Amazing Spider-Man, The (1963 series) #148

Picking right up from last issue, a chained-up Spider-Man has just been thrown from the top of the Brooklyn Bridge by the Jackal and the Tarantula! As he falls, he tries to get a good angle to shoot his web, with no luck. He finally manages to snag his web on the bridge when he’s mere feet from the water, swinging like a pendulum to try and get rid of some of the inertia of his fall. However, he ends up swinging back too far and knocks himself out against the underside of the bridge, leaving him hanging over the water by his web! Meanwhile, up on the bridge, the police have arrived and yell up that they’re coming to arrest the villains! The Jackal assembles a jetpack from the pieces hidden in the Gwen clone’s coat and has the Tarantula wear it to fly them all away to safety! With capturing the supervillains a bust, the police hop on a boat to at least grab Spider-Man from under the bridge. They load him on while the lieutenant in charge plans to use capturing Spider-Man to get a promotion! They remove the chains from Spidey, who reveals that he was only pretending to be unconscious until they could pick him up, and dives into the water to escape, causing the lieutenant to get chewed out later by the commissioner!

Half an hour later, as Peter wearily makes his way back to his apartment, he finds Mary Jane sitting on his front steps waiting for him! She’s sarcastically surprised that Peter remembers her name and tells him that they need to talk, now! She tells him about the chat she had with Aunt May, about fighting for Peter and announces that she’s doing just that, while Peter barely registers anything she’s saying! She tries to get through to him, saying she understands that something weird is going on with Gwen, but gives him an ultimatum that it’s Gwen or her! Still zoned out, Peter ends up closing the door in her face, and once he realizes what he did, he opens the door to find MJ gone! Peter tries taking a bath to take his mind off things and when he hears the doorbell, he rushes to the door thinking it’s MJ, but finds Ned Leeds there. Inside, Ned tells Peter some theories he’s had about Gwen’s reappearance. He feels that whoever is behind the clone Gwen means either Peter or Spider-Man harm, since Spider-Man was initially blamed for Gwen’s death, and feels whoever it is must have had access to Gwen’s cell tissue when she was alive. This jogs Peter’s memory and he realizes that he and Gwen both provided cell samples for one of Professor Warren’s classes!

With this lead in hand, Peter and Ned head to ESU to ask Professor Warren about the samples. After awkwardly explaining the whole deal to him, Professor Warren recalls that there were some cell specimens left over, being kept in his office fridge. However, when Professor Warren checks the fridge, he finds the specimens are gone, and theorizes that his assistant at the time, Anthony Serba, might have taken them after disappearing months ago! Peter and Ned split up to follow different leads, and Peter ends up tracking down Serba’s current address, located in a dirty, old factory! Spidey enters the place to find it completely dark and empty, even of furniture! He shines his spider-signal across the room and finds the Tarantula in the corner waiting for him! The Tarantula attacks Spidey, trying to use the darkness to his advantage, while Spidey thinks that Serba must really be connected to the Jackal! Spidey keeps out of the way of Tarantula’s foot spikes, until he’s able to grab Tarantula and send them both hurtling out of the window!

Now out in the open, Spidey swings them over to another building, where he’s able to web up Tarantula’s eyes. Spidey then dodges the angry Tarantula’s next attack, causing him to get stuck lodged through a billboard, with his shoe spikes stuck in the water tower behind it! Spidey knocks the Tarantula out and as he’s dragging him off, Spidey’s spider-sense is just too late to warn him against the Jackal sneaking up behind him! The Jackal claws Spidey’s head and reveals that he brought a captive Gwen and Ned along with him! As Spider-Man begins to pass out from the drugs coating the Jackal’s claws, the Jackal decides to show him why he could sneak up on him. He points out that Spidey’s spider-sense doesn’t protect him from friends and states that he feels he’s always been his friend, as the Jackal removes his mask to reveal that he’s actually Professor Warren! To be concluded!