A terrifying vortex surrounded Peter. The voices of the Spider-Men echoed in his ears: Uncle Ben was dead, Gwen was dead, Aunt May was dead too. So many familiar names circled endlessly around his ears.
These beloved relatives of his had long since become cold tombstones in one strange universe after another, forever separated from the Spider-Man of that world. And whenever Peter asked how they had died, he received only one answer: "With great power comes great responsibility."
Peter finally understood why Superior Spider-Man had told him it was a curse. In every universe, everyone who had ever said those words to Spider-Man had died. Not a single one had survived.
Peter stood where he was, dizzy and disoriented. He was utterly lost, unable to understand why. Could such a curse truly exist in this world? Would everyone who said a particular sentence die? It was simply absurd.
Peter did not know whether he refused to accept the answer because he could not reason out its cause, or whether he was genuinely afraid of the answer. But the facts lay before him. Perhaps Superior Spider-Man was right. He was the most unusual Spider-Man of them all.
After asking every Spider-Man he could find, he discovered that in the vast majority of universes, the person who taught Spider-Man the meaning of "with great power comes great responsibility" was Ben Parker, his own uncle.
In some universes, it had not been Uncle Ben but someone else. Yet none of them had survived either. Only Peter had heard those words from Schiller Rodriguez, a psychologist he knew—and Schiller was still alive and well.
Peter returned to Superior Spider-Man's room. Superior Spider-Man was still sitting in his chair without turning around, yet he asked as though he were an Oracle, "Did you get