Spider-Man hitches a peaceful ride atop a bus, when he
notices an odd helicopter. Thinking it’s suspicious, he decides to follow the
helicopter, which pays off when it descends upon an armored truck and lifts it
right off the road! Spider-Man swings up, landing on the truck and gets swarmed
by the same costumed henchmen he’s run into several times recently. Spidey
tangles with the goons, while a couple of others use a high-tech electro-wrench
to break into the truck. Once they have what they sought from the truck, they
release their mechanism holding it, causing it to plummet to the ground, with
Spidey still atop it! Inside the helicopter, the men’s boss admonishes them for
their actions, stating he needs Spider-Man alive! As the truck plummets to the
ground, without anything to snag nearby with his webs, Spider-Man envelopes
himself in a web-cocoon, bouncing safely, if painfully, off the ground once the
truck hits! Spider-Man frees himself from his web-ball, as the men’s boss
shouts from the helicopter that the next victory will be his!
Soon after, Spidey changes back to Peter and decides
to try and patch things up with Mary Jane. He buys flowers and heads to her
apartment but discovers that she isn’t there. He drearily makes his way back to
his apartment, wondering if someday he’ll have to choose between Mary Jane and
Spider-Man. He opens his door and receives a shock, finding all of his friends
there to surprise him with a now fully furnished apartment! They explain that
it was Glory’s idea, and everyone pitched in something that they no longer had
any use for. Peter walks around his now garishly colorful apartment, taking in
everything, from an old statue, to a lumpy sitting chair, to five different
toasters. Mary Jane then approaches him and he asks if they can talk. However,
when Peter tries to talk to her, Flash shows up, making things feel more
awkward and Peter feel more frustrated. He finally has enough, storming off on
the surprised Flash and MJ. Sulking in his kitchen, Peter’s found by Robbie who
tries to offer words of advice on love troubles. Not wanting to hear it, though
knowing Robbie means well, Peter heads up to his roof to sulk some more. He
then notices Harry and Liz sneak onto the roof for a romantic moment alone,
thinking it’s nice to know that things are working out for someone at least!
That night, Spider-Man goes out swinging, having
noticed that the device that was stolen from the truck earlier needs a lot of
energy to activate. Having tracked down an old movie studio that seems to be
using more power than it should, Spider-Man carefully sneaks around, doing his
best to avoid any traps that may be laid there. He comes upon the only lit up
room and enters it, only to have a metal door slam down behind him, blocking
off his exit! The chair at the lone desk swivels around to reveal the man behind
all of this, the Kingpin! Kingpin fires at Spidey with his cane-blaster, until
Spidey is able to yank it away from him. Discovering that he’s unable to
activate it, a curtain raises up to reveal an army of the Kingpin’s men.
Kingpin tells them to stay back, preferring to handle this personally! Spidey
and Kingpin duke it out until they end up grappling with each other, Spidey’s
feet planted against a wall. As the two struggle against each other in a
contest of strength, Kingpin ends up pushing Spidey right through the wall!
Spidey is able to use the momentum to flip Kingpin over and land on top of him,
but his advantage is short-lived when he’s knocked out by the knockout gas from
Kingpin’s tie pin! Some time later, Spidey regains consciousness to find
himself strapped to a table, a device connecting him to another figure, as the
Kingpin states that they’re going to steal his life! To be continued!
For the special marvelite in you