Marvel Adventures Spider-Man (2005) 46

Baby, it’s cold outside. Cold enough to freeze the webbing in your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man’s web-shooters. Still, it’s two days before Christmas – in New York City – whatta ya expect?

This exothermic process will cause our hero problems later, but is foreshadowed several times before the big brouhaha.

As stated above, it’s just days before Christmas and Peter Parker is cash poor. Though gifted with the strength and agility of his name-sake, Peter just can’t catch a break. Crime is on the downside and he needs $99 for Aunt May’s Christmas gift.

No amount of web swinging bears fruit. He does mistake two well-meaning Santas for the Santa burglar. Spidey even assaults a father dressed as Saint Nick trying to impress his children.

The hapless hero finally seems to make good when he not only defeats the Chameleon – surprise villain – but is able to document the fight in photos. True to Parker luck there’s no one to pay him for his photos and Peter is back to square one.

He finally realizes it’s not the dollar amount attached to the gift, but the heart strings. In a Christmas miracle even JJJ comes through.

Marvel Adventures is an all-ages imprint formally published under Marvel Age. The stories are one-and-done rather than multi-issue arcs. The imprint ran from 2005 to 2010 when it was rebooted as Marvel Adventures Spider-Man and Marvel Adventures Super Heroes. Each ended in 2012 to be retitled Ultimate Spider-Man and The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Super Heroes Adventures to dovetail with Disney XDs cartoon block.