Random Back Issues #32 - Amazing Spider-Man #400

Let's pause to appreciate the hilarity of the notion of the Spider-Clone managing to straighten anything out.

We get to look at an anniversary issue today, which means extra pages! Lots to discuss. Amazing Spider-Man #400 was notable at the time for finally, after I don't know how many heart complications, killing Aunt May. Of course, they later reversed this by saying it was actually an actress or something hired (brainwashed?) by Norman Osborn, and the real May was alive. Then the MC2 (Spider-Girl) universe went the opposite direction and said the "May" Osborn had abducted was Peter and Mary Jane's daughter. That always made more sense to me, and the fact the main Spider-titles went the other way, when they didn't know what the hell they were doing, would seem to back that up.

The issue Peter rushing to the hospital because Aunt May actually woke up from being in a coma for the last 10 issues or so. Peter's ecstatic, as is Ben Reilly, who only came back to NYC because of what happened to May in the first place, as he couldn't ignore his concern for her, even as he hates having Parker's memories. With the crisis over, Ben's at a loose end on what to do next. Peter hates having him around, and it's a mess for Ben to be in a place he has so many memories of, but can't do anything with, since they belong to someone else. Plus, Kaine's lurking, and Ben figures it's only a matter of time before he comes after Ben again.

Back in Queens, Mary Jane's been trying to get things ready for May's return, and May somehow sees this burst of activity and knows MJ's pregnant. OK, so "fetus radar" is a thing now? Using this power weakens May, and while MJ takes her upstairs to rest, Ben slips in the back door to speak with Peter. Which is how you get the two of them, in costume, talking in May's backyard in broad daylight. Brilliant, guys. Clearly all the clones are sharing brainpower. The more there are, the dumber they each get. Ben says he's leaving and they'll never see him again. Ha.

There's a few pages of random stuff, Peter and MJ watching old family movies, some crap with Judas Traveler I ain't even getting into, Ben having an identity freakout when a cop hassles him for dozing on a bus stop bench. Yeah, because there were so many people needing the bench. The next day, Peter and May visit the Empire State Building, where May reveals she's known Peter was Spider-Man for some time, and that she's proud of him. Then she gets tired and they have to go home, where she says it's her time and she passes away. Peter quotes some of Peter Pan that she read to him when he was a kid, and that her soul(?) repeated to him when he nearly died recently. In a story involving Doc Ock helping cure him of a virus the Vulture infected him with. There's no part of that sentence that makes any sense.

I love the contrast between Peter, who is grieving but at least has people to lean on, and Ben, who has absolutely no one and didn't even get to say goodbye. That continues to the funeral, where Ben has to visit alone, after the service, since it'd be kind of a problem for Peter to have a surprise twin present. Although Flash attended with a notorious cat burglar, so "surprise twin" might not be that strange.

After the wake, two cops show up at Peter's house to arrest him for a murder in Salt Lake City. Because they're dicks. Which doesn't do MJ's mental state any good, and then Ben shows up in her home saying they need to talk. Not that being confronted by an exact double of her husband minutes after he was arrested helps, either.

If I remember right, Kaine actually killed the person, the Salt Lake cop's crooked partner. Being a clone, he has Parker's fingerprints. By remarkable coincidence, the murder took place during the two weeks Peter was in a grave courtesy of Kraven. So he has no alibi that doesn't involve blowing his secret identity. I'm pretty sure Ben switches places with Peter in prison, or Peter breaks out for a time and then Ben turns himself in instead. Peter charges off to hunt down Kaine and bring him in. Which turns into a whole thing with more clones, that Traveler guy, and Doc Ock's girlfriend trying to kill Kaine for killing Otto (who would later be resurrected by the Hand, of all people).

Peter only gets Kaine to confess (Kaine ultimately explains it by claiming he had a grudge against Parker for. . . reasons, and altered his face and fingerprints to resemble him) by threatening to march into the courtroom and spill his secret identity, which would ruin his life. This was back when just Harry Osborn, Venom, and the Puma knowing Peter Parker was Spider-Man was a huge pain in the butt, unlike recent years when everyone knows who everyone is. Kaine thinks Peter's actually the clone and wants him to be happy (while hating Reilly who he thinks is the original Peter Parker), which is why he fesses up.

And now I have a massive headache. Goddamn it, Nineties.

There are two backup stories, both written by DeMatteis. The first (by the Romita Jr. and Sr. art team) focuses on Ben Reilly in the day or so after the first Spider-Clone story, as Ben comes to grips with the fact he's just a copy. He struggles to find some reason to continue, and fights against a morality he feels is imposed on him by Parker's memories. I think this backup story in particular forms the thing about Ben Reilly that makes him so interesting to me. That's there's so much that's a part of him he feels burdened by, because he can't reap any of the benefits that come with it. Remembering all of Parker's friends and loved ones, but not being able to have them as part of his life, because someone's already occupying that role.

The other story is by DeMatteis and scripted by Stan Lee, with art by the Grummett/Milgrom duo, and looks at the morning after Peter captured Uncle Ben's killer. When Peter has to come to grips not only with his guilt, but his aunt's sorrow and grief at being alone. He tries to boost her spirits by pointing out the killer was captured, getting ready to tell her he's Spider-Man. But May reacts angrily, declaring that Spider-Man just used Ben's death for his own publicity, and Peter should never mention him again. Yeah, Pete's not gonna pull that off.

He resolves he can't tell her, but he will someday. Even if you allow that the May that dies in this issue isn't her, Peter still never actually told her. She figured it out in the JMS/Romita Jr. run by letting herself into his apartment when he was too beat to shit to sense it, then confronting him a few issues later.

[1st longbox, 81st comic, Amazing Spider-Man #400, by J.M. DeMatteis and Stan Lee (writers), Mark Bagley, John Romita Jr., and Tom Grummett (pencilers), Larry Mahlstedt, John Romita Sr., and Al Milgrom (inkers), Bob Sharen, Paul Becton, and Chia-Chi Wang (colorists), Bill Oakley, Ken Lopez, and Starkings/Comicraft (letterers)]