f i t .

Do you know that feeling where you're so depressed, so out of touch with yourself and reality that everything takes this almost unreal look? Like you can't even fathom what's happening to you anymore, because it all seems so out of your control?

That's what Peter's going through in this run. He is, by all definitions, clinically depressed. You want to make him relatable to modern audiences? There you go! Now he's just like us fr fr As a follow up to the status quo now, Peter in this run is at his absolute lowest.

Not just materially. Emotionally. You've seen him angsty, screaming "I'M THE SPIDER!!" You've seen him without any friends, but still taking solace in kicking butt. But you've never seen him like this. Completely and utterly emotionally despondent.

There is no "What did Peter do!?" There is no big inciting incident that caused him to be all alone this time. There's just a question. What happens when he can't lift the unliftable weight? What happens when he's crushed by it?

This run starts with Peter about to be evicted, while he's staying up all night, staring out the window. He hasn't had a job in months. Everything has finally gotten to him. He is completely out of it. He wants cereal. He has no milk. So he goes out swinging. Time to get milk.

On his way, there's a massive attack in the middle of Manhattan by the Sandman. Spidey is confused, it's not really like Flint to just be mindlessly destroying. But he goes anyway. Lives have got to be saved. But when he gets there, he hears something strange.

Sandman is screaming his name, but it's not in the normal villain "I'm gonna beat you!!" way. No, it sounds like... a cry for help? Sandman turns around to look at Spider-Man and Spidey is shocked. Sandman's all...wrong!

Like his body didn't completely turn into sand, but is now this mess of misplaced nerves and bones and muscle without the protection of his skin, all being constantly stabbed by a mess of sandy particles. Flint screams "SPIDER-MAN!! HELP ME!!!"

But it's like his body isn't responding to his brain! He keeps wreaking havoc! Spidey tries to stop him, but nothing works! Water doesn't even turn his sand into mud, because it's not even sand anymore! It's just a wave of dead skin! Peter is being beaten into the ground.

He tries to save as many people as he can, but it's almost impossible. He feels it. Like he's going to die. But before he's pushed anymore, before death can finally take him, Sandman just stops and dissipates. Like his body couldn't take existing anymore.

Peter is battered and bruised. He tries to run back to his apartment, but he can barely make it to a nearby alley. He starts bleeding out, all alone, among the trash. He tries to keep it together and just sleeps, hoping it'll get better when he wakes.

The sun is setting again when he finally wakes up. He limps towards his apartment, weakly web-slinging the big distances. He makes it back through the window and takes a breather. He sees it on the kitchen counter. That cereal bowl from last night. And he remembers.

"Oh. I forgot to get milk." He laughs. He's done this a hundred times! How many times has he forgotten the groceries during his Spidey action? He did it with May, he did it with MJ... They all had a good laugh about it. But there's no one else here.

No one here to make him feel like it's okay to screw up sometimes. No one else here to lie to him to hide their disappointment. It's just him. The only person he's failing now is himself.

And Peter Parker finally breaks. He cries and cries until the sun is gone and that's left is the pitch black of the urban night sky.

And that's a taste of the tone of my pitch. Peter Parker is going to be broken down to his lowest. A complete deconstruction of who he is, of his relationships, and of why he wears the mask. All so he can be built back better than ever.

Because that's what happens when you're crushed by the unliftable weight. If it doesn't kill you, then all that's left to do is be better. Be stronger. And lift it up. The premise of the story is that something is messing with Spidey's rogues.

They're being mutated into these harsh, horrific monsters, and the roster of rogues being chosen are rather strange. They're all villains who've been redeemed before, or who have stronger moral fibers, or are generally not pure evil. So no Norman, no Jackal.

We're dealing with Flint Marko, Quentin Beck, Curt Connors, Aleksei Sytsevich, Felicia Hardy, Otto Octavius, and Michael Morbius. They're our Sinful Six (not counting Felicia, because she has a more specific purpose).

All throughout the story, Spidey has to confront each of these mutated villains in battles of endurance, because he is not beating them in any way. He just has to outlast them. There is nothing more human than our stamina giving us an edge.

While this is happening, Peter is losing his sense of self. As he starts to lose all his material connection to being Peter Parker, he starts to wonder "Why am I even bothering being Peter in the first place?" Officially, Spider-Man has actually ruined Peter Parker's life.

We explore the relationship Spider-Man has with Peter Parker through two people who can attest to that identity's importance the most: His brothers from the same genetic sample, the Scarlet-Spiders for Hire, Ben Reilly and Kaine.

They will reach out to Peter, telling him not to give up on himself, because they know what it's like to not be able to call upon that. Spidey doesn't listen. Because the truth is, there isn't much to give up on in the first place.

He has no job, he has no apartment, he has no friends, he has no significant other, and besides May, who he's too ashamed to talk to, he has no family. He's all alone. But there's always one person he can confide in. He feels selfish and awful for it, but he know she's there.

Mary Jane Watson. MJ is having her own transitionary period at the moment. She's left show business. She loved it, but it's gotten too volatile, too stressful, too, too, TOO MUCH! She hates to admit it, but maybe it's all become too much for her.

The stalkers, the cameras, the lights, the stage, it's starting to suffocate her! But without her dream of showbiz, what is she looking for? What does she want? Who is she? In these months of self-discovery, she realizes what it actually is she was finding in showbiz.

The ability to artistically express herself. To be herself. Ironically, in hiding behind characters and fancy dresses and makeup, she was getting more and more in touch with herself.

The self that was subdued in her broken home. The self that had to hide behind a no-care attitude. The self that she only felt like she was being honest with in the presence of one other person.

She starts up her own business. A small fashion boutique where she expresses herself through creative and bombastic designs that hopefully other people will like as well. This only makes Peter more unwilling to reach out to her.

He doesn't want to bring her down anymore. Especially when she's making these big changes. He... He... He doesn't want her to see him like this. Until eventually, he stops having a choice in the matter.