Ultra Responsibility (My Hero Academia X Spider-Man Reader)

Issue 122 - Spider-Man No More Part 2

J. Jonah Jameson sat behind his desk as the opening package began to play on the monitor beside him. Somber music accompanied footage of burning streets, shattered masks, and emergency crews carrying the wounded through Musutafu. A grave voice started listing casualty estimates while bold lettering appeared beneath the Daily Bugle logo.

Jameson watched for three seconds.

Then he raised one hand.

"Cut it."

The footage continued.

Jameson looked past the camera toward the production booth.

"I said cut it."

The screen behind him went black. The music died mid-note, leaving an uncomfortable silence across the studio.

A producer spoke through his earpiece.

Jameson tore it out and placed it on the desk.

"No videos. No headlines. No statistics crawling across the bottom of the screen. Turn off the music too."

Someone behind the cameras hesitated.

Jameson leaned forward.

"I'm not interested in making this look important. It already is."

The studio fell completely still.

There was no photograph behind him, no panel of commentators waiting in another room, and no headline telling the audience what they were supposed to feel. Only Jameson remained beneath the harsh studio lights, his hands resting on a stack of notes he no longer intended to read.

He looked into the camera.

"I want to be real with you for a moment."

His voice lacked its usual thunder. It was rougher now, stripped of the anger he normally wielded as both weapon and shield.

"Many of you come to me because you believe I will say what other people refuse to say. You expect me to ask uncomfortable questions, challenge heroes who grow too comfortable with praise, and hold powerful people accountable when everyone else would rather wait for the outrage to pass."

Jameson glanced down at the prepared pages.

"I've built my career on that promise. I told you I would never allow wrongdoing to disappear quietly into the night. That I would not let titles, costumes, money, or public affection protect someone from consequences."

He pushed the notes aside.

"But facts printed in a newspaper are not always the truth."

Jameson paused, considering the words before continuing.

"They can tell you what happened. They can tell you where it happened, how many people were injured, and who the authorities have decided to blame. What they cannot always tell you is the story."

His fingers curled against the desk.

"And this is a story about a boy we failed."

For years, Jameson had spoken the name Spider-Man with disgust. It had become instinctive, almost comfortable, a target he could return to whenever the city needed someone simple to blame.

Tonight, the name caught in his throat.

"For a long time, I believed Spider-Man was everything wrong with the world we were building. A masked vigilante swinging above the law, deciding for himself who deserved punishment and leaving the rest of us to deal with the damage."

He nodded faintly, as though acknowledging the man he had been.

"I believed that if no one held him accountable, others would follow. More masks. More copycats. More people with power deciding that rules were for everyone else."