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Amazing Spider-Man Vol 5 74

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Quote1 Oh, Harry. You poor fool. It was never about you. You were just the pawn, the victim of circumstance. The soul that hangs in the balance. Quote2
—Mephisto

Appearing in "What Cost Victory?"

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Synopsis for "What Cost Victory?"

On the night of his death,[1] Harry Osborn awoke in Hell greeted by Mephisto. Confused, Harry noted his death being heroic until Mephisto countered with Harry's in progress schemes with Peter's LMD parents and the Stacy clone children. Afraid and upset, Harry begged to know why Mephisto worked so hard to damn him, only for the Hell Lord to counterpoint that he was never the true aim, but a pawn for the larger game with Spider-Man. That, even though there are now more players in this game, Hell is ultimately the consequence of one's own making. On present day Earth, Mary Jane uses the mirror portal to reach Peter at the Osborn Paris estate, while Norman arrives from below the house. As Mary Jane and Peter reunite, her attempt to warn Peter of something is interrupted by Norman telling them that there are two Kindreds in the building.

At Hotel Inferno, Mephisto resumes the game of chance with Spider-Man vs Kindred where, should he lose, then Doctor Strange's soul will be the cost. But if Spider-Man prevails, Mephisto is willing to free Harry's soul from his possession. In the morgue, Carlie is confused with Harry's corpse and Harry standing next to her, until he explains that he is a clone. Calling out to Kindred that he is "ready," Harry and Carlie are spirited to his apartment in New York City, where he sees his family one last time before gearing up to fight Kindred with Spider-Man. As the Kindred twins brutalize Spider-Man, Norman holds Mary Jane at bay for her protection as the fight is Peter's until Harry arrives and announces his aid to the hero. As Mary Jane and Norman hide around a corner, he remorsefully confesses that it was he who damned Harry and that is now coming back to haunt all of them. As the Kindred twins fight the heroes, Harry tells Peter that they're really Sarah and Gabriel's bodies acting as the real world agents for his digitally copied mind from when he was Green Goblin, that their souls were damned and revived.

Denouncing this, the twin Kindreds are met by Norman stepping out to clarify that they were indeed genetic experiments by the Osborn's A.I. acting as pawns for Mephisto, and declaring his regret for all the evil he did to his son. In disbelief, Peter and Harry still cooperate to save Norman, but he is intercepted as he tries to escape resulting in Harry sacrificing himself to save his father. Harry dies in Peter's arms again accepting his fate, as Peter channels his fury into fighting the twins. Whilst Mephisto is gleeful at Peter's vengeance, Strange calls out his cheating using two Kindreds for the bout. But the devil disclaims his actions weren't cheating if he's been playing the game longer. As every time the twins were grown and died, they suffered in his Hell before their rebirths and again deaths, all for their current purpose of blaming Spider-Man with the goal to send him to Hell in their place. After seemingly gaining the upper hand, Peter's remorse at Harry's death becomes a taunt as they soon overwhelm and thrash him against the support structures of the building, burying Peter under a building.

As Mephisto grins narrating at Peter's classic self-pity, recounting all those he has failed and musters hope to rise back up, only for Peter to be short of hope and still buried. In a cunning twist, Strange reminds Mephisto that he too is entitled to a second champion as the devil used two Kindreds. Rebuking him as Harry lies dead, Strange retorts that his second champion wasn't Harry, but really Mary Jane as she is Peter's hope in life. Pulled from the rubble, Peter is saved by Mary Jane before finding the twins having also survived. However, as Peter didn't die, they fall into despair as they failed Mephisto, the only one keeping their rapid aging in check and fall over right in front of them. With her last breath, Sarah asks if they were ever real or had a mother, Peter tells them that Gwen would have loved them regardless as her children if she were alive. Across the room, Norman breaks down crying over Harry, as Peter holds onto Mary Jane after feeling his the weight of his failure to save his friend.

At the bar in Hotel Inferno, Strange asks Mephisto why he is always trying to vie for Peter's soul to the point of fixation. Similar to why the house always wins in casinos, so too must Mephisto always make a point to win by knowing every detail about a person before striking a deal with them, even their destinies in life. As such, Mephisto peered into his own destiny and saw a kingdom on Earth mercilessly won, only to be defeated by Spider-Man. A vision haunting the devil since before Peter's birth, indirecting tragedy into Peter's life as a risk aversion for Mephisto's future success. However, as he departs, Strange can easily tell the devil is lying, as Mephisto always goes after something greater than any one person. The villain concludes on a note of uncertainty of the future, while in secret truth his vision was of Peter's daughter as Spider-Girl stopping his demonic Earthly kingdom. Reminding the good doctor he won and Harry's soul is free, Strange imparts onto the devil that his arrogance will be his undoing, given his placing himself as a god above mortals. Reflecting that, in spite of driving people to their darker sides amid challenges, they come out better once they return to the light alongside those they love. Waking up the next day, Peter takes Mary Jane on a web swing to the top of the Empire State Building and they share a kiss, free from their recent nightmare.

