Peter's "New Toy"

(PS1: A note before we begin: This story follows the native Holland Spider-Man, who accidentally gained the power of the "Web," allowing him to travel to different worlds. By experiencing the lives of different Spider-Men, he continually transformed and strengthened himself. So the protagonist's personality gradually changed from the original version. If you want a protagonist who starts out slaughtering everyone and acting invincible, this isn't for you. Also, the characters' personalities in this book follow their original portrayals; everything has a basis.)

(PS2: This book is also known as: What If Holland Spider-Man Obtained the Web of Fate.)

"Of the three generations of Spider-Men, he's the ugliest!"

"What trash!"

"He hasn't improved at all!"

"The other Spider-Men solve problems. He's the only one who creates them!"

"..."

A series of complicated condemnations echoed through Peter Parker's mind, making him open his eyes in irritation.

He had no idea what was wrong with him.

Ever since a spiderweb had suddenly appeared in his mind a few days ago, these voices had occasionally begun ringing in his ears.

"Spider-Man? Are they talking about me?" Peter asked as he clutched his head and walked into the bathroom. After splashing some water on his face to wake himself up, he stared directly at his reflection.

About a month ago, he had gone with his classmates to an extracurricular science enrichment event and had accidentally been bitten by a spider.

That night, he came down with a high fever.

When he woke up the next day, he discovered that his body had become extraordinary.

Over the following week, he roughly figured out what had happened to him: he had been bitten by a spider and had somehow gained spider-like abilities.

But he had no idea what he should do with those abilities.

Maybe he could become a great hero who saved the world, like Iron Man and Captain America on television?

Peter had seen the footage from Sokovia. That incident had happened around the same time he was bitten by the spider.

Back then, Hulk had fought a giant Iron Man Armor, and they had even watched the battle live!

Because of that, many of his classmates believed Hulk should have been killed.

But later, Hulk really did disappear. Peter did not know whether Iron Man had taken him away or whether he had been secretly imprisoned.

At first, Peter had worried that he would end up like Hulk. But his admiration for the Avengers and his desire to become a hero drove him to use this power.

So he dug out an old costume from his days in the school drama club, added some polymer fiber materials, and made his own heroic suit!

—Just like Iron Man's armor, Hulk's shorts, and Captain America's stars-and-stripes uniform.

Peter considered this suit his personal symbol!

Then, following strange synthesis formulas that had appeared in his mind, he secretly used school materials during lab class to make highly durable artificial webbing and web-shooters.

And so, he became a friendly neighborhood figure. Because of his outfit and his ability to shoot webs from his hands, some people called him Spider-Man, Spider-Boy, or other names like that.

Though opinions were mixed and many people thought he was meddling where he did not belong, he enjoyed it.

But things had changed a few days ago.

After that strange spiderweb appeared in his mind, strange voices had begun appearing as well.

Though he could not see the people speaking, Peter had a strange intuition that those voices really were talking about him!

"But why are they talking about me?"

"Other Spider-Men? Could there be other people like me?"

After wiping the water from his face, Peter lay back down on his bed.

He had to force himself to sleep, because it was already three in the morning, and he had something very important to do tomorrow!

Tony Stark, the famous Iron Man, had sent word that he would visit Peter tomorrow!

"Why does Mr. Stark want to see me? Did he discover my real identity and want to invite me to join the Avengers?" Peter thought expectantly as he slowly closed his eyes.

As soon as he shut his eyes, the enormous spiderweb in his mind appeared before him again without his control.

But this time, the web was different from before!

At one of the intersections among its countless strands, a strange point of light had appeared!

"What is this?"

Confused, Peter focused his consciousness on that glowing point.

The next moment—

"Ah!"

He felt as though his consciousness had been dragged out of his body, then sucked straight into that point of light!

—

"Where am I?"

When Peter came back to his senses, he found that he was no longer on his bed at home. Instead, he was in a cramped, enclosed room.

In front of him stood a small table made from stacked boxes. Several photographs and a pile of documents sat on top of it.

"Ah!"

Peter cried out.

A nerve in his brain was trembling violently. Looking closely, he could see a glowing neural thread slowly extending toward the shining point on the enormous web in his mind.

When the thread connected with the point of light, countless fragments of memory flooded into his mind!

It was now 1933, and New York was suffering through the painful Great Depression.

After offending someone he should not have offended, his uncle, Ben Parker, had been tortured and murdered by New York's greatest extortionist, the "Green Goblin," Norman Osborn.

At the same time, Green Goblin had reached his dark, sinful hand toward Aunt May and him—Peter Parker—attempting to kill them both.

Fortunately, they had been saved by Daily Bugle photographer Ben Urich. Because of Peter's character, Urich had taken a liking to him, and Peter became Urich's assistant.

Not long ago, while secretly photographing a transaction between Green Goblin and a gang, Peter had accidentally been bitten by a spider that crawled out of a cursed spider statue they were trading. In an illusion, he met Spider-God Anansi. Because of that, he gained mysterious and powerful new abilities, becoming Spider-Man!

But because of that, he also discovered more things hidden in the darkness.

For example, the Urich he respected had actually been blackmailing Green Goblin's gang all along, receiving hush money from Osborn in exchange for covering up their operations!

Not long ago, Urich told Peter that he was going to expose all the evidence he had secretly gathered on Green Goblin!

Peter did not know why he had suddenly decided to do that. Maybe his conscience had finally caught up with him?

But that night, he was shot dead in his home by the man he had contacted to expose the evidence: J. Jonah Jameson!

Fortunately, Felicia Hardy took the evidence Urich had hidden amid the chaos and handed it over to Peter.

From Felicia, Peter learned some of the truth.

Urich and Felicia both knew that he was Spider-Man, and it was because of that that Urich had decided to expose Green Goblin and bring him to justice.

But Felicia told him that he could not trust J. Jonah!

Peter found it hard to believe. He still remembered what J. Jonah had said when Urich first brought him into the Daily Bugle:

"There are a million very sad stories out there, Parker. But in this miserable age, none of them are anything special until... we make them special!"

"I can give them facts and figures. Ben's photographs can make them truly understand!"

"I'll tell our readers how they should feel about the shitty state this city is in!"

"This dark age needs someone to step forward, to light it up, to let people see the darkness within the darkness! Your Uncle Ben and Aunt May are people like that, and I, J. Jonah Jameson, am one too!"

Could someone capable of saying such things truly be untrustworthy?

Was this era really so dark?