Story arc · 3 issues
The Jury are after the Amazing Spider-Man, claiming he is responsible for the creation of Venom.
The Jury , a group of mercenaries hired to take out Venom after he had killed Orwell Taylor's son, are in New York City . With motion/mass detectors fixed towards rooftops, the Jury is hoping they are able to track down Spider-Man ! Before the Jury goes out on a reconnaissance mission, Ramshot reveals that he isn't sure hunting Spider-Man is the right thing to do. He told Mr. Taylor he signed on to punish Venom for killing Mr. Taylor's son, but Spider-Man is one of the good guys. Mr. Taylor assures him that bringing Spider-Man in is for the greater good, so Ramshot joins the rest of his teammates. While Ramshot is returning to his teammates, Taylor is informed that one of the motion detectors had been damaged. Taylor orders someone to go out and fix it. As one of Taylor's men reaches the detector, he is picked up by Spider-Man. Spider-Man tells the man he knows what the detector is and wants to know why it is there or he will take him to the police. Spider-Man is told that he they aren't doing anything illegal and they have rented to use that space. Frustrated by making a mistake and confused by who might be trying to track him, Spider-Man returns home to Mary Jane . Mary Jane is apartment hunting since Liz is making the two of them move out. Peter explains to her that he is going to go out later to find out the source of the detectors. Peter then leaves for his class at ESU , so he can go out as Spider-Man later. Meanwhile, Aunt May is suspicious of Richard and Mary Parker , Peter's parents. They had recently returned after being dead for twenty years, but a private investigator hired by Aunt May wasn't able to turn up anything on them. Even without evidence, May had a gut feeling that they weren't who they claimed to be. May goes to Peter's apartment to talk to Mary Jane about this problem. She explains to Mary Jane that Ben and her were actually married six months in secret before their public wedding. The only person who was a witness to that wedding was Ricard and Mary. But when Richard talked to May about her anniversary, he talked about their public one instead of the real anniversary. Mary Jane reassured her that there was probably a reason why he didn't mention the official anniversary. May told Mary Jane that she was probably being just a silly old woman and left, but before she did she asked that Mary Jane didn't mention any of this to Peter. Mary Jane agreed, but wondered if it was right to keep it from Peter since they are trying to have and honest marriage. She then pulled out a cigarette and started smoking. That night, Spider-Man swings over to one of the detectors, which caused his Spider-Sense to go off. Through force of will, Spider-Man ignored his Spider-Sense and remained close to the detector so that someone would come and he could get the answers he is looking for. Spider-Man's sense starts warning him of danger coming from all directions, as the Jury springs in to attack him. During the fight, Spider-Man tries to reason with the Jury, but they explain to him that they have orders to bring him in. Bomblast fires a miss shot which causes a rooftop balcony to start collapsing which people on it. One of them falls off the roof, but Spider-Man goes in for the save with his Spider-Sense ringing because he is about to get attack by Ramshot. Ramshot holds his fire though, so that Spider-Man can save the man from falling. Ramshot explains to Sentry that he couldn't attack him while he was saving someone, so Sentry orders him to return back to base. Through teamwork, the Jury are able to out power Spider-Man and knock him out. When Spider-man awakens he is to find himself tied to a pole. He also finds that he is being drugged to keep him from breaking out of his restraints. Spider-Man asks Taylor why he wants to kill him. Taylor explains they are not after murder, but justice for bringing the alien Venom to Earth. While put on the witness stand, Screech tries to remove Spider-Man's mask. Before he does Taylor orders him to stop, saying that they are men of honor. He tells the Jury that Spider-Man shall keep his identity until after being proven guilty. Spider-Man asks why they are putting him on trail, and Taylor tells him that he is responsible for the creation of one of the worst mass killers in history. When Spider-Man tells him he is crazy, Taylor asks him if he has no sense of responsibility. With his thoughts dulled by the drugs, Spider-Man loses himself in his thoughts thinking about his responsibility. Taylor tells the Jury they will take a thirty minute recess while Spider-Man recovers because he should have the right to hear the words spoken against him. As they are leaving the room, Ramshot appears to be feeling guilty of the treatment Spider-Man is getting. The next day, Mary Jane is told by her boss that her role on the TV show is being reduced to a recurring role because the character isn't a hit with fans. He tells her that they will get her a couple of mall appearances though. Furious, Mary Jane goes out for a smoke so she can think about all that is happening in her life. A man approaches her and explains that he is allergic to cigarette smoke and asks her to put it out. Mary Jane blows up on the stranger and tells him that if she wants to kill herself she has every right too. She quickly realized what she had told the man though. Over in Queens, May gets a call from her private detective to tell her he is quitting the case against Richard and Mary Parker. He explains that there is no longer a trail to follow, and to continue so would be a waste of money. May yells at him and slams the phone down on the hook. She realized that wasn't like her to act that way against someone who is trying to be helpful. Meanwhile, Ramshot had brought Spider-Man something to drink so he could recover from the drugs. Spider-Man tells Ramshot that he can tell he's not like the others, and asks him to help him escape. Ramshot seemed hesitant, but before he could