Ultimate Spider-Man: Strange, Part 2
Issue: #71
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inker: Scott Hanna
Colors: J. D. Smith

Stephen Strange, Jr. wakes to the sensation of rain and complains that the window's open.  Waking fully, he realizes that the window is actually broken, that his tutor Wong and Spider-Man and both lying on the floor, and that something is definitely wrong.  He discovers that Wong's mouth is webbed shut, and casts a spell that removes both the webbing and the fabric of Wong's shirt.  They take off Spider-Man's mask to make certain he's all right.  Wong comments Spider-Man broke in because he probably thought Wong was attacking Strange.  Wong admitted he had been suing the D'nura crystals to try and revive Strange.  The two determine that Strange had forgotten to cast defense spells before he began meditating, and that something had attacked Strange's astral form.  Spider-man's appearance saved Strange, but Spider-Man was now in the grip of whatever had attacked Strange initially.  As Strange goes to consult his father's books, we see what kind of nightmares Peter is having.

He's being attacked by a flood of villains and heroes, who throw him off a building.  He suddenly finds himself at a picnic with his parents, the Brock family, and his aunt and uncle.  When he glances over at Uncle Ben he sees a corpse with two bullet holes in the chest; his aunt is remarking that looks aren't everything.  Peter looks around to find everyone else lying on the ground.  Eddie Brock tells him he's killed them all.  Peter runs, finally halting at the edge of a stream, in which he sees Gwen Stacy floating face down.  Harry Osborn appears behind him and tells him that she's dead.  He says he could tell Peter how to talk to her, then kicks Peter off the bank.  In the depths of the water, Peter sees an evil face that tells him "Almost".

Strange and Wong are frantically reading through books of magic.  Strange complains that no sorcerers seem able to index anything in alphabetical order, never mind what alphabet they're using.  Wong finally finds a reference to the Dream Dimension and its effect on the human mind.  Strange reads an account of a dream entity that drained a gladiator's life energy, hoping to use the energy to directly access humanity's dream-state.  He realizes he needs to wake Peter up immediately.

Meanwhile, Peter wakes up in bed and finds a woman in his room.  At first it appears to be Elektra, the assassin.  She asks if he's ever heard the belief that if you die in a dream, you also die in real life.  Then her face becomes Mary Jane Watson's, and she throws a sai at him.  Peter blinks and finds himself surrounded by Liz Allen, Gwen Stacy and MJ, who is dressed as the Black Cat.  She tells him she has to kill him before he kills her.  MJ and the rest of the girls start betting on which of Peter's family and friends will die first.  Suddenly Peter finds himself in J. Jonah Jameson's office, where Jameson is offering a fifty dollar bet that Aunt May will die next.  Ben Urich predicts Peter will actually be the next to go, squashed by a giant robot.  A robot reaches through the window and grabs Peter, then begins trashing the office.  A voice off-panel tells the robot to let Peter go.

Stephen Strange orders the entity holding Peter to wake the boy up.  The entity turns into Aunt May, then into the Green Goblin, then into MJ.  Strange casts a spell that causes it to drop Peter; it expands and takes on the form of Stephen Strange, Sr.  For a moment, Strange Jr. hesitates, and the entity blasts him.  Strange Jr. pulls himself together, creates a protective shield around himself, and then vanquishes the entity, commenting that the appearance of his father caused him to become angry and fueled his spells.  He manages to wake Peter up by pulling one of his eyebrow hairs.

Both Strange and Peter wake up in the middle of a circle of burning candles.  Wong comments that whatever Strange had done had been over quickly.  Peter is suffering from both the aftereffects of the nightmare and the feeling that he's seen Strange before (Ultimate Marvel Team-Ups #12 and #13).  Before Strange can explain, Peter flees, leaving his mask behind (again).  Strange and Wong now need to repair the protective spells on the house and continue Strange's studies.

Peter takes refuge in his basement, but can't get the images of dead family and friend out of his mind.  Someone taps on the door; it's MJ.  She calls to Peter, but all he can hear is her dream-threats to kill him before he kills her.  The issue ends with MJ standing alone in the rain, reminding Peter that this was the night of their date.



Submitted By: Seldes Katne