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"The chapter's only eight pages long. If it's a burden, borrow the attention span of the student seated next to you."

-- Peter Parker, to his students, ASM #37

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Aunt May finally gets in on her nephew's secret.

(Click panels for larger images.)

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Amazing Spider-Man #36-39

• Spider-Man/Peter Parker
• Aunt May
• Mary Jane
• Jenny

List price: $8.99 (US) • $14.50 (Canada)
ISBN: 0-7851-0877-7 • Original Release Date: 7/31/02
96 pages

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #36-39:

Script: J. Michael Straczynski
Pencils: John Romita, Jr.
Inks: Scott Hanna
Colors: Dan Kemp & Avalon Studios

Amazing Spider-Man #36: (no title)
22 pages + cover • December 2001

On Sept. 11, Spider-Man and an assemblage of other heroes (Avengers, X-Men, FF, and Daredevil) come to the aid of the FDNY to cover ground zero. Spider-Man ruminates on the day and what it means to him.

Amazing Spider-Man #37: "Interlude"
22 pages + cover • January 2002

Aunt May stands in shock over Peter's bruised, bloodied and bandaged body as he sleeps off his last encounter as Spider-Man. She walks away, knowing his secret, but unable to figure out what to do about it. The next day at school, Peter has to reprimand a young girl named Jennifer who falls asleep in his class. In digging deeper about her, he finds out she has a drug-abusing older brother she has to look after. He traces her back to her home, but she is living a squatter's existence in the basement of a dilapidated building. She explains to her teacher that she's been doing okay on the streets, and she's about to graduate, and she begs him to not report her or her friends to the authorities, especially since she's concerned about her brother. At the same time Peter is there, another girl comes in to tell Jenny that her brother has ODed. They find him in a dark alley all alone and near death. While the girls go to get help, Peter takes action as Spider-Man, swinging his way to a local hospital where the boy gets treatment.

Jenny talks to Peter the next day and he agrees to not report her, as long as she calls on him whenever she needs him. Unbeknownst to all of them, Jenny is being watched by local thugs who don't appreciate her connection with Spider-Man being in the neighborhood. Later, Aunt May calls Peter and tells him she needs to talk to him about something very serious.

Amazing Spider-Man #38: "The Conversation"
22 pages + cover • February 2002

Aunt May arrives at Peter's apartment bearing his Spider-Man costume. He feebly tries to generate excuses, but there is no way out. He confesses his dual identity as Spider-Man and explains his reasons why he tries to live up to the responsibility of holding great power. He also confesses his feelings of complicity in Uncle Ben's death. Aunt May confesses her own complicity: on the day of Ben's murder, they had had an argument, and he had left the house to stew over it. If she had gone out to tell him it was okay, he would have come back inside and not been exposed to the burglar's lethal shot. They both feel a huge weight lift off their shoulders. May tells Peter she doesn't like the idea of him swinging around rooftops, but she'll try to accept it. She also tells him that now that she knows who the real Spider-Man is, it's not fair that the rest of the city doesn't know what a wonderful person he really is, despite what they read in the Daily Bugle. Later that night, Peter swings into action as Spider-Man like never before; for the first time, he feels really free.

Amazing Spider-Man #39: "Meanwhile"
22 pages + cover • May 2002

Silent Issue.

In her penthouse suite, Mary Jane wakes up early, and while preparing for her day, she sees TV news reports of Spider-Man saving some children. She stops to look, but the moment is gone when a commercial takes over the airwaves. She goes to a photo shoot, a movie premiere, comes home and watches TV...she sees more Spider-Man highlights on the news. She goes to bed and stares at the clock.

Aunt May has hit the public library, checking out copies of old newspapers and the anti-Spider-Man bias that is printed in them. She sends emails to all the papers that hound him- including the Bugle- telling them she is cancelling her subscriptions based on their bias. She sends an email to one paper that supports Spider-Man and tells them she is subscribing! She also sends emails to news shows and TV shows suggesting they do positive profiles on Spider-Man the person, not the negatively imaged creature he is portrayed as.

Later, Spider-Man is saving a family from a fire. After, on a huge screen in Times Square, he sees Mary Jane walking down the red carpet at the premiere and he stops to watch. He goes home and thinks about calling her, but decides not to.

-- cover image scan and trade data provided by Mister Stat

-- synopsis and panel scan by Gormuu

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