While I’m not entirely satisfied with my post about Peter’s Lost Leg, upon my revisiting of it recently I was at least pleased that I had made my points well. I also realized I had made mention of an unexplained plot point regarding the MC2 Spider-Man’s final battle with the Green Goblin: Who saved Peter Parker’s life?
Let’s review the facts we do know of the situation:
- Norman Osborn, for unknown reasons does not enact the Gathering of Five ritual until much later in the MC2, likely as a result of setting up other schemes and masterplans in the meantime.
- Eventually, Kaine rescues and returns Peter and Mary Jane’s baby May Parker to them.
- Spider-Man has several adventures while raising May including those seen in the Mr and Mrs Spider-Man stories.
- Mattie Franklin, Norman Osborn, Greg Herd, Cassandra Webb (aka Madame Web) and Morris Maxwell willingly agree to participate in the Gathering of Five ritual. This ritual is interrupted by Spider-Man before it can reach its completion.
- As Spider-Man, Peter Parker battles Norman Osborn as the Green Goblin. Mattie Franklin stands by watching her favourite hero as the other participants of the Gathering begin to flee.
- Mattie Franklin is the last to flee, taking the pieces for the Gathering of Five ritual with her. Spider-Man loses his leg and Norman Osborn dies in their final battle.
By now, you’ve probably guessed where I’m going with this. With the Goblin dead and Peter haemorrhaging quickly from what remained of his right leg, I propose Mattie Franklin provided life-saving first aid to her fallen hero. There isn’t evidence, per se, but I’m going to try to form a convincing enough argument for why I believe Martha ‘Mattie’ Franklin was the one to save Peter’s life and in doing so become a hero in her own right.
As I’ve noted above and in previous posts, in the MC2 this Gathering of Five ritual took place far later than it did in the Main Marvel Universe. Naturally, this would mean Mattie was slightly older and presumably more mature. Additionally, if we assume the trajectory of young Mattie’s personal life played out similarly to how it occurred in the Main Marvel Universe, things quickly took a sharp turn toward the tragic. Firstly, with an additional in-universe year or two it can be assumed Mattie’s father Jeremy Franklin died at this point just as he is said to have died in the Main Marvel Universe (Alias #20). If you want to discard this point, there is still the fact that Mattie has obsessive and depressive moods when thinking about her mother who died in unrevealed circumstances while she was very young (Spider-Woman vol.3 #15).
I mention Mattie’s early parental losses because evidently it informs her morality and outlook. Seeing a dying man in front of her, particularly her favourite superhero Spider-Man would surely have provided the impetus for her to turn around and attempt to help him. Additionally, Norman reveals his duel identity as the Green Goblin to the other participants of the Gathering of Five. In her very first cameo appearance from Spectacular Spider-Man #262, we learn that Mattie’s father Jeremy Franklin is an unwilling associate of Osborn’s which must surely have made this reveal doubly confronting; the enemy of her recently deceased father is also the enemy of her close to death idol.
From a different perspective I also find the idea that Mattie’s heroic side emerged in this moment quite meta-textually satisfying. For those unfamiliar, Mattie Franklin’s introduction coincided with the rebooting of the Spider-Man titles of the time which saw the premature end to many creative team’s runs, with many plot threads left dangling. With the reboot, Mary Jane suddenly returned to modelling, Peter quit being Spider-Man and Aunt May was suddenly returned to life while baby May was brushed under the carpet. Empowered by the Gathering of Five ceremony, Mattie took over briefly as Spider-Man in the hero’s absence and soon after took on the Spider-Woman mantel with her own title under creator John Byrne’s writing pen. Along the way, Mary Jane was supposedly killed in a plane explosion and we got this infamous cover:
Now, imagine if instead of an extremely inappropriate kiss between a teenage girl and a married/widowed man, in the MC2 events might have depicted Mattie instead performing life-saving first aid and ‘the kiss of life’ via CPR on a dying Spider-Man? Instead of exploiting the potential death of a spouse, Mattie serves to save one of the Parker's. Seems way more heroic and endearing to me, but I’m no writer.
But let’s also back track again to discuss Norman Osborn during the post-Clone Saga era of the Spider-Titles, before they were rebooted. Norman Osborn had manipulated his way into a place of even more power and influence when he took control and ownership of the Daily Bugle and was even making private threats to J Jonah Jameson. With the reboot of the titles, these plots fell by the wayside and were I believe never satisfactorily resolved. Jonah and his wife Marla later became adoptive parents to Mattie when she ran away to New York and this tie was strengthened when Jeremy Franklin died in unrevealed circumstances leading the Jameson’s to adopt Mattie officially.
So, let’s really dive into the realm of fan theory here for
a bit. We know Mattie’s mother died when she was young. We know Jeremy
Franklin was unwilling to participate in the Gathering of Five, but
still felt compelled to due to threats Norman made against him. Jeremy
even swore to himself he’d make Osborn pay dearly. We know (thanks to
references in the Mattie’s own series and some errors in continuity in Bendis’
Alias #20) that both Marla and Jonah knew Jeremy
well. We know that Jeremy died without explanation. I propose Norman,
at least in the MC2, held a dangling threat over the Franklin
family. When Jeremy disobeyed, he was soon after killed and this led to Mattie
moving in with the Jameson’s. This would also go some way to explaining
why Jonah held back exposing Norman, fearing his adoptive
daughter Mattie would be killed like her father (and perhaps her mother)
before her. If Jeremy held off handing over the piece he had which was
needed to complete the Gathering of Five ceremony, this might also have
contributed to its delayed occurrence in the MC2 as well.
Would an older, more mature and freshly orphaned Mattie take the initiative and attempt to save her idol from certain death? I think so. With some first aid, Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation and quick decision-making Mattie could have not only saved Peter, but also preserved his secret identity by contacting the Fantastic Four instead of regular emergency services.
This theory allows Mattie to be characterised in a more heroic light, saving her hero from certain death and presents a better origin story and perhaps some more rationale for other aspects surrounding these otherwise unexplained events. We also already know Mattie goes on to become Spider-Woman and contacted Peter (Spider-Girl #39), but with this context we can speculate that she may have known his secret identity and kept it quiet.
Again, this is just my wildly expanded theory to try to make sense of several dropped plotlines from that era of Spidey comics while also figuring out how it could all line up in the MC2 where things turned out drastically different. If you disagree, please tell me why and I’d be happy to have a discussion!
Until I stop dwelling on 20-year-old plotlines everyone would rather forget, I remain
frogoat
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