Appearing in "In Memory"

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Synopsis for "In Memory"

As Peter visits Uncle Ben's grave, he is met by a forgotten ex-neighbor, Dave "Sully" Sullivan. While Sully is glad to meet Peter again, Peter is crestfallen thinking about how his uncle would think of him as Ben had a wife & stable career by the time he was Peter's current age. Hearing Peter's lamentations, Sully recalls how Ben and May were always helping their neighbors in their Forrest Hills community, but also how Ben was reflective on if he could have done more for May and Peter to give them a better home life. Hearing such a fact, Peter sadly focuses on events where his loved ones were let down by him, feeling if he should have been more attentive to his family and friends instead of his activities elsewhere. As Sully gets apologetic at getting Peter flustered, Peter finally recalls Sully as the neighborhood drunk who backslid each time Ben helped, leading to Ben moving Sully's wife and daughter out of town before Ben knocked him down one time when flushed. Sully acknowledges this, but affirms that he came to present his One-Year Sobriety chip to Ben's grave, having fought too hard to get sober yet worked through it with Ben's memory as motivation. Now sober, Sully reconciled with his daughter and met his grandson, happy at finally turning his life around and hoping it would've made Ben proud. Peter thanks the tearful Sully, and is grateful to Uncle Ben for his having been his father figure even if Ben never got rich or advanced in careers. Peter was just glad to have had Ben in his life, and is thankful that Sully for helping him remember the man Ben was. The two take their leave, with Sully inviting Peter to meet his daughter and grandson for her peach cobbler, as Peter accepts the invitation.

Appearing in "The Complete History of Spider-Man"

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Synopsis for "The Complete History of Spider-Man"

Spider-Man narrates an abridged flow of his history, from his debut to college years, Venom and Clone Saga to recent years with Miles, Spider-Gwen, and Kindred. Exhausted having to sharply condense so much time into one page.

Appearing in "Janine"

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  • Kelly (a Bedford Falls inmate) (First appearance)
  • Sarah (a Bedford Falls inmate) (First appearance)
  • Several unnamed Bedford Falls inmates
  • Johnson (a prison guard) (First appearance)
  • Several unnamed prison guards
  • Kaine Parker (Mentioned)

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Synopsis for "Janine"

Comfortable with another day in Bedford Falls Correctional, a guard calls for Elizabeth Tyne during lunch, only for her to correct the guard to call her Janine. She was called up to the visitation area, thinking it's another true crime podcast, only to be met with lawyers who demanded Janine not be cuffed to have freedom of movement in their meeting. When her guard escort informs her that her "friends" have a lot of power, Janine is concerned since she has no friends. When reading her arrest record as Elizabeth Tyne, but her still preferring Janine Godbe, the gentleman addressing her reveals himself an affiliate to the Beyond Corporation who develop rehabilitation centers for superhuman offenders and those adjacent to them. As Janine qualifies, his minimal explanation has her refuse believing he sees her as a guinea pig. However, she immediately reconsiders when the gentleman mentions "living the Life of Reilly" and walks out later that day. Free to leave under the Beyond Corps supervision, she spots a parked limousine where her "escort" comes out to greet her, stunned to see Ben Reilly again now wearing his Beyond Corp provided Spider-Man suit. Happy to be reunited with her, Ben asks the representative, Marcus, if he can take Janine for a web swing and is approved, carrying her back to their home. As one of his security escorts asks if freeing her was worth it, Marcus affirms it was as one can't put a price on job loyalty.

Solicit Synopsis

• It's AMAZING SPIDER-MAN Vol 1 875, and the whole ASM team is coming together to bring you a massive issue that is the culmination of three years of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN!

• It's all lead to this… "Hunted," "Sins Rising," "Last Remains," "King's Ransom," "Chameleon Conspiracy," "Sinister War"…and so much more all led to this climax and conclusion to Nick Spencer's landmark run on the best comic book in the world.

• What will happen with Peter and MJ, Mysterio, J. Jonah Jameson, Norman Osborn, Aunt May and Kindred?! FIND OUT HERE!

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