WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #38 by Nick Spencer, Iban Coello, Brian Reber and VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale Wednesday, Jan. 22.
The Marvel Universe is full of popular superheroes, but the King of the Mountain may just be the Amazing Spider-Man. Peter Parker has made many fans in his 50 plus years of existence, starring in multiple animated series and movies to go along with his comics. Spider-Man's motto of, "With great power comes great responsibility" is a fixture of his origin story, and helps fuel him in the most stressful of situations.
Spider-Man caught the ire of J. Jonah Jameson in his early years, with the head of the Daily Bugle making it his mission to let the public know that the web-slinger was a menace to New York City. All of that hatred went away recently when Spider-Man revealed his secret identity to Jonah in Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man #6. Now, Peter and Jonah are almost the best of friends -- emphasis on "almost."
It's not that they are on bad terms -- in fact, things have never been better between the two. Now that Jonah knows Peter is Spider-Man, he's taken it upon himself to help the hero whenever and however he can. You can almost consider Jonah as Spider-Man's public cheerleader. Unfortunately, Jonah has been reduced from the publisher of the Daily Bugle to radio host, but one of his former employees has returned with a lucrative offer. And if that isn't surprising enough, Spider-Man is now robbing banks?!
A preview of Amazing Spider-Man #38 begins in the middle of the Web Head's bank heist. Even he sees the irony of the situation. "I'm pretty on record with my anti-bank robbing stance," he says as he swings through the air with two money bags in his hand. "In fact, some people would say I've made a career of it."
Norah Winters, the person presenting the offer to Jonah, takes this robbery as a good sign for the launch of her new tabloid website. All Norah needs is for Jonah to join her and bring his legendary skills at making up news and headlines, especially when it comes to smearing Spider-Man. However, that was the old J. Jonah Jameson; he has since turned over a new leaf and decides to search out Spider-Man for some real answers.
Spider-Man reveals the real reason he's committing a crime is to chase down leads. Spider-Man recently teamed up with his sister, Teresa, to bring in the Chameleon. The villain gave up his client list, with one of the leads taking them to a bank's safety deposit box tied to Maggia bankers. So instead of officially "Breaking Bad," Spider-Man is really drawing the gangsters out in the open. And what better way to do that than stealing directly from them.
Thankfully, devoted Spider-Man fans can rest easy knowing he won't be the next member of the Sinister Six. Plus, according to Teresa, most of the world already thinks Spider-Man is a criminal.