfair to Spider-Man and I just lost it and I’m sorry,” said Peter and he knew he was babbling. He knew that everyone in the office was staring at him. He could feel their eyes stabbing into his back like daggers.
Peter felt Robbie place a hand tentatively on Peter’s shoulder. The hand squeezed lightly and Robbie led Peter to his own office. “Look, Pete. It’s ok. No real harm done. You were just angry and you reacted… that’s all. I’m angry too. Jonah kicked up a storm with this front page and he’s not even around to take any of the dozens of calls he’s received because of it.”
Peter looked up at Jonah and frowned. “Jonah isn’t here? I would have thought the old buzzard would be basking in his own glory and making everyone take notice.”
“You and me both, Pete. I don’t know where he’s gone. He left last night while I was at the hospital and he hasn’t returned. I’m honestly a little worried about him,” said Robbie. His conversation with Ben Urich was still fresh in his mind but there was no reason to share the details of it with Peter.
“Sorry if I don’t exactly share your concern right now, Robbie. I should probably just go. Chances are if I saw Jonah right now the police would have more than one man-hunt to deal with,” said Peter and got up to leave. Peter reached for the knob but the door was suddenly wrenched open. Ken Ellis burst into the office and brushed past Peter roughly.
“Some kind of superhuman villains are causing property damage downtown. My sources tell me that the place these super-types are trashing belongs to Wilson Fisk!” spluttered Ken Ellis and Robbie immediately looked over in Peter’s direction.
“Angela Yin isn’t around, Peter. I need you and Ellis to head over to wherever this is going down and find out what you can. If this is mafia-related I want two of my best out there. Bring me home a big story, gentlemen,” said Robbie around his pipe and both Peter and Ken nodded.
They both walked out of the office together but then Peter began making his way to the stairs while Ellis rushed towards the elevator.
“Where are you going, Parker? We’re supposed to be heading to the warehouse district on Juniper!” said Ken Ellis as Peter continued to backpedal away from him.
“I’ll meet you there, Ken. I’ve got my own transportation,” replied Peter and then disappeared into the stairwell.
Ken Ellis shook his head and prodded at the button to call the elevator. “Damn photographers.”
“Hello, Eugene,” said a feminine voice from the doorway leading into Eugene’s hospital room. Eugene turned his head in that direction and watched as Jill Stacy entered and crossed the floor towards him.
Eugene Patilio smiled and Jill Stacy couldn’t help but smile back. His head was wrapped in a large white bandage that covered the majority of the top of his skull. It was strung around his chin several times. Eugene looked like a mummy that had cut the cloth away from its face.
“I’m so glad you’re here, Jill. I haven’t seen any of my friends since I got here. My dad was by earlier but he left a while ago,” said Eugene as Jill pulled a chair over to his bedside. She sat down next to him and took hold of his hand. “Have you seen Peter or Randy or anybody?”
Jill closed her eyes and dropped her head slightly. “Randy was attacked in his apartment, Eugene. Peter found him yesterday and brought him here. He even asked the doctors to move Randy up here with you once he was feeling better.”
Eugene’s mouth dropped open in an expression of shock that was so comical that Jill would have laughed under normal circumstances. “I can’t believe it! Both of us attacked in the same day! Peter must have been tripping!”
Jill frowned and looked at Eugene in confusion. “Attacked? I thought you just got hit in the head with a piece of shrapnel from the Starbucks explosion?”
Eugene smiled a great toothy grin and looked away from Jill. “Oh… right! Yeah, of course that was what it was. I guess that rock that plunked me on the head messed with my brain a little. Things are kind of fuzzy, that’s all.”
“Yeah, well if you’re not feeling well I could come back and see you later,” said Jill and Eugene shook his head and grasped Jill’s hand tightly in his own.
“No, Jill. I’m glad you came by. I was hoping we’d get a chance to talk after what happened in the club that night,”* replied Eugene.