The Avenger responsible for rescuing Ned was Hank Pym. He entered Ned's house by riding a flying ant, then returned to his normal size and walked toward Ned, who was webbed to the wall by Spider-Man.
"Mr. Ned Leeds, please relax. I am Hank Pym, and I'm here to help you."
Webbed to the wall, Ned seemed to remember something. His gray skin twisted with his expression, and he shouted in agony: "Don't come near me! Don't come near me!"
"Please don't worry, the Avengers will cure you—"
"There's a bomb inside me!"
Pym stopped in his tracks when he heard that.
"It's going to explode immediately. You won't have time to dismantle it," Ned muttered, his lips trembling, then he said with a distressed face: "I know you, you're... you're Dr. Pym, right."
"Yes, perhaps there is still hope, Mr. Leeds, please don't—"
"Please, please tell Spider-Man. The Hobgoblin is after him, and he won't do anything else until he kills Spider-Man." Ned said, his expression twisting: "He must, he must be stopped before that. I don't remember much, but he must be stopped before he kills Spider-Man!"
Hank was about to say something more, but the man in front of him exploded into a fireball. Hank remained silent for a long time, maintaining his posture, until Spider-Man entered through the window.
"This man saved us, Spider-Man. He could have said nothing, or he could have chosen not to tell us about the Hobgoblin. But in the end, he spoke," Pym looked at the charred corpse in front of him, muttering: "We must stop that Hobgoblin; that is pure evil. There is no room for negotiation."
Manhattan in January was as cold as ever. J. Jonah Jameson arrived at the Daily Bugle for work and routinely inspected the office. Finding that Ned Leeds hadn't shown up, he cursed under his breath and dialed his number. He swore he would chew out the tardy and absent guy.
But the call didn't connect, so he dialed a second number. At this point, the editor, Robbie, walked over and whispered in his ear.
"Jonah, Spider-Man is here, in your office."
"Spider-Man? Why isn't he out doing his Avenger thing? What does he want here!" Jonah raised his voice three points and grumbled his way to his office. After opening the door, he saw Spider-Man standing in front of his desk.
"Spider-Man, I don't know what you're here for. If you want to sue the Bugle for libel, you should hire a lawyer, send a cease and desist letter, and sign it with your real name. If you're planning for the Bugle to interview you, I apologize, we have no such arrangement."
Jonah pretended not to care at all, sat down in his chair, habitually put his two legs on the desk, then decided it wasn't appropriate to do so in front of Spider-Man, and put his legs down.
"In short, the Daily Bugle does not welcome you... is not particularly welcoming of you."
"I'm here to... deliver bad news, Jonah. Regarding reporter Ned Leeds, I'm very sorry."
Jonah froze. He considered many possibilities, even momentarily considering the possibility that Spider-Man was threatening him, but he quickly dismissed the idea. In his heart, Spider-Man was not a bad person. In fact, it was rare to find a good person like Spider-Man.
Therefore, even though he didn't know what the unmasked Spider-Man was like, or if he was a villain who did evil to maintain psychological balance, Jonah could at least confirm that the masked Spider-Man was a good person.
So, after careful thought, Jonah somewhat understood what had happened.
"I remember Leeds was investigating an explosion case, right? Did he find something, and so..."
"There's a super-villain called the Hobgoblin, who orchestrated that explosion to hide his true identity. Reporter Leeds was captured and brainwashed by him during the investigation. He tried to frame Reporter Leeds for everything."
Jonah painfully rubbed his temples. Since Spider-Man had investigated this far, there was no doubt that the villain's attempt to frame Leeds had failed. He listened quietly until Spider-Man finished everything, then looked at him.
"Ned... he didn't give in, did he? He was a good reporter, wasn't he?"
"Yes, he saved us."
Jonah sighed wistfully, then looked at Spider-Man: "Did you catch that villain with the silly name, the Hobgoblin?"
"...Not yet. The clue is cut. Although his framing attempt didn't succeed, we haven't caught him."
Jonah Jameson nodded, then sighed again. He arranged for Robbie to write an obituary for Ned, then he stood up and put on his overcoat.
"Thank you very much for the notice, Spider-Man. I owe you one for this." Jonah put on his hat. Peter looked at him and asked, "What are you going to do?"
"I remember Ned's investigation report should still be on his computer. I'm going to investigate this, Spider-Man. Maybe you Avengers couldn't find anything, or maybe he found something before being captured, but I'm different."
Jonah walked to the office door and looked at Spider-Man.
"My employee was killed, Spider-Man, killed for reporting the truth. No matter what, I can't stand by. J. Jonah Jameson used to be the best investigative reporter in all of Manhattan, and he still is. I will drag that bastard out. Only then can I honor my subordinate."
He didn't give Peter a chance to object and immediately closed the office door. Peter sighed helplessly, then asked JARVIS: "JARVIS, has the surveillance footage revealed any potential suspects involved in all this?"
Peter had JARVIS analyze and process the footage from the AIM window camera across from the restaurant, which recorded people entering the establishment during the relevant time period. JARVIS, as expected, listed the names of suspicious individuals.
"Roderick Kingsley, a New York millionaire and well-known fashion designer. The victim and this person worked in the same building, but not on the same floor."
Roderick Kingsley...
That name seemed familiar. Wasn't that the name of the original Hobgoblin in the comics?
Could this be the Hobgoblin's next disguise?
There's also Bart Hamilton, Norman's psychologist. Those two are the next leads to follow.
The parts of Peter's statements that don't conform to the facts are meant to comfort Jameson.
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