You killed him. Three little words are enough to send me hurtling back into the past, back to the day after Norman died and Jameson sent Luke Cage after me.* Three little words are enough to send me back to each and every time Harry accused me of the very same crime, even after he learned Spider-Man and Peter Parker were one in the same.
It was one thing for the people back home to think Spider-Man killed Norman Osborn. They didn't know any better. All they saw was this menace to society, believing every bit of garbage and vitriol the Bugle saw fit to publish. It's another thing entirely for Mary Jane to still believe that. She's said again and again that I'm the same man she knew, but if that were the case, she couldn't possibly think I killed him.
Whatever amount of calm I managed a second ago disappears, but I don't yell. I don't shout. I don't even so much as move. Instead I draw into myself, my posture changing in hundreds of subtle little ways until it becomes readily apparent that there's no way in hell I'm just a science teacher from Queens. I've said before that it's never been about the mask, and it isn't. I am Spider-Man, plain and simple, and I don't need to cover my face in order for that to be any more or less true.
So it's those same three little words that make me say, "You don't even know me."
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It was one thing for the people back home to think Spider-Man killed Norman Osborn. They didn't know any better. All they saw was this menace to society, believing every bit of garbage and vitriol the Bugle saw fit to publish. It's another thing entirely for Mary Jane to still believe that. She's said again and again that I'm the same man she knew, but if that were the case, she couldn't possibly think I killed him.
Whatever amount of calm I managed a second ago disappears, but I don't yell. I don't shout. I don't even so much as move. Instead I draw into myself, my posture changing in hundreds of subtle little ways until it becomes readily apparent that there's no way in hell I'm just a science teacher from Queens. I've said before that it's never been about the mask, and it isn't. I am Spider-Man, plain and simple, and I don't need to cover my face in order for that to be any more or less true.
So it's those same three little words that make me say, "You don't even know me."
*ASM #123