Spider-Man makes his way over to a lonely incinerating
plant that most people give a wide berth, his dead clone in tow. Spidey regards
his deceased clone, giving himself chills, when suddenly his spider-sense
alerts him that he’s being watched! With seemingly no one there, Spidey makes
his way up one of the smokestacks with the clone. Realizing that there would be
an awful lot of questions if anyone discovered the clone, even dead, Spider-Man
figures the best thing to do is to get rid of it, and dumps it in one of the
smokestacks to be incinerated. Spider-Man swings off, wondering if perhaps the
clone was the lucky one! A few hours later, Peter and Mary Jane are hanging
around the ESU campus, when Flash arrives to tell them they’ll be late for
class! Peter’s surprised at Flash’s insistence, and Flash states that he’s
taking his education a lot more seriously these days and plans to make
something of himself! As the three walk through the hallways, Mary Jane
suddenly spots Harry Osborn using a water fountain and is elated to see that
he’s back! Harry officially announces to everyone that he’s back and Peter
can’t help but be wary, but reasons that maybe the Green Goblin is gone for
good now. The three then head off to class but not before inviting Harry to the
engagement party being held for Ned and Betty that night, each of them
pleasantly surprised that Harry’s really back.
That night, at the party, J. Jonah Jameson stresses
over every little thing in his attempts to host. He gruffly answers the door
for Peter and MJ and MJ turns on her characteristic charm in order to try and
calm him. Jameson rushes off to prevent Flash from messing with his record
collection, when Peter and MJ spot Harry sitting alone at the party. MJ decides
to go try and cheer him up and he says that he’s trying to forget the past and
just focus on being friends with everyone. Elsewhere at the party, Peter
congratulates Betty and Ned once more, while reports about mysterious blackouts
squawk from the radio. Robbie tells Harry to let him know if there’s anything
he can do, as Jameson continues to run himself silly keeping everything in
check. Peter starts to pay attention to the radio reports about the blackouts,
just as Jameson calls everyone’s attention for a speech! Peter notices the next
block over has blacked out, and just after Jameson starts his speech, all the
lights go out there as well! Peter heads out to the balcony and notes that
a series of consecutive blackouts can’t be an accident, and decides to hitch a
ride on a passing police helicopter. Inside, Mary Jane looks for Peter and
heads out to the balcony to find him gone!
As Peter hangs from the copter by his web, he begins
to change to Spider-Man, mourning the loss of his new clothes. He figures he
first needs to discover who is behind this and soon gets his answer as the
helicopter flies high enough to show “SHOCKER” nearly spelled out by the
blacked-out buildings! With that answer, Spidey drops down to the street below
and heads into the sewers, knowing Shocker must be attacking the cables
directly to pull off his stunt. Spidey makes his way through the sewer to the point
where the last of Shocker’s name would need to be spelled out, to find the
Shocker himself! Spidey attacks the Shocker who acts stunned long enough to
catch Spidey unawares with his vibro-blast. Shocker pins Spidey to the wall
with his blast until he makes the mistake of getting too close, allowing Spidey
blind Shocker with his webbing! Spidey keeps up the attack until Shocker stuns
him once again and flees. Spidey chases after Shocker, and discovers that his
web-shooters are empty. When he gets to the top of the ladder, Shocker sends
another blast down, collapsing the tunnel right onto Spidey! After lying
unconscious for several minutes, Spidey awakens to discover the tunnel is
filling water, and it’s already up to his neck! To be continued!
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