HE NEVER THOUGHT he’d see another spider-person after michael.
the loss had struck him hard. how couldn’t it have? witnessing someone you had been close to die and it was all his fault. pb was the one who stuck his head into places where they didn’t belong. PB WAS THE ONE WHO NEEDED SAVING. and michael had paid the price for that. michael had saved him one last time. it was so fast. faster than pb could even comprehend. one moment, both of them falling, the next… being suspended in the air by one of michael’s web shooters. a few more seconds and pb wouldn’t have been alive. and there was michael, who he had eventually found in all the debris… he wanted to get him out. get help. do… do anything for him. but both he and the hero knew IT WAS TOO LATE.
since then, well… pb’s never been the same since. lost passion for phtoography. colder to his students even if he tried not to be. co-workers, they knew, but… no, pb couldn’t let them get close to him. he’s even been holding his aunt AT ARMS LENGTH. how powerless did he feel… knowing he was the reason why spider-man was DEAD?
that’s why when three new spider-people showed, it quite literally yanked him out of the hole he was digging for himself. at first he thought it was IMPOSSIBLE. michael had been the only spider-man, right? but now there were three. and for the first time since michael’s death, he picked up that camera. at first the pictures were supposed to show pb that they weren’t GHOSTS of some kind. to prove he wasn’t just seeing things. of course, j. jonah jameson found about about the new pictures, and— THAT WAS IT. once more, he was spider-man’s photographer.
so, pretend you’re in pb’s position now. spider-people are back, you’re taking pics, and it wasn’t exactly a NO-BRAINER that spider-man’s previous enemies were pissed there was now three spiders they had to deal with. … if you could imagine where this was going, that would make exactly ONE PERSON WHO DID.
“this would be a lot less painful for you if you told me who they are.” said aforementioned spidey villain, mr. negative. standing in front of the simple high school teacher, surrounded by his VARIOUS HENCHMEN. this didn’t look pretty great. and the fact they insist on hitting him for not knowing things is SERIOUSLY getting old.
“look, man,” he’ll spew out, “you REALLY gotta get it through your head that i don’t know anything. i’m seriously as clueless as you! well, probably not ‘kidnap the photographer’ clueless-”
and right as negative’s hand comes up to strike pb again, he’s knocked to the side by— oh! one of those spider-people! the villain adjusts himself before the rest of his goons soon come into shot, looking for a FIGHT. oh, boy. he really hopes this spider-person brought some backup because it was looking like it was over a dozen-to-one.
“Do I need to teach you assholes to keep your hands to yourself?! Touch him again and I’ll remove them, bronze them, and put them up with a plaque that states ‘Mr. Negative--I Told Him To Keep His Hands To Himself And He Said Negative’! Then all you’ll have are two stumps at the end of your wrists you can attach two negative magnets to. Or a hook. Or whatever! And I’ll start my own personal Hands Of Bad Guys collection!”
One of the goons pulls out a gun and Gwen shoots a web to prevent it from firing, tugging the weapon out of his hand and whipping it over her head to smack it into at least 5 other guys’ temples. MJ and Harry don’t really know what to do at this point, until more goons appear and MJ springs into action with the Iron Spider suit and joins the battle.
Harry, on the other hand, is programming his pumpkin bombs, ready to end the battle when Gwen’s gotten her rage out of her system and MJ’s done helping, appearing upside down before the beaten photographer to assess his injuries and what needed to be done to free him. “Hey dude, need a hand?”