SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN: REVIVAL SERIES (REMASTERED)

CHAPTER 3: INDEPENDENT VARIABLE (NO-MORE)

CHAPTER 3: Independent Variable

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Spectacular Characters or Marvel Characters. Just keep that in mind.

STRESS

30 years earlier, when his parents first set their eyes on MacDonald Gargan, they saw disappointment. In school, he always needed guidance through the simplest of math problems, because he was overwhelmed. That led to poor grades on tests, and ultimately led to disappointed parents. His parents believed top grades could lead to a successful career, although his parents never made it past sophomore year, so how would they know? By the end of his 4 years of high school, he had a below-average 1.7 GPA, which led to the same disappointed parents. So they believed it was inevitable for Mac to be employed as a cashier at the nearest department store for an eternity. He believed he would be a failure as well and never found his own life so fascinating. In fact, he found more interest in other people's lives.

Which, fortunately, led to him developing an unusual skill: stalking people. He learned more about people when he sneakily followed them to the grocery store, or their apartments.

His eyes constantly peered into the windows of other apartments.

His ears listened to his next-door neighbors' affairs & arguments and secrets.

His mind studied those people's lives, as if he were in class.

His hand took notes of others while he watched. Sometimes Mac would know more about those he observed than his own parents.

Months later, his 'talents' led him to the eyes of the CEO and founder of OsCorp, Norman Osborn. Since his company was an up-and-coming chemical & robotics manufacturing company, and there were many larger competitors who could swallow OsCorp up, Norman needed dirt on the larger companies. So his associates knew an odd man who specialized at 'investigating' others, which was Mac Gargan. They found him and offered to pay for his private detective school. Once Mac finished with his school, Norman Osborn hired him as his personal Private Investigator. He actually found success in the job Osborn gifted him. Since Gargan found dirt on some of OsCorp's competition, Norman found his job important and funded Gargan's firm. And those funds helped pay for plenty of this, from the rent of the apartment to the hospital bills for his wife and daughter. Their constant stay at the hospital's made bills piles up. Occasionally the money problems overwhelmed him. Not a day goes by, where he'd want to take his wife and child home, and care for them there. But he knew that his loved ones would get better... in a hospital. That's what kept him going every day, his family. In his mind, without those two, there was nothing worth living for.

Unfortunately, his wife had stage 4 ovarian cancer. The news tore Mac apart, being his foundation. She believed in Mac's abilities when others didn't, in his choices and most importantly, she believed in him.

Unfortunately, they had a few months left to spend together. She passed a couple of months later. That tore him apart. Occasionally, he wouldn't get out of the house to visit his daughter at the hospital. Other days, he arrived at the hospital miserable. Immediately, his daughter began to see the fall of her father. From his dark under-eye bags to his slouched posture, life tore Gargan down. Although he masked his true feelings with a smile every time he entered his daughter's hospital room. There was only one thing Mac lived for: his daughter. Months passed as a whole desk filled up with bills piled up in his office. It extremely overwhelmed him and sometimes he had to sacrifice. HELL, some days in the blistering summer, he wouldn't use AC in the office to save a few bucks.

Then, the best possible news Gargan has heard for a while. Norman Osborn had a job for him: to investigate Donald Menken's whereabouts. And immediately he got the job done. Norman told him that a large check would be there for him. It encouraged him that his PI firm wasn't wasted. He knew Norman would need him to find dirt on the competition, that's how the madman worked.