the plot: His body falling apart from a wound suffered in Peter Parker #16, the Sandman works on a will to his mother, curiously signing it William, his supposedly false alter ego. Peter Parker, meanwhile enjoys a day off, listening to "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen and eating ice cream, though he gets into his performance a little much and doesn't even notice that the towel he's wearing has fallen off, and Peter inadvertently ends up mooning his roommate Randy and friend Glory Grant. Later suiting up as Spidey, Peter quickly runs into the Sandman, who knows he'll likely die soon and wants revenge on Spidey for his condition. Spider-Man mentions that Venom is actually responsible, but Sandman actually blames Spidey.

Spidey's joking around only makes Sandman angrier, but Spidey manages to get Sandman to explain himself, that he wanted to be a hero, that he wanted to do right, but it was just too hard. Sandman goes on to say that he tried harder to be a hero than anyone will ever give him credit for, but he couldn't do it. And as his body finally gives in to Venom's wound, Sandman falls apart, and tells Spidey to tell his mother he tried, that he never wanted to be Flint Marko and that he was always William Baker. Sandman's remains wash down a sewer as Spidey reflects that being a hero must have been too hard for Sandman and he fell apart at that. Later, on an unspecified beach, an aging couple moves along to find a nice spot on the sand, which is revealed to be made up of Sandman's remains.

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