The Gathering of Five and The Final Chapter
Participant Power/curse assumed to have gained Power/curse actually gained
Norman Osborn Power Madness
Madame Web Death Immortality
Mattie Franklin Knowledge Power
Gregory Herd Immortality Death
Morris Maxwell Madness Knowledge
Powers gained in the ceremony
The Gathering of Five and The Final Chapter are 1998 storylines published by Marvel Comics. The stories are interconnected with no issues being published between the last issue of The Gathering of Five and the first issue of The Final Chapter, and the fictional Gathering of Five that was being prepared for during the first storyline actually taking place in the first issue of The Final Chapter. Both storylines are crossovers between all of the Spider-Man titles being published at the time (The Amazing Spider-Man, , The Spectacular Spider-Man, and The Sensational Spider-Man). It also marked the cancellation of both The Spectacular Spider-Man and The Sensational Spider-Man while rebranding The Amazing Spider-Man and Peter Parker: Spider-Man by renumbering the issues to start again with a new Issue One, as mandated by Editor-in-Chief Bob Harras. The storyline proved controversial with fans, as it resurrected the character of Peter Parker's elderly Aunt May, who had been killed off at the height of the Clone Saga three years earlier in The Amazing Spider-Man #400. Tom DeFalco, who had left months earlier with his storyline, had originally intended Peter and Mary Jane's daughter, May Parker, to be returned to them by Kaine (this story thread was later used as the branching point for the MC2), but Mackie and Byrne insisted they have the older May revived so she could fit into their new relaunch.