1

Peter Parker was no stranger to bad days. As a high school student, and as the masked Super Hero known as Spider-Man, he had experienced his fair share. But today ... today was really bad.

As he crouched on top of a streetlight in his Spider-Man suit, Peter watched the giant face of J. Jonah Jameson on a jumbo screen near Madison Square Garden. MJ was on the sidewalk below, where a crowd of New Yorkers had gathered to watch as Jameson played a video of Quentin Beck—aka Mysterio—in the moments before Spider-Man had put a stop to the villain’s plans to wreak havoc in London, England.

But the video Jameson showed had been manipulated. It painted Beck as a hero, not as a bad guy. Instead, Quentin claimed that Spider-Man was the real villain!

“I managed to send the Elemental back through the dimensional rift,” Quentin said in the video, “but I don’t think I’m gonna make it off this bridge alive. Spider-Man attacked me for some reason. He has an army of weaponized drones—Stark technology. He’s saying he’s the only one who’s gonna be the new Iron Man, no one else.”

Quentin claimed that Spider-Man was the one who ordered a series of devastating drone attacks on London. And from the video, it appeared that Spider-Man was also responsible for the death of Mysterio!

“But that’s not all, folks,” Jameson said, interrupting the video. “Here’s the real blockbuster. Brace yourselves. You might wanna sit down.”

Peter had a horrible feeling in his stomach as he watched Quentin speak once more.

“Spider-Man’s real ... Spider-Man’s name is Peter Parker!”

Then, Peter watched in horror as his high school photo flashed on the giant screen.

“That’s right, folks,” Jameson continued. “Peter Parker. A seventeen-year-old high school delinquent harboring a homicidal hunger is in fact the vile vigilante villain Spider-Man!”

Peter could only watch as the eyes of the people on the street below drifted toward him. In that moment, he wanted to be literally anywhere else on Earth.

“She knows him!” someone shouted, pointing at MJ.

“Are you Spider-Man’s girlfriend?” another person asked.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Peter said, jumping down to help MJ.

“You’re just a kid?” someone else asked.

“You murdered Mysterio?” another person inquired. Then, looking at MJ, they said, “You helped him murder Mysterio?!”

A woman reached for Peter’s mask, trying to take it off, and he instinctively swatted her hand away.

“He hit me!” the woman screamed. “Spider-Man hit me!”

Things were getting worse by the second. Peter grabbed MJ and spun a web. With a leap, Peter and MJ were swinging above the streets of New York.

“I told you I never wanted to do this ever again!” MJ said, panic in her voice. She had gone web-swinging with Peter only once before, and that was more than enough for her.

“I’m so sorry,” Peter said, as MJ’s hand grabbed his face. “But I can’t see anything with your hand in my—”

“I’m sorry,” MJ said, moving her hand. “Where are we gonna go?!”

“I don’t know,” Peter answered, as he stared at a picture of himself on the jumbo screen. It showed half of Spider-Man’s mask and half of Peter’s face, with the words, public enemy #1.

Not really thinking it through, Peter suggested that they might go to MJ’s house.

“No, no!” MJ protested. “We cannot go to my house. My dad will kill you!”

“What? I thought you said your dad really liked me!”

“Yeah, well, not anymore!” MJ replied.

Peter continued to swing through the city, heading toward the east side of Manhattan. A few minutes later, he swung over and onto the 59th Street Bridge. As they landed, Peter’s phone began to vibrate.

“Dude!” Peter said, answering the call.

“Dude!” It was Ned Leeds, his best friend.

“Dude!” Peter said, at a loss for any other words.

“Dude!” Ned echoed.

This went on for a moment, until MJ finally shouted, “DUDE!”

In an instant, Peter realized he had just set MJ down on top of the bridge while he answered the phone, and she was just standing there, trying to balance! Unlike him, she didn’t have any amazing spider powers or agility.

“Ah, I’m so sorry,” Peter said. “Are you okay?”

“No, not really!” MJ cried.

Before Peter could say anything else, he was interrupted by the sight of the Roosevelt Island tram traveling along the cables next to the bridge. It seemed like everyone inside the tram car was holding their phones, taking pictures and videos of Peter and MJ.