answer Taylor shows up and orders him out of the room. After a quick pep talk, Taylor seemed to have gained Ramshot's trust again in what they are doing. While being left alone, Spider-Man musters the strength to break the the pole his tired to. Screech enters the room and calls the others for back up. As Spider-Man leaps out the window, Sentry grabs the ropes still tied to his body and pulls him back in the building. Dazed from the drugs still, Spider-Man is knocked out before he has a chance to get back up. Taylor orders for Spider-Man to be re-secured and for his dosage of drugs to be increased so he can't escape again. Twenty minutes later, Spider-Man wakes up from the drugs and Taylor calls in the next witness against him, Irene Karnowsky . Ireme tells Spider-Man that her life and her daughter Suzie's life was ruined thanks to Venom. Spider-Man finally realizes that this is all about how he had brought Venom back with him from Beyonder's World. How after losing the symbiote , it had gone to Eddie Brock and later created his son, Carnage . Irene explains last Christmas, she took her six year old daughter, Suzie, shopping in Midtown. Venom had chased him through a department store while they were there. Suzie had gone to see a clown. Apparently Venom thought he was protecting Suzie from the clown, but she was so traumatized that she has spoken since the event. Spider-Man is offered a chance to defend himself in respects to being a fair trial. But Spider-Man tells Taylor there is no need, because he is guilty as charged. Taylor announces that Spider-Man has been found guilty for crimes against humanity and is sentenced to death. Before the Jury finishes Spider-Man off for good, Ramshot steps in the way. He tells them that he can't let them kill a man who has saved so many lives. Taylor gives Spider-Man the chance to redeem himself if he helps them recover and item that will help kill Venom. Spider-Man agrees even though this goes against his belief about killing. While Spider-Man is going through trail, Mary Jane had gone out dancing to relieve stress. He starts dancing with one of the guys there at the club, but he is looking for more than just a dance. Mary Jane tells him that she is married and the man said that he is too but he didn't care. Since the man wouldn't back off, Mary Jane threatens him with her lighter after lighting up another cigarette. Dancing is the only way Mary Jane knew how to relieve stress since Peter had been missing for the last 24 hours, but she can't tell anyone since he is Spider-Man. Back at the Jury's base, Spider-Man is given a transceiver so that he can stay in contact with Taylor as well as the rest of the Jury. He is also told that their mission is to break into a military base. There they have an incomplete teleportation device. When the device is trained on an object, it breaks it down by the atoms but is unable to reassemble them. The plan is to use this device on Venom and literally break him down atom by atom. Spider-Man tells them that that is a great plan, but his thoughts suggest otherwise now that the drugs are starting to come out of his system. Before they leave for the mission, Taylor tells Ramshot that he is suspended from the Jury until further notice. Spider-Man and the Jury make it into the Government Research Facility, by crawling through the air vents. Before jumping out of the vents, Spider-Man's Spider-Sense warns them that they shouldn't step on the floor. So he shoots a webline across the room so that they can climb safely across it without sounding the alarm system. Spider-Man leads the Jury through the base, pointing out all the security devices so they can easily avoid them. They are spotted by an armed guard, so Screech takes him out with a blast. Spider-Man jumps on Screech telling him they can't kill anyone, but Screech tells him it was just a stun blast. Meanwhile at the HQ, Ramshot pleads with Taylor to let him stay on the team. He tells him he only went against them because he signed on to kill Venom. Spider-Man was an innocent person, who shouldn't be punished. Taylor explains that he had never planned on killing Spider-Man in the first place. Everything was set up so that after he was drugged they could convince Spider-Man to help them get the Teleportation Device from the base. He didn't tell the rest of the Jury, because he wasn't sure if Spider-Man's Spider-Sense could tell if their threats were real or not. Ramshot tells him that it was great he stepped in then, because it made the situation seem more real. Taylor tells him that he is still off active duty because that is reserved for those whose loyalties are clear. At the Research Facility, Spider-Man and the Jury have recovered the teleportation device. Sentry tries it out on one the lab computers, which destroys it instantly. Finally clean of the drugs, Spider- Man realizes they are going to use this on Brock to kill him. Spider-Man punches Sentry sending back into some equipment. The hit had damage the teleportation device and causes it to explode, taking Sentry out of the fight as well. Now that the Jury is only down to three members, Spider-Man quickly defeats the remain members using his strength and agility. He the escapes through the air vent before the lab guards show up and know that he was ever there. Spider-Man returns home to find Mary Jane lying on the couch sleeping. Next to her is an ash tray full of cigarette butts and a pack of cigarettes. Peter wakes her and tells her they have a lot to talk about, but first they have to go see Nick . Mary Jane goes with Peter, though she can't figure out why. When they get to the hospital where Nick is, Mary Jane is freaked out by the site of him. Nick explains that he has had cancer and starts having a coughing attack. Mary Jane starts crying and asks Peter how he can be so cruel before running out of the room. Peter walks out of the room and tells Mary Jane that he is sorry. She tells him that she isn't mad at him,but herself for being weak. She then crushes her package of cigarettes and throws them away.
