Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Days of Christmas: Spider-Man Meets Nate Grey

This might seem like an odd choice but there's a good reason for this. This came out around the time I was getting into comics, it had two heroes meeting for the first time and dealt with loss. It made an impression. Amazing Spider-Man #420.

There has been few families as overly complicated as the Summers/Grey clan from X-Men. Jean Greys' clone had a baby with Scott Summers that became Cable. Nate Grey is a teenage alternative reality version of Cable. ...Anyway Nate came to the main Marvel reality and around Christmas Peter Parker runs into him. Being the untrusting sort and a telepath Nate doesn't take kindly to people with secrets approaching him.

This was one of the more interesting meet ups as Nate was suspicious of most heroes and frightening powerful. Peter and Mary Jane had a BAD year since they lost Aunt May (although that will be retconned), Peters' clone Ben Reilly (I don't think that's mentioned) and the baby they were expecting little May (Spider-Girl in MC2.) Keep in mind the loss of Ben and little May happened on Halloween so the wounds are still pretty raw.

Nate seems ready to throw down as he usually did in these situations when Peter talks some sense into him. Their friendship would come back in both of their respective series with Peter being one of the few people Nate would trust. So this issue does leave an impact for both characters.

Peter wants to make Mary Jane happy and doesn't want to talk about the daughter he loss which naturally can't be hidden from a telepath. The Parker kindness wins Nate over reinforcing why Peter is supposed to be such a great inspiring hero (as well as proving why the marriage works.) Nate gives his own Christmas gift to say thanks giving Peter something truly special. It's provides some good character work for Peter and Nate that has them both get something valuable from the experience. Nate was a teenager who was dying from his powers and truly alone on the world. To have Peter give him a nice Christmas and Nate to show his thanks the way he does is touching.

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