Looking around, Peter saw more people poking their heads out of the windows of nearby buildings, doing the same thing.

Then there was a news helicopter.

And another news helicopter.

“We should go!” MJ said. “We should go, come on!”

“But you said you don’t want to swing,” Peter said.

“Swing me! You should just swing me, yeah!”

“Okay, we can take the subway,” Peter said, as he dove off the bridge and swung off.

The pair swooped back toward the streets, and Peter webbed a grate on the sidewalk, pulling it off. Then he and MJ dropped through the hole, and Peter replaced the grate. He was still holding on to MJ, swinging through a subway tunnel, when a train barreled forward, coming right for them!

At the last second, Peter swung them into another tunnel, avoiding the train.

“That was so much worse,” MJ said. “But it’s okay.”

“I’m so sorry,” was all Peter could say before they took off once more.

A short time later, the pair made it to the Queens apartment where Peter lived with his aunt, May. They landed outside Peter’s window, and MJ raised the glass so they could go inside.

Once in Peter’s room, they could hear voices coming from the hallway.

“I just feel so dumb. I didn’t realize you were ... miserable.”

Peter recognized the voice. It was Happy Hogan.

“No, it was really fun. You know, that’s why they call it a fling. And we flung.”

That was May!

“It was fun,” Happy said. “I could’ve been more fun. I can be fun.”

“We’ll hang out again.”

“Wait. When, do you think?”

While Peter and MJ couldn’t help but overhear the conversation between Happy and May, Peter started to change out of his Spider-Man suit. Unfortunately, he knocked something over, and the sound caused May and Happy to come bursting through the door.

“Oh, hey,” May said. “You must be MJ.”

“Yeah, sorry,” MJ said. “Nice to meet you.”

“So nice to meet you,” May replied warmly.

Peter watched as MJ and May shook hands. Then he glanced at Happy.

“Wait, have you been crying?” Peter asked.

“We broke up,” Happy said.

“Oh,” was Peter’s reply, as someone from outside shouted, “Hey, Spider-Man!”

Whirling around, Peter webbed the bedroom blinds shut. Putting on a t-shirt, he said, “Can we talk about this in the kitchen?”

As they left the room and headed into the hallway, the front door buzzer rang.

“Let me answer the door,” May said.

“Oh, hang on,” Peter said, guiding his aunt toward the living room. “Let’s go in here.”

Happy started to ramble, asking, “Is that the door?”

Just then, a neighbor stuck his head inside and asked, “Hey, is it true?”

“I was gonna go,” Happy said, still lost in sadness about his breakup.

“Not now!” MJ told the inquisitive neighbor as she shut the door.

“I’ll stick around if you want,” Happy continued, still oblivious.

In the living room, Peter sat down with May, desperately trying to talk with her. But the interruptions were coming at them from all sides. The neighbor at the front door was knocking, as MJ ran over to one of the living room windows to shut the blinds.

Then the door buzzer rang again and again.

Even from inside the building, crowds of people could be heard.

Leaping up, Peter went to the other windows, shutting the blinds as cries of “Hey, Spider-Man!” could be heard.

“I just want to tal—” Peter said, as a blind popped open. He webbed it shut, but then, one right after the other, both Happy’s and May’s phones went wild. People were calling, and the pinging of text messages could be heard.

“What is up with this phone?” May asked. “Mine is blowing up!”

Not knowing what else to do, Peter grabbed their phones.

“Will you get off your phones, for, like, five minutes?!” he cried. “I just want to talk to you about your relationship. Okay?!”

But MJ stopped Peter, pointing at the TV behind him. Everyone looked at the screen. It was the local news, with a live shot of May’s apartment taken from a helicopter. The words spider-man’s identity revealed appeared on screen.

“Is that—” Aunt May gasped.

“Is that here?” Happy asked in disbelief.

Peter sighed and walked over to a nearby window, pulling up the blind. Outside, helicopters hovered, filming their apartment. On the street below and from nearby rooftops, people were staring, pointing, and shouting Peter’s name.

“I mean, maybe it’s not such a big deal?” Peter said hopefully.