Ultimate Spider-Man: Detention
Issue: #65
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inker: Scott Hana
Colors: J.D.Smith

Detention. It’s a room in the school with five students sitting at desks: Flash Thompson and Kong on one side of the room, Liz Allen and Mary Jane Watson on the other side, and Peter Parker in the middle. Liz files her nails; Flash stares at the ceiling. All of them are serving their time on a Saturday because of a fight in the hall the day before. MJ and Flash get into an argument about whose fault the whole situation was.

Flashback to Friday: A teacher has told Peter that if he needs to talk to anyone about Gwen’s death, the teacher’s office is open. Peter and MJ are cleaning out Gwen’s locker; the teacher opens the locker door and leaves. Peter mentions there has been no luck in contacting Gwen’s mother. Liz Allen walks up to talk.

The first thing Peter and MJ see is a picture of them with Gwen that she’s kept in her locker. At that moment, Flash walks up to see what they’re doing, then asks if Gwen’s stuff is free for anyone to take. He sarcastically compliments Peter on taking care of Gwen. MJ snatches a book out of the locker and hits him in the back of the head with it. She jumps on him, demanding that he take back what he said. Liz and Peter try to separate them, and teachers come running. One teacher gets an elbow in the face, and that’s when everyone gets detention.

In the present, MJ asks Flash why he behaved the way he did. Someone he knew died, but he insists on making a joke out of it. She calls him by his real name — Fred — and wants to know why he’s being so obnoxious about this whole situation. Flash says nothing. MJ suddenly exclaims that it’s because Flash liked Gwen and doesn’t know how to handle her death. Flash tells her she doesn’t know anything, and storms out the door.

Three hours later, Flash still hasn’t returned. Kong defends him, saying he really isn’t a bad guy, but Peter finally speaks up and disagrees. He’s known Flash since he was seven, and Flash is a bad person. Flash gets to do whatever he wants to everyone, behave in any manner he wants, and people reward him for that by laughing and standing up for him. His parents don’t seem to care what he does. Peter points out that someday Flash will grow up and become a greedy, selfish man. The world is run by greedy, selfish men, who do whatever they want without looking at the morality behind it, and that’s why people like Gwen get killed. Peter tells Kong that Flash only hangs out with him because it makes Flash feel superior, and that Kong is ten times better than Flash. Kong asks what kind of a man Peter is. Peter responds that he’s nobody.

MJ asks, “What about Spider-man?” Peter stands up and runs out the door. MJ chases after him, leaving a puzzled Liz and Kong behind. She tracks Peter to the roof. Peter is fed up with everything. He couldn’t save anyone he cared about — his uncle, Gwen, Harry Osborn. All being Spider-Man has done for him is given him a front row seat to see how awful everything is. MJ tells him that things will change, because people like Peter will make them change. Peter takes off over the roofs.

Below in an alley, he sees a woman about to be mugged by a group of teens. A moment later he has tied a green cloth over the bottom half of his face and swings down to help. He beats up the teens, telling them that they need to change their lives because they won’t get a second chance. Then he makes them apologize to the woman and lets them go. They run away. The woman hugs Peter and thanks him. Peter leaps back up the side of the building to the roof. He doesn’t know why he did what he just did. Then he apologizes to Gwen.

Submitted By: Seldes Katne