Ben Parker: You ever heard the saying, "inaction is action"?
Peter Parker: Sure.
Ben Parker: Well, that's just a garbage way of saying don't spend your life waiting for something to happen. Make it happen. I love you, son... but if you're walking around half asleep... anesthetized by your own life... Then wake up.
Peter Parker: Sure.
Ben Parker: Well, that's just a garbage way of saying don't spend your life waiting for something to happen. Make it happen. I love you, son... but if you're walking around half asleep... anesthetized by your own life... Then wake up.
—Issue #1.
Tony Stark: Twenty years ago, you were supposed to be bitten by a radioactive spider. This would have given you amazing powers. And with them, you would've become one of Earth's most prominent super heroes. Instead, a great evil has travelled through time and erased almost all the heroes of this world from existence. You were one of them. He did this so he—and his confederates—could treat Earth as some kind of experiment. An exercise in creating a society that could be perfectly directed and controlled. I am repeating this with others like you, and in six months, if I've done this correctly, I will exit this room to find that Earth has regained its heroes. And together, we will free the world. It is my greatest hope that you are among our number. You were supposed to have a different life, Peter Parker. You were supposed to protect the innocent, save lives, and inspire the citizens of this world to be their best selves. And instead, all of that was taken from you. These people stole your future. These people robbed you of your destiny. The question is... do you want it back?
Peter Parker: (holding the vial containing the radioactive spider) ...I want it.
—Issue #1.
"So here's an existential question: If the life you had stolen from you twenty years ago was suddenly given back to you... are you obligated to try and relive some version of it? Because if you did feel like you had to relive that life, wouldn't you just be twenty years behind the curve for... forever or something like that? I mean, I'm a smart guy but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do now. The world is different. I'm different."
—Peter Parker, Issue #2.
"These people… They’re playing god and they’re playing for keeps. And worse than that, they’ve been doing it our whole lives. It’s institutional. It’s systemic. It’s the whole damn world. And you… you have great power Peter. And with great power comes great responsibility. It’s such a gift… but only if you use it."
—Harry Osborn, Issue #4.
