WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #41, by Nick Spencer, Ryan Ottley, Cliff Rathburn, Nathan Fairbairn & VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
Over the years, Spider-Man has encountered plenty of strange and dark elements of the Marvel Universe. While Peter Parker usually leaves the more mystical parts of the Marvel Universe to more qualified mystical heroes like Doctor Strange, he's still had some adventures that revolved around magical objects like the Lifeline Tablet.
While the Tablet of Life and Time hasn't been a big part of Spider-Man's world for years, Amazing Spider-Man #41 reveals that it's back in New York City. Now, it's up to Spider-Man to keep it out of the Kingpin's hands.
Following Secret Empire, the Spider-Man villain Boomerang was held up as a hero for his minor role in fighting Hydra. This led a concerned city employee came to him for his help in protecting a priceless item. The caretaker reveals that he spent decades watching over the various mystical artifacts that make their way to New York City. From there, he could keep them archived in the records department and away from the general public. However, things changed when Wilson Fisk was elected mayor of New York, and the former Kingpin closed the department, which the city worker believes was done in an effort to gain access to the pieces of the scattered Lifeline tablet.
Perfectly aware of how dangerous the tablet could be in the wrong hands, Boomerang tries to leave before he get further tangled up in this mess. But the employee uses a spell to give Boomerang - and only Boomerang - knowledge about where to find the pieces of the tablet. Accordingly, Kingpin has been dedicated to hunting down Boomerang and capturing him alive, so he can use him to find all the pieces of the tablet. Boomerang ends up opening up to Spider-Man about his sudden responsibility, and the web-swinging hero agrees to help him find all the pieces before Kingpin gets the chance to steal the tablet.
The Lifeline Tablet was first introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #68 by Stan Lee, John Romita Sr. and Jim Mooney. When this ancient artifact is used properly, the formula detailed on the tablet could be used to create a serum that can heal wounds, extend life, and even briefly give the drinker omnipotence. But if the user doesn't create the serum properly, then there can be serious effects - such as aging backward to the point where you regress beyond the point of your own birth.
The tablet first entered Spider-Man's life when it was exhibited at Empire State University. Hearing about the potential power of the tablet, Kingpin and his minions stole the tablet. Spider-Man was able to take it back, which led o a series of conflicts with various other villains in their attempts to take the Tablet for themselves. In the end, the aged crime boss Silvermane took a version of the serum in an attempt to reverse his aging, but the formula Curt Connors made was flawed and reverted Silvermane to the age before he was born.
The tablet was taken into police custody, where it was eventually stolen by men working for Hammerhead, who hoped to use the serum to save his deathly ill sister. Spider-Man was forced into another conflict with many of his enemies -- including Boomerang, explaining how he knows about the Tablet -- that resulted in Hammerhead even briefly achieving omnipotence and saving his sister. Doctor Strange then hid the Tablet away from prying eyes by sending it to another dimension, but someone has summoned the tablet back to the core Marvel reality.
Now, Kingpin wants the Tablet for a very personal reason. While he initially wanted it in an attempt to gain more power in the criminal underworld, this issue heavily implies that Fisk could be looking for the serum to revive his beloved wife Vanessa. While Fisk has already tried to revive her in some form, her soul is apparently in the hands of the mysterious Kindred. If he could gain the tablet, then he could perhaps use the artifact to restore her. But as Spider-Man and Boomerang have pointed out, Kingpin having that kind of power is not a good omen for the future of the Marvel Universe.