Ultimate Spider-Man: Hollywood, Part 6
Issue: #59
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inker: Art Thibert & Scott Hanna
Colors: J.D.Smith

Gwen Stacy has discovered Peter’s secret identity as Spider-Man and is holding him at gunpoint, accusing him of killing her father. He swears he didn’t do it. At that moment Aunt May walks into the house, home from her trip to Florida, and Peter uses the distraction to take the gun away from Gwen. In the basement, he hurriedly tells Gwen that he would never kill anyone, it’s the opposite of what he tries to do as Spider-Man, and reminds her that he was sitting with her in school all day the day her father was killed. He begs her not to tell Aunt May about his secret identity because he doesn’t think she could handle it. Then he lets her go. For a moment neither say anything; then Gwen runs out of the basement, slamming the door behind her.

Aunt May hears the door slam and finds Peter coming upstairs. He claims that he fell asleep in front of his computer. She notices that the side of his face is swollen; he tells her he was injured in a game in gym class and lost a tooth. Aunt May calls the dentist to make an appointment, scolding Peter for not calling her about it.

Later that afternoon, Mary Jane comes over to see how Peter is doing. The fight with Octavius is all over the news. She knows Peter was in Brazil and that there was an incident involving someone in a Spider-Man costume at the Newark Airport. They turn on the television for the latest information. Octavius is now in SHIELD custody, rumors are flying about a Spider-Man dressed in several layers of odd clothing, and some of the fight appears to have been caught on film by the people making the Spider-Man movie.

MJ tells him that Gwen wasn’t at school that day, and that the last time MJ had seen her, there had been a news broadcast about Spider-Man and MJ had left in a hurry. They’re interrupted by Gwen, who said that after Peter let her go in the basement, she had run to the backyard, then to the library and the movies. At the library, she had been reading up on Spider-Man and her father’s death. She had freaked out at the revelation that she was living in the same house as Spider-Man, but that she would never betray the secret, not after he and Aunt May had taken her in. Peter, MJ and Gwen relax together in Peter’s room.

Elsewhere, A SHIELD convoy pulls up at a company owned by Stark Industries. Guards wheel a bound Otto Octavius into a room where General Nicholas Fury is standing. He introduces himself to Octavius. Fury had kept Octavius’ metal arms intact to give scientists a chance to study them, but admits that was a mistake. As Octavius watches, Fury orders the arms to be dropped into a vat of a boiling liquid, where they melt.

Four months later, the Spider-Man movie opens to record-breaking box office takes. In an ironic twist, Peter receives no recognition, and has to listen to Kong talk about what it was like to have a line in the film.

Submitted By: Seldes Katne