The Vulture swoops down on Aunt May, pinning her to the ground. We haven't gotten such a good look at him before and he hasn't had any lines until now, but he's sickening. His teeth are long and very sharp, and he seems to spit a lot whenever he talks. It's much creepier than it sounds. Anyway, he mocks Aunt May, saying her husband was delicious as he prepares to do his thing.
Don't look now, but Spider-Man's at the door. "The Sssspider-Man. How fast you move, Ssspider? Fast enough to stop me sssnapping her neck?" Spider-Man raises his gun at him. "No. Probably not." With that, in spite of Aunt May's protests, he unloads every chamber into the freak. It looks like in reading Urich's files Peter discovered the truth about Uncle Ben's murder.
The Vulture lay dead on the ground, and Aunt May is furious. Who the Hell does this Spider-Man think he is? He shot an unarmed man! He notes the Vulture was going to kill her, but she asks why he didn't use those spider webs he has. He tries to reiterate that her life was in immediate danger, but she's not hearing it. "The papers are right about you. You think you're above the law." Narrator Peter says Aunt May doesn't understand... the Goblin sent the Vulture to get her, and he doesn't play by the rules.
She tells him that she doesn't want to live in a world where people kill each other like animals. She wants him to give her his gun. Narrator Peter knows this isn't going to end unless he ends it. Spider-Man apologizes and leaves. He then makes his way to what Urich's files call "the Torture House". If the Goblin's kept Jameson alive, that's where he'll be. And indeed he is - along with Felicia Hardy. Spidey's clinging to the rafters as Osborn starts grilling Hardy.
It's here that we learn why Felicia didn't trust Jameson - she had just been leaving Urich's apartment when the Chameleon, as Jameson, killed Urich. She saw it with her own eyes. Osborn had thought she'd be surprised to see Jameson, but only because he figured she'd sent Spider-Man to kill him... it seems the Goblin really isn't involved in the Chameleon's death. No, it was Felicia. The first chance she got she went to Jameson's office and shot the impostor right where he sat. You know what's interesting? I didn't remember this from the first time I read it, but as I started reading this issue I kind of figured that's how it happened.
Felicia wants to know who it was she killed. The Goblin tells her it was one of his boys, and Kraven angrily laments "my idiot half-brother... rubbed out by a woman!" His monkey appears to be pretty upset about it, too. Dang, I hope Kraven's monkey gets out of this mess okay. Anyway, the Goblin tells Felicia that the Chameleon was one of his - and he's not going to let this go unpunished. Felicia slaps him, and he gets angry. Kraven's spiders are down here, too, in a much narrower glass case: once the Vulture arrives with the Parker kid, Felicia's going to get real cozy with them.
Spider-Man drops in, saying the Vulture isn't available. He uses web to toss Montana into Ox, knocks out Ox with a length of pipe, makes Kraven accidentally kill his monkey (WHAT THE FUCK SPIDER-MAN okay it was probably an accident on his part too. Still, poor thing), and knocks Kraven's teeth out with another pipe. All the while, he's narrating. "None of you will ever come after my family again. This time the blood is on my hands."
Osborn's got Felicia in the standard "I have a hostage" position, and pulls a lever. It's feeding time! The bars separating Kraven's tiger from Jameson lift up to the ceiling. Spidey manages to jump in, web its mouth shut, and break Jameson's chain. But Spidey should be watching his girlfriend, Jameson tells him - the Goblin's taking her downstairs and he has a gun to her head! Unfortunately for Spider-Man, Kraven didn't go down from that savage blow. Spidey helps Jameson out of his cage before facing off against Kraven again. Kraven mumbles incoherently at him. "I have no idea what you just said. If it was 'I surrender', then you have my sincere apologies." he says, kicking Kraven into the spider-case where the beast tamer is devoured by his own pets. This just isn't Kraven's day, is it?
