Stories Focussed On Spider-Man

Hello World, I'm an Avenger!

"Welcome!" Tony Stark greeted as he strutted on stage. "Hush. I know you're all excited. Which is strange, considering we haven't told you what you're excited for." The crowd of reporters silenced immediately, eager to hear the reason for the rare offical Avengers press conference. "But, that isn't for me to share. So, I'm here to introduce - yes, I, Tony Stark, am introducing someone else - Spider-Man!"

The man clad in his usual red and blue skin-tight suit tiptoed up the set of steps that lead to the stage, quickly making his way to stand behind Stark and mostly out of sight. The billionaire, noticing the movement chuckled. "Excuse him if he's a little shy, he's not done one of these before." The crowd smiled and a few laughs were heard, easing the tension so it wasn't quite as palpable as moments prior. Stark put a hand on the vigilante's shoulder and ushered him to stand in front of the podium. The unusually terse hero obeyed.

"Hi," he said, leaning into the microphone, which proceeded to sceech. Everyone winced and a few flash photographs were taken. "Hi," he tried again. When he didn't recieve pain in his ears, he continued. "Uh, I'm Spider-Man, if you couldn't already tell. Which, I mean, I'm assuming most of you know who I am since I've been doing this for two years already. But, I was told to explain who I am and stuff, so here it goes:" he gulped, "I was dubbed as the Spider-Man within the first week of going out and displaying vigilantism. I did small stuff while I was learning the ropes and still getting a good grasp of my powers. So, like, taking care of muggings and things, whatever I could do to help. Then, I started doing some more big scale things. Took down Adrien Toomes, AKA the Vulture, and his gang who had been doing black market alien weaponry work. Which, uh, was not good. Now, I still take on the small things, but I also handle a fair share of supervillain attacks. I've got a lot of crazies in my rougues gallery, that's for sure. And, as of today, I'm an official Avenger. Which, is why we had to call the press conference: to announce it officially and all that jazz." He paused. "And, well, you know what a requirement is that I don't currently meet when it comes to being an Avenger, right?"

A gasp came from an audience member.

"He gets it. My identity has to be, well, public. Which, is kind of terrifying, if I'm being honest." He laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm guessing you've probably already noticed that, though. I'm not really of doing a good job of hiding my fear like I usually do." The crowd chuckled slightly. "So, I'm going to go ahead and point out that I haven't done the big reveal with my teammates yet, I made them wait for this conference to see who I am. I was told that the only reason my alter ego would forfeit my spot on the team was if I turned out to be some sort of spy." He paused and let out a strained laugh. "I'm pretty sure Birdbrain meant that as a joke, but whatever. Anyways, it was always fun to read articles about myself with my friends who did actually know my secret because there was this fundamentally assumption literally everyone made. Everyone thinks I'm this put-together grown man who's abnormally handsome and heroic and popular. The reality?" He ripped off his mask and revealed a red faced teenager with tangled chocolate hair and dark irises. "I'm just a huge dork, nerd, and loser teenager named Peter Parker." The room was so silent you could've heard a pen dropped. No one dared to breathe. And then, all of Hades broke loose. Reporters were hollering, trying to yell over each other to be heard. Peter was curling in on himself from the sudden input and Aunt May was smiling like a proud mother from her spot in the back of the room.

"E-excuse me. Please be quiet," Peter whispered into the mic. The tech guy, Miro, heard the noise through his headset and announced the request at a volume everyone could hear. "Thanks, I have sensitive hearing, so just raise your hands and I'll call on you, like we're in school and I'm the teacher." Immediately, everyone's hands shot up. He called on a brunette woman in the front row wearing a green sweater.

"I'm Kiryn from the New York Times. How old are you?"

"Seventeen. I started this whole 'Spider-Man' thing back when I was fifteen."

"I'm Qi from the New York Insider. Are you in a stable relationship?"

"I'm seventeen? What kind of question is that? No seventeen year old is in a stable relationship. I'm not in any relationships because I'm awkward as heck!"

"I'm your Aunt May from your family. What do you want for dinner?"

"I'm in the mood for Thai, but if you want something else, that's cool, too."

"I'm Edgar from the Daily Bugle. Do you understand how much of a menace you are?"

Peter froze before looking up to the ceiling to communicate with the tower's AI, an action everyone found humorous. "Uh, Miss FRIDAY. What's the dictionary definition of 'menace'?"

"The word 'menace' is a noun which means, 'a person or thing that is likely to cause harm; a threat or danger.' Would you like me to read more?" came the response.

"No thank you, Miss FRIDAY." He turned back to the crowd, an annoyed glint in his eyes. "You abide by that definition, right?"

"Yes."

"Lit. In that case, I'm not a menace because I save lives and take criminals off the streets. And, bye whatever logic you came to that conclusion, that means that all my Avenger buddies are menaces as well, which everyone can agree is most definitely not the case.

"And, just a word to everyone who likes slandering others, you're freaking jerks. I became Spider-Man after my uncle was shot in a mugging, just after I had gotten my powers. I wanted to - and I still want to - stop things like that from ever happening again because I don't want anyone else to go through the same pain I went through. So, I became Spider-Man at a very emotionally unstable time in my life and immediately started receiving hate and I got depressed really quick. My friend, MJ, helped me out of it after some comments about not particularly caring what douchebags think of her because their douchebags. Who listens to a douchebag? I'm fairly certain she knew I was Spidey back then, but didn't say anything. So, remember, words can sting a lot. Next time you go to grill someone you barely know and have certainly never met, remember that you're messing with another human being who has feelings and a life."

Everyone scribbled furiously on their notepads, trying to catch each word he spoke.

"Now, I have math homework to do and I'd like to finish before patrol. Later."

With that having been said, Peter Parker jogged off the stage with much more confidence than when Spider-Man first arrived.