Now we see that the Goblin has taken Felicia to the Absurdly Spacious Sewer system. She tries to read him the riot act, but he keeps telling her to shut up - he's getting paranoid about this spider-freak. And with good reason, since he's right there! Spidey leaps on top of the Goblin and tells Felicia to get out of there. The Goblin's had enough of this guy. If he's going down, he at least wants to know who's under that mask. As he pulls of Spider-Man's mask... Spider-Man pulls off his.
Peter Parker is now face to face with the Goblin. Green, scaly skin, beady yellow eyes... "How about that? It's Urich's punk. Whatsamatter, kid? Never been to the freak show?" It dawns on Peter just how he got that nickname. As they struggle for the gun in the Goblin's hand, the Goblin goes on a little Motive Rant explaining his Freudian Excuse. Essentially, he had been teased all his life for his face with that name. Now when people say that name, they fear it, they respect it... and when they see that face, they know one of them is about to die. The Goblin gives up the fight for the gun, pointing the barrel at his own chest. "So how about it, kid? I see it in your eyes now. You've got what it takes. You've got enough hate. Pull the trigger. Be a hero."
Peter flashes back to finding Urich, finding Uncle Ben... and Aunt May's "killing one another like animals" line. No. He's not going to make it easy for him. It's more than he deserves. He lets the Goblin have the gun. The Goblin laughs at the idea of being put through the legal system. "You put me in a courtroom, you don't get a trial. You get a freak show." Whatever. Peter had his chance - the Goblin's finished with freak show. He takes his shot at Peter, who shoots web to plug the barrel. The gun more or less explodes right in the Goblin's hand. He can't believe this. Nobody's going to put him in a cage!
Peter tells him there's nowhere left to run. The Goblin disagrees, and tries to get away - only to bump into Kraven, now being used as a vessel for the spiders. He grabs the Goblin, and in their struggle they both go into the water. The Goblin lets out a Big "NO!" as the spiders devour him. Over this, Peter narrates about when he and Uncle Ben sneaked into Frankenstein. Peter got scared, and expected Uncle Ben to tell him there's no such thing as monsters. Uncle Ben knew better, and figured Peter was old enough to know better too. So he promised he's protect Peter from the monsters. Peter wishes he could've done the same for him.
Two months later, Felicia's at home with... Jesus Christ, that is like ten cats. Anyway, she's reading The Bugle. Peter came forth with all of Urich's dirt on the Goblin, which had the side-effect of exposing rampant corruption in the city's government and law enforcement. Urich is remembered as a hero. Spider-Man comes to visit. She tells him to take off his mask. "You don't like masks?" This is a cute reversal of a classic Spidey/Black Cat moment from the original comics, where she freaked out when Spider-Man took off his mask in front of her and insisted he put it back on.
Anyway, he just has one question. It's been bothering him for a while... back at the "torture house", the Goblin said something about having a "relationship" with Felicia. It recently dawned on him that she likely left Urich, declining his proposal, to get with the Goblin (a year or two before the story, of course). She says what happened between her and Norman Osborn is a long and complicated story... and frankly, none of Peter's business. He hands her something that he found among Urich's papers that he figured he'd want her to have - a picture of Ben and Felicia together in happier times. Without another word, he leaves.
"The long cold winter has finally ended. The Goblin and his cronies are dead or in custody, Roosevelt is in the White House, and J. Jonah Jameson is once more sounding the clarion call for liberty and equality everywhere."
Aunt May is still fighting for the rights of the common man on her soapbox. There are, after all, plenty of bag guys still out there. We see part of the Bugle Felicia was reading, with two choice stories: "Hitler's Nazis Gain Power" and one about celebrated biologist Dr. Otto Octavius exploring the ocean's depths aboard the research ship Atlantis. Spider-Man says the monsters are always with us... but that's okay. When all is said and done, good guys always win.
End of Spider-Man Noir. Up next is Spider-Man Noir: Eyes Without a Face.
Like the Sequel Hook with Dr. Octopus? Yeah, me too. You'll like it a lot less when you meet the guy,
